Are You Undertaking a November Sprint?

 It's November 1 and I'm seeing any number of friends take on a NaNo challenge. Whether they are being traditional in working on a NaNoWriMo -- writing that full novel (which I've tried deeply unsuccessfully), NaNoBloMo (blogging daily--also not a good one for me), NaClYoHo (Clean Your House), NaNoSweMo (Sweater Month) -- they are all approached with optimism. 

And since moving forward on goals is excellent I am here to cheer them on! I'm not sure I have capacity for a New Daily Goal -- but I did go back and print out the UnF*** Your Habitat's September Sprint. I caught a few days of that when she originally did it on Twitter earlier this year and that looks about up my alley for what I can add onto this month. That particular list is Patreon-only but she has a number of useful checklists on her website if you'd too like to do some UnF before we reach year end. 

CoPilot by Dominique Trad / Malabrigo Sock

I am working on one unreasonable knitting deadline; I probably wouldn't be me if I weren't trying to screw up my hands between October and December of every year.  This year's Unreasonable Goal is to finish 20k.* Last year I knit 16km of yarn, which was a hefty amount when you consider stitches may use up 1/2" of yarn at a time. This year I've already passed that and I have at least another 1.5km chugging right along -- plus all of the neglected WIPs that are stuffed into a large Neighborhood Fiber Company bag. Unfortunately the things that were "close to done" are finished -- the years of Stash Dash has seen to that. What am I going to do next summer? Finally finish up the blanket I've been ignoring for years?  

This goal and calendar deadline became a possibility in my mind about three weeks ago, when I noticed that if I finished up approximately 500 yards a week (again, see Unreasonable -- not Undoable), I could get to that 20km; which would not be quite the same amount as what I've brought into the house this year but it would be getting close. 

Lion Brand Sesame Street Hats 
(the characters are stuffed in the hats for better storage)

Additionally I did two sweeps, one through the stash to pull out around 20 skeins that weren't really in my taste or color or such -- various knitting friends adopted some, others went in the donation bin. I am really hoping someone has a really great find at the donation shop coming across those. The second sweep was of a large bin of Gifts Not Yet Designated-- I offered them up to one of my friend groups, where they were joyfully received. Getting to send packages and know that friends would have good mail days on the other end was a lot of fun; I wouldn't mind doing that again in a couple of years. 

So now it's November 1. We have about 60 days left in the year and I have a global pandemic to wrangle, a national election to watch, social and civil unrest to tackle, and still 4000 yards to do. I did the math again this morning -- having finished up those Sesame Street Hats last night. I currently need to finish 436 meters per week to get to 20km. That's the equivalent of me knitting a pair of socks every week plus a hat or two in there for good measure. 

This week I need to sort out what/if my holiday knitting looks like. There's one item on the planned list; everything else right now is wholly unconsidered. Dear Sibling-the-Elder I am not knitting you another lace shawl this year, apologies for taking away that potential surprise but the brain space is not there and I have no long flights coming up.  

Are you undertaking a November sprint? Which one? 

*I have notably set this particular goal before, long time readers may remember. That was during years I was usually knitting about 10km from what I can tell. This year I was marginally more reasonable and set this goal after hitting 15000 completed.