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| Jenn with s-i-l Natalie in Jan 2009. That scarf came in handy! |
Newly determined, I tried to pick projects that I thought might actually get finished. I started with the basic scarf and hoped the stitch was complicated enough to be cool and hold my interest but could be accomplished faster than an incoming ice age. Halfway through the first very long scarf and it felt like a journey without end.
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| Booties! |
My impatience years ago, during those first few projects, made it not worth it to me to go back and fix things even though they bugged me, which led to my eventual quitting. Now a little older and wiser and more determined, I had the patience to fix things. I wasn't rushing for an outcome so much as trying to make the best possible scarf, hat, what have you, and I knew it would take as long as it took and I'd be happier if I fixed the stitches that bothered me. It was worth the effort and time to make it right. Essentially, I evolved into a finisher!
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| Jenn's current project. |
So, how about you, Reds? Are you starters or finishers? How do you get motivated to finish a project when it's a struggle?
Sometimes I plan, with all good intentions, to do something, but it simply doesn’t happen. However, once I actually start a project, I tend to keep at it until I’ve gotten the project finished.
ReplyDeleteAs for the motivation, I think it’s mostly a matter of self-discipline, forcing myself to keep at it until the project is finished . . . .
Congratulations on pushing through with that scarf. I'm a finisher, as long as you don't look at my long-abandoned knitting bag (I used to be a knitting finisher, just not any more). I've made two quilts in the last five years, and have a baby quilt coming up this summer (my dear goddaughter is due in September - first baby in the family!). When I carve out that time for those projects, I just push through and finish - and then wonder what I do with that time when I'm not on a project.
ReplyDeleteYes! Edith, I know exactly what you mean. Where does that "extra" time go?
DeleteOh I wish I could knit! I just can't get my stitches to be even. My "rectangles" look like bat wings. I do, however crochet. Or I did. And I START BIG and FINISH SMALL. My "bedspread" turned out to be a handbag. But I did finish it. And I've done many baby blankets.
ReplyDeleteWriting a book I push through. Slow but erratic, that's my motto.
Can't stop laughing about the bedspread/handbag, Hallie!
DeleteThat's one way to finish a project: downgrade your expectations. :-)
Ha! I've done that, too! The scarf that became a pot holder, etc. Like in writing, you have to know when to say when.
DeleteI do the reverse. Think I'm knitting a cap and it ends up a tote bag!
DeleteGood for you, Jenn, on your perseverance!
ReplyDeleteAt work, I was always known as the finisher, or the doer who gets things done. Too many botched (but finished) craft projects as a child has traumatized me and made me bitter, too. So at home, I don't do any crafts like knitting or quilting since I have little patience or skill and bad memories. But I do love to bake and cook. I take great pleasure in experimenting and you have get to enjoy the results when you're done.
I love baking but cooking not so much. And you're right, Grace, the reward factor is nicely immediate.
DeleteI could never knit. Not in the real knitter sense of the word. My mother was an ace knitter. She made all my sweaters when I was a kid really intricate stuff. Things with enough needles sticking everywhere to look like a porcupine. I never got past straight knitting. Turned out I was a natural lefty switched by the nuns and somehow that tendency made certain necessary wrist movements difficult for me. Who knew.
ReplyDeleteCrocheting - whole other story. Jenn, I loved seeing your current project and the workbook cover. That was my first crochet project! Yes, they have a crochet version of the same afghan. I picked it for project number one because I wanted to learn a variety of stitches. Love the afghan. You will too. One year, I crocheted afghans for everyone on my Christmas list.
Yep, a definite finisher. I do not understand the concept of "unfinished." Wait - is that the definition of obsessive? Well, it's not such a bad thing, right?
Kait - I started with crochet! I loved it but my grandmother was an ace knitter like your mom so I felt the need to try it until I got it. That was a long learning curve. The sampler is the best because of the variety, I think.
DeleteKnitting? In 1970 I made a child's balaclava. I finished it, my first knitted anything, and I started on Christmas stockings for the children. Wonder what became of that project. In 1974 I crocheted a poncho, finished it, and started numerous afghans, none of them finished, no project left extant.
ReplyDeleteI don't miss any of those things. Crafts are not my forte. And I don't even consider writing a book, although I do outlines in my head daily.
Now there is chalk paint. I have three old ratty tables that are candidates for this. Yesterday I ordered the paint and brushes. As soon as we have a dry stretch, I plan to start the first one. I'll probably finish it. Maybe. Someday.
Like Grace, I am a cook. Those projects I finish because I can't not.
