Organization: Knitting

One of the things I like to do is knit. After “knitting” for almost four years, I’m still a beginner, and this is simply because I rarely have time to do it. When I first started, it was summer of 2007. I made a scarf for myself and one for three of my friends for Christmas. That was the most knitting I have ever done in a “short” amount of time. I have about three or four projects started but have yet to finish any of them. Each one I wanted to complete by a specific day for a specific event. So I’d start, work furiously on it for a while to try and make that deadline, get a few days from the deadline and come to the realization that it would never be finished on time, abandon the project and move on to something else, thinking all the while that I’d still finish that first project later. But then time could never be found. Or, which was more than likely, something else would come up that I’d prefer to work on, like reorganizing my planner and/or writing a blog post about something to do with my planner. But one of my unwritten goals for the year is to make time for more knitting.

I have a blanket for my niece that has been in progress for the last two plus years. She’s six. The pattern is for a baby blanket. Knowing that it would never be big enough for her personal use, I figured she could at least use the blanket for her dolls. But I really need to finish the damned thing before she turns 10 or is no longer interested in dolls, whichever might come first.

I have another blanket in mind for my younger niece. This was supposed to have been started and finished by the time she was born. Although I have the yarn for it, I have yet to start it. She’ll be a year old in a couple of months.

Then there are the other projects: a scarf for my mother-in-law that was meant to be a Christmas gift—two Christmases ago; a spring scarf for myself that I aimed to have done—two springs ago; a shawl for a wedding I was in—last September. Each project was in its own bag, so you can imagine how many knitting bags I had lying around the house.

And of course, there is the list of projects I wanted to work on that were never even started.

One of my to-do items in my planner is to reorganize my knitting and really get started on it again. So what a great Christmas present this turned out to be. I love bags to begin with. But this bag is just awesome for all the pockets it contains. It has a zipper all the way around that allows you to choose how you want to set it up—with the pockets on the outside OR the pockets on the inside. You can even use it as a backpack since it has adjustable straps. Plus, because it’s canvas its sturdy as hell. And because of the size and shape of these pockets, I knew right away what I would use it for. My knitting, of course!

So this morning, I pulled out all of my in-progress knitting projects, added all of my supplies to the bag, added only TWO of my projects to it, and pulled apart the other projects and put the yarn for them away. For now. I will get to them, but if I have too many things started, then I’m just overwhelmed. So for now, I’m focusing on only two projects at a time—one I can do at home (at home because it involves counting stitches) and one that I can work on when my friend and I meet specifically for knitting time (in this case, a scarf that doesn’t require any thinking of my part, so if I get to chatting with her, it’s not an issue). We have decided to have a knitting get-together once a month (as our schedules allow) since neither of us are finding ample amount of time for it these days.

Now that I am freshly organized with my knitting, I can find everything I need in one place. Hopefully this will allow me to work on my projects more easily than I have in the past. Plus, with actually making time for it, maybe I’ll finally finish some projects. Here’s hoping!