Hey everyone! It’s been 6 months since I first shared my crafty goals for 2017, so I thought I would share a crafty goals update on how I’m doing. A lot has happened since January, so let’s take a look at how I’m doing.

GET ORGANIZED

My first goal was to get organized with both my crafty goals and personal goals. I purchased a planner to help keep track of all my upcoming blog posts, tutorials, and deadlines as well as any upcoming events in my personal life. This has helped greatly! I tend to have a lot on my mind so keeping everything written down in one place has helped me stay organized. (GOAL-on track)

I also wanted to keep my yarn stash organized. At the beginning of the year I had yarn everywhere in my craft room. It was in the closet, in different boxes and bags, and of course in my storage cubby. What happened is I received a lot of yarn from my birthday and Christmas and didn’t have any extra space to put it. One day, my husband Tony and I were feeling motivated and we starting organizing our condo and getting rid of things we didn’t need anymore. We cleaned out my craft closet, got rid of all the boxes and bags and now have most of my yarn in my storage cubby. There is still some in the closet (mostly extra yarn for my two collections), but at least they’re not in bags on the floor anymore.

I have been able to go through my yarn stash and organize by color. I put each separate color into the different storage cubes. You can find these storage cubes on Amazon, which you have many colors and patterns to choose from. Organizing my yarn by color is easiest for me.

Going one-step further, I separated my yarn into open skeins and unopened skeins. For the open skeins, I plan on using up that yarn and making hats and pet mats to donate. With two bags full of open skeins, I think I’ll be busy for a little while. I had no idea I had that much open skeins floating around! (GOAL-on track)

WORK FROM MY YARN STASH

I’ve grown quite a yarn stash over the years. I wanted my next goal to be finding ways to use up the yarn I already have rather than keep adding to my yarn stash. I included a few sub categories for this goal.

• Current and Future Etsy Collections-right now I have two collections in my Etsy Shop, which is the mint collection and pretty in pink collection. I asked for Bernat Softee Baby and Loops and Threads Snuggly Wuggly yarn for my birthday and Christmas to restock and make sure I had extra just in case someone purchased an item and I needed to make another one to add back into the collection. I haven’t added any new collections just yet. However, I’ve been good about keeping just enough extra skeins on hand without going overboard on buying more of this type of yarn.
• Orders-I’ve gotten some orders recently, but luckily I’ve been able to use up some of the yarn I had in my stash already. However, I did have to purchase a few skeins to make a hat and mittens for someone.
• Good Yarn Sales-for the most part, I’ve been good about staying away from yarn sales and not purchasing yarn just to purchase it. I know there are always going to be sales on yarn, but I’m really trying to work through the yarn I already have first.

Overall, I have gotten much better with working from my yarn stash rather than going out and buying new yarn. I’ve still bought some yarn for specific projects or orders, but for the most part I’ve tried to stay away from purchasing more yarn. As of right now, I have used approximately 31 skeins, which equals to 8,736 yards. While I still have some extra yarn I want to use up, I would say I’m doing a great job using up yarn leftover from different projects! (GOAL-on track)

KEEP UP WITH BLOG POSTS

My goal was to keep up with some sort of a blogging schedule as I didn’t have one before. Personally, I feel it’s better to have a schedule because then your readers will know which days they’re more likely to see a new post from you.

I made it a goal to post twice a week. This seemed to be what worked for me without becoming too overwhelmed. You will see a new blog post from me every Wednesday and Saturday. On Saturdays, I’ve started my Crochet 101 series, which you can check out from the very beginning here. On Wednesdays, I talk about different crochet related topics, which include yarn reviews, crochet book reviews, patterns, and many more.

I also enjoy scheduling future blog posts. This helps me stay on track because once it’s scheduled and ready to go, I can focus on other things. I try to stay at least one month ahead of schedule, so I can focus on new ideas or working on other business related tasks. I try to sit down once a month and come up with new topics I would like to include in future blog posts. This system seems to be working for me so far. (GOAL-on track)

DONATE TO CHARITY

This crafty goal will also help with my previous goal of wanting to use up more of my yarn stash. I donated over 100 pet beds to Comfort for Critters last year. I want to make it a goal to donate 100 more this year. However, it’s been a very slow start this year. I haven’t been working on this goal as much as I would like to as so many other things have popped up. I’ve had other projects where I needed to work on, orders to fill, and overall life happening. So far this year, I have donated only 10 pet beds. I would still like to complete this goal, so we’ll see if I can make it. (GOAL-needs improvement)

TRY NEW CROCHET PATTERNS

I’ve been crocheting for about 11-12 years. I wanted to branch out and try some new crochet patterns. At the beginning of the year, I wrote down a list of some new patterns I wanted to try. I didn’t know if I was going to like them or not, but I at least wanted to test them out. Some of the new patterns include the Glacier Cowl, Coffee Cup Keychains, and a Crochet Bag. There are still a few different patterns I would like to try, so I’m not going to say this goal is completed just yet. (GOAL-on track)

DESIGN MY OWN CROCHET PATTERNS

I’ve always been interested in designing my own crochet patterns. I thought I would give it a go this year. I made a goal to come up with at least 1-2 patterns of my own. I’m pleased to announce that I completed this goal and have gone above and beyond in designing my own patterns. You can find all of these patterns below or by clicking on the Crochet Pattern tab on the top of my website. However, you can purchase some of my patterns on Etsy for only a few dollars. Here are all of the patterns I have designed so far (click on the picture for each pattern): (GOAL-completed)

That completes my crafty goals update! I hope you enjoyed seeing my progress and where I’m at with each goal. I will let you know about my crafty goals update again at the end of the year.

Did you set any crafty goals for yourself this year? How are you progressing on them? Leave me a comment below. I’d love to hear from you!

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