When should you just throw in the towel and give up on a project?
If a project has been in hibernation for over five years, and was cast on more than ten years ago, should it just be frogged or thrown away?
I think it depends hugely on the project. It’s that Marie Kondo question of whether it still sparks joy?
After a really long break, I’ve picked up my Golden Wheat Shawl to work on, and it definitely still sparks joy for me.
The yarn is an absolutely glowing shade of (golden wheat) yellow, hand-dyed by Lilith at Old Maiden Aunt Yarns. This is a colour I’m wearing much more of at the moment. So much more than I did ten years ago. I have orange dungarees and a mustard yellow sweater, and I think my wardrobe is calling out for an enormous golden yellow shawl!
The project is also, finally, at the interesting section. I’ve completed the central panel, and I’m now onto the wide border with its wheat motifs (worked with nupps – more on them another day!). The rows are all different in this section, but with nice, long, plain, rest rows between the rows with patterning, so there’s a balance of interesting and relaxing knitting going on.
This project is definitely something that sparks joy, and something that I really want to be working on.
This project was cast on in 2010, not long after my design first appeared in The Knitter (I was on the staff at the time, so sadly I don’t own the rights to the pattern and unfortunately it isn’t currently available). I worked on it on and off over the ensuing years, but it has been at the bottom of the pile and my notes tell me that I haven’t worked on it since 2016. So is that too long?
I really don’t think it is! But now that it has made it back into my active projects, I would like to try to get some momentum going. There are 71 rows in the border chart, and I’m now on row 14. That’s nearly 20% of the way through the border chart. Whoot!
And that in a nutshell is my tactic. Recognising and rewarding my forward progress.
I’ve made a little table in my bullet journal, and following some advice that I picked up on Felicity (Felix) Ford’s fantastic Bullet Journalling course, I’m colouring it in and adding motivating stickers each time I complete a section of rows. I even found some wheat ear stickers that are beyond perfect for this encouraging table!
For me at least, the secret is to use the journal as a way to be kind to myself, and to say encouraging things to myself about the project. It’s all too easy to try to push yourself into working on something because you feel like you should, rather than because you want to, or because it makes you happy.
Knitting is meant to be fun, isn’t it? So for now, you’ll find me on the sofa with my large crumpled mess of golden yellow laceweight shawl and a huge pile of stickers, feeling pleased with myself.
This project may well get put back in hibernation when another more pressing project comes along, but I’m pretty sure it won’t sit there for another five years. There are stickers to be awarded!