Rules for Feeding the Stash

Monday, October 12, 2015

Long-Term WIPs


I have a lot of WIPs, and sometimes balancing them all can be an adventure. Maybe a couple of times a year, if I'm really lucky and I really apply myself, I can get down into the single digits. Barely.

I started my Beach House exactly two days after the summer Holla Knits came out this year, plugged through the short rows, and then stuck it in a box. And now it's fall, and it's getting cool, and I don't have any long sleeve shirts to layer under this, so a mesh tee is definitely not the thing I need right now.

It's refreshing to be knitting mesh again. I've been doing so much garter stitch lately, it's nice to have something just a step above that, but still comfortable knitting. And I have other projects lined up for October that I need to start this week, and this top will not be done before I have to put it back in its box again.

I think the point of long-term WIPs is that there there for us just when we need them. In the middle of chaos and deadlines, I have a fun red mesh top. In the middle of Xmas planning and holiday craziness, I can curl up under a blanket project and get one more corner turned. When everything on my needles has been aran or bulky for as long as I can remember and I need something light and pretty to take the edge off, there's a shawl waiting for me.

I feel like sometimes our WIP baskets can make us feel guilty. Something in us seems to want to say that we need to finish things on an arbitrary itinerary, or else bad things may happen. I love unreasonable deadlines as much as the next knitter, but not all WIPs are an albatross around our neck. Not every sock that has been waiting for its mate so long that you lost the yarn is a failure.

I like to think that old WIPs become our friends-the best kind of friends, where you can not see each other for ages, and then pick up right where you left off. There's a journey in the making of things, and long-term WIPs are like extravagant road trips with roadside attractions and tourist traps at every exit. I think that these long-term WIPs are where we best get to enjoy that journey, without worrying about the destination.


5 comments:

  1. I really like this color you're working with.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've reached the point where I have too many ideas of things to make, and not enough time to do them!! Like I said to a friend earlier, I have ask the patterns and yarn, but I've yet to put any of them together... I could really do with more hours in the day!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is a very down to earth way of looking at these old WIPs. Which also reminds me of some old WIPs that are buried within my yarn stash somewhere and are deserving of my attention.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love having lots on the needles then I pick a project to work on depending on my mood. If there's one I procrastinate on it's usually something I don't like (wool, needles....). I rarely have more than four on the needle at any given time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love this post. WIPs get a bad rap sometimes and there is no need for that! They're our friends! Keep up the good work girlie :)

    ReplyDelete