Last night, or rather very early this morning, I woke up completely panicked. If I was a normal person I would be jumping out of bed because of a car alarm, a kid crying, a bear in my front yard, or that I forgot to set my alarm; But nope, turns out I am not a normal person. For some reason while, I was sleeping, my brain decided it was a good time to inform me of all my current knitting projects that I had on my needles ( also known as UFOs or WIPs). Yup, you read that right..I woke up sweating and with heart palpations because apparently, I feel, I have too many unfinished projects.
Now, to be fair to my brain, I do have a fairly long list… there’s the cascade 220 purse from knit simple, the 400 stitches squares, the NHL baby booties, a few afghans, my mom’s sweater, a pair of orange socks I’m not happy about , a shawl, 3 pairs of slippers and a baby blanket.
That sounds like a lot, right? And I’m pretty sure I forgot some. I don’t really want to go through it all right now and take a full inventory. Its probably worse then I think.
In my fantasy world ( and on my bucket list) I have no more than 5 knitting projects on the go at once.
- A weekend project – something I only work on Saturdays, Sundays ( and holiday Mondays) that is either for myself or for a friend or family member.
- a car project- socks
- a project from the current book I am reviewing – right now that would be 400 stitches or the next project from betsy greer’s knitting for good.
- an Etsy project or custom order, – usually slippers
- a designing project.- I’m dying to start writing more knitting patterns but, it always get pushed to the back burner.
In reality, its very very different; its a hot mess. Obviously, if i’m dreaming about it, it has become more of a problem then my brain can handle. So, It’s time I do a project intervention and ban myself from starting anything new. I need to cut down on the project list. Maybe do something like smallest project to largest project or vice versa. Or maybe start with the ones that are close to being finished. Either way, I have to face my fears and write it all down and make a plan.
What bugs me the most is, I don’t even understand why I feel the urge to cast on another knitting project when I already have so many on the go. I do know though, I am not the only one with this problem. Does anybody have any insight on to why knitters constantly cast on more than they can possibly knit? Or are you one of the few who actually knits one thing at a time and never ever strays from their current project? Either way, help a knitter out comment with your tips and suggestions. Clearly my sleep and my sanity depends on it….
Simply Ashlee 
You are not alone in having several projects going. I have a beanie, a purse which just needs a handle then it will be finished, a baby blanket for my first grandchild due in October, the beard for a Santa hat, the second wrist warmer for a pair, and a pencil case. I get bored with the big projects or tedious ones. So I will do a beanie or some other small project then go back to the bigger ones. Right now I have been concentrating on the purse and the pencil holder. Oh, I almost forgot I am also working on a simple triangle shawl.
So no, you are not the only one with several projects going. 🙂
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Haha! Glad I am not alone.
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I limit myself to only as many WIPS as I can count on one hand. So that’s an absolute MAXIMUM of five. I’d rather have no more than four, but absolute is five. If I go more than five – I usually forget about something (or more than one something), and it never gets finished.
Usually you cast on something else, because of one of two reasons: 1. What you’re knitting has become boring, or 2. What you want to cast on is more exciting that what you’re currently knitting. (This also applies to crochet.) So maybe you should categorize your WIP limits. Like two personal, two giftables, and two economicals. So two for you, two to give away, and two for your store. And maybe rotate the way you do them. I know doing the same pattern over and over again makes it easier to do (and probably faster to crank out), BUT it also gets boring. Very quickly. I did two mitred square blankets – they weren’t back-to-back, but they were the only blanket pattern I’ve done so far. So when it came time to do a third blanket- I was sick of mited square. I needed to pick something else, just to shake things up a bit.
I will go back to mitred square, because I love the idea of constant decreases – you can definitely see when you’re done! But I will put other patterns in between just to have something different to do.
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Hmm! Thank you!!! I think yes, I get bored very easily. I like variety. I can knit slippers so fast and I’m trying to crank out as many as possible but, I’m bored of them . Maybe I do need to put a different project or two in between each pair to keep myself interested.
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