You know you have them. Those UFOs waiting in the closet—sometimes for months and years. You know why you started them and there is even the hope that you’ll come back to them. Yes?
I’ve only once met someone who didn’t have any unfinished objects (UFOs) or a stash because she only crocheted one project at a time. Now she’s a normal person with both. I sometimes have phases of no UFOs. It feels both exhilaratingly hopeful and strangely empty.
This past week, we were doing the usual 3-hour weekly car commute and I needed a project FAST. I couldn’t find my “traveling” project—usually a pair of socks for my air travel carryon. For the car, a big project would have been fine, but I couldn’t lay my hands on the UFO I wanted, an easy and time-consuming afghan at the end of the commute. And given we were up against a ferry crossing, there wasn’t time to dither.
With husband a-foot tapping, there was no time to find a pattern, yarn, notions etc. so I grabbed a hibernating project. You might recognize it from this blog from February of last year, where I was stuck (sleeves). I skipped onto the button band collar where I felt more secure. But this got me to thinking about the different reasons for hibernating projects. Because there are a complex set of reasons for it—and they aren’t always the same!
So why do projects hibernate? I listed a few of my reasons below:
- Got bored (did you really want a project this easy?)
- Got tired (happens with LONG projects, small yarns, small needles)
- Got stuck (happens at transitions)
- Made a fixable mistake and will have to tear it back (otherwise you’d just frog it, no?)
- Got interrupted (the “shiny object” syndrome)
- Lost a key notion
- Didn’t get enough yarn, buttons, etc.…
- Can’t find the pattern
- Can’t find it
Though I’m a fairly organized person with lots of online patterns, the last two happen more than I care to admit. My primary ones are 3, 4 and 5—probably in that order.
Which if these seems to be your most common? Are there others?
Orcas Island Knitting 