Hello, and welcome to Finishing Month! Another popular New Year’s resolution (after stash busting) was the desire to finish more projects and/or to know how to finish those projects well. This may be a slightly shorter series than the last, but as always if you have a specific question or a topic you’d like to see covered, let me know and I’ll try to work it in.

The first step when it comes to finishing projects is finding and evaluating all the projects you already have on the needles. There may be more of these than you expect. And of course, “unfinished” projects can also include the single sock or mitt you never knit the mate to (I have one each of those!) or the project that’s done in terms of the knitting but just needs the ends woven in or seams sewn or a button sewn on (I may have all of those, too).

So if you’re following along at home, the first thing you need to do is get all these unfinished projects together. Set aside those that just need finishing beyond the knitting, because we’ll get to those skills later in the month.

Now take a look at what’s still on the needles. Ask yourself some questions:

• How long has that project been languishing?
• Do you still like it?
• Is it the right size for you or its intended recipient? (Babies grow fast, you know.)
• If not, do you have someone else in mind you could give it to?
• Would you wear/use it if you did finish it?
• Would you rather use the yarn for something else?

All these questions should help you evaluate each project and determine whether you want to finish it or frog it (rip it!). There will be some of both in your basket.

But the point of looking at each case is that you need to be honest about the projects you aren’t going to finish. Don’t let them linger any longer. Rip them out now. It’s actually kind of liberating to say goodbye to projects you know you don’t want to see through, and if nothing else you’ll replenish your stash of knitting needles.

If you decide to rip out some projects instead of letting them linger longer unfinished, I’d love to hear about it. I know I have at least one (that blue cabled scarf) that I’m going to get off the needles really soon.