My 2026 Crafting Goals

Last year I did a crafting goals post and outlined 6 projects or goals I had for my crafting – considering I completed 5 of my 6 goals (at least partially), I think it worked pretty well! So let’s talk about my crafting goals for 2026.

As I noted last year, my concept of a “goal” is that it is a signpost you can move towards, but it can also be changed, delayed, or set aside as circumstances change. So this is not intended to be a prescriptive list of things I HAVE to do, but just projects I want to continue moving towards.

1. Try fabric dyeing. This is my one carryover from last year, as I never quite got around to attempting to dye my living room curtains. I’m definitely stuck on the research phase of this project – I keep looking up how to do it, but never fully committing. I really want to try to get this done as soon as it gets warm enough to work in my basement.

2. Knit my husband a sweater. I will be celebrating my 7th wedding anniversary this fall, and apparently that’s the “wool” anniversary. Sounds like the perfect time to knit my husband a sweater for the first time! (I’ve knit him hats and socks previously).

3. Start my wedding quilt. When we got married, we had our guests sign jelly roll strips of fabric, with the idea of making a quilt. Yeah, those strips are still hanging in my craft closet 7 years (and one interstate move) later. Now that I’m finally feeling more confident about tackling larger sewing projects, I feel like this is the year to at least start cutting and sewing some of those quilt blocks.

4. Knit more projects from my existing pattern stash. Knitters talk a lot about ways to use your *yarn* stash, but my larger stash by far is the library of patterns that I’ve purchased and never knit, including 10 years of Vogue Knitting magazines and a handful of Pom Pom issues. There’s a lot of great patterns in there! I’m not going to commit to not buying *any* new patterns this year (I know too many talented designers) but my goal is for at least 60% of the knit projects I start this year to be from patterns I already own.

5. Thrift an entire afghan’s worth of yarn. The Vintage Afghan Project is not a cheap endeavor, even when I’m waiting for sales and buying acrylic or acrylic blends. I’m going to try to thrift more of the yarn for this project in general this year, but I want to try to source enough majority wool blend yarn for one entire afghan, just to see how much patience it takes to source colors and yarns that will work together.

6. Crochet myself a garment. Last year I crocheted most of a blanket, a little pouch, and a witch’s hat (those last two are Ravelry links). This year I want to try some kind of top/cardigan/sweater for myself. I learn so much about crochet every time I attempt a new kind of pattern and I’m really curious how crochet garment construction compares to knit garment construction. The crochet patterns are exempt from the “work from stash” goal since I don’t actually own many crochet patterns.

These are not the only projects I’ll be working on this year – there will definitely be more Mending Lab projects coming, as well as more general sewing, but if this *was* all I got done this year, I’d consider it a pretty fun year!

Do you have any crafting goals for 2026?