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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?

Beyond Basic Pumpkin Knitting Patterns

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork. 

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn. 

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look. 

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me. 

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. 

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.