October Goals

On 5th Oct 2022 By woollymakerIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

I’m going to stick to crafty/ life goals for this post as I have MILLIONS (yes millions) of side hustle/ work goals and this post would rapidly turn into a 10,000 word book if I included those too!

Now that I’m reading over what I’ve written, I realise these are also autumn goals in general…it’s a lot for October and it’s already the 5th with no progress made!

1. Finish what I have started!

I have several projects on the hooks/ needles/ in the queue that have been on the go since the start of this year. I’m fed up of them to be quite frank. I want them off my needles before I cast on anything new.

Here’s what I have on the go at the moment:

Grey chunky knitted sweater
Grey Fisherman’s Rib knitted sweater
Green knitted tunic
Crocheted top
Halloween granny square blanket
Knitted blue baby cardigan
Chunky knitted hat in the round
Top down knitted sweater in natural fibres
Knitted lace cowl

And in my sewing queue are bags mostly…a few patterns and a few zipper bags. As well as another Tilly and the Buttons cardigan in a plain fabric.

So. What to focus on?

Halloween Blanket – 2 more balls of black yarn to use up for the border. It’s chunky weight yarn so will crochet up quite quickly.
Knitted baby blue cardigan – got the right front, sleeves and collar to do. Won’t take too long once I get started but it’s a lace pattern so I have to concentrate which is what’s been putting me off!
Green knitted tunic – I’m working in the round now, bottom up. Once I fix my tension problems, I’ll be able to go quite fast on this one.
Chunky knitted hat – Did about 6cm of this in the round at work one day! Shouldn’t take too long to finish.

And then we’ll see what happens after that!

I want those 4 things done at least this month!

2. Christmas Socks

I have 3 balls of Christmas sock yarn and ideally, I’d like at least one pair of socks for Christmas this year. The yarn is thin and takes ages for me to knit a sock, so we’ll see. But I want to make a pair of socks and before I can do that, I have to finish at least ONE THING on the list above.

There’s just no room for loads of project bags otherwise!

So, I would like to be casting on a pair of Christmas socks near the end of October, if possible!

3. Use up other crafty things

I have a leather handbag to sew up.

Another cotton bag to ice dye (cannot get plastic ice cube bags for love nor money locally).

Lots of recipes to try. Flours and other dry ingredients in the cupboard to use up!

Finish the last book on my shelf to read – The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. At least I can read the book in my breaks at work!

I think a general goal could be to just do a bit of some of the above! Start the book, sew a little bit, bake some bread…

So, there you go. Just some things I want to do this month.

You’d think that by writing this all down and putting it out into the world, that I’d be more accountable to myself and would ‘get shit done’.

Nope!

What usually happens is that I write a blog post like this, life happens and I need to change my plans and do something else instead!!

I get sick, I’m too tired, I do more hours/ different shifts at work…

For example, last week I did a night shift, so the next day I had planned to write a bit was completely out because I was sleeping! The week before I had the Monday off for the Queen’s funeral…I was so tired from health complications I did nothing!

So, life can almost get in the way sometimes. Of both side hustle and crafty plans…but at least by writing this in the first place, I’m trying to prioritise what’s most important/ urgent and get a little something done.

Hope you’re having a good Wednesday and talk soon x

March Craft Goals Met?

On 9th Apr 20228th Apr 2022 By woollymakerIn crafts and hobbies, GoalsLeave a comment

A few weeks ago I posted a few crafty goals for March, let’s see what I’ve been able to get done shall we?

I think I may have been a little bit ambitious with the amount and the size of these goals, though!

I’ve been busy with work and I was ill the last week of March, so although last week I got lots of knitting done, I haven’t really been focussing on crafting.

I finished a book last night by Isaac Asimov called The Gods Themselves, so I’ve also been doing reading too. So little time to do all the things!

Crafting Goals

Sewing

Do something with denim fabric I got for Christmas – maybe a bag?
Find a skirt or top pattern for the dark denim I bought myself a few weeks ago.
Use up old wool fabric for a draught excluder (the front door is VERY chilly!).
Use up old fat quarters and zips and make some zipper bags.
Go through all my sewing patterns and get rid of the ones I am realistically never going to use!

NOPE! Haven’t done any sewing and in all honesty I probably won’t do any at all this month…they roll over to April Goals!

