WIP's and abandoned projects

Wow - thank you all for those helpful, and dare I say supportive comments about hoarding supplies. As you can imagine from this comment left by Tom it's a sore point around here:

Go on girls (and you all are, it just might be a factor here) GET RID OF IT ALL. Someone once said to me: "you know I was really happy when I could pack my whole life into a Ford Escort and just go". Just an idea, back from London, wondering how we're ever going to get all this stuff from one side of the country to the other.......

I woke up to that on Friday morning (and enjoyed telling the children that some loon had left a really unhelpful comment to my last post). He assures me that he was just being provocative!

So stuff is a bone of contention. Tom reckons he's a minimalist but he's forgetting that when I first met him in 1989 he still had all his Lloyds Bank chequebook stubbs which he carted around the country. And then there was .......... No, I won't try and score points (for once) but we'll just leave it there shall we dear!

Anyway, I did manage to go through my stuff and on the advice of many of you I chucked out the tatty, never-going-to-use-that-ever stuff and it does look a lot more manageable. It also means that I have less stuff which I'm more likely to use. I think I need to have a few 'use what you have' months in the near future.

It was inevitable that in my clearing up I would find a quite a few WIP's that were carefully hidden away so that I could forget about them. What did I find?

Well, there is a jumper for Raj (in Debbie Bliss Merino) that I will never finish because a) it will now be too small for him and b) he won't wear hand knits anymore:

a hand towel in a gorgeous green but I ran out of the cotton:

a baby's bib (who on earth was I knitting that for?):

boot socks from a few posts back with Briggs and Little 2 ply:

ordinary socks with Regia:

Rohan's jumper with Colinette dk that I bought last August. I've done both sides and am now on sleeve one:

a scarf with some leftover Noro Silk garden:

and finally one side of a bag made with felted jumpers:

Aghhhhhhh - I hate WIP's especially abandoned ones. I just can't seem to capture the enthusiasm of a once desirable project after I leave it for a while. I know that I am never going to finish that purple jersey for Raj or the hand towel unless someone gets me the yarn from America and sends it to me. The boot socks - can I be bothered? The scarf - I wear my lovely green curlicue one all the time so I'm never going to wear this and everyone in our house seems to have at least two/three scarves each. Must, must, must finish the turquoise jersey for Rohan (but when). Ditto the Regia socks and the bag.

Is it just me or do I have the patience of a gnat (is that the phrase?). How come I can abandon so many things half way and go on to other things? I also have a doll's head waiting for a body, a lamb without ears, half finished scotty, a couple of brooches. Flipping heck - wish I could just chuck 'em all out and resolve to not start anything in the future unless I'm really passionate about it and am going to finish it in one go. Maybe that's unrealistic - maybe it's just what we crafters do - have lots of things on the go at one time. (I'm not sure that is actually the case with me and these WIP's. I've certainly abandoned a few those projects above.)

What do you reckon? Have you got lots of hidden away, half-finished projects? Do you feel guilty about them? Are you ever going to finish them and if not why not? And what do you do if you're really not going to go back to something? You can't just chuck things out when you've invested time and money in them?Shame we can't have a 'swap my never-going-to-finish' thing for yours .....................

 

Comments

[dottycookie]

Hmmm, there's a bit of a blue-green colour theme in your WIPs, Simmy!

I have a box full of things I have knitted and not finished off (I am the world's worst seamer so usually knit on DPNs if I can), and lots of bits of bags and clothes cut out and waiting to be stitched. I read somewhere that someone called this affliction "startitis" - and a quick poll of coworkers who knit and/or sew shows they suffer the same way. We're not alone!

[lina]

Thank you for showing us all your abandoned projects. It made me feel a whole lot better. I have lots too and it bothers me to see them, the effort, time and cost that went into creating something that is most likely never to be finished. I'm coming to the conclusion that as much as I don't like to waste, sometimes there comes a point where you're better off just letting it go...!

[TACE]

For me the problem is that there is NO cork big enough to stuff the flood of thoughts and ideas that float around my brain (or maybe there was and I threw it away and now I need it...***note to self, save all corks.) Sure it's easy to start a project but not thinking about other projects whilst in the middle of and old one is harrrdddd. Who wants to stifle creativity, what if the experimental crafty thing you're abandoning your current project for is something revolutionary that will change the very fabric of existence...? I just can't take that chance. See if I put it that way to myself then it's not that I have no patience or commitment....hee hee

[diana]

Don't laugh! you can swap your unfinished projects. At our school the kindergarten mums got together a unfinished amnesty and swapped all the projects we didn't want to finish. Any unclaimed went into craft supplies for the school. Very cathartic to unravell a nagging project and wind it up fresh with moral support from others.

[TACE]

Hey Diana's idea is awesome. I never heard of such a thing, swapping unfinished projects or donating them for kid's crafts! Very clever. As clever as letting them sit about me and mock my continued unfinishing of them...perhaps.

[Jam Sandwich]

Oh Simmy you are certainly not alone I have just sent you an e-mail about this crafters affliction! One of my new years resolutions was to finish off all those unfinished projects. A pipe dream!

