2025 is upon us, and I feel the need to sit and reflect about what my making and designing to look like this year. To be quite honest, designing is something that comes to me in waves. I have up waves of creativity and want to design new things all of the time, and then I have waves of just wanting to make for the sake of making and even waves where I don’t want to share too much about my making. Some of the extremes in these waves are likely related to also having a job and being the mother of a small child, so I try and grant myself some grace and brave the waves as best I can.
Knowing this, I wanted to begin to consider what season of life I am living in and how to adapt my making and designing to that season so that I’m both a more productive maker, and reaping the mental health benefits of making as well.
3 Big Goals
Although I hadn’t given much thought to my crafting in 2025, I am going to be using a yarn journal to help me have a peaceful making year. I ordered the My Year in Yarn journal from Summer Day Crochet (check out my interview with her if you haven’t already) back in October and it arrived sometime in December, which was perfect seeing as it was a Christmas gift to myself. And it’s both a bullet journal and organizational tool as well as a great way to document your year as a maker. All of this to say, this journal will be helping me be a more reflective maker and designer as well as being simply something fun to do, which is the primary reason I bought it. My three big goals are pretty simple:
- complete my granny square blanket (it’s a slough)
- improve my knitting skills (knitting is hard!)
- complete six old WIPS (I have way too many that have been sitting for years)
But my even larger goal is to feel calm, cozy, present and peaceful in my making this year.
January Plans
For January, I want to keep it pretty simple and ease myself into the year. My three goals for January are to complete a sweater I’ve been working on for months (it’s currently sitting on ice for the second time) and to finish up a design I’m working on; as well as complete a pair of mittens. I should be able to wrap up these projects and do all the real life stuff I have to do–which is going to be a lot for January–as well.
I also plan to practice knitting every day that I don’t go into work to get in the practice I need and learn to fix mistakes and maybe even cast on a project. A very basic project. But while knitting and learning are part of my January plans, I don’t plan to cast on anything this month.
The Point of Planning
I’m not usually a big planner. I like planners, and I consider myself a fairly organized person. But I also generally fly by the seat of my pants. Professionally, I’m a teacher, and teaching is a messy line of work. You need to be really organized and get things done quickly, but frequently in teaching the rug is pulled out from under you and all your hard planning goes into the trash bin, so I’ve learned to be flexible and change gears quickly. So I don’t rely on “planning” as a life tool much. However, I do know that there is a real point to planning. Largely, planning helps you meet goals. It helps you be organized and stay on track and get all the things you need to get done, done.
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But planning can backfire. What if your plans end up in the trash bin? I’ve been frustrated so many times as a teacher when my plans went awry because I was suddenly assigned a different subject to teach, or the needs of my class didn’t match the style and lesson types I was programming, and left feeling as though I’d wasted my time and energy and resentful of having to start all over again. This is a danger of planning and being excited about your plans. Or what if you can’t follow through on all of your plans? I’ve felt as though I’m a failure when that happens and that there is no point in planning.
But really, there is. Planning doesn’t have to be craved in stone. The plans can be there to keep your intentions and goals on track, but can also allow you to have some grace when things don’t go the way you want. You can re-adjust those plans, embrace that life is a winding road, and keep the goal in your line of view so that it’s met–maybe a little later than you thought, but it’s just as sweet or even sweeter, when it is.
So for me, planning is about having a path upon which to travel to help me do the things I have to do, even when my plans seem to be constantly changing. Which happens a lot in life, whether we like it or not.
Final Thoughts
This year, I want to really enjoy my craft, indulge in slower, more focused making and feel soothed and calmed by crochet. And I think I’m on the path to making that vision a reality. I’m really excited about this new approach to my making and looking forward to peaceful, intentional making.
What are your crochet and knit plans for 2025? Share in the comments!