Knitting

Work more on my grey top in Fisherman’s Rib. I’ve done a few inches on the front but I’ve put it aside for a few weeks as I’ve been working so much!
Try and finish a sock that I cast on a while back, literally only a few cm done on the top cuff rib at the moment.
I cast on a green sweater a few weeks ago and haven’t touched it since, so, try and do the rib at the bottom as it’s on quite small needles so might take a while.
Sock yarn shawl – just do a few rows, it’s getting long to finish a row now.
Measure and design a top down sweater with aran natural fibre I got for Christmas. Or just find the right pattern!

I’ve done more on the 1st and 3rd points, even getting onto the main body pattern for my green sweater, yet I’ve hardly done any more on the others.

Crochet

~~Finish pink and purple granny square blanket. Not much yarn left, so just finish what I have for a few more rows and then see what size it is!~~ FINISHED!
Do some more on my bright pink and blue granny square blanket, not much done so far.
Finish top piece of my crochet top. I’m crocheting the front, which has the sleeves and yoke bit all in one if that makes sense? So, it’s taking a little while to do a single row, but it’s looking good so far!
Make a hat with scrap yarn.

I started another crochet blanket which sort of took over all of my crochet headspace. That’s about 2/3 done and I did manage to finish a baby blanket out of scrap yarn (1st point above) so that was good!

Miscellaneous

Ice dying kit to do with fabric.
Leather handbag to pick up and sew together with saddle stitch. All the pieces are dyed and ready to go.
Get back into baking bread again, haven’t done any in AGES!

NOPE to all of the miscellaneous items!

Conclusion

Too many projects mean not much progress with many.

Also, I started extra projects that weren’t on the list which takes away from the intended goals.

I cast on another granny blanket and a baby knitted hat with spare yarn and sent them to Knit For Peace. The pics below were all donated, as well as some I didn’t take photos of:

My main priorities now are my green and grey knitted tops. And a new chunky knitted top I recently cast on.

I want to get back to my crochet top too.

Everything else can wait!!!

Except…I did buy a pattern for a v-neck tank top (or sweater vest, whatever you want to call it) from Petite Knits and I REALLY want to cast that on too…

No, concentrate on finishing what I have on the go already before I cast on any more…but it’s hard!

March Goals

On 3rd Mar 2022 By woollymakerIn crafts and hobbies, crochet, knitting1 Comment

It’s funny that my last post was almost a month ago…so much for posting every day in February!

But, you know what? Life got busy and I had a lot of hours at work last month and when you get in late at night, you just don’t feel like blogging…or doing much else at all!

But, this week I’m off and I’m back to writing and blogging with a vengeance, so what better at the start of a new month to set some goals? I love reading other people’s goals posts, yes, I’m sad like that!

So, what do I want to achieve with my crafting first of all, and then what do I want to get done with life and everything else?

I’m saying goals for March, but let’s face it, some of these will probably roll over into April or even May!

Crafting Goals

Sewing

Do something with denim fabric I got for Christmas – maybe a bag?
Find a skirt or top pattern for the dark denim I bought myself a few weeks ago.
Use up old wool fabric for a draught excluder (the front door is VERY chilly!).
Use up old fat quarters and zips and make some zipper bags.
Go through all my sewing patterns and get rid of the ones I am realistically never going to use!

Knitting

Work more on my grey top in Fisherman’s Rib. I’ve done a few inches on the front but I’ve put it aside for a few weeks as I’ve been working so much!
Try and finish a sock that I cast on a while back, literally only a few cm done on the top cuff rib at the moment.
I cast on a green sweater a few weeks ago and haven’t touched it since, so, try and do the rib at the bottom as it’s on quite small needles so might take a while.
Sock yarn shawl – just do a few rows, it’s getting long to finish a row now.
Measure and design a top down sweater with aran natural fibre I got for Christmas. Or just find the right pattern!

Crochet

Finish pink and purple granny square blanket. Not much yarn left, so just finish what I have for a few more rows and then see what size it is!
Do some more on my bright pink and blue granny square blanket, not much done so far.
Finish top piece of my crochet top. I’m crocheting the front, which has the sleeves and yoke bit all in one if that makes sense? So, it’s taking a little while to do a single row, but it’s looking good so far!
Make a hat with scrap yarn.