[Marie]

I spent a couple of thousand pounds bringing over a bunch of "stuff" from Canada a few years ago and now instead of cluttering up my mom's basement, it is cluttering up our spare room! But I really might use it and get to finish all my unfinished projects one day! At least I hope that I will!
Marie
http://journals.aol.co.uk/mariealicejoan/MariesMuses/

[Claire]

I have a terrible habit of getting very enthusiastic about new projects, but if I have to put project away for a while I lose interest in it later.
I recently finshed off a number of UFO's which were beginning to make me feel very guilty. The reason they were finally finished was because I promised myself that a new project couldnt be started until at least 1 UFO was finished.

[liz]

HMmmm.......... i made a strict rule to not start anything till the present project was finished - turned out that nothing got done cos the present project was usually unfinished for whatever reason. i am now allowing myself to have two or three things on the go which i swap between - if i get bored with one i just go onto another etc. i am a great starter but not so good about completing things - and when i do i get such a good feeling that i wish i could just get on with it and finish them all. I think some of your stuff could easily be salvaged though - frog the baby bib - a wee pair of bootes in the making? - the purple jumper will have to be completely frogged and can be used for another project as can the scarf - what is it with scarves? - we all have our favourites - and its not as if they wear out, get too small etc - they just are - and you can only wear one at a time - always the favourite one.........the hand towel? i think you could finish that off and make it into a wash cloth instead? That would take you all of ten minutes and you would get the satisfaction of finishing something which might spur you on to something else - between packing boxes that is...........

have fun

Lizzi

[Georgia]

There is some awesome wool in those abandoned WIPs, so pull em apart and keep em for another flash of inspiration. I do have a couple of WIPS that I've abandoned...a poncho for Ella where I learned a new knitting technique, but don't really like the colours I've used. A jumper I was designing for myself which I love, but I'm stuck with the sleeves. My crocheted granny hexagons, which isn't abandoned, I'm just having a break from it. A sock, that I'm sure I don't have enough sock yarn to make two. Masses and masses of dyed but unspun fleece... And probably a few more. I find I need to keep going with momentum as the minute I stop I find it so much harder to come back to it. But if I know I'm not going to finish it, I unravel and save the wool for another project, another day. But as Lizzie said, some of those can be salvaged...give Amber the scarf to finish. Having unfinished work isn't a dirty little secret, but make peace with what you have. And after you move, I'll fly over to visit with an empty suitcase and relieve you of everything you don't want- I have no qualms about hoarding. Actually, Simmy it was funny yesterday I was helping Ella clean her room and she has so much rubbish and junk in there. And she said to me "but I keep it because I'm creative and I might be able to use it make things some day"...out of the mouths of babes!!!!

[Cristina]

That half bag would make a beautiful wall hanging for a child's room...sorry! Not helpful. I'm quite good at getting rid and letting go, but I will admit I've gotten rid of things I later regretted not saving. A move is a perfect time for a grand clearout. You'll be happy not moving it all and having to organize it at the other end. All good wishes! Cristina

[lucette]

I had to laugh when I read Tom's comments. That is how I feel, and it is mainly my stuff. I had been thinking about Tom and about his garden. Will he not miss that wonderful garden.

[TheAmpuT]

I have been thinking quite a bit about my abandoned projects lately, because I do believe that my guilt about them is preventing me from beginning other projects I would be more interested in. What happens when it gets like this is that I do not work on anything at all. And I don't like that.

A year or so ago I watched a few people on the internet either finish things, or frog them. The all claimed that at the very least ripping the work out and rewinding the yarn into a ball was rewarding and mind clearing. I'm not ready to rip yet though! I need to do some thinking about why I get so stuck. Knitting usually is a metaphor for other parts of my life, and it makes me wonder in what other places I might be stuck in the same way.

[Lizz]

I have an agreement with myself to see projects through. It fits well as we live a simple life and I don't have time or mental spaces to have alot of clutter. I feel really clear working on and finishing a project. One at a time. I do production work as well, but I keep this rule there too.

[Rita]

UFO's drive me crazy! I simply can not stand to have more than two projects going at one time. If I can't find the motivation to work on a project it gets frogged. My daughter (9 y.o.) has a project that she's started and isn't working on that I've been tempted to do for her, just to get it off the needles!

[Rita]

UFO's drive me crazy! I simply can not stand to have more than two projects going at one time. If I can't find the motivation to work on a project it gets frogged. My daughter (9 y.o.) has a project that she's started and isn't working on that I've been tempted to do for her, just to get it off the needles!

[Joy]

Hi Simmy, The Japanese book 'from my dear garden' arrived today, looks lovely, all those projects to keep me busy! many thanks.
Joy

[carol]

Now is the time to get rid of abandoned projects. It's liberating to start with a clean slate!

[Ellen]

I have more than a few...but what I think I have more of than WIPs are IIPBNBs (Ideas In Progress But Never Begun)!

[suse]

Oh I'm so thankful to read this post. I have heaps of half finished projects that make me SICK wih guilt.

You must finish that sock though - it looks so close!

I like that idea of a ufo amnesty swap thingie. We should do a bloggy one. Hahaha, because we all need someone else's half finished stuff, don't we!?

[Susan]

Oh, it cheered me so to read that you don't finish up all your projects! I seem to jump about from one thing to the next and then I feel terrible about the half or quarter done projects - and I want to ditch them half the time, but can't! I do sometimes wander back to the old projects and find them useful - another reason to stay a pack rat, I guess.