One WIP Policy
WIP = work-in-progress
I’ve put myself on a pretty strict one work-in-progress at a time policy when it comes to knitwear.
I have an obsessive personality with basically everything so when I get into something, I do it all day every day as much as possible and get results fast. I wanna watch all 9 seasons of a show back to back, listen to 3 years worth of the same true crime podcast, wear the same shoes (out of the 30 pairs I own) every day and eat the same chips until I’m done with it and move on to the next. I can not take a break from the current obsession or I’ll never go back to it. That’s all fine and well when it comes to a random show but if it’s a project I’m doing, I want to actually finish it.
After years of starting multiple knit projects within a few weeks because I got inspired by something new, and failing to finish half of them, I have learned my lesson. I used to have to unravel a project I was no longer wanting to continue, or toss it completely. If I’m not inspired and motivated or notice what I started previously is no longer working, you could not pay me enough to complete it.
What I do now is one project at a time and I am not allowed to start another before I finish the current one, or unravel it on a rare occasion.
I have broken my self governed rule a couple times though, like making a pair of socks and a knit for a toddler between my long cardigan project, which I did return to really fast and completed succesfully.
In my stash of yarns I have two unfinished knits, an eternity project scarf I started 10 years ago which I have no interested in doing or wearing but it’s a nice alpaca yarn so I will unravel it and use for something else, and an intentionally ugly colourwork sweater I started a year ago from cheap sock yarn which I wouldn’t normally make a sweater out of. I do intend to finish it at some point even though I’m not excited for it, it shouldn’t take me more than a couple days and then I can have a sweater that I don’t need to be precious about.
At the moment I do have two sweaters in progress, but it’s because of a loophole I found from the rules and regulations I put on myself. I needed a knit project I can do at work on days where I have a lot of waiting to do, something simple and not too precious, a fancy cableknit I had started was out of the question, so I started a simple icelandic styled sweater. I’ll probably just do the body and sleeves at work, and leave the colourway yoke to be finished at home, hopefully after I’m done with the cableknit sweater because they can not exist at the same time at home.
That's a sad reality even to me. But i hope you'll find more joy in knitting thslose wip of yours. I do ha a lot of unfinished crochet projects at home.
A wise man once said, one can knit one or more, but one may find more than one is too much for one to handle, so it's best for one to limit oneself to one.
😉
Is the wise man you? I bet it’s you.
Lol...Umm, maybe.