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
  • Cover Page
  • Project Ideas
  • Yarns to Try
  • Stash-Busting
  • Present Ideas
• Monthly Spreads
  • Project Overview + Monthly Calendar
  • Project Notes
• 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

Last year, I set up a Knitting Journal for my mum, so that she could keep all of her notes & yarn-y plans in one place. It’s kind of a cross between a bullet journal and a project planner, with, of course, a focus on knitting (Mum’s favourite pastime!).

I’ve set up another journal for my mum for 2025, so today’s post is all about the spreads, designs & thought process behind this planner. Unlike with my bullet journal, in her knitting journals, I set up the entire year at once, so that she can plan as far ahead as she needs. I hope you find this spread helpful, and that, even if you aren’t a knitter, it gives you some ideas & inspiration for your own journal!

Table of Contents

• Journal
• Equipment
• Initial Pages: General Planning
  • Cover Page
  • Future Projects
  • Yarns to Try
  • Stash-Busting
  • Present Ideas + Plans
• Monthly Spreads
  • Projects Overview + Cover Page
  • Project Notes
• Final Pages: Christmas & New Year Spreads
  • Christmas Presents + Cards
  • 2026 Plans
• Final Thoughts

Journal

For last year’s knitting journal, I ended up using just over half of the pages in the notebook mum had chosen, so we decided to fit the 2025 spreads into the same notebook, using the remaining pages. I did have to condense some of the spreads a little, just to make sure I could get everything in, but it still has everything Mum will need to keep on top of her projects and plans.

The journal itself is the ‘Sun Solstice’ journal from Notebook Therapy, which was, unfortunately, a limited edition notebook that is now sold out. However, Notebook Therapy has loads of other journals to choose from, so definitely check it out if you’re looking for a new notebook! The ‘Sun Solstice’ notebook is an A5 journal (my go-to for bullet journalling) with a teal fabric cover, elastic closure and a paper pocket at the back. My only slight gripe is that it doesn’t have a pen holder, which I find incredibly useful in my own journals, but maybe Notebook Therapy will add that to their journals in the future!

Equipment

To create this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Uni Pin Fine Line pen: sepia, 0.5.
• Sakura Pigma Micron fineliners: black, 05 (0.45mm) and 08 (0.5mm).
• Kuretake clean colour dot pens: mild colours.
• Coloured markers (I used a combination of Crayola SuperTips and Tombow ABT Dual Brush Pens).
• Ruler.
• Pencil.
• Eraser.

Initial Pages: General Planning

At the start of the journal, I set up some more general spreads, for any overall notes/plans. Because I enjoyed my own 2025 journal setup theme so much, I opted to create a similar style setup here, using the same Kuretake dot pens, along with the brown fineliner for a softer look. I wanted this section to be super colourful, but also minimal, with plenty of space for writing in.

Cover Page

I kept the Cover Page for this setup pretty simple: just the title and some decorations made with the Kuretake dot pens (which look vaguely like worms, but we’ll pretend that’s not the case…). I wrote the heading in the centre of the page, using my brown fineliner.

Future Projects

Next up is the Future Projects spread, where Mum can map out when she plans to make any potential projects. To make this spread, I wrote the heading across the top using my brown fineliner, then divided each page into 6 sections using my Kuretake dot pens, so that I had 12 sections in total (one for each month of the year).

Yarns to Try

Next we have a double-page spread for Mum to jot down any yarns that she’d like to try out! I separated this spread out into 4 sections: one for fingering weight yarn, one for DK, one for worsted and one for any other weights. I chose these categories based on the yarn weights Mum most frequently uses, but this can obviously be adjusted to suit your own yarn preferences.

Stash-Busting

Like any hardcore knitter, Mum has a pretty extensive stash of yarns leftover from projects, so Stash-Busting is always on her agenda. This spread just gives her a space to note down any potential stash-busting projects, ideas/inspiration that she stumbles across or even thoughts on more specific plans. I’ve kept this spread nice and empty, just decorating it with a simple, dot pen border, so she can use it however she would like.

