Monday 5 January 2015

Reasons for Changing The Way I Craft

I have read so many posts from my fellow bloggers revolving around "2015 Intentions/Resolutions" that I really didn't want to do my own post on this. I know you don't care what I intend to do this year, provided I talk about it and take pretty pictures. I also don't like tying myself to something at the start of the year, because I know I have a lousy track record of keeping up with goals. I could blame my health but I know it's not only that, I just have terrible self control.

One thing I've learnt about my lack of self control is that if I make a big pronouncement about what I'm going to do, I set myself up for failure. What I have to do is make a continuing set of decisions that behave in a certain way. I can't stick to a decision made months ago as though it is written in stone, because it isn't. What I have to do is think about the reasons I want to do something and keep remembering those reasons, every time I make a decision regarding it. It's hard to do, when you don't set it down somewhere, and think it all the way through, so I'm going to do it here. Sorry, you can all go now, this post is for me, not you ;-)

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Stash

My stash is pretty huge. I reached SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy) a long time ago. Most things in my stash are things I love and really want to knit with. The Random Rummage CAL really helped me look at my stash again and it has already made me reach for more of my older stash. I want to continue using this lovely yarn. There are several things I have thought about to help me do this:

  1. Stop being precious about my stash. It was bought to be used. USE IT!!!!
  2. If I don't love an item anymore, mark it up for destash.
  3. If I fall in love with a new pattern and I have stash that could use with this pattern, use the yarn in stash. Just because I have mentally matched it with a pattern does not mean I need to buy more yarn. If I haven't knit that pattern in the last 3 years with the yarn I bought, I'm probably not going to do so, any time soon. Use the yarn I have and knit the nice new pattern, OR, knit the original pattern with the yarn I have, THEN buy new yarn.
  4. Set a reasonable budget each month to spend on craft - yarn, fibre, books, tools and stick to it. If I have a financial restriction I will think much harder about the things I buy and why I'm buying them.
  5. Before hitting the "Pay Now" button, check the stash to see if there is anything already there that is remotely like it and ask myself "why are you buying this?" If I haven't used the yarn in stash yet, do I really need more like it, or I am having an"eyes bigger than my knitting needles" moment?

Blogging

I've already covered this in a previous post, I want to try and carry on with the way I laid things out, despite my missing presence over the end of December (if you haven't guessed already, I've had a hideous virus, as has, seemingly, everyone I know!).

Podcasting

I want to stop beating myself up whenever I think I miss a recording date. I have always said I won't record on a regular basis. I don't get paid to podcast, I do it because I enjoy it. Beating myself up about not recording, means I'm not having fun and, therefore, it is counteracting any enjoyment I actually do get from recording.

Projects

I want to work on things to go in my newly created "Gift Box". I've created a thread on the Ravelry Group about this idea, and set up a Page to gain inspiration. This Christmas I did NO gift crafting. It was lovely to have some breathing space this year but I missed giving hand crafted gifts. I have decided that deadline knitting is not for me, I hate it. I'm going to create a Gift Box (even if it's a mental one) and put completed projects in it for using for gifts on birthdays, at Christmas or as other random things occur. If I want to knit something that I know I won't use, but I have yarn in stash, I will go ahead and knit it, enjoy the knitting and then put it to one side to give to someone who will use it.

I want to use my handspun yarn more often. I'm going to try and find patterns that can be used with handspun yarn and match it up with what I have already in stash. Then I'm going to try and have one handspun project on the needles most of the time.

I want to start knitting more clothing. I have many sweater quantities of yarn in my stash, I need to use them. I need to make something for the size I currently am, and wear it now. If I change size (either up or down) I can always give the ill-fitted garment away, or even frog it and recycle the yarn. I need to remember that yarn is a very forgiving material that stretches and drapes.

As well as knitting socks, knit some mitts with existing sock yarn. It's a very similar style of knitting, that I can easily do whilst chatting or reading.

If I fall in love with a new pattern, and I have the yarn, I want to queue it and match the yarn and pattern in the queue.

I want to knit things in my queue, especially if it's been matched up with existing stash ;-)

I want to spin bigger quantities of yarn, so I can knit bigger projects with my handspun.

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Wow, what an awful lot of reasons for changing things up. I wonder if any of those reasons will stick in my head. I must bookmark this post and re-read it every week. Maybe it will stick in my head if I repeat it often enough.

If you've read this, I'm impressed! Thanks for sticking with me, please remind me when you sense me going off track with these reasons. I do really want to make all of these changes, but I'll be happy if I can manage one!

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