Would you like more time to knit? I most certainly would! Well this year, I've been quite successful in making more time to knit (it's still not enough, but it's definitely better than it was), and my secret weapon has been my Strickplaner.

Copies of the 2019 Strickplaner have landed in the online shop, and we have kits including the planner, stickers and a pen loop (as well as the individual products) available to purchase now. Last year these flew out of the shop faster than ice creams on a hot day (darn it! Now I want an ice cream!).

So how has my Strickplaner been so successful in making me more time to knit?

The Strickplaner has been developed by our great friend Martina Behm, in conjunction with the clever people at Weekview in Germany, and it contains a whole host of helpful tools for your knitting.

Above is a spread from the 2019 planner, which gives an overview of the knitting content: pages for your knitting projects, a yearly knitting overview (I'll show you mine for this year below), a section for knitting ideas, wish lists, knitting events, a measurements list for your most knitworthy friends and family, and much more.

Here's a sneaky look at my yearly knitting overview. One of my goals for this year was to finish an adult garment for myself, but I knew that this was a big project, given my other commitments. Being able to track the progress visually over the longer term has been so helpful. I can see at a glance that I'm on track to do it, so despite the fact that there's still a lot of stocking stitch to go, I'm keeping at it. I am using the stickers that you can choose to go with your planner, to mark my progress too. Teal is finished, red is started and orange is for completed sections – you can see where I finished the first sleeve, and where I started the body of my Ola Yoke. Using the yearly planner has also allowed me to be a bit more realistic with myself about what I can actually achieve. It takes quite a while to design and knit a shawl, with its inevitable ripping out and starting again, so having that at-a-glance view that it took me 6 weeks to complete my Bithynica shawl will help me to plan my knitting for next year more effectively too. Bithynica was slow as I changed my mind a few times along the way, before I settled on the final design. I'm really looking forward to starting to think about my 2019 projects later this year, when I sit down with my new Strickplaner.

That's a little snapshot of just one of the knitting tools in the planner, but there is so much more than that! Using the Strickplaner has given me a whole new way of managing my time. I've been a long-time user of YNAB to budget my money (that's an affiliate link, we each get a free month if you use it – I really can't recommend it highly enough – here's a normal link if you'd rather), and using my Strickplaner has given me a similar game-changing amount of success at budgeting or managing my time.

This is a sample of the quarterly planning spread that you'll find in the 2019 Strickplaner. It allows you to plan a number of different projects, including the key phases of each, and gives a clear look at what's coming up. I use it to keep all the plates of the business spinning (the different books each have their own section while I work on them), as well as a section to plan what I want to knit in that quarter. Now you may be thinking, "I can see how this helps when you are running a business, but how will this help me?" and there are lots of answers... Perhaps you have a family event coming up that needs planning? Or you are doing some home improvements? Or you are juggling childcare and freelance work? Or you just know that this is going to be the year where you nail some gift knitting in advance and aren't blocking the last few presents the night before! There are loads of different aspects of everyday life that can be helped with a bit of an overview. When I'm less stressed about all my spinning plates, I definitely find more time to knit. In fact this year, I have even managed to arrange my working week so that I get some daytime work knitting done. This has made a massive difference, and kept time for fun knitting, which is vital for my sanity.

One of the other sections I've really found helpful is the quarterly tracking. This last quarter I was on a mission to get my step goal as close to every day, and also to blog more regularly. I've done really well on both fronts: I've not filled in the last few squares but I got my step goal every day in June, and we've blogged at least once a week all quarter. If you've been reading here for a while you'll recognise how well that has worked for me! I can't remember what Myers-Briggs personality type I am, but it's the one that really likes tracking and finishing things. This probably doesn't come as much of a surprise if you've ever looked at my Ravelry project pages. :)

At this point it's probably clear that I'm a hardcore fan of my Strickplaner. I could write for ages about each of the different page spreads and what I use them for. I could also talk a lot about how well it complements my iPhone calendar but does a totally different job, but at the end of the day this is a knitting blog and not a journalling blog, so I won't go on and on about it! If you'd like to know more about anything Strickplaner-related, then do visit our Planning your time – more time to knit thread in the Ravelry group, and I'll happily chat more over there.

The Strickplaner costs £19.50 on its own, or is available in a kit with knitting themed stickers and a pen loop for £24.50 (which is cheaper than buying each product individually).

How do you make time to knit?