Gemma 
Hello again! I’m SO sorry that it has been so long since I’ve been here: the end of 2025 (and, indeed, the first month of 2026) brought a flurry of colds, viruses and general fatigue that really knocked me for six, so I (very reluctantly, I assure you!), had to let sharing my creative pursuits take a bit of a back seat in favour of some much-needed rest.
Fear not, though, because I am back now and intent on bringing you as much joyful, creative deliciousness as possible this year. There’s a lot of horrible stuff going on in the world right now and, sometimes, I feel like posting about my cakes and crafts is a bit… silly? Or just unhelpful? Or maybe even inappropriate? However, I saw a post on Instagram recently that said it’s important to allow space for both outrage towards the big issues (of which there are many) and appreciation for the small joys of everyday life (of which there are also many). It really resonated with me: I feel that the small joys allow us to maintain hope for better times, while the outrage spurs us to help bring those better times about. So, I will continue to share my small joys with you, in the hope that some of them can become your small joys and we can maintain hope for a happier, less hateful world together.
With that, it’s time to get back to what I do best: unhinged creativity by the bucketload. First on the blog for 2026: my annual fusion of bullet journalling and knitting… the Knitting Journal!
Every year, I make my mum a Knitting Journal, where she can plan out her upcoming projects and make notes on her current knits. This journal is purely for planning: I’ve seen some amazing journals where people make these gorgeous, scrapbook-style spreads for their finished projects (and I’m OBSESSED), but that’s not what we’re going for here (truly, that would just be time away from knitting for Mum, which is never her aim!).
I’ve shared her previous two Knitting Journals here on the blog: you can find the 2024 version here and the 2025 version here, if you want to check them out. Today’s post, though, is all about the updated 2026 version!
Table of Contents
- Journal
- The Brief
- Equipment
- Initial Pages: General Planning
- Monthly Spreads
- Christmas Planning
- Final Thoughts
Journal
I’m trying a different notebook brand for my journals this year: Tiefossi. For my mum’s Knitting Journal, she picked the Moonlight Melody notebook in the Light Blue shade.
It’s always a risk trying out a new notebook (I’m specific about what I like!), but I really loved using this one! The dot-grid pages are thick (and numbered!), the notebook has an elastic closure, pen holder and back pocket AND the design of the cover is so lovely. The best thing about the notebook, though, is that the centre of each page is (discreetly) marked with a +, while the centre of each side is marked with a short line. I was a little suspicious of these markings at first, because I was worried that they would be too visible on the finished spreads, but they really disappear into the designs (even the simple ones, like I’ve done here) and I can’t even BEGIN to explain how HELPFUL they are. They really sped up the whole setup process for this journal and it was so luxurious not having to constantly measure/count as I went. I did notice, however, that one of the other Tiefossi journals (the purple version of the Gold Vintage Dot Grid Notebook) I purchased did not contain these markings, so maybe this is only a feature in certain notebooks?
The Brief
My personal, bullet journal style tends to include lots of decoration and lots of designated sections for organising all of my thoughts. My mum, on the other hand, prefers to be less restricted by small boxes and detailed tables. Her knitting journal is, first and foremost, meant to be practical, so I’ve kept the decoration to a minimum. In fact, the main decorative feature (using a different colour for each month) is also a practical choice, because it helps her to navigate through the journal super easily (though, of course, it also looks nice, so really it’s a win-win!).
The journal is split into monthly sections, with a few more general spreads at the beginning for overall planning/notes. Each monthly section contains a Project Overview, a Calendar (not strictly knitting-centric, but useful nonetheless!), a blank page and 3 pages of Project Notes (with each page split into 3 sections, for a possible total of 9 projects overall).
Equipment
I decided to use coloured pencils to create this setup to make the whole thing feel really fun and creative. For each month, I picked two similar shades of coloured pencils in rainbow order (so January was two shades of red, February was two shades of orange etc.).
The only places that I didn’t use coloured pencils were the Monthly Calendars. For these, I used my Sakura Pigma Micron 05, in the shade Black. This was just because the calendars are quite small and I wanted to make sure they were super clear and functional, so I needed finer, crisper lines (and numbers!). Everywhere else, I used coloured pencils for the decorations, lines and lettering.
Initial Pages: General Planning
To differentiate the initial, more general pages from the monthly sections, I used a select rainbow of coloured pencils (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink) in all of the spreads.
Cover Page
The Cover Page is super simple, but it really sets the vibe for the rest of the setup: I’ve gone for a simple, block capital font with an uneven baseline (for fun! For whimsy!), along with some little heart and star doodles (again, for fun and for whimsy!).
