Tag: projects

I’ve got news – and no news.  In the past couple weeks, I found a tiny bit of time to knit (i.e about an hour a day, at lunchtime, at work).  As usual, it’s not fast enough!  I’ve got one completed mitt, with no ends woven in, and the partial cuff of Mitt #2.  I’ve got most of a cowl pattern mostly sorted out, but no final version, yet.  My resolve to not start anything new was bent, once again, by the draw of the spin-a-long.  Halfway through March, Southern Cross Fiber’s David announced a spin-a-long challenge.  He called it Get Happy, and it drew me in like a moth to a flame.  The idea was that the challenge would run though the end of April; in other words, the deadline to have finished yarn is in one week!  I don’t know anyone who doesn’t get at least slightly stressed out about short notice, even for projects that are supposed to be for fun.  But without deadlines, well – I for one, would get nothing done.  Meanwhile, in my life in general, crap hit the fan, as they say, and angst ensued, and man, did I ever have an ever-loving hankering to “get happy” with some fiber spinning!!  My first instinct was to tear into my newly arrived club fiber (yes, I’m part of a monthly fiber club, and I’m SO far behind with it all), the colorway of which is entitled “Closer To Home”.  The name, the colors, just – wow.  The downside: it’s BFL.  But it’s oatmeal colored BFL (not that you can really see that through the beautiful dyeing, but I know it, therefore, it matters, haha).  Plus, it’s a BFL blend, and has silk in it – luxury, right!?  The instant I pulled it out of the mailer bag, I decided: this, needs to be socks!

But!  I’m already spinning this, which is a legitimate project on My List for this year, and it’s Southern Cross Fiber, so the responsible thing to do would be to use it for the spinning challenge:

The very tempting, newly-arrived fiber is no where near my pre-planned This Year’s Project List.  I’m trying really hard to talk myself out it starting it.  I’ll let you know how that goes…

Meanwhile, all the other half-finished or barely-started projects on my list are still staring at me balefully from their respective project bags.  I know, full well, that you can relate.  I suppose the good news is, when you like all the options you have, there’s no bad choice to make!  Aren’t we crafters lucky?

 

 

The turning of the year is a great time to take stock of where you are: in yourself, in the world, in life – and, if you’re the creative type, in making.  When I first learned to knit, about four years ago, I set myself a rule: one project on the needles, one project in the wings.  For the first two years of my knitting life, I stuck to that – and it worked, really well.  During those first couple years, I also began working on knitted gifts about four to six months before they were “due”.   Think Christmas in July.  That also worked really well.

Then I learned how to spin.

Within the space of a year, I had more projects going at once than I could hold at one time or could fit into one bag.  I also had a wide, and varied, stash of yarn and fiber and tools – all acquired towards the purpose of bringing into being the full queue of projects that had lined themselves up in my mind.  I didn’t quite realize the scale of this mountain of projects until last month.

Just before Christmas, in full pursuit of my head down, hellbent rush towards Fiber Arts Master, some call of the universe made me pause, for just a moment.   Right there in the middle of our back office, I just stopped and held still for a second.  Suddenly, I could see all the yarn I’d created and hadn’t yet used; all the projects I’d started and then put down to knit other things with more pressing deadlines.  I realized that I had no idea what was there anymore.  I went rooting through bags and baskets, under tables and in corners of rooms, and I wrote down all the half-started items I came across, in one big list.  Then I looked at the list (it was  L o n g !), and did some math.  I mapped projects to specific months in the coming year. When I was done, I had more than half the list left over – alright, way more than half the list left over.  So, I took a deep breath, and did some prioritizing and a lot more math.  What it added up to is this: The Plan.

The Plan is that in the coming year, I will be working towards the completion of the following:

• 16 spinning projects
• 17 knitting projects, and
• 1 hooked rug.
• and a warped and started weaving project on a rigid heddle loom “in my spare time”

There are loads of other projects, actual and theoretical, that I have floating around – these are just the ones I’ve decided to tackle this year.  How did I prioritize?  This year’s projects are those that are literally in progress.  They are physically on needles, stitch holders, bobbins, spindles, looms, and, in the case of the rug, backing.  According to the current version of the schedule, there will be about two and a half projects going every month.  I’ve even planned for starting next year’s Christmas gifts in July!

Keeping at something is usually harder than starting it; so I’ve decided if I’m very good at following through on this plan through January and February, I may give myself a tiny bit of leave to work on a colorwork project that I cannot get out of my head.  It would be a worthy challenge and even appropriately themed as my project for the Iknitarod during the first week of March – and, since I’m itching to knit some kind of colorwork right now (but I’m not, because of The Plan), it would be a great treat.  I have also promised myself that I will not add spinning the yarn for it, to my to do list.  See?  The Plan is already working.

Here we go, 2016!  This is going to be the year of finishing a whole lot of works in progress.  Ready – go!