Present Ideas + Plans

The final spread in these initial, general pages is this Present Ideas + Plans page. I’ve set this out in exactly the same way as the Stash-Busting spread, so that Mum can use it in any way she likes. The purpose of this spread is to give her a space to note down any plans/ideas for gifts throughout the year.

Monthly Spreads

Now we come to the main bulk of this knitting journal: the Monthly Spreads. Each month is set out in exactly the same way over 2 double-page spreads, but each uses a different colour marker, to differentiate between the months and make the journal super easy to navigate through.

Projects Overview + Cover Page

The first double-page spread of each month features a calendar on the right-hand page and an overview of that month’s projects on the left-hand page.

While this is a knitting journal, Mum also likes to have a calendar layout to keep track of appointments and events, much like in my standard bullet journal. It’s also helpful for her to see the structure of each month (for planning knitting timelines, of course!). For all of the calendars, I’ve drawn out a grid (in which each box is 3×4 grid squares), using my brown fineliner. I used the colour of the month to add a band of colour above each row, on top of which I wrote the dates. I used a black fineliner (the 05 size of my Sakura Pigma Microns) to write in the dates, because I found that the brown fineliner did not show up very well on top of some of the coloured markers. At the top of the page, I added some larger dots of colour and wrote out the name of each respective month (using the larger, 08 black fineliner), one letter per dot.

I split the left-hand page into 3 sections: Ongoing Projects in the top left, Projects to Start in the top right and Miscellaneous Notes in the bottom. I drew the three boxes using my brown fineliner, then added small dots of colour to write the subheadings on (again, using the 05 black fineliner).

To finish off this spread, I added a wavy line of colour down each side of the paper.

Project Notes

The second double-page spread of each month is populated with 6 individual project sections. In these, my mum will be able to jot down any notes/plans that are specific to certain projects. To set up these pages, I divided each page into 3 horizontally, then outlined the boxes with my brown fineliner. I added more dots of colour in the top left of each box, on top of which I wrote ‘PROJECT’, so Mum can write in the name of each project beside it. Just like the previous double-page spread, I added a wavy line of colour down each side to finish everything off.

Final Pages: Christmas & New Year Spreads

After the Monthly Spreads, I set up a couple of spreads for Mum to use towards the end of 2025, specifically for Christmas and looking ahead to 2026. Because they aren’t necessarily associated with a single month, I used the same, multicoloured dot pen theme as the initial pages here, which bookends the journal nicely.

Christmas Presents + Cards

First up are the Christmas Present/Card Trackers. I used really simple, table style layouts for both of these spreads, with the first column for the name of the recipient and the second column for the present/address, respectively. Like with the other spreads that I created in this style, I wrote the headings in block capitals, using my brown fineliner, in the space at the top.

2026 Plans

This 2026 plans page is the final spread in this setup and another blank slate, with just a simple dot pen border around the edge. These pages are for Mum to note down any potential projects/plans for 2026, so she can get ahead with her knitting and keep track of all of her ideas.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m really happy with how this turned out (and so is Mum!). Setting up a whole year’s worth of spreads is always a little daunting, but the process was actually super quick and easy this time around— it only took me a few evenings to create this setup!

I still really love using the Kuretake dot pens to decorate, make borders and divide up pages. It’s an easy, slow & therapeutic process (though, at the same time, it always seems to fly by), which makes setting up spreads extra enjoyable.

I’m also really happy with the colours I picked for the monthly spreads this year! Last year, I went for a very bright, rainbow colour scheme, but I wanted to use more muted, rainbow colours this time around to tie in better with the pastel dot pens. I think this makes for a more restful, but still vibrant and colourful, setup.

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about this knitting journal setup for 2025— I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Gemma

xxx

Today’s post is something completely new to the blog: a knitting journal setup for the whole of 2024. This journal is not actually for me, but for my mum, who knits a lot. I first made a knitting journal for my mum last year and she ended up really loving it. She uses the journal alongside Ravelry (a sort of social media/project tracking platform for knitters and crocheters).

She requested another journal for her Christmas present this year, so I have set up a full year’s worth of spreads in a brand new journal for her. Today, I’ll go through the journal so that you can see the spreads she has requested and how I went about actually setting the up. Even if you’re not a knitter, you might find some bullet journalling/design ideas to inspire you!

