Beating the UFOs once and for all

After I blogged last week, about how well my boot camp approach had worked in getting me to work on the UFOs I most dreaded, I looked at the rest of last year’s list. Unfortunately I discovered the boot camp approach didn’t clear the list.

UFOs from 2014 I completed in 2015 were:

  • Knitted Slippers

Finished Slippers

  • Four pairs of tiebacks for the kitchen/diner curtains
  • Lounge blinds

20150130_102355

Projects from 2014 still unfinished:

  • Short story – The House at the End of Our Street 
  • Lanarte cross stich

Lanarte Embriodery

  • Patchwork Bethlehem star cushion
  • Block I designed for a cushion

Bethelhem Star Block

To be fair, I made a conscious decision not to work on the cross stitch and I’ve said I’m not going to write any more fiction. That still holds for 2016. They’re not nagging and I’m very happy to those two UFOs rest/not happen.

As for the other two UFOs from 2014, I just couldn’t build enough enthusiasm for the block I designed – in truth, I didn’t like it. The Bethlehem star block got forgotten. I think, because it was the easiest and I kept telling myself I’d do it in a short space of time and never got there. So it seems the drawback of my boot camp approach was that while I tackled the difficult challenges, I ignored the easiest thing.

What I’m pleased – and amazed – about, is that now I look around properly at this year, the yellow cardigan was my only UFO from last year.  That doesn’t mean I didn’t carry other unfinished projects over from 2015, but for me something is only a UFO if:

  • I’ve mentally abandoned it and have no idea when I might pick it up next
  • I have no inclination to pick it up.
  • Recognise I’m avoiding working on it.

So that’s only three UFOs still hanging around. Here’s my plan to conquer them:

  • I’ve already thrown the block I designed in the bin/scrap bag. So that’s one down.
  • I’m not allowing myself to sew anything else on my sewing machine until I’ve made the Bethlehem star into a cushion.
  • Thanks to everyone’s useful comments, I’ve considered other options for the yellow yarn, but I’m still with knitting a cardigan, just in a different pattern. I can’t quite bring myself to frog it – I do like the stitch pattern. So until I have time to root round on Ravelry, I’m afraid, despite my tough words, the part knitted yellow yarn is going to have to sit nagging a little longer. But I’m not going to allow it to nag all year – promise.

I’m also adding a new goal for the year; Not to create any UFOs in 2016.

So how do you define a UFO? How many UFOs did you carry with you into this year? And what’s the worst one you’ve got outstanding?

I look forward to hearing about your UFOs,

Bekki Hill

33 thoughts on “Beating the UFOs once and for all”

  1. I have lots of projects sitting around unfinished – a skirt started too late in summer and left as the weather turned cooler, some cushions waiting for covers, and a short-sleeved jumper that just isn’t knitting itself. But my biggest problem is ‘unstarted’ projects. I have piles of material, yarn and old clothes sitting around because I think they’ll useful in some way, so part of my New Year’s resolutions is to tackle this mess. http://maryomsthoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/better-late-than-never-new-years.html – so far things are going well. I’ve turned the material leftover from cushion-covering into a pegbag. Now…..if I can keep that momentum up all year, I’ll be able to find the spare room

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      1. Thank you for following 🙂 The reason this hasn’t shown up is that I have a million and one different blogs – well, four. Book blog, gardening blog, crafting and cooking blog, and the one for ‘other thoughts’. New year’s resolutions covers all sorts of bits and pieces though. I have thought of lumping the three non-book blogs together and using ‘pages’ to separate the different threads but haven’t got round to it yet. I suppose I should consider that as unfinished business too…

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  3. I have so many UFOs I couldn’t possibly list them all.
    Possibly the one that bugs me most is a patchwork quilt I started, bought all the fabric, cut all the shapes, decided on a backing fabric, made several of the ‘blocks’ and now it languishes in a basket getting slowly buried under current WIPs and glimpsed only rarely which is when I feel guilty. However, I do still love the pattern and the fabric and it’s only a matter of time before I get back to it. We won’t talk about knitted things…… 😉

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  4. Already years ago, I drastically changed my studio. I focus on knitting and drawing and all other pursuits of hobbies I let go. UFOs weigh me down, I do not like clutter and I am a bit OCD (only a bit;0)) I have no yarn stash either. As soon as I feel that closet space gets spars , I drastically weed and donate the good stuff to Goodwill etc. The only UFOs I have now, are in my sewing baskets…clothes that need altering because of my height…it is my achilles heel : buying more clothes whilst I have not finished my previous loot = ouch! oh well…it is the overall feeling of happiness that counts right? xo Johanna ps your house looks lovely

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    1. Hi Johanna. Good for you having no UFOs. It’s what I’m working on. Well done on the lack of stash. I don’t see the virtue in having a yarn stash. Although I do have a small one. Mostly odds and ends I’ve inherited from charity shops or mother in law has passed on that the WI can’t sell from deceased estates! I do have some I’ve bought, but most has a project idea attached. You’re also very good altering clothes. I live in jeans or leggings so I don’t have to alter legs and I knit sleeved stuff or buy short sleeves if I can’t find enough ‘tall’ clothes’. Thanks for the comment about the house 🙂 xx

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      2. Have you actually pulled it out and taken a good look at it? I often find that helps me re-connect. And now I’m off on one – as a coach – I’d always advise breaking mammoth tasks into smaller goals. Good luck! 🙂

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  6. I’m not too bad with sewing ufo’s – once I start something I see if through. Unless it’s a wadder then it goes straight in the bin. I have a few bits n pieces of crochet and knitting on the go, but I never count them as ufos as I see them as practice! Well done with yours. You seem to have things more under control. 😃

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  7. I only have one to confess to: a Summer cardigan, which I do plan to pick up again once Spring is in the air. I don’t actually have too much more to complete and I also have my knitting Wonder Woman of a mum to help me pick it back up, so fingers crossed it won’t be too onerous…

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  8. I’ve only got one unfinished article that I need to just hunker down and complete …… or undo and start again……….. It’s a crochet cardi that I’m making up as I go along and I’m not that thrilled with how it was looking so I put it aside and watched some movies and read some books and played with beads instead. But as I have a jumper I want to knit for my daughter I have to get this finished or the jumper won’t get started. I’m only doing one, of any type of craft project, at a time now.

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  9. Awesome, you are so organized, and have such great ideas for the year. I love it.
    Lol. 🙂 I do have UFO’s. I dont know if I should call them UFO’s as they are just at the edge of my sight, and I can see them every so now and then. I do intend to pick them up and work on them sometime, I just don’t know when the “sometime” quite is.
    I guess the intentions are good, only the attention keeps wandering off into all kinds of directions. 🙂

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    1. Thank you. You should see my house, organised it is not. I’m just trying to get more so. I do think banishing UFOs and putting more thought in before I start is key, but there’s always something new pulling, as you say 🙂

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  10. If I consider UFOs in the manner you do, then I don’t have any – only about half a dozen WIPs. I go through phases of working madly at a couple of them, getting bored, then moving on to another couple. Rotating as the mood strikes keeps everything moving forward nicely:)

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  13. When it comes to creative projects, I tend to have several of them on the go these days, and I alternate what I am working on based on my ideas and mood. I find that this approach allows me to enjoy everything more. So I don’t know if they qualify as ufo’s. I also have organizational projects that I work on, little bits at a time, as time allows. So… I suppose that leaves my yard (very neglected last summer) as the project I should get to this spring! 😉

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