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Great Tips for Putting a Project to Bed

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use project cards to keep your ufos in orderWe’ve all had times when we knew we were putting a project in time out. Usually that is accompanied by frustration and getting the project out of our sight as quickly as possible.

But we really should be kind to our future selves and take a moment to write down some things about the currently offending pattern in the hope that some day we’ll want to deal with it. This is also good advice when you’re putting a project away for a while even if it hasn’t been behaving badly (say it’s the dead of summer and you can’t stand working on that stranded knit sweater any longer).

Ashley Little from Crafty’s knitting blog has some great tips for taking notes on a project before you put it away. She says you should note what the pattern is and where it came from (yes!), as well as where you are in the pattern, what yarn you were using, needle size and the size of the garment you were making.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten all of these things about a project I put into hibernation at one time or another — sometimes more than one.

This is such great advice! Check the site for a link to a cute download (those project cards pictured above) that might help you get your UFOs a little better organized, too.

[Photo via Craftsy.]

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Comments

  1. This is a great idea!! I gave a knitting project a little “time out” a few months ago. I have the yarn and pattern all tucked away together, but have three sets of needles in the project bag. I plan to get back to this project soon, but I can’t for the life of me remember why I put three different sets of needles in with this sweater (?!?)

    Oh well, I guess I’ll be swatching again 🙂

Have you read?

A Sweet Skater Dress to Knit

I know knitting a dress sounds like a major time commitment. And that’s before I even tell you that this particular dress, the Sixth Ave Skater Dress by Briana Luppino, is worked in light fingering weight yarn. 

But would you just take a moment to look at it and tell me if it doesn’t look like it would be worth all the time you would spend knitting it? And it’s miles of stockinette stitch so it’s actually beginner friendly and a great semi-mindless knit you can take with you on your travels this summer and wear when it is done. 

The dress is worked from the top down with tank straps, a scoop neck, waist shaping and a flowy skirt for a fun and comfortable fit. 

The pattern has 10 sizes, with finished bust measurements ranging from 28 to 64 inches, or 71.5 to 163 cm. The sample shown was worked with 4 inches/10 cm of negative ease at the bust, and the designer says most people like between 2 and 6 inches/5 to 15 cm of negative ease in the bust and around 10 inches/25.4 cm positive ease in the hips. 

(To refresh your memory, negative ease means the measurement of the garment is smaller than your actual body measurement, while positive ease is bigger than your body.)

To pick a size you’d work from the bust measurement because you can always add more or fewer decreases as you need to get your desired fit at the waist and hips. And because it’s worked from the top down you can try it on as often as you like to make sure it’s the perfect fit. 

The I-cord edgings give the dress a super casual feel, and I think this would be a great one to add to your summer rotation. (Yes, even with a wool blend yarn.)

You can see lots of cute finished versions and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Briana Luppino]

Book Review – Knitted Tanks and Tunics

How to Knit a Simple Sweater Dress