Currently I'm into list making. The one for the coming week looks like this:
1. Make parsley and whatever pesto
2. Clean winter stuff out of closet.
3. Clear off buffet of stuff that got put there when painter was painting
4. Move piano from sun room to living room
5. Plant bush beans
6. Set up home delivery for prescriptions.
One of these things is not like the other?
I am only a finisher if I make lists and cross off things when completed. Otherwise I am a great started with little to show at the end of the day/week/month/year/life.
I love making lists. Specifically, I love crossing stuff off the lists I make. Sometimes, when I get sidetracked to a task that isn't on the list, I put it on the list, just so I can mark it off.
DeleteYou are my kind of woman Gigi
DeleteI love lists. I keep several in rotation. And, yes, the best part is crossing something off. It's a beautiful thing.
DeleteCount me in as a list maker, too. It takes a list to motivate the finisher in me, too, Finta. And, Gigi, I often add to a list just to mark off something that wasn't on there that I accomplished. Hahaha!
DeleteI'm a quilter, although I also crochet, and can even knit a little. I cannot claim to be a fast quilter, but I have finished somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 projects since I took it up, back in 1980. Sometimes I finish. Sometimes I set the thing aside, and come back to it a long while later. All quilters are familiar with what we call UFOs: Un-Finished Objects. We even pull them out of the closet and show them off at quilter's guild meetings every now and then, in an attempt to get motivated again.
ReplyDeleteQuilting has taught me about what I call Ugly Quilt Syndrome. It strikes at that halfway point, when you've pieced the blocks, set the top together, basted the whole thing into a quilt, and are well into the hand quilting. Then one day you look at your beloved project and say, "This is the ugliest quilt I've ever seen. Nobody will want this quilt. They won't even want it for their dog to sleep on!" You are sorely tempted to put it in the back of the closet with the rest of the UFOs, but if you grit your teeth and keep going, you will finish it and a magical thing will happen as you take it off the frame: it will become beautiful again! Ugly Quilt Syndrome can also strike in the middle of a manuscript and, if I am to believe my composer friends, also in the middle of symphonies and concertos. Now that I know about Ugly Quilt Syndrome, I try to keep going, even if life derails me for a while. The results will be worth it.
I remember "helping" my grandmother quilt. She and the Ladies of the Club. I'm pretty sure she removed my clumsy stitches after I got bored and went out to play.
DeleteShe probably cherished those clumsy stitches. That's a time-honored way of passing the skills along. Too bad you weren't old enough to appreciate the undoubtedly awesome gossip and philosophy those ladies were trading over the quilt as they worked.
DeleteI wish, but I do remember names: Mrs. Scott and Miss Lizzie, Mary Mast, Marcena Roderick, Mrs. Pool, Auntie Maude Searles, Mrs. Worthy, Ione Hart
DeleteYES! Un-Finished Object is frequently a condition in the middle of my manuscripts or my knitting projects. In a manuscript, I may kill off an extra person just to get through it. That doesn't work with knitting. Pity.
DeleteOh, too bad it doesn't work with knitting! Those needles would be so useful at killing off an extra person, if only it would advance the scarf. I like to have something to keep my hands and eyes busy in rehearsal, where I mostly have to listen to do my job. Crocheting and piecing are easy to do without much thought, and simple to transport, but the projects get packed away when the concert season is over, so I have lots of UFOs now.
DeleteI sorta learned to knit in second grade but I really didn't do much with it until high school. My best friend and her mother could both knit like crazy, so of course I could too. I made a sweater for my boyfriend and my family all looked at me pathetically. They didn't say so but I knew that no one thought I would finish it. But I did and he even wore it! From there I went on to do a lot of knitting. Irish fisherman sweaters my specialty but I hate working with more than one color so I leave those projects to others. Nowadays knitting is more of a winter passtime for me and I like to knit gifts for others because those are the projects I actually finish.
ReplyDeleteMost of my knitting is gifts, Judi. You're right, there is more motivation to knit for others.
DeleteI never learned how to knit. No patience for it.
ReplyDeleteBut I used to do counted cross stitch, but when my kids were small, they "played" with the threads. Now that they are older, I should take it up again. I have several partially finished projects, but I used to finish all the time (and I did "complicated" patterns, not basic samplers). Something other than writing to ease my mind.
I'd say I'm a finisher, in general. At least with writing, there are no pieces for the kids to play with and hopelessly tangle! Oh wait, I do enough of that myself. LOL
Mary/Liz
I love counted cross stitch, Mary. The complicated ones are pure art. There is a hilarious book out called Subversive Cross Stitch - not complicated patterns but samplers with cuss words worked in. It cracks me up.
DeleteI hate to knit, as evidenced by an unfinished project I've picked up and halfheartedly worked on for over twenty years now. My friend and I bought similar projects at the same time. Karen finished hers in about a month, wore it for years, and by now it's been gone from her life for so long she can't even remember, and I still have this bag o' yarn staring at me. Ugh. The darn thing won't fit me any more, anyway.