Project Ideas
Next up, we have a Project Ideas spread, which I’ve split into three sections: Sweaters, Gifts & Other. If this were me, I’d have this spread split up into an extensive, comprehensive list of categories (you guys have seen my wish list spreads, right?!), but the more minimal, open vibe with fewer categories is what works best for my mum!
I’ve used these two-line wavy borders all throughout the setup (always using two different colours/shades for each border). Not only does this look pretty fun and add a little extra decoration, it’s actually pretty quick to set up, because you don’t have to get a ruler out!
Yarns to Try
The next spread is the Yarns to Try spread, where Mum can keep track of any yarns that she’s interested in and would like to try knitting something with at some point. I’ve split this spread up into 4 sections: Fingering weight, DK weight, Worsted weight and Other (i.e. the three yarn weights Mum uses most, plus a space for all the other weights, just in case!).
Stash-Busting
Like all knitters, Mum has an extensive stash of yarn leftover from previous projects (and purchased yarn that is yet to be knitted into new projects!), so reducing that is always one of her goals (because, obviously, that means she can buy more yarn!). I’ve left this Stash-Busting page really open, with just a border around the edge of the spread, so she can jot down any notes/ideas she has on the topic of stash-busting in whatever arrangement she feels like.
Present Ideas
Just like with the last page, I’ve left the Present Ideas spread super open, so Mum can use it in whatever way she would like. Here, she can keep her notes on knits she would like to make for specific people. This will be particularly useful around Christmas (always a busy knitting season!), but also throughout the year, as friends and family celebrate their birthdays.
Monthly Spreads
Into the Monthly Spreads now and I won’t show you every page because, aside from the colour/calendar changes, every monthly setup is identical! Instead, you can see the rainbow progression of colours in the image above and I’ll use January to show you the individual pages in each monthly section.
Project Overview + Monthly Calendar
The first double-page spread in each monthly section is the Project Overview + Monthly Calendar. The right-hand page features the monthly heading (so, here, that’s January) and a (pretty small, but as big as possible!) grid-format calendar. As I mentioned earlier, the calendar’s not a strictly knitting-centric addition, but it’s helpful nonetheless!
The left-hand page is split into three sections: Ongoing Projects, Projects to Start and Miscellaneous Notes. It’s nice to have some space to map out the (knitting) month ahead, so that’s what this is.
Project Notes
Each monthly section contains a further two double-page spreads, featuring a single, blank page at the start (for assorted notes, sketches, reminders etc.) and three pages for Project Notes.
Each Project Notes page is split into three sections horizontally. Each section corresponds to a different project. This is where Mum plans out individual projects: here, she’ll write out yarn ideas, needle sizes, which pattern size she plans to knit and any notes on her gauge. She fills these sections out ahead of time, so she always has a bank of projects all figured out, ready to knit immediately. This way, she’s never left with nothing on her needles!
Christmas Planning
In the December monthly section, right at the end of the journal, there’s an extra Christmas spread (because Christmas always requires a lot of planning!). For this spread, I used red and green as my two coloured pencil shades (because what’s more festive than that?). This festive spread is split into two sections: Christmas Presents and Christmas Cards.
Both sections are laid out in a rough table format: in both tables, the left-hand column is for the name of the recipient. Then, in the Christmas Presents table, the right-hand column is for the present Mum intends to give, while, in the Christmas Cards table, it’s for the address the card needs to be sent to.
Final Thoughts
As the years go by and I make more of these for my Mum, I’m definitely getting a better idea of how her mind works and how she likes to organise things (which is very different to how my mind works and how I like to organise things, I’ve discovered!).
My goal this year was to keep everything as minimal as possible, not in terms of decoration, but it terms of layout: while I prefer lots of specifically-labelled boxes to slot my thoughts into, Mum prefers a big, open space to write down all of her thoughts. I think I achieved that pretty well this time around!
I think the coloured pencil theme I went for brings a lot of fun and whimsy to an otherwise pretty minimal setup. I love using coloured pencils in my bullet journal because there’s no chance of them bleeding through the paper (though, they do, unfortunately, sometimes transfer a little to the opposite page…). Using coloured pencils also meant I had a huge range of shades at my disposal, which really helped me to add dimension to the spreads by using a two-tone colour palette each month.
It’s a bit of a labour of love to set up a whole year’s worth of a journal at once, but it makes me very happy to help Mum plan the hobby that brings her so much joy and peace, so it’s definitely worth it!
All in all, I’m really pleased with how this Knitting Journal turned out!
Gemma
xxx