Also, Mum, if you’re reading this- look away now!

Table of Contents

• Concept
• Journal
• Equipment + Supplies
• Initial Pages: General Info
  • Cover Page
  • Future Projects
  • Project Ideas
  • Wool Notes
  • Measurements
  • Scrap-Sorting and Stash-Busting
  • Present Ideas + Plans
• Monthly Spreads
  • Dashboard + Cover Page
  • Blank page + Project Pages
  • December-Specific Pages
    • Christmas Gift + Card Trackers
    • Christmas Food + 2025 Plans
• Final Thoughts

Concept

Because I knew that I would be setting up a large number of spreads all at once, I wanted to make sure that the decoration and theming for this journal was super simple and quick to set up. Last year, I used a different colour for each month and my mum found it very helpful for navigating her way through the journal- so much so that she requested that again this year. I opted to use an extended rainbow of 11 Crayola SuperTips (+ 1 gold pen) and used one colour for each month, in rainbow order, as you can see above. This was great, because it took out all of the hassle of deciding which month was which colour- I had my order and I stuck to it. For the opening section of the journal, I just used all of the colours, to distinguish those more ‘general’ pages from the month-specific ones. You’ll see what I mean later on!

While the gold pen was technically December’s colour, I did add little sparkle doodles throughout all of the spreads, just to add a touch of cheer and to tie all of the spreads together. My love of sparkle cannot be contained!

Journal

Mum chose this ‘Sun Solstice’ journal from Notebook Therapy for her knitting journal this year. It is a bright teal colour and comes with this gold sun paperclip, which is fun. As always with my journal setups, I’m using the A5 notebook size. This journal is currently sold out, and it was limited edition, so I’m not sure if it will be back, but Notebook Therapy has plenty of other journal options to pick from.

Equipment + Supplies

I tried to keep the different equipment I used to a minimum for this setup. For the whole setup, I only used:

• Muji 0.38mm pen, black.
• 11 rainbow shade of Crayola SuperTips (the exact pens that I used are from a combination of this pastel pack and this assorted pack).
• STAEDTLER metallic marker pen, gold.
• Tombow ABT Dual Brush pens: Warm Grey 1 (N89), Lamp Black (N25) and Light Sand (990).
• Thin washi tape (I used a dark reddy-pink, but you could use any rainbow colour).
• Ruler.
• Scissors.
• Pencil.
• Eraser.

Initial Pages: General Info

Cover Page

For the Cover Page, I drew wavy lines across the spread in each of my 11 shades of Crayola SuperTips, in rainbow order. Over the top, I drew a variety of golden sparkle doodles, scattering them over the stripes, with my STAEDTLER gold pen.

On the right-hand page, I wrote ‘2024’ above the rainbow stripes in a simple, sans-serif font. I wrote ‘knitting journal’ below the stripes, using a more cursive-style font. For both of these, I used the fine tip of my Tombow N25 pen.

On the left-hand page, I added in a little doodle of an in-joke I have with my mum, just to make her laugh. I’d explain, but, inevitably, it won’t sound nearly as funny and I will look like a fool. You’ll just have to stay confused- sorry!

Future Projects

Last year, I made a Future Log (i.e. a yearly calendar) for the knitting journal, but my mum did not end up using that very much. This year, I converted it to a ‘Future Projects’ page- a space for her to map out when she plans to make particular projects throughout the year.

For this spread, I placed the header in the centre and highlighted the area with my Tombow N89. I then wrote on top of that section with my Muji pen (though it doesn’t stand out very well- if I were to do it again, I would probably use my Tombow N25 for this). I then divided both the space above and the space below the header into 6- so there were 12 boxes in total, one for each month of the year. I drew the boxes with my Muji pen, then used a different colour of Crayola SuperTips (in rainbow order) to create a header for each one, over which I wrote the first 3 letters of each month, using my Tombow N25. The colours here correspond to the colour that I used for the individual pages for each month, to keep things cohesive and easy to use.

Project Ideas

This next spread is a place to store any project ideas or patterns my mum might like to try. I’ve separated them out by category- there’s tops (though I feel I probably should have included a separate section for jumpers…), bottoms, accessories, home, baby and other.

