I’m a few days late, but it’s time to check back on those goals again! I feel like March went by too fast, but maybe that’s because I was having too much fun. Here are the goals I set for myself at the start of the month; let’s see how I did.

Goal #1. Yarn! Yarn! Yarn! Launch the shop, pour my heart out into this passion of mine, and, hopefully, dye more yarn for more shop updates!

I launched the shop, and, oh boy, did I pour my heart out, and I am over the moon with how well it was received! It was a lot of hard work and hands down one of the most stressful things I’ve done in my life, but it was totally worth it.

I also dyed a new collection, called Spring Cleaning, which is coming out this very Friday, April 7th, at 1pm EDT! I still have to do a photo shoot for the individual colors, but, so far, I’m really loving how it all came together. Funny too, because it looks completely different to the previous collection.

Goal #2. Reach out to a few of my favorite knitwear designers for potential collaborations.

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen the gorgeous pair of socks that Verena of @thewoolclub knit up using our 4 ply sustainable merino. The Amalia Socks are currently being test knit to be released on April 20th. When I first approached Verena for a collaboration, I knew that whatever she created with our yarns would be beautiful. This is one of several collaborations we are working on, and I couldn’t have been happier!

I also reached out to other designers, makers and podcasters whose work I really admire. I’m so looking forward to working with all these amazing women!

Goal #3. Carry out a collaboration with a fellow blogger!

Earlier this month, my good friend Su of Wooly Ventures published an interview with me. This was the first of her Maker Spotlight series. Su is an avid knitter, traveller and hiker, and I can’t wait to share with you my interview with her!

Goal #4. Start knitting on that shawl design.

Mmm...this did not happen. Oops!

Goal #5. Still aim for a PR in the NYC Half Marathon.

I did aim for a PR. I ran as fast as I could. I was convinced I was running faster than my previous PR. But I wasn’t. I was off by 5 minutes, which sucks (finishing the race in 02:00:12). The worst part is that had I known I was running so slowly, I would’ve just relaxed and enjoyed the race, instead of chasing my own self from some 4 years ago...oh well, now we train for the Marathon in November!

Goal #6. Plan (and go on) our family vacation.

So, what I learned is that my family has been spoiled over the years. I love planning vacation, maybe even more than actually going on vacation. I take joy in searching for everything from places to go to places to eat and where to stay. So much so, that I put together an almost 100 slide powerpoint for our trip to Greece last year. Yeah...

This time around I didn’t have the luxury of time to plan everything, which meant that most of our research was done on the spot. Not the worst, but definitely a lesson learned for future trips. It can get quite annoying trying to decide on what to do on the spot when there are 5 adults and a toddler involved…

All in all, another great vacation! If you’re interested to learn where we went and what we got up to, I already wrote about our time in Memphis, and I plan to write about all the other stops on our trip as well!

Goal #7. Work on the next phase of my Creative Boss Scholarship course!

I still have about a week to go before my next and final call with the lovely Hanna Lisa, and I would say I’m pretty much done with all the things we discussed during our last call! Turns out when you enjoy what you do, homework can actually be fun!

Goal #8. Enroll Anya in ballet classes!

Hahaha, this made me laugh. So, I didn’t necessarily enroll her in ballet classes, but I did take her to one! She kinda stood there in amazement watching everyone else do their thing. And then once class was over she started dancing and showing all her moves.

She is still just as obsessed with The Swan Lake as she was a month ago. She has also added Sia and Marian Hill to her repertoire of acceptable artists. She now says “daaa” and waves her hand in a dance motion, pretty much as soon as she opens her eyes! It’s the cutest!

Goal #9. Knit more than last month.

Well then…Knitting took a backseat for most of last month. But I did knit pretty monogamously on my test knit for WOODS. And then a little on my fade while on vacation! Yay! Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Goal #10. Meet up with more of the knitters in my neighborhood.

I had all the good intentions to carry out this goal, but time just flew by, and I was on my way to another vacation before I even knew it. Maybe this month?

Goal #11. Make a habit of writing more every day.

Definitely did NOT do this! In fact, I did the exact opposite. I had a long period of about 3 weeks where I did not write or publish a blog post. Again, when you try to do ALL the things and realize that you can’t, you prioritize. And this month yarn was top of the list!

On another note, I decided at the start of the month that I wouldn’t focus on certain business goals that had been putting too much pressure on me in February. Well, I did exceedingly well on all of them! With a 40% increase in my Instagram following and the highest sales in patterns to date, plus, of course, a pretty successful first shop update, March was a great month!

April Goals

Prepare another collection.
Experiment with hand painting and speckling.
Start working towards the next parts of the dream; locally sourced yarns and Armenian yarn.
Finish my Lovenholm vest for WOODS.
Finish my Amelia Socks.
Make a Marathon training plan and get to work!
Meet up with more of the knitters in my neighborhood.
Make a habit of writing more every day.

I got this!