knit your library challenge: 2016 edition

 this is the year to tackle the tower!

I don't know about you, but we LOVE books. And after awhile, sometimes my house begins to feel something like this. Stacks and stacks of books. I honestly wouldn't have it any other way! (I would much rather have a house overflowing with books than a family addicted to video games!)

Of course, this love extends to crafting, knitting, sewing, and stitching books too. And after awhile, the love begins to feel overwhelming. Because all those books were bought with intentions, right? Wouldn't it be cool if I made this? My kids would love this! Oooh, I want this! And I don't know about you, but unfulfilled intentions weigh me down. I see that book/yarn/project/thing and feel guilty that I haven't done it yet. I started the Love Your Library challenge back in 2013 to help refocus my knitting, sewing and crafting so that I wouldn't forget to use the amazing patterns in my personal library that I already owned before buying more. Last year I refocused myself even more by picking several books to knit through in 2015. But honestly doing that just didn't fit with my personality. My crafting moods change throughout the year, and restricting myself to only a few books completed flopped (and there's just something about picking a few books to knit through that makes me want to knit anything but those patterns! ha!). But last year I had a few projects that used up old yarn that made something that fulfilled intentions I'd made for it seemingly ages ago. And that felt SO GOOD. So I'm declaring 2016 to be my personal year of follow through. Instead of picking specific books or projects, I'm going to go with the flow. But my theme will be projects that I've been intending to make, but just haven't followed through for some reason or another.

So join me every Wednesday as I post progress on this challenge with a link up! The rules are simple for this challenge: knit projects that utilize patterns you have in your personal library that you acquired before January 1, 2016. That's it! Last year I noticed some people were confused by the name "Love Your Library" thinking it was a challenge to go to your public library (I support that too!). So I'm tweaking the name just slightly this year to "knit your library." If you're on Ravelry, you can come chat about your projects with everyone else here. And if you want to tag your projects on social media, use the tag #knityourlibrary. And come back every Wednesday to link up your projects and blog posts! Of course, I'll get distracted by the ooh, shiny! and there will be projects that don't qualify for this challenge, so that's okay. The intention of this challenge is a fun way to cheerlead each other in support of better following through on our crafting intentions!

And if you want a badge, here's one to snag! See the side bar for the html code to make it a linking button --------------->

Link up below to let me know you're joining in! Wishing everyone a fun and productive 2016!