To make this spread, I divided each page into quarters. I assigned 6 of the quarters to a category, then used that remaining two for the heading. For the heading, I essentially replicated the cover page, but wrote ‘Project Ideas’, instead.

Wool Notes

This section is essentially a kind of Wool Wishlist/Rating hybrid. It’s a place for my mum to jot down yarns she would like to try, as well as any notes on her favourites (just realising now that it should probably be called Yarn Notes…? Ah, well.). I have split this section into different weights of yarn- so there’s one for fingering, one for double knitting and one for worsted (which are the yarns my mum tends to use the most). I’ve also included a section for miscellaneous other yarn weights, because last year she did end up making a few notes on lace weight and chunky yarns.

I opted to use a Dutch door for this spread, to make sure that there was plenty of room for all of the sections and to keep everything organised. To make that, I used two double-page spreads and cut away the top of the central page. You have to be a bit careful when you do this, because if you cut too close to the middle of the page, it can affect the binding and make some of your pages fall out! I really don’t like the look of the little paper strip that you have to leave behind for this reason, though. My solution was to stick a piece of thin washi tape over it, to hold it in place and ✨disguise✨ the ugliness. Honestly, I think it looked pretty well- I know it looks a little out of place, but it is definitely the lesser of two evils.

After that, I used my Tombow N89 to draw across the top of each of the 4 pages, at the height of the Dutch door. I then assigned one yarn weight to each of the 4 pages. I used the brush tip of the same Tombow pen to draw a wavy line down the outside edge, on top of which I used my Tombow N25 to write the yarn weight in block capitals. I then used the fine tip of the N89 pen to draw 2 dashed line boxes, each taking up half of the remaining space, on each page. I created the headers for each box using a variety of rainbow Crayola colours. For each yarn weight, the top box is for Yarns To Try and the bottom box is for notes on any Favourites.

I used the blank space at the top for the header. I wrote ‘Wool Notes’ in block capitals, using the Crayola SuperTips, the added some sunburst decorations using the Tombow N25 and some sparkle doodles using the STAEDTLER gold pen.

Measurements

For the Measurements spread, my mum requested that they be organised by person (so, for example, all of my measurements for socks, jumpers etc. would be kept together, rather than all of the sock measurements).

I wrote the header along the top in a style that I ended up using throughout the rest of this setup- I first drew a wavy line in a highlight colour (for this page, that was my Tombow N89), then I wrote over that in block capitals using my Tombow N25. I also added some gold sparkle doodles (for good measure).

For the individual boxes, I divided the remaining space on each page into 6, to give me 12 boxes overall. I drew the same, very simple boxes, using my Muji pen and used a different colour of Crayola SuperTips for the header (where my mum can write the name of a person) of each box.

Scrap-Sorting and Stash-Busting

These spreads are super simple, because I left them as close to blank as possible to leave lots of space for notes and planning! I devoted the left-hand page to Scrap-Sorting and the right-hand page to Stash-Busting. Each page is comprised of a dashed outline, made using my Tombow N89, with a different colour header- I went for pink and orange- which I then wrote over the top of with my Muji pen.

Present Ideas + Plans

I guess this is essentially a kind of Present Tracker? It’s basically just a table to write in potential presents/keep track of any gifts that my mum might be knitting for others. This spread spans two pages, but both pages are exactly the same- the table just repeats. In the table, the first column is for the recipients name (and the occasion), then there’s a column for the project and a column for when the gift needs to be completed by. The final 3 columns are just tick boxes- there’s one for when the project has been finished, one for when it has been wrapped and one for when it has been sent.

I went for the same header as the Measurements page for this spread. I drew both of the tables with my Muji pen, then scribbled little patches of colour (in rainbow order, of course) above them, for the column headers.

Monthly Spreads

As I mentioned earlier, I allotted a single colour to each month (in rainbow order) to make this journal super easy to use. This was also helpful because each month (bar December) follows the exact same format, so it would have been a bit confusing if there was nothing to distinguish one month from the other! In general, each month has the following pages:

Dashboard + Cover Page

The Dashboard is a space for my mum to organise her knitting projects for the month. I divided this page into 4, with the bottom left quadrant being used for the page title and the other three quadrants for jotting down Ongoing projects, projects To Start and miscellaneous Notes.