ReplyDeleteCompletion was way better with sewing projects, up until a few years ago. I used to make nearly everything I wore, and nearly every fabric item in our home: curtains, pillows, slipcovers, tablecloths, napkins. You name it, I probably made it at least once, including a blind cover for my nature photog husband. I've even made quilting projects, including one twin-sized quilt, but as many things as I've finished I have the supplies to make five times as many. My eyes are bigger than my ambition, it seems.
Writing is another issue, sadly. I keep starting projects that don't get finished these days. Too much choice stops me in my tracks. It's easier with a dress. I know when that is finished, and have a clear path to completion. However, I rarely wear dresses these days.
Karen, I've always admired people who can sew. I can manage curtains and pillows but I can never get clothing to drape right - it makes me crazy. Good for you for mastering that!
DeleteI was born to sew. Used to teach it!
DeleteAre used to knit, and I think I made striped scarves! Not a very high degree of difficulty. But I really loved completing them, and adding the French. Then I discovered crocheting, and went crazy making baby blankets for everyone I knew. It's so peaceful, and such a joy to watch the project take shape ( such as it was ), and I always think of my grandmother, because she taught me how to do both things. I was never interested in getting better at it, for some reason.
ReplyDeleteNow I think cooking is my knitting. And as for writing, I am very determined. I do not give up. I get a huge satisfaction out of accomplishing something. I sometimes fear that feeling is vanishing from our culture, you know? Everybody has such short attention spans.
Cooking is experiencing a kind of revival, I think, especially among the 20- and 30-something crowds. All those Blue Apron companies speak to this trend.
DeleteAnd gardening, too. Lots of young people taking it up, especially with vegetables, and I'm impressed at their knowledge levels. I volunteered to pass out seed packets at an inner-city library for Earth Day last month, and I was blown away by who came by to pick them up. Such an interesting cross-section of local culture, every demographic you could think of. Because it was an Extension project, which is overseen by the FDA, we had to sign every person in and have them check gender and race boxes. It was so interesting to see how all the boxes were filled.
Oh that's great Karen!
DeleteAnd the pre-prepped food is an interesting angle--it means you don't have to go to the grocery or wash vegetables or cut things up--you just get the fun part .
DeleteHank - I do believe determination is the key with crafts, cooking, or writing. It's so easy to quit when the going gets tough. The new buzz word at my sons' school is grit. I think educators are catching on that kids need to learn how to struggle a bit and not just get the participation trophy for showing up.
DeleteI'm just cracking up at Hank's autocorrect. I love to add the French, too. {snort}
DeleteOoh, la la!
DeleteFine fine, sure, yes, the autocorrect is so funny--that's what I get for dictating the the Star Market parking lot in the sun. And I TRY to check, but I always mss something. As you know. And maybe I MEANT add the french. Its a secret thing.
DeleteI have started many many things. And finished some.
ReplyDeleteBut since we're talking knitting here, I'll tell you I just finished the lovely sheepish sweater I started in 1985 or so. I worked on it in fits and starts over 30 years, and then last year said, Dammit, I LOVE that sweater and I'm going to finish it in time for winter. Much attention to detail ensured, and I completed it -- ta da! -- on the warmest February day in history. It did get colder and I wore it proudly through chilly March and April. Of course sheepish sweaters are 30 years out of style, but I love it. http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Dalyght/sheep-may-safely-graze
So I immediately started a Mary Maxim sweater kit, Bears and Trees. I'm well into it, almost half done.
Susan- I love your sheepish sweater! The colors are terrific and the sheep are adorable. I'm on Ravelry, too, but I try not to spend too much time there because I get too many ideas for projects.
DeleteSusan, the link didn't work. Now I'm curious about sheepish sweaters!
ReplyDeleteAm I a finisher? Hmmm. Not if you consider the ONE block of the quilt I've been trying to make for at least three years now, and I'd never have got that far without lots of help and advice from Gigi, who is a brilliant quilter. If gardening counts, I do pretty well. And cooking, especially since I do the planning and shopping, and almost always make everything I intended.
If books count, I am slow, but I do get them finished.
And yesterday, my friend came to help me finish painting my living room, a project started in January. We got all but one corner done--yay!!!!--and after that, it's on to the dining room.
So maybe I am in the tortoise finishing class....
Debs, as soon as I hit my deadline on Jun 1, I'm painting my house, too. Can't wait. I'll let you know how long it takes me - we'll see if I'm a finisher or a big faker!