Miscellaneous

Ice dying kit to do with fabric.
Leather handbag to pick up and sew together with saddle stitch. All the pieces are dyed and ready to go.
Get back into baking bread again, haven’t done any in AGES!

Work/ Life Goals

Schedule a week’s worth of posts in advance for this blog and on Medium. I’ve neglected both a little bit recently.
Get up to 500 designs on RedBubble by the end of March (I’m about halfway there already).
Get up to 50 designs on Society 6, oh what a pain it is to upload on that site!
Launch my 2 other blogs I have waiting in the wings…just how am I going to find the time to write so much content?!
Do more with Pinterest.
Publish my book which is about 2/3 done, most of the printables are done I just need to do the actual writing, like the introduction and conclusion etc.
Launch/ ope my Etsy store with printables to download and print yourself at home.

…

See more of my home county! I feel like there are lots of places in Yorkshire that I haven’t been to even though I’ve lived here for years!
Do more Yoga – either DVDs or from Youtube.
Do something physical, either cycling, or go to the gym. The ‘worry’ about going to the gym is starting to ease a bit now the pandemic is lessening (is that the word?).
Finish all the books on my shelf. Only 5 to read and I’m halfway through one.

What I really want to do this year is use stuff up.

Read all my books and either donate or sort out somehow those that I’m not likely to read again etc.

Use up my wool and fabric stashes before buying any more of either. There is literally NO ROOM for any more!

Just make some space and get rid of the old things that are taking up space and that I’m fed up of!

I’m making headway on that already. I’ve already made a bright neon cowl that I started to crochet on my lunch break at work and finished at home the next day. I just have a tiny bit of neon wool left now and I’m not sure what to do with that. I’d love to crochet a pair of wrist warmers but I don’t think there’s enough yarn left!

Anyway, that’s my rough goals for March. It’s a lot, but it’s all doable as long as I plan my time carefully and get motivated!

What are your plans for this month?

Aside from relaxing and taking time for yourself of course!

The grey fisherman’s rib sweater progress below as well as books I’m reading now, a crochet blanket I’m nearly finished and my sock yarn shawl progress!

*Ah, the colours look so good on this scrap yarn pink and purple crochet blanket!*

2021 Reading Goals

On 11th Nov 2021 By woollymakerIn Reading and Books1 Comment

I can’t believe the year is almost over! Just under 2 months left to finish my reading goals for the year.

I’ve got out of the habit of reading. In fact, I haven’t read any books for a good few months.

So, it’s a good thing I only have 2 left to read then!

I’ve read all of the books on my shelf apart from these 2.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Forward The Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Both are my 2 of my favourite authors of all time. Yes, I like science fiction…

I like the style of Margaret Atwood’s writing and add that to the fact that it’s dystopian future fiction and it’s a match made in heaven. I love end of the world type stuff…don’t ask me why, I just do!

The Testaments is the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, which I read years ago. I need to refresh my memory for that book as I haven’t been watching the series on TV.

I’m sure I’ll pick up where the original book left off though.

And for the Isaac Asimov book? Once I read this, I’ll have read the whole Foundation series, as well as the Robot series. Just got the Empire trilogy to go (which I might ask my brother or parents to get a book or two for Christmas!) and then that’s the lot.

Hands down one of the best series I’ve ever read. And the last book in the series ends with one of the biggest cliffhangers in literature. When one character is wondering who the true enemy is and you see another character staring at him *gasps*. I want to know what happens next! Want? No! I HAVE to know what happens next. But I never will as the author died in the 90’s.

Once I read these 2 books, then that’s one goal of the year complete. Unless I buy another book for myself of course, but that’s unlikely between now and Christmas!

[This post contains affiliate links which means if you click the link and make a purchase, I get a small commission of that purchase at no extra cost to you! The links for the books above will take you to the Waterstones website who I’m an affiliate for.]

Latest Posts

August Goals Update

On 10th Aug 20219th Aug 2021 By woollymakerIn blogging, crafts and hobbies, writingLeave a comment

I wrote a blog post a week or so ago about my goals for August – you can find that post here:

August Goals – Crafting and Work

I’m not going through all of them here, but I’ve managed a bit in this last week. Even though the last week has had lots of things like hospital appointments and other errands that need a bit of driving or planning.