I followed the same design style that I used in the initial pages: the wavy/block capital headers, the sparkle doodles and the simple boxes with colour block headers. The only thing a little different here is the border down the left-hand side. I made this by drawing a thick line with the brush tip of my Tombow N89, then a thinner line beside it with that month’s colour. This is so that the tab (which is cut out of the Cover Page) stands out when the page is turned.

The Cover Page is mainly taken up by a small calendar. I drew the grid with my Muji pen, then added little dots of the month’s colour for the dates. I also used that same colour to draw a bar at the top for the days of the week and a wavy line for the monthly header.

I also cut a small tab out of each Cover Page, to make it even easier for my mum to navigate through this journal. I just used scissors to cut out 3×2 tab, with slightly rounded corners, which I coloured in the corresponding colour, then wrote the initial of the month over the top.

Blank page + Project Pages

I like to include a blank page each month for my mum to store any notes that don’t otherwise fall in to a specific category, or to set up another spread if needed.

I couldn’t help myself from adding a little decoration- I just coloured in the back of the tab in the same colour as the other side, then drew a wavy line across the bottom left-hand corner, which I filled in with golden sparkles.

These Project Pages are probably the simplest in this setup, but they are actually the spreads that my mum uses the most. When she’s planning a project, she make lots of notes on yarn ideas, measurements, sizing, yardage- the whole shebang. With these spreads, she can easily keep all the notes for a project together, in one, easily-accessible place. I’ve put 3 boxes on each page and included 3 pages’ worth of this spread in each monthly section, so she will have space for planning 9 projects a month (which is a lot, I realise, but better to have too many than too few!).

To create these pages, I just divided the page into thirds and drew a dashed outline around each third with my Tombow N89. I used the month’s colour to create a little subheading for each box. I did also include the borders on the far-left and right edges.

December-Specific Pages

While the initial pages of the December section are exactly the same as all of the other months (just made using a combination of my STAEDTLER gold pen and Tombow N89, because the gold pen is a little harder to write over than the Crayola SuperTips), I did include a few Christmas spreads. It’s not strictly knitting, but my mum doesn’t have a regular bullet journal, so I like to add this stuff into her knitting one.

Christmas Gift + Card Trackers

This is very similar to the Present Ideas + Plans spread at the start of the journal. It’s essentially just a table for my mum to keep track of the Christmas presents she is sending to her friends. There are 5 columns: one for the recipient’s name, one for the present and then 3 tick boxes for when the present has been bought (or made), wrapped and sent. At the bottom of this spread, I also added a space for my mum to keep track of any December birthdays (and gifts) that also need to be considered this month.

I stuck with the completely gold colour scheme of the December section for this spread, so I used the gold pen to scribble patches of colour for the headings.

The Christmas Card Tracker is very similar, in that it is just a table made for tracking purposes. The columns this time are for the recipient’s name and address, then the tick boxes are for when the card has been a) written and b) sent.

Christmas Food + 2025 Plans

This spread is for any notes on meal-planning for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It’s set out very similarly to the monthly Dashboard pages, but each of the three boxes corresponds to one of the three days, instead of project types/notes.

The 2025 Plans page is the last spread in this setup and is just a space for my mum to write down any projects she might like to try out next year or any ideas that she has. This setup was very simple to create- just another dashed outline made with the Tombow N89 and a heading written in the gold pen (with even more sparkles).

Final Thoughts

Phew! That was a bit of a bumper post- kudos to you if you made it to the end! It was a whole year’s worth of knitting journal content crammed into a single post though, so I guess it’s only to be expected.

Because this setup was much more minimal (in terms of different spreads) than the ones I make in my own journal, I only ended up using about half of the Notebook Therapy journal that I used for this project. That means I should be able to use the second half of the journal for next year’s setup- win!

Anyway, I hope you found this knitting journal setup interesting- it’s a little niche, I know, but I think it’s nice to show how flexible bullet journals can be- they really can be tailored to any hobby, personality or requirement.

Thank you for reading this post- I hope you’re having the merriest and brightest day.

Gemma

xxx