Happy New Year everyone! We have finally made it back from our whirlwind tour of the Eastern Seaboard in winter, and I can attest to the fact that the Gulf Stream is alive and well and keeping the UK balmy (as evidenced by the fact that we woke up in Maine yesterday it was 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and when we landed in London this morning it was 10 degrees Celsius...). I had a lovely holiday, full of family and friends and food and lots and lots of sitting around knitting, reading books and drinking coffee. Now, I'm in the throes of jetlag and while it's getting on towards 10 pm here in London, my body thinks it's just about cocktail time and maybe I should grab a glass of wine or something. Bah!

So I have an ongoing list of knitting goals that are slowly taking shape in my mind, and now seems as good a time as any to start getting them down on (virtual) paper.

I have a group of four sweater designs floating around in my head, loosely grouped around the points of the compass, and inspired by four places in Great Britain. Three of these are cabled (dear God!) and one is inspired by a Penny Straker gansey I knit when I was in college. I have the yarn for all four, and I just need to sit down and get going on them. I'm leaning towards self-publishing these as a collection in the fall, which is going to mean cracking down and getting my butt in gear on the knitting. Because, as we all know, cables are so fast to work...
I have a shawl design to submit to Knitty for their fall issue - if it isn't accepted, it will become one of four shawl designs also inspired by the UK. I've got one of the others nailed down, and will need to dream up a couple more. These babies won't be finished until next year I'm thinking...
Stripey sportweight sweater, probably also for Knitty First Fall.
Spin and knit a couple of sweaters from the sweater lots of Hello Yarn fiber taking up valuable stash space. I've started on one of the sweater lots, and I know the sweater I'm going to knit with one of the others, but haven't started the spinning on that one yet.
More weaving.

Hmmm...seems like a lot of designing, doesn't it? If I'm being completely honest, there's two more shawl designs and a couple of other accessory type ideas floating around my head, so that would extend the list. I'm feeling like I need to get a massive whiteboard to hang in my office, just to keep all these things straight. It would probably also be a grand help if I managed to get my ideas a bit more in tune with the submission schedules of various magazines, but that remains a long-term goal.

What about you? Do you make resolutions or goals for the new year for your knitting? Or your spinning? Or just life in general? I find I'm really good at making lists and putting things down on paper with the best of intentions. But then the paper gets buried under something else, and I forget about the general plan, or I loose focus and get distracted by something else. So this year, I think that my goals can be narrowed down to "Follow Through". I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes.

Porpoise Fur