How to Deal with WIPs (or not!)

How to Deal with WIPs (or not!)

Confession time. How many works in progress do you have?

If you're like me the answer will be a lot. Having a yarn shop is the hardest thing if you have no self-discipline and get distracted by every glorious new yarn and pattern that is released. Add a lack of staying power to the mix and you can see the problem. So once the lovely new yarn is in my hands there is little hope for the previous project.

I resolved to finally sort out the WIPs that had been banished to the land of the forgotten. My plan of action was to make two piles; one for 'definitely yes' and one for 'no not ever'. The first thing I dug out was a lonely sock in West Yorkshire Spinners Candy Stripe, followed in quick succession by a Fair Isle mitt, a Fair Isle tea cosy and a Fair Isle baby jumper. Bit of a theme here I think. Not to forget the striped beanie and 2 blankets (one crocheted and one knitted). Both of which are in yarns that are long gone from the shop. Then out came the top down sweater in King Cole Panache. So thats where all my stitch markers went. This was going well. The only problem was that everything was in the 'yes' pile.

I decided I needed some help and did a little reading into the dilemma of WIPs. During this research I discovered an article written by Maryna, over at 10 Rows a Day. She has some good advice on how to prevent yourself from falling for the charms of the latest project in the future. Now, this advice may have to be utilised next time something catches my eye because my head has already been turned by a new enticing project.

New plan of attack: put everything back where it was and start my new knitting venture - a Scheepjes Secret Garden shawl. I'll be keeping a record of this, which will be up on the blog very soon. Not only am I hoping it will help some of you out there, but it will also mean I have a reason to finish the thing!!

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1 comment

I too have a number of Works in Progress. I recently had the idea of sorting my wools in the loft and purchased three cheap sets of plastic drawers. One set was taken by patchwork templates, rotary cutter and fat quarters and fabric bought ready to make fat quarters. Next set was allocated to my needle felting supplies and a couple of dressmaking patterns and the lengths of fabric purchased ready to cut out. Two out of the three drawers left were used up with leftover wool from recent crochet projects. I have one drawer left for the WIPs – a little girl’s cardigan, one half of a man’s sock, a jumper that I started when I fell pregnant with my daughter (now 35!) and a ravel of wool and children’s needles discarded by said daughter when she finally gave up learning to knit. I won’t list my numerous bags of wool bought in the sales that would ‘come in useful one day’. I darent even say the decade aloud!

Lynne

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