WIPs and Chains Excite me ;)
I don’t know how I do it. Do you all do it? I can’t really be the only one, can I? It is crazy chaos in my little attic nook. I have little Ikea zippy bags everywhere, a big drawer and a box all full with WIPs. (Works In Progress to the uninitiated)
I start something great, usually on a whim and then I get side-tracked. Sometimes I have a genuinely good reason for putting down one project and picking up another. I need to make a present for someone or someone has asked me to make them something. So obviously if I’m making something just for fun or ‘just’ for myself I will put it aside and start the next. I’ve been known to start a 2nd project so that I have something that can travel, or something that I can do for a few minutes during a break at work, that doesn’t need any attention. Likewise, I have TV projects and serious projects and projects for at my crafting club, new yarn projects and and and… And sometimes I just start something because I can. I think I currently have 16 WIPs on the go. 16! I need more days in the week. And while we are at it, can I get a few more hours in those days? Please? I say 16 but who knows. Last week I made a list of my WIPs and I only made it to 6. The other day I was busy photographing them all and found a few more. Then yesterday, chatting over coffee with the lovely Brigitte from The Yarn Barn (I just go for the coffee. Honest. I don't leave every time with yarn I don't need for projects I don't have ;) ) I remembered another couple. I got them out to take some photos and found another one. (I think they are like little bunnies, multiplying when I’m not looking.) And then I remembered 1 more so headed back up to the attic to find it and found 4 instead. Just yesterday when I originally wrote this post I had 12, so I say 16 but it could just as easily be 24. Maybe I should stop looking.
Then there is the other list. OHHHH yes the future project list. Now I’m not talking about my favorited patterns, downloaded pdf’s, Ravelry library or Pinterest lists, there are not enough hours in a lifetime. I’m talking about a genuine list with projects I am honestly going to make and some I even have yarn for. That list has another 9 or 10 projects on it. And hey it’ll be Christmas soon too. I’d better start thinking about presents hahahahahaha Do you know what is really bad? When those WIPs start turning into UFO’s (sorry X-File friends, not the good kind, the UnFinished Object kind. They sit and sit. Sometimes they never get finished. EVER!!! I have heard rumours that people even frog these poor projects, and cannibalise the yarn. My 1st ever UFO was a shawl.
I had discovered the southbay shawlette pattern and quite liked it and I was given some yarn so thought why not. I will make one for my lovely Aunt Marjorie whom I never get to see. I ordered some more yarn so that I would have enough, but being me didn’t order enough so I ordered more, but by the time it had arrived I was already working on another shawl for my sister in law, and then the next project came up and the next and the next and even though the yarn had long arrived it never got done. I still want to finish it. Honest I do. But really, I want to restart it with a larger hook. I have learnt a lot since I started it many moons ago, and I now know I am a tight hooker, and it needs more drape. So it will be frogged and re started, eventually. Anyway, now onto the matter at hand. How many WIPs are too many WIPs? Maybe if they were stash busting projects it wouldn’t be so bad, but oh no. Of course I never have just the right yarn in my collection, the wrong colour, or thickness, or material. I always have to shop. Tut tut. I pop into a shop just to get stainless steel pins and pop out with another project already on the hook. (Remind me someone please, I still need those pins.) And ordering online. You can never just order that 1 ball that you need. Nooo. You have to make sure you have enough for free delivery. It saves money that way. (Sshh, forget about that extra €30 worth of yarn that has just been added to the Stash, you saved €4.95 on p&p.) In all honesty I think that 16 WIPs is just too many. But hey, if you have room for it and the time for it, knock yourself out, but I need an overhaul. I want a fresh start, and a smaller stash. So who will help me. Which WIP/UFO should I pick up and finish 1st. Leave a comment here or on my Facebook page or Instagram and vote for the one you would like to see finished. Check out the gallery below and vote :) Please :)
