UFOs/WIPs

I keep a booklet of my unfinished projects. And I have a separate list with my wish projects. And then there are all these ideas going around in my head. Oh and of course there are these projects that I made and I did not like them, I should make a separate list of these and decide what to do with them. The list of unfinished projects is quite long …. and that should change.
There are a few projects that I just never seem to be able to finish – for different reasons. There are 2.5 months left in this year and below are a few projects that I should finish and why.

1) Red silk jacket
I like making clothes, often they work out or just need a little adjustment. I made a lovely blue jacket with African fabric, so of course I wanted to make this jacket again. In 2007 I bought some very nice silk and the jacket would be soooo gorgeous in red silk, or so I thought ….. Disaster after disaster and frustration upon frustration. Three years later this jacket is still not finished. I redid the seams, the lining - supposedly to be black was blue so redid the lining, the sleeves were redone maybe three times …….. and now all it needs is to redo the bottom seams. I need to carefully open up a few seems – not much – line up the lining with the outer red silk and hand sew it all together.

2) Bella Skill Builder quilt
In an effort to boost my quilting skills I bought the kit for the Bella Skill Builder quilt. I enjoyed the sewing up off all the blocks and sewing the top. The quilt turned out huge and I was too afraid to continue. After all these efforts now what. So I bought iron-on batting. While gathering courage to quilt this beauty I made a few baby quilts just to get acquainted with my new sewing machine and getting confidence. My daughter knows it is for her and she stopped asking when I am finishing this. So for Christmas it would be a great gift for her.

3) Cross roads quilt
When this quilt was announced on the FQS blog I fell in love with it. The first version I made was in African Fabrics. And then decided to spoil myself with the original kit. The blocks are done and this sweety is waiting to be quilted. This one will be for me.

4) Autumn quilted table runner
As part of overcoming my barriers to do free motion quilting I bought this cute little kit with acorns. I have combined all acorn blocks. Well as it was too long for my coffee table I kept 4 blocks aside. I have cut the background and the batting and all I need to do is quilt the acorns and bind it.

5) cognac coloured cardigan.
Last year December I bought this soft lovely Italian yarn to make a cardigan for myself to match a skirt my father’s wife made for me. I ran out of yarn and could not finish it as this specific colour was out of stock. The yarn is available again and I ordered two balls to finish it. I ended up ordering on-line directly from the company. Oh so dangerous as this leads to my next project that I started. I want this cardigan to be done by Christmas as well so I can wear it.

6) Poncho
Purchasing two balls of yarn is expensive postage wise. What to do, wait until I find the yarn somewhere in a shop … or just go ahead order the two balls of project 5 and order another project (oh the danger). The perfect excuse. I am traveling and bringing along the unfinished cardigan on different needles is complicated. A new project is in order. And yes this goes against my own rule of not purchasing new projects until I have finished my old projects. However, this would be a perfect project while having an 11 hour journey with one stop over. And it is. It calls to make two panels and while traveling to Nairobi have knitted half of one panel. Maybe this evening might try to do some knitting. And panel one should be finished on my way home. The quality of the picture is not great as I took the picture in my hotel room that lacks light.

7) leg warmers for my daughter
I knit socks, actually I love knitting socks. So my daughter wants me to make her socks. I had bought this lovely yarn from WYS, and she claimed it. As she is only 11 she grows fast, and so do her feet. What if I knit socks and they would be too small in a few months … she would be sad. Solution: knit leg warmers. I started as this is my daily travel traffic jam project. I commute to work and sometimes traffic is bad, we don’t move … so I knit, knitting on a short circular needle is perfect – all I have to do is go round and round. And only when my car does not move of course. So depending on the traffic, the legwarmers will be done by end December. Otherwise will just have to take a few moments knitting while supervising my kids doing their homework.

8) Christmas placemats.
I started making Christmas themed placemats. And then my sewing machine broke down. Meanwhile I changed my sewing machine. When back from my trip need to dig these out (take a picture) and finish them. This entails, the quilting and the binding. The tops are done and basted and backed with clips/safety pins.

9) Ross blanket
For a reason I cannot explain, somehow crocheting is something I like, and never end up doing at home. Last year’s summer holidays I started the Ross blanket, and throughout the different holidays, worked on the project. For almost a year now I have not touched the blanket. There is no way I will finish this in the next 2.5 months. Am hoping though by adding this project to my public list will help me to get it out of the bags and just get on with it. I have made blocks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. Have started the blocks 5. To finish this project, I will need to finalize crocheting the four number 5 blocks that I am building on block 6 (the centre piece). Then need to learn how to crochet all the blocks together and make a border. In the FB group where we crocheted this as a CAL, there were plenty of ideas for different borders. I have come so far with this project, learned so much, so now just need to find an incentive to start again and actually finish this.

10) lavender socks
My list of projects that I can think of on the top of my head on which I am actually working is getting longer and longer. Not sure how embarrassed I should be. I started knitting these socks and one is done (except for the binding off). My daughter looked at me a few times most likely thinking "when oh when will you start mine". So I had to interrupt this pair and start her leg warmers. So they will be on the list for next year. Unless of course there will so many traffic jams that I get to knit this sock as well. Actually, hopefully not.

I am linking up with Finish-A-Long – FAL 2018. I discovered this group of enthusiast crafters stimulating us all to pick up that forgotten/abandoned project and finish it. Thank you in advance for pushing me to finish what I can. Let’s see how far I get.


The final link-up for our projects is here.