4KCBWDAY7: Thanks for the manatees...

Well, here we are, the end of a fabulous week of blogging, and just as importantly, reading other blogs. I've really had so much fun participating in the 4th Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, it's given me a lot of momentum that I hope I can use to go forward through the next 51 weeks until the 5th annual week rolls around.  I have some bowls of frozen yogurt to share with you, a very inspiring pair of shoes for next Saturday's post, a few weeks' worth of baking recipes with my co-workers' stamp of approval, and another swap package that's going off in the mail tomorrow, so I'll be able to reveal those projects finally as well.

So that's my hope for the near future: just to keep going, not get bogged down in the day to day stresses that can keep me from taking the time to post and knit, for that matter.  But Eskimi wants to know what our hopes and dreams our for the whole year in crafting between now and then.  Here are a few boxes I'm hoping to check off:

• Finishing my first cardigan.  It's been hibernating for much of the Texas winter, but with my swap box squared away I've actually already added a few more rows to the left front section.  That will officially make me a garment knitter, which will be exciting.
• Racing through another Tour de Fleece, though I'm hoping that before that rolls around I'll have at least completed another cop of my mom's yarn.  This time next year I want to have not only finished that long ago, but have completed something a little more adventurous in my spinning, like plying some lovely spring green Yarnorama fiber I have with a flower pink thread.  And secretly, I'm hoping I might have a wheel by this time next year...
• More experiments in dyeing.  Maybe knitting a blank to dye a particular gradient, or just trying some new 'ingredients', but I always have fun playing with colors.
• Trying my hand at sewing.  I did a little hand sewing when I was in middle school, but I would love to whip up a project bag or two using the machine.  There are so many great fabrics around that I want to work with, and some things just need to be sewn rather than knitted.
• Owning my stash.  I'd really love to bust it, but I've made that resolution enough times to know that it's always going to be a work in progress.  So instead, I want to just take a little more control over it with organization strategies as well as some actual knitting.  I'd like to take advantage of Ravelry by having all of my skeins entered in there, and be able to walk into the next Hill Country Weavers warehouse sale with a list of things I'm looking for rather than just allowing myself to be distracted by the prettiest little skein that ever was.  I have a few of those.

Whew, that sounds like plenty to me!  I'm going to stop before I start getting flashbacks to my performance management planning at work and trying to align these all to strategic corporate goals.  For more posts, use the tag '4KCBWDAY7' in the search engine of your choice.  Don't forget to check out Eskimi's final post of the week.  

And the countdown starts now...