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Finishing Workshop: Keeping Track of UFOs

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orgnaizing ufosThis is probably something I should have mentioned back when we were talking about unfinished project triage, but I only just thought of it today while I was cleaning up some projects that had landed on my dresser.

When you’ve figured out which projects you want to work on right away and which ones it will take you longer to get to, you need a way to safely store those projects that you aren’t going to work on right away but that you still want to finish.

Make sure you have the yarn and needles, the pattern instructions and any notes you may have taken all together in the same place. For some projects you might also want to take the time to figure out which row you were on or mark where you were in the pattern if you didn’t when you stopped working on it before.

That way you won’t have that hurdle to get over when you get back to the project. (And believe me, feeling like you’re lost in a project can keep you from picking it back up for a long time.)

I know it’s better to use cloth bags for wool and other natural fibers, but I tend to use plastic food storage bags for this purpose and just leave them open at the top so they can breathe.

Then the projects can all go in a box or basket together, possibly organized in the order you want to work on them, and the next time you need something to work on all your options will be ready to go.

How do you organize unfinished objects? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Comments

  3. That’s a tricky one. Sometimes you can count rows in a pattern repeat if you can read your knitting and that will help you figure out where you were. Or if you were knitting a garment or something measured by length, you can measure your piece and see where that would put you in the instructions.

Have you read?

Textured Hat Knitting Patterns

There are all sorts of knitting techniques you can use on hats, but some of my favorites are textured stitch patterns or cabled hats worked in a single color. Check out these great textured hat knitting patterns and find your next fall favorite. 

The K?pekapeka hat from The Practice of Fibre was the one that got me started thinking about textured hat knitting patterns. This one has a simple zig-zag pattern worked with purls. This hat uses centered double decreases for shaping to help keep the pattern going as you finish the top of the hat. It uses worked weight yarn. 

Little Totz Designs has this simple knit hat that uses worsted weight yarn and an allover knit-purl stitch pattern that’s easy to memorize. This one would be a great first hat in the round pattern if that’s something you haven’t tried before. 

The Fia Beanie from Honey and Grace Fiber Co is another simple stitch pattern that’s full of texture. It calls for bulky yarn so it should stitch up in no time in this great textured diamond design. 

Kalurah Hudson’s Cindersmoke hat is an interesting stitch design that uses double moss stitch and bands of slipped stitches throughout the pattern, which is where the decreases are worked, keeping the rest of the pattern as established. It uses bulky yarn and is sized for adults, and you can find it on Ravelry.

Benjamin Matthews has such pretty designs that often turn out to be simpler to knit than they look. The Snow Carved Beanie (find it on Ravelry) for example only uses knits, purls and slipped stitches, but it has a design that looks almost like cables. The pattern uses worsted weight yarn and has a foldover brim for extra warmth. 

While I wanted to keep the focus in this roundup on simple stitch patterns, basic cables are not that much more difficult than regular knitting, and the lattice pattern on this CrissCross Hat form the Purling Princess is so charming I couldn’t resist sharing. This hat comes in three sizes (baby, child and adult) and uses worsted weight yarn. It would be a great gift to knit if you’re thinking about that.