DeleteDebs rounded up a whole crew of friends to help her create a quilt for Baby Wren. She picked the fabric, helped cut and arrange the pieces, and kept the rest of us well-supplied with wine and snacks until the quilt top was finished, then paid for the quilting. It's a less direct way of making a quilt, but Wren got a quilt from her nanna nonetheless.
DeleteOh dear. The link works in full for Ravelry members (like Jenn) but it should show the picture anyway, even if you're not signed in. But just for you, Debs, try this....
Deletehttp://dalyght.ca/fileshare/sheepish_sweater.jpg
I don't knit or crochet, but I like to think I fall into the "finisher" category in other areas. I finish my writing, and I finish projects around the house like painting, cleaning out closets, and reorganizing spaces.
ReplyDeleteBut maybe it's just that I'm not a big "starter"? That I only take on very specific projects? Hmmm...food for thought...
I think that's just wise, Ingrid. Sometimes I think I take on knitting or house projects to avoid the things I really need to be doing. Work avoidance with work?
DeleteLike laundry.
DeleteI usually finish what I start but like Ingrid, I'm not a big starter. I only want to do things I'll know that I finish.
ReplyDeleteVery wise. Sometimes I am stuck in indecision because there are too many things to do.
DeleteIf I can get a project started I can usually finish it. Starting is the problem. I have been staring at my kitchen cabinets for years, wishing they'd magically paint themselves. I'm sure I will continue to contemplate this project for a few more years because of its size. Bleah. And I hate painting. You cannot Tom Sawyer me on this. I took up crochet years ago. That lasted for one afghan. I attended free classes with a friend and we learned to crochet an afghan with a southwestern design and colors. As I learned my stitches went from loose to tight. My afghan went from rectangular to trapezoid. Oh well. Kept it for years and then ditched it on one of our moves. I jump into cross stitch or needlepoint every decade or score of years. Just long enough for a project or two and then back to normal. I've passed the decade mark now so I may be picking up a project again before long.
ReplyDeletePat - I have been staring at my cabinets for the past year - it's been 14 years since I painted them and they need it desperately. I'm still trying to figure out where the 14 years went.
DeleteNot a knitter, not a quilter, not a crocheter, not a seamtress. However, for those who can reach back in time to macrame, I did create a beautiful green Christmas tree hanging that I still love and use every Christmas. I think it was in the late 70s or early 80s I did this, before I had children, which started in 1983. I really liked the knotting, with the tight, heavy cording. I never went on to any other similar crafts though. I've often thought that I might like to get into re-purposing furniture, but I haven't as of yet.
ReplyDeleteJust a quick note that I will probably be missing a large chunk of postings here this coming week, as I'm leaving tomorrow for the wonderful Wizarding Worlds of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Orlando. My daughter's family and I are going on a trip that is as exciting to me as it is to the granddaughters. I guess I need to go get my clothes in the suitcase now.
Oh, Kathy, we want a FULL report! xoxoo
DeleteHave fun, Kathy! I just had a hilarious conversation with my mail guy about stamp designs and the fact that people were up in arms about the Harry Potter stamp. Why? Because he isn't an American. We were musing over the fact that he isn't real!
DeleteHave fun, Kathy! I absolutely loved that place! The HP ride is the best and butter beer is surprisingly tasty - at least, I thought so!
DeleteI wonder, Jenn, have you had anything butter-related that you didn't enjoy? I haven't!
DeleteI will definitely report back, Hank. You would think people had more important things to be upset about than the Harry Potter stamp, wouldn't you, Ingrid? Jenn, do you have any tips for me? This is my first trip there, and I've read guides and tips, but there's nothing like information straight from someone who has been there.
DeleteHa! Ingrid, you are speaking my language - I once ate a whole stick of butter as a kid. My parents were like what it wrong with you? And I still love butter.
DeleteKathy, sadly, I have no tips except be prepared for long lines but the people watching is epic.
I'm a quilter and I love starting new projects, but I also enjoy completing ones I've started. I reserve the right to skip from one project to another if I don't have a deadline or intended purpose for a quilt, in which case my quilt-in-process goes in a box. Usually this happens when I'm bored with the quilt or not sure what it needs next. Also many of my quilts begin as experiments with no intended purpose and I don't feel the need to finish them. It's fun to look through my box of unfinished bits months or years later and get re-inspired by them. Some of them get finished. Other times, I add to them and put them back in the box. It's more of an emotional high for me to start something than it is to finish it because I often have an empty feeling when the project is done, even though I'm satisfied that it's finished. This could explain why I have so many unfinished projects now that I think about it...
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting, Karen. I definitely have an emotional high when starting and I know exactly what you mean about the empty feeling when finishing, although depending upon the project sometimes I welcome that.
ReplyDelete