New Year Resolutions?

There's been lots of talk around the blogosphere about resolutions. For them, and against them. I can see both sides to resolutions, but I think I come down on the side of making them. Not as hard-and-fast rules, but as guidelines for where I want to go in the next year.

I do spend some time in the week between Christmas and New Year's thinking about the past year, and how I want the next year to develop. I think about the things I've accomplished, the things that I fell short on, the things that turned out to be not something I really cared about, but thought I had.

Sometime before midnight, Dec. 31st, I set down a list of things I'd like to work on for the next year, and save it in a file I've called "Aspirations". (and I save a copy of that file on a CD, because I don't want to lose the accumulation of years I have in that file!) It's interesting to go back and look at previous year's aspirations, to see trends, to remember successes and failures. It makes me laugh, and sometimes go "Hmmmm", which is good for my soul, right?

My aspirations cover all facets of my life, of course. I don't separate them into categories, because I believe everything we do affects everything we are. I know some people can neatly separate the different parts of themselves into compartments in their mind, but I can't do that, and I don't think I even want to. Life doesn't come in neat little packages, clearly labeled. It flows onto you like a wave, sometimes buoying you up, other times overwhelming you. Occasionally, it tries to drag you back out to sea with itself, and sometimes that's a good thing. Growth is change, and change is messy, and not always pleasant.

One of my "aspirations" for the coming year is to finally knit a pair of socks. I owe it to myself (and my cold feet!) to master this knitting feat (heh). My mother always claimed she couldn't knit, but she knit argyle socks all the time. I can knit, but I can't knit a pair of plain socks for the life of me. I intend to change that, this new year. I have never used DPNs, and I rarely use circulars ( collars and such, usually), so I have no preference for which to use for socks. I just know that this year, I will make a pair of socks. Maybe more than one, but at least one pair.

I also want to knit more, in the coming year. This past year I knit very little, and I missed it. And, of course, knitting more will mean a decrease in my stash, which would be a good thing, too. And while I'm knitting more, I want to actually finish more things, all the way through seaming them together, and weaving in the ends. I can't count the number of items I have finished knitting that are sitting around in bags and baskets, waiting for me to sew them up, weave in the ends, and wear. It's ridiculous.

Another thing I want to do more of this coming year is sew. My fabric stash isn't much smaller than my yarn stash, and I want to decrease the amount of space all that fabric takes up. Plus, I'm not really a fan of much Ready-to-Wear, given that I'm a petite woman (not just small, but petite, with shorter arms, different proportions, etc.) and sewing allows me to make those adjustments in the beginning, not pay for alterations after the fact. (I like to sew, but I hate alterations and would rather pay someone to do them.)

Probably the most important aspiration I have this year is to get organized. This is, no surprise, a repeating aspiration for me. I have massive collections of books, yarn, fabric, patterns, pattern books, and magazines. My collections take up space in every room in my apartment, and the disorganization of all of them is making me a little crazy. It also causes me to buy things I already have, which isn't smart or financially wise. So, while I made some small progress on getting organized last year, this year I need to really dig in and become organized, not just work on it.

There are other aspirations, of course, but those are ones I don't think I'll post online for the world to see (although based on the number of comments I get, I really shouldn't worry about that!).

I don't know that I'll post again before the new year, so to everyone, I'll wish you a Happy New Year, and hope that it brings you love and laughter and many happy surprises!