Annual Goal List: 2013-2014 Edition

2013 was a year of completing big goals and getting well. I had pushed myself so long and hard that I was chronically exhausted. The second half of the year was dedicated to treating myself well, eating better, and addressing issues that had been pushed to the wayside. Apparently cookies are not the way to improve energy levels. Green drinks are.

Moving on.... here are a few of this year's highlights. (Finishing Lit Knits is a given and won't be on the list.)

Actually, this might be a life highlight: I got to have a pint at the Green Dragon in Hobbiton. It is as cool as you think it is.

Me and Miss Pickles at the Green Dragon

I met Rachael, who is my new adventure buddy. We have gone hiking and biking to all sorts of places that I've wanted to go but wouldn't have without someone. Such trips include biking over the Golden Gate to Sausalito and taking the ferry back, seeing the Monterey Bay Aquarium, hiking to the top of Angel Island, hiking the Pinnacles, biking from Fort Ord to Monterey and back.

Biking by Fort Ord

I got to visit my brother in LA. The whole family went to the La Brea Tar Pits. My brother and I went to Disneyland the next day. He lost his sunglasses on the Matterhorn and my jeans got soaking wet in Splash Mountain and stayed wet for hours. It was awesome.

At the tar pits

Here's a recap of last years goals.

Goals for 2013:
1. Finish knitting the last knit.
Status: Complete. All the knitting got done in time to do the remaining photo shoots.
2. Finish the last 5 photo shoots.
Status: Complete. The last pictures to be taken were Down The Rabbit Hole. I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to get flowers in the background. I was wrong. Thank goodness!
3. Hire a tech editor. Edit The Book.
Status: Complete. I ended up hiring a tech editor and copy editor. The Book was better for it.
4. Layout The Book.
Status: Complete. I thought I would have a couple months to work on the layout. I ended up having closer to a week. Nothing like a deadline to get things moving.
5. Get test knitters lined up. Test the knits.
Status: Complete. Most of my Friday night knit group tested out the book. There were others like kiwipurler who were kind enough to test as well. You guys made the instructions so much more clear. I'm grateful to all of you.
6. Knit a sister shawl to Celestarium. This one will have the constellations of the southern hemisphere.
Status: Complete. Not only did I finish the shawl, I was able to photograph it in the southern hemisphere. And the ever lovely kiwipurler modeled for me. (We visited yarn shops afterwards, which was tons of fun.)
I had also mentioned that I wanted The Book in my hand by August if possible. I did reach that goal in a way. I did complete the book by August. But then I decided to do a print run instead of print on demand. So I got the books in my hand by November. The digital copy of the book was available in August.

To sum it up, even though I completed everything, I feel like I cheated with this goal list. They were all things that had to get done and although they were difficult, I don't feel like it was a diverse enough list. Mind you, I didn't have time to do anything else. Anyways, I've been thinking about this year's goal list all week. (I know... usually I post a little closer to the New Year. My official excuse is computer trouble. The unofficial excuse is that I was also having fun doing other things.)

Goals for 2014:
1. Knit up more of the yarn kiwipurler has gifted me. I love the yarn. But every time I get close to knitting some of it, some other deadline gets in the way. Not this year. I will knit up at least 300 grams of the fingering weight.
2. Borrowing from the 2011 goal list, I'm putting the spin for a large project back on the list. Specifically, I've been spinning for a blanket since 2011. I have about a pound of wool left before I meet the 7 pounds of yarn required for the blanket size I'm hoping for. Then I plan to take the yarn to a weaver and have the blanket woven.
3. Knit Justin his socks that I promised him several years ago. It needs to happen.
4. Find a community outside of knitting to spend time with. Don't get me wrong, I love knit nights and yarn. But I think my life would be more balanced if it included non-knitters in it at times.
5. Choose a new job and do it. This is the first year in quite some time where I don't have a big goal to keep me occupied. It's a bit frightening. I just need to choose a new thing and go for it. This is much more difficult than it seems like it should be.
6. Sew myself a dress. Or in lieu of that, sew a project bag. I want to make a little something this year.

I'm horribly behind on blog reading at the moment. I was bereft of computer for the beginning of this year and it looks like I won't have a good solid time to catch up for another week. But I'm looking forward to reading everyone's goals for the year. Feel free to link up a blog post in the comments. I'd love to see it.