Works In Progress: 5 Reasons for Abandonment

I have a box of secret shame in my craft room. This box is full of good intentions that met various life obstacles. It contains a tangle of gorgeous yarn and half finished projects. You guessed it: it is my works in progress box. Over the years, it has grown from a small basket, to a basket and a bag, and then to a basket, a bag, and an IKEA Lekman bin. I call them “works in progress,” but let’s be real: I have not worked on most of them for years. They are not in progress. They are abandoned. Works in abandonment.

I tell myself they are works in progress so I can feel better about the amazing yarn that is languishing in that box. A gray wool unraveled from a cozy sweater, a beautiful, deep red I meant to crochet into an afghan for my couch back in my apartment days, awesome rose linen yarn in a “I’m going to learn to knit!” project, some lovely silk unraveled from a knit shirt…the list goes on.

There are many reasons a project becomes a work in abandonment and those reasons largely determine what we might end up doing with a project when we revisit it later. Today I am going to look at those reasons and the eventual fate connected with these reasons by examining my own works in progress (abandonment) and how to think about them differently to pick them back up again.

 

Reason 1: I got distracted.

This is going to be a hat for my husband, Stephen, and it really is in progress and I work on it every once in a while. I actually carry this one around in my crochet-to-go bag to work on in extra moments. The problem is that I have a couple other things in the same bag and they are getting more attention right now. I’m sure we all have projects we set aside when something else presents itself excitingly or pressingly.

I am making this hat out of 2 strands of yarn recovered from a cashmere thrift store sweater. Stephen asked me to make him a hat a couple of years ago and picked out the sweater for the yarn. The pattern is essentially the same as the Lion Brand Adult’s Easy Crochet Hat.

Partly because this is a gift for someone who lives with me and partly because he is aware of the project, I’ll have to finish it. Frequently, when I work on or start another project, he will ask me, “are you going to finish my hat?” This circumstance alone will prevent this work in progress from becoming abandoned. I’ll get back to it this weekend and finish it. Updates soon!

Eventual Fate: It’ll finish it…eventually. Or, this could be my next crochet priority. I love making things for the people I love. I will finish it sooner rather than later.

Update: I finished this hat!! It is no longer a work in progress!

Reason 2: I ran out of time to give this as a gift and got them something else.

A couple of my works in progress (abandonment) fall into this category. I started making these silk clutches for the bridesmaids in our wedding nearly three years ago. I finished the crocheting on 2.9(ish) of the 4 of them. Then I realized I wouldn’t get to the lining or the zipper. Finally, I gave up and got them something else.

These purses are made from silk yarn recovered from thrift store sweaters (Learn to unravel silk here!) and the purple silk is dyed with Kool-Aid. The pattern is this vintage pattern found here. I would have liked to finish these for my bridesmaids before the wedding. Unfortunately, I just didn’t give myself enough time. Perhaps they wouldn’t hate to receive a belated memento of the day and a nice bag they could use for some other special occasion. In a couple of months, I’ll see if I can tackle these again. Stay tuned.

Eventual Fate: The urgency has passed. The purses will sit there until a new urgency arises. (For matching silk purses?) Or, I’ll create a new urgency. Blogging about these purses will prompt me to finish them as a project!

Reason 3: I ran out of yarn!

My mom saw a scarf I made for a friend and said, “I sure would like to have a scarf that you made…” So I started this one right away. I used yarn unraveled from the sleeves of a sweater. However, I did not do a good job of keeping the label and the yarn together, nor did I keep notes. The yarn ran out and I don’t know which half-unraveled sweater the yarn is from! Definitely a mistake I won’t make in the future, but one that has kept me stalled on this project.

There are many things one can do when one runs out of yarn. For a scarf, you can add blocks made with different yarns. You can rip out what you have and make it differently. You can decide that it will be a shorter scarf. In this case, I will see if I can find the rest of the sweater to unravel, or I will decide that the scarf is long enough this time.

This happened to me once before back when I first discovered novelty yarn. I made a cute gray wool scarf with colorful novelty yarn flecks. The novelty yarn ran out and I had to go back and buy more to finish the scarf. After weaving in ends, I realized I would love it more if it were 6-12 inches longer. I thought about adding sections of just gray on each end and then thought it wouldn’t look nice in this case.

Eventual Fate: Give the scarf to my mom a little short and mark it off the list. Or sort my half-unraveled sweaters and find the yarn I need to finish this project and give my mom a nice scarf she will wear more often. Updates soon!

Reason 4: I got discouraged.

I have a beautiful red afghan started that I mostly crocheted on a train trip. I would like to get going on this project again. It would be a beautiful addition to our living room and the texture is interesting. Crocheting afghans is a somewhat overwhelming prospect for me. (They’re big. They take a lot of stitches. The rows seem interminable.) It will need to be a slow and steady project for when I just need to make some stitches or need a break from some thread crochet.

I honestly don’t remember if I bought enough yarn to do the whole afghan. We have moved twice since I started it. This project might be a combination of reasons 3 and 4. Once I get the craft room organized, I’ll know how much yarn I have for this particular project, but I may need to transform what I was going to do with this project.

Eventual Fate: I will turn it into something else, pretending that was my aim all along! (Does anyone have any ideas?)

Reason 5: I am so over this thing!

The tangle that remains in the box and the bag would illustrate Reason 5. For the most part, works in progress start falling into this category when I try to design something without following crochet rules, when I decide to use really nice yarn to experiment with, or when the person I started making something for isn’t in my life anymore.

Among these projects I am so over is a bulging beret made with a soft creamy yarn unraveled from a sweater. The yarn is great, but the “beret” is truly hideous. It looks like a deflated ball with a misshapen hole in it. Next, the really nice linen yarn on some knitting needles, originally intended for a sweater. Prior to that attempt, I had only ever knitted a small square of scrap yarn. I don’t know why I thought I should buy some expensive linen yarn and learn to knit by following a complicated sweater pattern. I finished three rows. And there is a scarf that I started for a friend I have since lost touch with. The yarn is a gorgeous wool that works up beautifully and will have a better life as a hat than it has as a half-finished scarf.

There are likely two motivations for keeping these project in my works in progress box: 1) I have hoarder tendencies, and 2) I’m convinced I can use the yarn for something better! The logic behind the first motivation informs the second one quite a bit. Oh well. Yarn stashes grow partly because of those tendencies, right? I am eager to return my works in abandonment to the yarn stash where they can await life as a new object. Let the frogging commence!

Eventual fate: Rip it out and use the yarn for something I love! The guilt decreases with each unraveled stitch.

Works in Progress Wrap Up

I don’t want to sound too gloomy about these poor abandoned projects. Listing them all like this makes it sound like I don’t finish anything. But those other projects that distracted me from these are well underway or complete. Check out the honey buzzzz scarf, a project finished this week! Stay tuned for updates on completed WIPs.

Many works in progress (abandonment) might be suffering their unfinished state due to a combination of these reasons. What other reasons have you experienced with your own works in abandonment? Have you picked them back up to finish them after ages away from a project? What do you end up doing with them? Does anyone else have a collection of projects that they probably won’t be getting back to, but haven’t been able to bring themselves to part with? Let me know in the comments!