And it’s been miserable weather! Dark and gloomy and rainy…I can’t even get motivated to go out for a walk when it’s like this!

Crafts

I’ve been writing the last week, in fact I managed almost 5000 words last Monday, as well as editing and proofreading and scribbling ideas for things. So, not a lot of crafting is what I’m getting at.

But, I have been looking at websites and reading and dreaming. And that is just as fun sometimes. Looking at knitting patterns and flicking through my craft books.

I have a book about top down sweaters that I’m desperate to try a pattern from, as well as lots that I’ve seen on Ravelry and other places.

Actual crafting this week? I did some more cross-stitch, not enough to show and I did bake a loaf of bread and do some more on my orange jumper…but not enough progress made to justify photos and making a big deal – just a few rows really.

Funny, I actually got out my orange jumper to knit a bit last night and then I put it away without doing anything at all as I wanted to write and scribble instead of knit!

The EXACT same amount of progress since the last picture I showed you…because this IS the last picture I showed you!

Writing

As I said above I’ve been writing a lot. I don’t feel in the mood to write much right this moment and yet here I am, writing this blog post. That’s the real secret – write even when you don’t feel like it!

I wrote and published 3 posts on Medium last week, one was a whopper from a few days before that I just let and sat for a bit before editing it yesterday. The others I wrote from scratch yesterday.

And I published 3 more today.

I did set myself a goal to upload every day on Medium in August (the same on this blog) but it hasn’t happened on Medium yet. The articles over there are more like actual articles and here I can be quicker with my writing!

I’m getting to grips with Medium a bit more, actually following people and publications and still figuring out how to format my own publication!

I’m enjoying it so far, but I’m finding that if I do a day of solid writing, I don’t feel like doing that the next day!

Here is the link to the massive post about using affiliate links:

https://woollyorbit.medium.com/affiliate-links-and-some-practical-ways-to-use-them-2f72cbd45789

And here is a weekly roundup. I’m doing over there, where I try to track my progress of the week. Hint, last week there wasn’t much!

https://woollyorbit.medium.com/progress-report-3-69cb0e7eac88

I bought a magazine called Writing Magazine to read. There are 2 main writing magazines in the UK…Writer’s Forum is thinner and has fewer articles about writing and more stuff written by readers (like the winners of each monthly writing competition get their story published) but I like the layout better. It’s easy to read and the flow of the magazine works for me.

Writing Magazine is full of good articles, there’s a useful section at the back with info about competitions, who is hiring etc. But it’s so crammed in with words I find it difficult to know where to look. It’s too overwhelming with their layout for me! Also, it feels like every page has a different font and style…I don’t think that’s the case in reality, but it’s how it feels to me and it’s really off-putting!

Anyway…I’m reading that later!

Passive Income

I’ve joined several affiliate schemes and I even published my own Amazon KDP notebook (it came on Saturday…I’ve redone the cover, but I just wanted to see the process of self-publishing a book on Amazon, which is really easy by the way!). I need to wait for the cover to re-upload which can take a few days and I’ve added a couple more (text based cover designs) to Amazon, so we’ll see how they look once they’re finished uploading.

Here is a work in progress author copy of the book. I’m glad I ordered it, even though I’m making changes to the cover. Just ignore the rubbish photography!

I haven’t signed up to Substack yet, but I looked through everything I could on the website the other day, so I think I’ve done all the research I can. The same with Fiverr.

I made my first sale from RedBubble last week too – yay! 3 x stickers if you’re interested. I’ve been adding more to RedBubble for the past couple of weeks so I think I’ll continue with that! Up to 172 designs now I think off the top of my head.

I’ve done nothing with the other places like Spoonflower etc…I just need to figure out the formatting because each place wants files in different sizes and some like CMYK and others like RGB colour systems. So, it’s figuring it all out beforehand before getting really stuck in.

This week the goal is my Etsy shop. I want 10 listings ready to go…I’ve lost all motivation with that, so I need to get it back! I need to re-read Deep Work by Cal Newport!

I’ve been pinning loads to Pinterest – that takes time and it looks like I’ve done nothing!

