Mantra Knitting

I am always teetering between embracing digital life and longing for simple screen-free moments. And, in some cases, I find myself needing both concepts to fulfill a goal. This blog often serves as a digital scrapbook of project progress, finished items, and future plans. Yet, one of my most beloved knitting accessories is my project journal from Twice Sheared Sheep.

The journal comes equipped with really cool project pages to track pattern details, store yarn ball bands or swatches, and attach a piece of the yarn used. It also comes with plastic page protectors, perfect for keeping printed patterns. I love using it with charts, especially with the provided elastic band to keep track of my place.

After using the journal for almost a year, I’ve made a few additions that have made it even more functional for my personal knitting practice. I decided that my journal was helping me in the same categories as my blog, with space for past, present, and future projects.

So, I bought some A5 divider tabs from Amazon to separate my journal into three sections:

• Made
• Planned
• Patterns

The Made section focuses on what I have finished and uses the project pages that came with the journal. But, I also wanted to have an index of all of the projects for a year, so I made a page with space for me to write what I finished each month. This list of The Finished Things is almost a table of contents for my year of knitting. Since I want to capture the memory of these special moments, I also included space for highlights from the year, like what I learned or the most challenging project.

The Planned section focuses on what I am hoping to make in the future. Here, I’ve kept the blank pages that came with the journal (dot grid and graph) and added two new pages to help me stay on track with my future projects. The first page, Handy Measurements, is a quick reference of common measurements needed for knitted items for the people I knit for. The second, My Future Makes, is a page to brainstorm what I plan on making and the lucky recipient.

The last section is for Patterns and has the page protectors filled with patterns that I am using or plan to use. To make this more functional, I was inspired by the idea of a “junk journal” and used a tag from a cute stitch protector I purchased to make a bookmark to easily find my current pattern. I also made a second elastic band for my journal, using some spare metallic elastic I had on hand. This helps me to isolate the single row that I am working on a chart so that I don’t get ahead of myself.

I love how my project journal has come to life with each addition! I am sharing my simple printables below, in case they would bring joy to your project journal as well.

I always struggle with printing special page sizes, so I made the templates to be printed one-sided on plain 8.5 x 11 paper, and then simply folded in half to make a two-sided A5 printable. (You could also cut the page in half.) You’ll need a 6-hole punch set to match your project journal/planner.

Expand each printable to view a thumbnail and download the file for easy printing.

How do you plan your future knits?

Happy Knitting!