2018: year of the UFO (UnFinished Object) – Knitting & crochet

Following the divorce, I now don’t need a kids room any more 😢 so it’s going to be a sewing room instead. With maybe thirty years of stuff in every wardrobe and cabinet in the house, and a good deal of it still in my ex-husbands basement, it’s a daunting task. I dream of knitting needle organisers and ingenious stash storage solutions. It’s like my porn.

Anyway, one of the distressing elements of organising the craft room is the sheer volume of unfinished objects. I’m angry with myself for so often getting close to the end, and then getting distracted and putting the project down and losing it (that’s how it always happens). Then when you find them, you’ve lost the pattern, or your notes on what adjustments you made to the pattern, or forgotten what size needle you used 😣. So I’m resolved: however traumatic it is, face the UFOs. Put them all in one place, preferably where you can see them (out of sight, out of mind). And finish them before you start new things.

(BTW, we are currently only talking about knitting/crochet stuff. Don’t even think about sewing stuff yet. That’s too big, it’s like the eclipse, you can’t look at that directly)

So: I’m recording all the UFOs in one post, and hopefully as 2018 progresses I can start moving them from the UFO post to the FO post until there are none left 💪🏻 also hopefully it will save me money cos I have so much wool it’s not funny. I shouldn’t have to buy more wool till I’m 90.

This is maybe the first thing I ever knitted, I think. It was going to be a baby’s cardigan for someone at work. But I knitted all the pieces then couldn’t work out how to join them and the baby got too big before I worked it out. I still hate joining now, and that’s why I love knitting in the round on circular needles. In fact I love circulars anyway and use them whenever I can. I’m prone to RSI and they help a lot with that, by distributing the weight more evenly, I think.

I actually started three versions of the same shawl in different yarns and never finished any of them. That’s soooo me 🙄. They are going to be shawls with a lace edge pattern. I started it in 2014 when I was working in London, to try to kill time on the dreaded hellish train journey. I remember really liking the wool, Patons Smoothie Double Knit, cos it knits up well considering it’s cheap. I didn’t like crocheting with it though cos it’s too splitty.

Crochet sock. I was actually enjoying this, but it was taking forever, cos I was customising a basic pattern to fit my foot exactly, so there was a lot of trial and error and notes. I wanted to make a universal toe and heel and then you could use the same sock pattern for anyone if you know the length of their foot. I love wearing hand made socks in the house, it’s such a massive luxury. Once I have worked it out, it’s a really quick and easy sock pattern. And crocheting socks is sooooo much easier than knitting them. I used to love knitting socks: I don’t know what the hell was wrong with me. When I do it now it frustrates the hell out of me.

This is a nightmare knit, cos it’s such tiny needles. I used to love knitting lace too but I find it frustrating now cos of the uneven stitch count on rows (I make a lot of mistakes, I’m a big stitch counter). I run out of patience, the older I get. I thought it was supposed to be the other way around? Also I’m an incredibly slow knitter so I use life lines but even having to redo one row makes me want to cry. Anyway it’s a beautiful pattern though. This started out as a sample, cos I chose a fancy scarf pattern for my sisters 30s birthday and bought really expensive hand dyed cashmere/silk yarn so I wanted to practice a bit first. But I actually like this version so I decided to knit on and make one for myself. The yarn is a bamboo so it has a totally different feel. I love how the lace looks like fat ears of corn.

Another nightmare, but something else I’d love to get finish. This one is tiny wool and tiny needles and just to add an extra layer of annoyingness, you knit the two layers simultaneously. Personally I don’t think I’d bother, I think if I was knitting over I would knit them separately then join them neatly. Why make life hard for yourself? But the nice thing about these very fine yarns is how you can had a nice cosy cloud around you but it’s not heavy or itchy, like wool. Ballache to knit with though. Pattern here

Just needs the ends woven in. I made this for my ex husband but he gave all the presents I made him back. It hurt my feelings. Anyway I love working with this chunky rowan wool, it works up so fast and the finished piece has such a nice bulk. I have knitted a few cowls with it cos it’s perfect, the cowl will stand up tall around your neck to keep the wind out. This is the first time I have crocheted with it but I really liked it for that too. Pattern here. In knitting I especially love it in moss stitch.

This was my first crochet piece, and it was going to become a cushion, but for some reason my middle stepboy fell in love with it so I changed it into a wall hanging. Then I found out that he used to take it down off the wall every night and sleep with it like a teddy bear. It’s that kind of thing, that breaks your heart about kids. Anyway, as you can see, I did something wrong when I started the sunbursts, cos a lot of them are unravelling from the inside out. I think I’ve caught it in time to repair it. I especially enjoyed the border on this, I thought it looked really smart considering how easy it was. I blocked it wrong though, I should have blocked it before I attached the border. There’s no pattern for this (for some reason, I can’t understand crochet patterns at all. Knitting, no problem. But crochet patterns make no sense to me at all, no matter how I try) , I did it from YouTube videos and I’ve lost the links now, of course.

I have no recollection of this little beauty. I assume one of the kids started it. I don’t know why they started with such tiny needles. I think all kids should get chunky wool and big needles 😝

So: wish me luck, fellow yarn ravellers! Let’s see how many of them I can get done by the end of 2018🤞🏻