February is for Finishing

So lately my knitting situation has looked like this:

Yeah I have alot of unfinished projects.  Or UFO's as they are known in the knitting world.  I'm pretty much buried in them.  Check it out:


This would be 4 unfinished knitting projects that I was able to assemble for this photograph without getting up off of my spot on the couch.  SHAME.

I'm surrounded by ziploc baggies filled with good intentions. I'm in this awful cycle where I start something super excited about it.  Find time to work on it a few times.  And then get derailed and am too tired/distracted/overwhelmed to even think about it.  By the time I have a chance to go back to whatever it was I'm over it and on to the next shiny.

Pintrest does not help this problem.

And the worst part is that because I have so many unfinished things I just feel guilty about all of it.  I feel guilty for starting something new b/c I really should finish something I already have going.  Then I feel guilty for working on something I'm not enjoying because I have so little free time why am I spending it on something that's not completely awesome.  And what ends up happening is that I just don't knit at all anymore.  And that's just fucking awful.

So!  I've declared February as Finishing month.  I am going to get a handle on this.  I am not going to start anything new.  The month is only 29 days long so I should be able to handle it.  Right?

February is for Finishing Rules:

1.)  I will not start any new knitting or sewing projects for the entire month of February.


2.)  I will only work on unfinished projects that I have already started.  No cheating - it has to be something I've actually worked on.  Not just thought about working on.

3.)  There is no shame in frogging.  If I don't like something I'm working on I can just frog it.  I'm not sure why I feel bad about that.  But I always do.  So this month I won't.  If I'm not interested I will rip with abandon and put the yarn back in my stash where it can find a new and happier purpose.

4.)  There is no guilt in February.  I will not feel bad about myself when I uncover projects that have been abandoned for embarassing amounts of time.  Or ones that I forgot about completely.  Or ones that only have one stupid little thing to do on them before they are done.  I will only feel happy that I am finishing them not guilty that it took so long.

And I"m throwing in two very specific to me rules:

5.)  I will not let the child distract me.  She's as a bad as I am with the crafting ADD.  I will not listen to her siren song when she says things like "I think maybe we could make this into a dress."



6.)  Dye doesn't count.  I have tons of really cool things coming up with Destination Yarn so I"m going to be dying like a madwoman for most of Feb.  I'm allowed to be as ADD with that as I want to because usually my random let's see what happens colorways are the most fun:

That's it.  If anyone out there wants to play along with me shout out in the comments.  I may try to do some sortof contest or something depending on how ambitious I am.  There might be yarn involved.

Yay February!