Resolution?

At the end of 2018, I guess I was feeling a little overwhelmed by the number of WIPs (work-in-progress) I had. So I took a picture, which didn't even include all of them. Between then and now I've tracked 32 projects that for various reasons weren't finished within the time frame I meant to finish them. It turns out 14 of them were started in 2018. I guess I was very ambitious that year. I also had two WIPs that were started pre-2018.

In the last three years, I've finished some of those WIPs along with who knows how many other projects that I started and finished in a more timely manner. And I've added more projects to the outstanding-WIP list.

I began 2022 with 19 WIPs. I still have the two pre-2018 projects, 7 of the ones I began in 2018, 2 from 2019, 2 from 2020 and 6 projects that I started in 2021 and didn't finish.

Of course, I did manage to finish one of them already. It was a Christmas present for one of my kids that was late, so I was motivated to get it done.

So I'm down to 18 past projects. Yesterday, someone asked me how long I've been crocheting and I had to think about it. Then I realized that in December 2022, it will be 20 years since I learned to crochet. That led to thinking about how one should celebrate 20 years of crocheting. I thought about neat things I'd like to make myself. Some of them are already on my WIP list. And then I realized that the biggest gift I could give myself to celebrate this milestone is to finish all these projects.

It seems impossible right now. It feels like that Julie & Julia movie where she decides to make all the recipes in a cookbook in a year. And I have less than a year at this point. At the same time it feels possible. Is that because it's the beginning of a new year and everything feels a little possible right now? Maybe I just have too much optimism. But I'm willing to attempt it.

Let's see how far this can go.

Solar System Part 4

Yarn Geek Makes' Solar System CAL is one of the first CALs that I actually attempted to make at the time that it was being released. (the blog was known as Two Hearts Crochet at the time) But I didn't start off very strong. The weather kept me from getting to the Hobb Lobb for the yarn I needed so I didn't start part one until after part two had already been released. Then it just kept going downhill from there.

Part 1

Part 2

The pattern was released weekly but it took me a week and a half to do part 2 and even longer to do part 3. 

Part 3

Part 3 included embellishing the sun

By the time I made it to this point, 6 of the 12 parts had been released but I was embracing my slower pace and pressing forward. Unfortunately, someone else's Solar System project caught my eye. They were using a vastly superior purple color for their project. So I went ahead and started a second Solar System.

Part 1

I don't think it's obvious in this picture, but I did the sun differently by using two shades of yellow so it was a bit bigger than the original and had a different look.

By the time I got the 2nd part of the purple Solar System completed, the full CAL had already been released and I had other projects that split my attention away. I was still working on the third part of the purple project when my backpack was stolen with my purple Solar System inside.

That incident really rocked my world in a bad way for a while. So I didn't even try to pick up my blue Solar System either. I just let it sit. One day I picked it up and realized that one of my cats had peed in the project bag and it had dried. So I'm not proud of it, but I stuck the whole thing in a bin to prevent further incidents but also didn't really solve the problem.

The first time I decided to systematically do the next step on each of my past projects, the thing I did for the Solar System was wash it. A lot. So this time around, I picked up a blanket that is much more aged than it should be and it's scruffy in places.

I considered finishing it off and keeping it as a lap blanket.

I considered throwing the whole thing in the trash.

Then I started crocheting anyway. I used up most of the rolls of yarn that went through the wash. The colors and textures aren't the same as the yarn that was already part of the blanket. Next time I work on this I'm going to have to buy brand new yarn which will add another layer of colors and textures that don't match.

I decided that all this drama makes for a more interesting blanket. I kind of wish I'd taken a closer up picture of the part 4 rounds, but if you look closely, you can see the line about halfway between the outer two grey orbit lines. 

What a weird story this blanket will have to tell when it's all finished.

Switching Gears Part 1

After finishing the past project the other day (or a week ago, whatever), I decided to take a different approach to finishing things. Instead of trying to do one project until it's done, I thought I would maximize the potential hits of happy chemicals I could get by completing a billion tiny tasks. In other words, working on all the projects at once. Well, one at time, I still only have two hands. All of these projects are easily broken into smaller parts.

The first project on my list was born in my mind in the summer of 2015, or possibly before that, I can't remember, actually. But I know I didn't buy yarn and start working on it until July 2016. It took a long time to find a pattern that suited me and then it was a huge disappointment. Last time I picked it up to work on it, I had decided to switch gears rather than unmake what I had. So this time, I just finished putting a border on the piece I have. This picture doesn't really show the weird size/shape of it because it's folded in thirds, but you get the general idea:

The second project on my list is a crochet along called Around the Bases. I started it in November 2017. It starts with a choose-your-own square in the middle. I picked one called Blizzard Warning. And then each "inning" is a different border around the square. So my task was to complete the 5th inning, of 16....if I choose to do all of them




The third project was a crochet along from the Moogly blog. I started it in January 2018, but I was also making my life harder (as I do) by simultaneously working on the Moogly blog 2014 crochet along. So this is theoretically going to result in a stack of squares to sew together into a very large blanket. I had left off on a 2014 square that was bowl shaped instead of flat. My task was to un-crochet that and re-crochet it in hopes it would be flat. I don't know if I had miscounted or left out something, but it worked up perfectly.

The fourth project on my list was a Solar System crochet along that I began in January 2018. At some point I had started a second one in a different color scheme. That second one was in my backpack when it got stolen. And then one of the cats peed in my project bag on the first one. So my task was to bag up the yarn so I could launder it. Which I did right away that day and soaked it and the washing has taken several days but it's finally done. While I waited I had moved on to the next project on my list, but I feel like this post is long enough so I'm going to break it into two parts. Stay tuned.

Moving On

I ended 2018 by taking a photo of all the unfinished knit or crochet projects I could remember and find at the time. There are 14 in this picture. There were two more in my backpack that got stolen and two more that I remembered after the picture.

So far I've finished that rainbow-y piece on the right. It's a temperature scarf for 2018. But then I promptly started a temperature project for 2019 so it feels like it's an ongoing project. I'm knitting both the high and the low held together as one strand of yarn. Some days I knit the previous day's two rows and some days I play catch up.

2018 Scarf

2019. January - June

 In March I finished the peacock feather project, which is a lap blanket. I'm pretty sure this project began in the fall of 2017. I have also sworn to never ever try that one again. It was so frustrating. I may be willing to make something with peacock feathers on it, but not one like this. It's one of a kind.

One of the projects that I had left out of the photo was a giant elephant project. I make all kinds of little stuffed animals but when I wanted to make a special project for my own children, I asked them what size they wanted and of course they wanted giant sized. I believe I began the project in May of 2018. I wanted to make the elephants give the impression of each girls' favorite Girl Scout cookie. I also finished these in March along with making two giant stuffies for my nieces so I felt like I was on a roll of getting caught up on past projects

I got a little busy with other projects. The next past project I finished was at the beginning of July. I had started it as a Christmas gift for a group of my friends but didn't get it done, so I finished in time for a special event we had together.

I would feel like I've been slacking on this project list, except in March, I had this brilliant idea to start keeping track of all the projects so I wouldn't feel like that. In 2019 so far I've started and finished 31 sewing projects and 29 yarn projects. I've also started 4 more yarn projects. And then the whole reason for this post is to talk about the 5th past project that I've finished. Unless I count each part of the project separately, in which case I've finished my 12th past project.

So in December 2017, I started a baby blanket. And it's finally done.