2015 New Year's Resolutions - A Review and Prep for 2016 New Year's Resolutions

As I started this blog last year, I set out three categories for my 2015 New Year's resolutions: personal, professional, and academic.

In the personal realm, I had six goals: knit at least two patterns from books I already own using yarn I've already purchased; lose weight and maintain that weight at 159 pounds or less by next year; exercise at least two days per week; decide whether or not to pursue a technical writing certificate concurrently with my MFA; submit to least three literary journals by the end of the spring semester; and plan a trip around the world.

Of the six personal goals, I accomplished four.

I did knit at least two patterns from books I already own with yarn I've already purchased. Those patterns were the $5 in Paris, Baby Cozy, and the Firefly Dishcloth.

I did not lose weight, but considering my engagement ended and life was thrown into complete chaos, I'm happy I maintained my current weight of 180 pounds and didn't go up much further.

I'm not exercising two days a week, but I am walking to and from work at least three days a week. I'm also consistently getting at least 10,000 steps per day.

I decided to pursue the technical writing certificate and I should finish by May or June 2016.

I submitted to several literary journals, resulting in three publications (two in the same week)!

I did not plan a trip around the world, but I will revisit it once my two year commitment to my current job expires.

My five professional goals were to continue improving my editing skills and knowledge of AP Style; improve workflow processes; find more opportunities for professional development; be the best mentor I can be; and to figure out how to keep my job while taking a trip around the world.

I think the professional goals were the least completed, as I decided the best way to improve workflow processes and find more opportunities for professional development was to pursue a new opportunity closer to my family.

I'm really happy in my new position. I do some editing, but it's more office management and organization. Again, it's a better fit; the job moves faster and I am trusted to do my job, which is what made my last job a poor fit. I'm not looking at doing a world trip for a few more years since I've decided to come back home.

With the academic goals, I set four. I only accomplished one. My four goals were to apply for graduate school scholarships in January; apply for the staff scholarship in August; maintain a 3.5 GPA; and figure out how to maintain my staff tuition discounts while traveling the world.

I did not apply for scholarships - school or staff. I didn't feel I had a connection with any of the professors at that time, and I didn't feel I could trust any of the professors to write and turn in a letter of recommendation on time. I didn't apply for the staff scholarship in August because I knew I was resigning from my position. Since I no longer work where I worked, the staff discount is moot.

I did, however, maintain my GPA as a 4.0, which made me really happy considering I was working full time and really busy moving at the beginning of the fall semester.

Looking back at the goals I set and met and set and missed, I am certain the problem is there were too many goals in too many categories. The goals that became priorities were the goals that had the most importance to me.

For that reason, instead of three categories, I'm going to go with three goals for the year. It's easier to keep track of and it's easier to envision the final result.

My New Year's Resolutions for 2016 are as follows:

1. Knit (or finish) at least two projects from kits or Craftsy classes. I'm working on Drachenfels and should finish it shortly after the New Year. I have other projects like Lunaris, Tunisian Crochet Multi-Garment, Tree of Life Afghan, Beyond Basic Broomstick Lace (class), My First Raglan Cardigan (class, plus I bought the kit), Shawlscapes by Stephen West (class), and Choose Your Own Sweater Adventure (class), among others.
2. I want to finish my MFA thesis by the end of next year. I have sent in my thesis proposal and I'm waiting to see if it was approved or not. I'm hoping to finish by August, but I'm giving myself an extra semester in case my proposal is not accepted in January.
3. Unread Books Project. Moving twice in less than two months, I realized I have a lot of books, many of which I have dragged state to state, all unread. So, to remedy this, the Unread Books Project is me picking at least one book per week to read for fun and/or pleasure from the stack of books that have sat and sat and sat in my home. To achieve this goal, I will read 45 to 52 books over the course of the year and do a biweekly or monthly report on what I've read. I also want to recall when and where I bought the book (or was gifted the book) when writing up which book or books I've finished.

Let's see how 2016 goes.

Stash Dash 2015

I enjoy watching the video podcast The Knit Girllls and I follow their group on Ravelry. For most of the summer, one of the hosts, Laura (also known as La La) hosts a "stash dash" where members are encouraged to use up the yarn already in their house; you also can count any projects you finish up during this time. For the first time, there are three finish line options: a 3K, 5K, and 10K.

The distances refer to how much yarn you knit. I started a $5 in Paris sweater last Sunday and it is going fast!

I cast this sweater on Sunday, May 24, 2015, and a week later I'm at the ribbing on the bottom. Once I finish with the body and bind it off, I'll be ready to finish up the sleeves!

I haven't really knit the Little Lady Garter Blanket much since I started the sweater, but with more than 24 inches left to knit, well, it's going to be a long time knitting garter stitch. Sadly, even though I'm holding the yarn double, the Stash Dash 2015 rules state you can't count the second skein's yardage in your total. So, even though I'll be creating a double-thick blanket with two skeins of yarn, only one skein's yardage counts. There's lots of disagreement with this rule in the thread; it might change next year, but I won't be knitting double again any time soon because it's such a pain in the butt to work with.

This is the garter stitch that never ends. Yes it goes on and on my friend ...

I still need to press the fabric, cut out the bunnies, and stitch them onto my Bunnie Blankie. It's been in hibernation for nearly three weeks. It's on the to-do list that won't get done for awhile. It also won't count for Stash Dash 2015 since I bound it off before the competition started. Sewing finishing touches doesn't count, unfortunately.

I really hate this project at this point. If I hadn't bought the fabric, I would say that I'm done with it, but I'm another $10 of materials in and I want to see how it looks completed. This will happen. Eventually.

I did buy some silk yarn to make the Tunisian crochet multigarment for the Craftsy class "Tunisian Crochet: Revolutions in Color and Style" class I bought a few weeks ago. Thanks to the really low prices at Tuesday Morning, I was able to purchase enough silk yarn for the project for half of other websites. I'm not 100 percent in love with the green I picked for color C in the pattern, but I also am not in love with paying almost $70 in materials for a new-skill project. The wooden Tunisian crochet hooks I bought from Amazon are okay, but they're not great. I bought a second set of sturdier plastic ones, which should arrive here in a few days. We'll see. The right tools make for a better crafting experience!

I will say I was very pleased with the two Craftsy classes I bought that I've already looked into. Eunny Jang's "Choose Your Own Sweater Adventure" has been helpful on my $5 in Paris sweater. I didn't understand some of the directions in the $5 in Paris sweater pattern, but after going to the appropriate (and well outlined) sections in Jang's video, I was able to complete the more technical parts of my first sweater. I'm looking forward to trying her patterns, even though they're written for bulky yarn.

The yarn I bought at Craftsy at the same time as I bought the classes arrived very quickly. I was impressed that all of my yarn (even when I bought 12 of one type) were from the same dye lot. I'm going to try to make the Tree of Life afghan, but probably won't start it until after the summer is over given its level of technical difficulty and sheer size.

As the summer progresses, we'll see if I have time to do more than the 3K. I might not even finish that, especially once summer classes start.

I'm going to be taking four summer classes - two first session and two second session. I still owe the university money for my summer classes. I'll get right on that after I get back from my knitting group that happens at 10:30 a.m.