Happy New Year everyone! I've had a lovely break over the holidays with loads of family time and rampant socializing. It's been something of a relief this week to have work and school start up again just to provide some semblance of structure to the days. Or structure that is not comprised of lots of cookies, adult beverages and staying up far too late.

Every year, I think about making New Year's Resolutions, and every year I turn up my nose in disgust at the idea. "Resolutions" to me implies that I've been doing it wrong (whatever "it" is), and just generally feels negative in addition to setting me up for failing: a resolution gets broken, there's no turning back or saving the situation. Instead, I like to think of goals for the year ahead, as I do much better when I'm working towards something specific rather then trying to move away from a less-optimal tendency. And I also know that I am much more likely to stay on track if I'm accountable to someone outside of my own brain (and Alli), so here, in no particular order, are some goals for 2015:

Organize the stash: we moved to a lovely house over the summer that has afforded me my very own room to hold the stash(es). In typical fashion, this has meant dumping everything into boxes and piles scattered around the room. One of my main goals is to sort out and quantify the Yarn Stash (by the end of January), the Fiber Stash (maybe alongside the YS) and just generally get a better handle on all the Stuff that I have, so I can use it. I'm not a huge buyer of yarn, but I have been known to have brushes with major stash enhancement on occasion, so this year is going to be about knitting from stash as much as possible. Exceptions to the yarn/fiber diet will be: already existing fiber and weaving clubs, visits to foreign countries (but only if I by yarn that is local to the locale), and trips to fiber festivals (so far on the tentative schedule are Unravel, Wonderwool Wales, iKnit Fandango, Fibre East, an as-yet-unannounced event in September and Shetland Wool Week. Lest that seem like a lot, at at least 3 of those I will be very, very busy and probably won't have a chance to pee, much less go buy yarn).
Design goals: I'd like to continue to get out about a pattern a month this year in the self-publishing venue. I didn't manage to do that last year (that whole moving unexpectedly thing), but I had 6 self-published designs and three others in various places. Another design goal (that goes along with the fact that I discovered multiple sweater lots of yarn in my stash over the weekend) is to get some of the sweater designs percolating in my brain actually out into the world.
Knitting goals: a) knit up 2 of the 3 sweater lots of handspun that I have in stash. b) knit up a bunch of Porpoise Fur colorways into samples.
Spinning goals: I got a new Turkish spindle for myself as a birthday/Christmas present last autumn, and I've decided I want to spindle myself a sweater over the course of the year. Initially I wanted to do this by mid-May, but I'm revising that in the face of, well...reality.
Sewing goals (really!): finish quilt tops for the girls' birthdays. Then they can help me pick backing fabric and binding so I can finish them up by the summer. Better get going!

I think that's going to have to be it for the moment. Some concrete, short term goals and some longer, more fluid ones. Who's with me? If you've got goals and resolutions for 2015, share them - the more accountability the better, as far as I'm concerned.

Porpoise Fur