Every couple of months (okay six months, okay, okay, every year or two) I find myself surrounded by unfinished projects that I have started, in some cases, who knows why, and really have the urge to clean up. This usually happens when I can’t find a single available 5mm needle when I know that I have several or when I can’t see my table top. Sometimes the avalanche when I open the closet door is an incentive as well.
When any of these things happen, and sometimes all of them happen at once, I have a 3F day or maybe two days, okay a week. Finish, frog, or fro out. I know that fro is not used this way but I like the rhyme. It also reminds me of two year olds cleaning up and right before the tantrum which describes me to a tee on 3F day.
Finish is, of course, the best action for an almost complete project. Projects do not go in the finish pile if: they are ugly and will never fit anyone and that’s why they are not finished, they are so old that the style has already come and gone a second time so waiting another forty years is just foolish, or I just plain hate working with the yarn in question. Anything that is not in one of the categories above is placed into a bin. Every time I want to start a new project (which is every minute of every day) I force myself to finish one from the bin. This method works most of time although once in a while I change the finish status of the UFO to frog just so that I can start something new! The only one who really cares is me and I like crafting too much to work on something I hate.
Frog is next on the to do list. All of the projects that I can’t bring myself to finish are set aside so that I can rip out, rewind and reuse the yarn. This goes for the too old if the yarn is still nice, the ugly and will never fit anyone, again if the yarn is still nice and the I hate working with the yarn if it is because the yarn didn’t suit the pattern. Maybe it just needs a larger or smaller needle or hook or to be paired with a contrast to dilute the impact. I usually set aside an evening or two to accomplish restashing these never to be finished projects.
Fro is a hard one. I, like any yarnie worth their salt, hate to throw away “good yarn” but have learned the hard way (remember I mentioned an avalanche?) that you just can’t keep everything. Try throwing away a truly unlikeable project that you know you will never finish made with yarn that you will never like. It is freeing in a way that you can’t imagine! I have reached the point now where, when I look through my stash and wonder why I ever kept all of those ten metre or less pieces or even those part skeins of so-so yarn, I can gather them up and put them in the garbage can. Yes, (and I can hear the response to wasting yarn) it is great to donate to charity groups but, if the yarn is too old or really awful to work with, why inflict it on someone else to work with or wear.
Get over the guilt and try your own purge and you will find that you may have some really lovely finished things, some really lovely recycled yarn and a great big space where all of the uglies lived!
New pattern alert: I have published a paid cardigan pattern on Ravelry this week. It is lace and stocking stitch in multiple sizes. Have a look! http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/roses-and-lace-cardigan
