Avoiding A WIP

[grrlsmom]

The poll made me think about this - I started a granny square afghan last year. I simply love the way it is supposed to look - autumn leaves in assorted colors on an off-white background. BUT - it's all like 3 inch grannys! I got 'em all done, have even joined some, but then I kinda stopped working on it.

 

Okay. But I feel guilty. I feel really bad. Sooooo - I have kept making other afghans as an excuse WHY I can't finish this thing! No kidding - I've made 3 full size 'ghans, 2 baby (including a round one!) and somewhere in there I got the circle sweater thingie from Crochetme and a pair of fingerless gloves done. I'm now working on yet another afghan, plus other things.

 

Would it be simpler to just FINISH the granny square one or should I make good use of the guilt and keep crocheting away?

[Midds]

This sounds like me sometimes. I just don't want to finish something but then it just hangs around and drives me nuts. What I do when this happens is set a certain # of squares to join together say each day or BEFORE you allow yourself to work on the other projects. Eventually, it gets done. Besides you never know ~ you may really enjoy and appreciate the project when it is done.

 

Good Luck and Hope you get it done. You can do it! :cheer

[darski]

I agree about doing a bit of it each day; that way you will get it done and give up the guilt. I have a pointy sticks afghan that I have decided will only get done four rows at a time.

 

They may not be fast and finished but they will get finished

[neicy crochets]

I have a red and black one started last year that's been screaming at me every day. I even took it out of my project box and placed in the tv room so i'd have to look at it sitting there, and I admit, I'm starting to turn my head every time I walk by it! can't figure it out because it has the potential to be beautiful.

 

BTW, darski, what's a pointy sticks afghan?

[darski]

It is an afghan made with those two pointy sticks that we don't talk about in a crochet site.

 

Now some brave souls do mention the word knitting here once in a while but the lions have been hungry lately so no one sa.................arrrggghhhh!

[neicy crochets]

Oookay...take's me a little while. we're slow here back east! I used to do a lot of that stuff...mittens, baby blankets etc. then I inherited my step-mom's hooks and patterns ( hooks skinnier than dental floss, I think , and patterns so old that complete books had Zellers price tag on em for 35 cents!). To honor her memory, I decided to learn to read a pattern ( baby shawl) and became addicted. Lots of those pointy stick things gathering dust in my house now.

[JoBug]

I have gone as far to take a progect, a granny square in fact to a friends out of town for the weekend, thinking we would sew it together,,well that never happened, and 2 years later it is still there!!! Your NOT alone...

[grrlsmom]

Oh gosh, JoAnn - would she like another one? LOL Ladies, your ideas of just doing so much each day are great. Why in the world didn't I think of that? Sometimes a project just seems bigger and bigger than it really is!

[PoisonApple]

May I chime in my support? I have an almost completely finished sweater sitting in my stash box. I just wrinkle my nose at it and move it out of myway.

 

Good luck withyour'sth though

[knitcrochetandpray]

The second item I ever attempted in crochet was a prayer shawl. The pattern is very easy, and it is coming along nicely. I began the shawl back in March, it was intended for a dear lady at our church who was suffering with medical complications. After a freak surgical accident, she died on the operating table. I could not finish the shawl after that. I have tried working on it since and have only a few more rows completed. I don't know that I will ever finish it. I have another shawl on needles, that was just something to do when I had a bunch of layovers on my Labor day trip to NJ; figured I would make one up to have on hand, but because it is knitting I am just so reluctant to finish. I have enjoyed crocheting so much I just don't enjoy the knitting as much anymore. Have finished 6 hats, a scarf, 8 head bands with matching bracelets, and a heart shaped purse in the past 7 days though.

[WendyLee]

I have a similar situtation. The afghan was supposed to be a bunch of 2 inch squares that put together made up tulips. Yea well, I made droves of squares and some are half ecru and half a color. Putting them together was a huge pain. Then I had one of the half & half ones start to come undone because I had not secured my ends well enough. That was the end of that! It sits at the bottom of a basket and a lot of the yarn has been used in other projects. Some day I will get brave enough to just toss all of those squares!

[jessc031778]

I do the same thing!! The most recent was the headpiece from the Anti-Craft site..my girlfriend wants them for all the women in her bridal party and I made one up for her to see as a sample..I've had all the pieces finished since August, but I just actually put the thing together a couple of days ago...it took me all of an hour & a half to do it...so I put it off for nearly 3 months and it only took me part of an evening's work to finish it!!

 

Jessie

[Vik]

Ha ha! I know about this! I´m avoiding a WIP because it´s very difficult to me... and I keep busy with other projects. The one I´m avoiding it´s looking pretty though... and the yarn wasn´t cheap... so I must finish it someday, I mean it can´t be an UFO!

[ChainOFools]

I am guilty of this too...a yo-yo scrap afghan that's been a WIP since I think March (you know it's bad when you can't even remember when you started it!)

 

My excuse over the summer was it was much too hot to work on, even though I made a ton of other stuff including a baby afghan, all the while conveniently passing over this multicoloured whatsit that went from sitting prominently on the back of my couch to remind me to work on it, to getting stuffed into a plastic bag and put in a storage bin--out of sight, out of mind.

 

I dragged it out a couple weeks ago, determined (and feeling guilty) now that the weather is getting colder to get it done...still have only managed to join another row's worth of yo-yos....it's not like it's hard to do, it's just so labour intensive...it's the ends...weaving in all the ends...I can only take so much of it until I finally say 'okay, that's enough for a while' and put it aside.

 

Still I have adopted the discipline of joining at least 5 yo-yos a day (whether I like it or not) before I do something else, and that way I know eventually it will get done!

[mva5493]

The second item I ever attempted in crochet was a prayer shawl. The pattern is very easy, and it is coming along nicely. I began the shawl back in March, it was intended for a dear lady at our church who was suffering with medical complications. After a freak surgical accident, she died on the operating table. I could not finish the shawl after that. I have tried working on it since and have only a few more rows completed. I don't know that I will ever finish it. I have another shawl on needles, that was just something to do when I had a bunch of layovers on my Labor day trip to NJ; figured I would make one up to have on hand, but because it is knitting I am just so reluctant to finish. I have enjoyed crocheting so much I just don't enjoy the knitting as much anymore. Have finished 6 hats, a scarf, 8 head bands with matching bracelets, and a heart shaped purse in the past 7 days though.

 

I have a tissue box cover that I was making for an elderly lady my mother sat with, the lady passed away about 3 years ago and still this little house sits. (it was done in plastic canvas) the only thing I needed to do was attach the chimney, puts flowers in the flower beds, and attach the fence around the edge. But since she passed away, I don't know what to do with it. Just doesn't seem right to finish or give to someone else.

 

Valerie

[Calesmommy]

To Funny, We all have projects that we start and cannot finish. I think it is great to read everyones and see all the things we can't seem to get done.

For me I have many WIP and things that I started and never really did anything with.

[croschet03]

I too have the same problem. I started a granny afghan making the tulips like Wendylee also. I have it sitting in a popcorn tin in my closet. All the tulips are put together in four bigger sections, so all I have to do is sew those together and put the border squares on, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

I also have a gragh-ghan for my hubby in the works, that has literally been sitting half done for close to 2 yrs. And he was actually just complaining it wasn't done last night.

Maybe I will try the so many rows or squares at a time.

Val