Latest Posts:

August Goals – Crafting and Work

On 1st Aug 202131st Jul 2021 By woollymakerIn Goals1 Comment

Did I make a July goals post? I can’t remember…but here’s the August one!

Craft goals:

Try and get the front of my orange jumper finished, or at the very least a lot of progress made.
Try and finish the sample baby cardigan I’m knitting. So far got the back and one side done.
Do a few more rows on my sock yarn shawl.
Do more on crochet baby blanket.
Cast on large heirloom knitted blanket, I think I’m going to go for entrelac! :O
Finish sewing together fabric baby dress.
Find a simple sock pattern for beginners and cast on.

I think that’ll do. Mainly knitting and crochet as I did a lot of sewing in July!

Work goals:

I am opening my Etsy shop this month regardless of how many listings there are.
I am publishing my book regardless of how finished it is!!!
I want to post an article on Medium every day. Make a push for it!
Join Fiverr.
Join Substack.
Spoonflower have 10 designs up.

That’s it. I have other things planned, but I’m not going to waste time writing every little thing down. These are the main points.

You know what, instead of waffling for ages about all of the above, I’m going to leave it there! I think they are all pretty much self explanatory really!

Wishing you a happy and productive day!! 🙂

[I’m going to try and write every day here in August. There isn’t a plan like in February…that got a little restrictive after a little while, even thought it was fun. Nope, just gonna post every day here this month! ]

June Goals

On 1st Jun 20217th Jun 2021 By woollymakerIn GoalsLeave a comment

May was quite productive, in fact, I think I managed to meet a fair amount of my goals for May.

I joined the Medium Partner Program and although I haven’t published a story over there in a week or so, I’m ready to get back to writing over there.

I carried on creating printables for my new Etsy shop/ book and although I haven’t technically opened the shop yet (which I really wanted to do by the end of May) I’m almost there. It just takes a LOT longer than I expected to sort everything!

I reached almost 130 designs on RedBubble, I wanted 200 by end of May, but to get over 100 is pretty good so I’m still happy. That’s not a huge priority right now, so I’ll work on that as and when I get the chance.

I also managed to get a lot of knitting done yesterday. I don’t know what it is about hot, sunny summer days, but they make me want to knit like a maniac!

I’m going to try to finish that tonight or this week at the latest and sew it all together (my Neon Fair Isle bag I mean) and that will finally be a finished object which I haven’t had on here for so long! It’s starting to drag a bit this project, I only meant it to be a quick 10 minute job but the colour work takes twice as long to do!

JUNE GOALS

Open Etsy store and have 10 listings live in it!
Reach 200 designs on RedBubble
Publish 20 stories on Medium (good quality ones with good pictures and keywords – ‘proper’ posts!)
Have some designs published on my Society 6 and Spoonflower stores
Sign up to Substack (maybe)
Sign up to Fiverr – create profile, have 1 Gig live
Launch my own website…get the back end security and meta boring stuff sorted and have 10 posts listed
Sell a Procreate brush on Etsy

I think that will do for the ‘job’ goals…and the crafty ones?

~~Finish the Neon Fair Isle Bag – sewn up and everything~~ – DONE! 🙂
Make a lot of progress with my orange jumper (half done, need to finish ribbing at the bottom of the second half and get onto the main pattern)
Do some more on my sock yarn shawl
Start a crochet baby blanket for a friend
Cast on a pair of socks to use up my socks yarn stash
Do a lot more on my cross-stitch piece (not sure if I like the colours I chose…I might see what the finished piece looks like and if I don’t like it I can always start again with a better colour palette) STOPPED AND USING THE THREADS FOR ANOTHER PROJECT!!
Sew up a linen top I have mostly cut out
Denim rucksack -I cut out the denim the other day, need to cut out the lining and sew it together
Do some more work on my leather work (started to sew it up last year and haven’t touched it since)

I also haven’t baked any bread in ages so I want to have a go at that too, got some brown seedy flour to use up!

I have loads of stuff in the boot of my car to take to the charity shop, I need to have another rummage and see if I can add anything else!

And Yoga. I haven’t made a lot of time for that lately. I want to get back into it…it’s like a mini heat wave where I am, not technically a heat wave, but it’s so hot outside I don’t feel like getting hot and sweaty on purpose right now!