Black Needle Society’s Stitching Journal & Planner

You know I love to keep journals. Today, the Black Needle Society‘s Stitching Journal & Planner arrived. Vince said “How many journals do you need?” I probably need more than I have! 🙂

I have a journal for my garden. My garden journal is not big because I start a new one every January 1 and I don’t add photos or much detail. I do write down when I start seeds, what kind of seeds, when I transplant them; when and what kind of fertilizer I use, if it’s been a wet or dry year; what kinds of bug issues I had and what I used and sometimes what others suggest that I may try next year. I document when they bloom, when they produce, how well they produce. I really do go back and look at that a lot.

I have a cooking journal. This one has pockets. As I plan my menu for each week, I’ll print recipes (even if I have them in a cookbook, put the recipes in the pocket, then after I’ve made the recipe, if we liked it, I’ll make notes of any changes I made and move that recipe to a three ring binder to keep. That binder has tabs for breakfast, beef, chicken, veggies, desserts, etc.

I have a journal for herbal remedies. It’s really just a three ring binder with alphabet tabs. Whenever I make something we like, I file that recipe alphabetically.

I have a journal for herbs and medicinal weeds. It is also kept alphabetically and has such things and where the plants are growing or where I might find them if I’m foraging away from our own yard. I also write down the various tinctures, skin care products, infused oils, teas, etc. that I make from these. Knowing how much or little I use them gives me an indication of how much I should harvest.

But today I’m talking about the Black Needle Society’s journal for cross stitching. I’ve used the Book of Days but it really isn’t my favorite. I’ve tried adding extra pages but I never have gotten it exactly where I wanted it. The last few years, I’ve used a Happy Planner and I do love it. I use the Big version with the round disks for the “binding”. I can add pages anywhere I want. The problem I have with these is that by the end of the year, they are a bit ragged.

This is the sheet that I add for every start I make.

This is a chart I made at the first of 2024 but, not far into it, I decided I needed to finish more than I start so most of these didn’t get started but I’m keeping the list because I do want to stitch these charts.

The Black Needle Society’s journal is going to be my main stitching journal this year. I haven’t used it yet but I’m really excited and, as far as I can see, it may be the perfect journal for me. There are challenges listed and some really fun things. It has a page for each month with the Wish List (This is where I will write down the charts I see on YouTube and think I need!) Also included on that page is a list of new purchases for that month. Then it has pages similar to the Book of Days. There are about 1-1/2″ x 3″ (just guessing) for writing whatever I want to write. I will basically add how many stitches I made each day, as well as anything that is truly noteworthy. There are two things I’m most excited about are: First, there’s a Daily Stitch Tracker where there are 6 small circles. They are to be colored, each a different color and a value assigned to them (a stitch range). I plan to have zero – 100 (which is basically no stitches!); 101 – 300 (which is too few); 301 to 500 (which is the lowest on my goal range); 501 – 700 (very do-able if the dogs behave in the evening); 701 – 900 (I know I will have sore hands the next day!) and last, 901+ (this means I’ve picked up a WIP that was not entered into Markup XP but I marked off all the stitches just to know where I am and now I can continue as usual). When this happens, I’ll often show 7,000+ stitches in a day and we know that never really happens. The second thing I’m most excited about is the Project Progress Tracker. It has a polar grid with concentric circles and you list 8 projects you would like to focus on for each month and then mark which days you worked on that piece. Because I’m going to try to be more of a monogamous stitcher in 2025, I will probably (hopefully) have one or two projects with lots of work and a few more with not so much work done on them.

In the back, past the 12 months, there are pages for various types of notes, list of WIPS, finished projects, etc.

Another thing I really like is that it seems very sturdy. The wire spine seems thick and effective. The top and back covers are also thick and sturdy and even has metal corner covers. We’ll see how it looks on New Year’s Eve, 2025. 🙂

I really do think this planner has it all for me. This video shows the pages of the 2024 planner, and I think they’re pretty much exactly the same as the 2025 planner.

I am going to take an old Happy Planner and use it to insert pages for new starts and finishes. It will not be something that changes annually but I will keep this book going and it will be documentation of everything I start and finish from January 1, 2025 til I’m no longer stitching.