Rules for Feeding the Stash

Friday, July 31, 2015

Culling the Queue


Today I'm driving west, armed with enough knitting to get me through the weekend. Hopefully the hills will be significantly cooler than it's been on the east side of the state, and I'll get a nice short break from the sweltering heat.

Sometime last fall I got it into my head that I wanted my Ravelry queue to have fewer items in it than my projects page. I've been serious about culling my queue since then-and I finally reached my goal a couple of weeks ago! It's been great to be more intentional about what goes into my queue-there's no more "I don't know how often I'd wear this sweater, but 19-year-old Kat really wanted it, so I should probably get it done before I move onto that exciting entrelac wrap."

My old queue was really unwieldy-I was never going to knit everything on it, especially if I kept adding new patterns! That really started to stress me out-my queue now is a great place for inspiration and planning. It's all stuff that I want, that I have plans for, and that I'm excited about knitting.

I have a better understanding of who I am as a knitter and what I use and love in my wardrobe now, and my queue reflects that-most of the stuff there has been added in the last 18 months! My new queue also reflects that I shouldn't feel beholden to who I used to be as a person and as a knitter. That person doesn't exist anymore-she's turned into Present Kat! (Maybe this is my ego speaking, but I think Present Kat is pretty darn cool.)

So! Are any of you motivated to start culling your queue? Even just one or two items at first-it's definitely hard the first few times, but I found that I almost immediately forgot the things that I had deleted, and if they haunted my thoughts for days after deleting, it was easy enough to find them and re-queue!

10 comments:

  1. Oh yes - my Ravelry queue has a scary amount of things on it... I really need to go through and declutter!
    Thanks for the reminder!

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    1. You're welcome! Yeah, mine was crazy long and intimidating-it's so much more fun to scroll through now!

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  2. I love the first two yarn in that photo. I don't really use my queue unless I need to remind myself what gift I need to make next.

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    1. Thanks, I really like those skeins two :) I didn't use my queue at all the first year I was on Ravelry, and then I got a little queue-happy. I love being able to move gifts up to the top of my queue so I can't forget about them!

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  3. What a great idea. Off to take a few items off now.

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    1. Thanks! It feels so nice to have it more organized.

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  4. My ravelry queue could definitely use some rethinking! Maybe I can make it a summer project.

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    1. At least the summer-mine took three seasons! But yeah, it's so funny how fast things like that can get away from us :P

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  5. My rav queue is starting to get unwieldy too. I scan through and think 'yeah, I don't like that much anymore'. :P Good on you, getting yours more manageable!

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    1. Thanks! I really couldn't deal with the guilt of seeing things in my queue that I'd never knit-it feels so good to have it streamlined!

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