I've got 99 projects... but a WIP ain't one. -

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J’accuse! My best friend told me I had too many projects on the go. Well, last time I counted, I only had 7 active WIPs on Ravelry, and 2 of them had been sitting there for 2+ years (are they still WIPs if I can’t find them?). The problem is, my love of starting projects extends out of the yarn-world and into the “responsible adult world” and like a three year old, I really don’t wanna!

Knitting and crochet keep me sane. Fact. I have learned that I need to incorporate this into my daily life- if anything for my own sanity. But with moving house, my brain seems so all over the place, that I can head downstairs to grab a drink out of the fridge and come back upstairs 2 hours later having unpacked crates, applied privacy film to the downstairs windows (yes, really), and completely forgotten about the drink.

I’ve lived in this house for a whole month now, and I still wake up sometimes in the middle of the night wondering where I am. Thing is, it hasn’t sunk in yet that this is really ‘home’. I don’t know how half the light switches work, and my washing machine has a vendetta against me, meaning I can’t open the door to free my wet washing.

I guess the truth is, while I’m still climbing over boxes to get to the fridge, the discomfort I feel doing that, overshadows the fact that this house is really mine.

So when it comes to projects, yarn is the least of my worries. The upstairs living room, affectionately known as the ‘snug’, is currently draped in plastic sheeting as I forced myself to paint the ceiling last weekend, and cut the metaphorical ribbon on the start of the renovation. The problem being, I had to re-do it 3 times in total to get non-patchy coverage. I’m really hoping, for the sake of my own mental calmness, that I can start painting the walls and get that room exactly as I want it so that when I wake up in the middle of the night wondering where I am, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief and start to think: “home”‘.

However, in my infinite wisdom, I’ve arranged a cleaner to start on Monday, meaning that I’ve created a self-imposed deadline that the downstairs needs to be cleaner-ready and most of the boxes need to be unpacked prior to her arrival. I’m well on the way, but it’s led to a shift in my priorities from painting and creating ‘homeliness’ to cleaning by any means possible. Yet another project added to the list!

Despite the house madness, I managed to complete my Sea and Sun Skirt by the Marvellous Mrs. Maker. I started it back in Birmingham, and with it being stockinette stitch in the round for most of the pattern, it was a great house-transition piece as it meant I could pick it up and put it down whenever I needed to without it needing a lot of brainpower.

You’ll see it’s photographed here with the decorating plastic sheeting.

For the last 2+ months, after accidentally packing my knitting needles away, I have lived with 1 set of needles and only enough yarn to finish this skirt. Finishing it was like the end of an era. The transition from old to new house was over. At least in project terms.

It fits beautifully which is surprising as, without additional cable extenders, or waste yarn, I was unable to try it on, so it was a risky piece from start to finish, but the length ended up being perfect! I was worried that as I held it up against myself it would end up being too-mini a mini, but it hits just above the knee as I wanted.

Now I feel motivated to finish all my WIPs, and with the start of the Tokyo Olympics signifying the start of the Ravellenic Games 2021, I am pushing through my to-do list. I’ve committed to finishing my Lawless Dream Jumper which I have extended into a dress (just the sleeves left!), my Good Vibrations Dress (sleeve-island again!), and my Boardwalk Blouse (getting the length perfect).

Mentally I’ve committed to finishing these before casting on anything else. My Ravelry queue is insanely long, but I find it inspiring to look at, especially given how much yarn I’ve unpacked into my chaotic craft space (not a ‘room’ yet given its disorganization), knowing one day all that fibre will become something incredible.

I have all the yarn for my top 5 queued projects on Ravelry. I just need to find it all somewhere buried away amidst the chaos. 2 crochet projects and 3 knit mean that I’ll be probably be finished by the end of the (predicted) August heatwave and then I’ll be able to sink my teeth into some winter makes.

In the meantime, it’s onto painting walls, sorting out the downstairs (almost, almost), and KonMari’ing the shit out of everything. I’ve been doing well at that so far and the local charity shop is probably bursting at the seams thanks to my stash. Today I have a courier coming to collect some of my books, and anything else that doesn’t ‘spark joy’ within me is getting the boot.

So when I break it down: 3 knit, 2 crochet, 1 downstairs, and 1 paint job- it doesn’t seem to be too many projects to take on… right?