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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!

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?

Patchwork Blanket Knitting Patterns

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns. 

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn. 

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options. 

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners. 

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set. 

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn. 

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers. 

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.