I should preface this post with an important admission – I’m a very linear person. Things should be done one at a time and completed, before moving on to the next thing to be done. I think a lot of that thinking is due to my training as an accountant, but I can’t help it.
After Sarah started college, she shared the joys of having multiple projects going at once. It felt very messy and unorganized to me. What if you forgot something or never finished it? Yuck!
Then I realized that there were 2 different reasons to have multiple projects. First, it’s good to have projects in different stages of completion. Currently, I have a scarf that’s complete except for blocking and the final kitchener stitching to do to sew the beginning and end together to make a tube. I’ve lost my momentum because it’s warm outside and I don’t need it now. But I will. Sarah and I made them together (she finished it before I finished the stitching) and she says it’s the nicest thing she’s ever made for herself – which is saying something.
I also have a hat in process (probably a present, but I don’t have a plan just yet) and the scarf (definitely a present for a specific person). In addition, I have a pattern picked out for a shawl to make with some yarn in my stash, and I need to order a little more to complete it.
I’ve come to realize that if you don’t have a number of projects in various stages of completion, you could find yourself unable to knit in front of the TV, if that’s what you want to do, or finish something, if that’s what you feel like, etc.
Sarah takes it a few steps further and has a number of things in each of the stages at once. I don’t think I’ve mastered that level of complexity, but who know’s what’s next?