Thoughts on Finishing Things...

 

Maybe the title leads you to think that this will be another post that includes FOs. Nope, not this post. Instead I have been thinking about the Psychology of our WIPs and FOs. Or rather the Pyschology of my current WIPs and FOs.

 

 

Last week I asked you all about your feelings after finishing a project. Whether you want to cast on all the things after finishing or if your FO fueled your drive to finish up more WIPs.

 

 

I asked the question mainly because I am intersted in your knitting "habits", as well as I was looking to understand my sudden and unusual desire to finish all the things.

 

 

Had I asked myself that same question a couple months ago, I would have replied that once a project comes off the needles I will reward myself by casting on 2-3 more things. Now, I want to knit down my WIPs. What happened is the question?

 

 

I get it, this is just knitting. There is no need for an analysis. I should just knit and not think too much into all this right? So if it is just knitting then why when I read this article for Realjob purposes, did I automatically relate my knitting tendencies to the Zeigarnick Effect? I should have been thinking about my job, but instead I am trying to break down the reasons why my WIP basket is suddenly giving me heart palpatations (not really-drama for effect).

No life changing event happened, but change happened. Will I soon join the ranks of you monogamous knitters? Most importantly will you monogamous knitter accept me as one of your own, considering my past debauchery? And most, most important will there be any hazing involved?

In full disclosure this may be a fluke in my wiring, and I may return back to my wild ways in the next day or two. Now I am once more turning the question back on you. Throughout your knitting lives, have you ever changed your ways. Were you ever wild and cast-on fancy free, then settled down, or vise-versa?

All this talk about changes put this song in my head:

 

 

 

Have the best day today!

XO,

Andi

 

Comments

[Stitched Together]

That article is fascinating. I think when you are used to working with several WIPs on the go at once, you don't feel "interrupted" when it isn't completed. You are aware that you have several things on the go and the projects in question will get done, when the mood strikes you. That is unless you begin a "finish all the things" kick and then you feel interrupted by everything else. You get into cycles that can swing one way or the other, which is why just a small change in thinking can make you monogamous or polygamous as a knitter either permanently or temporarily. I just go with it when I get into a "finish all the things" state of mind, because then I'll have that amazing "cast on all the things" rush when I've finished.

[Mel North]

I've been in the same mood lately, wanting to finish my WIPs before casting on new projects. I think test knitting forces me to think differently about my knitting, I don't seem to have much of an urge to cast on so much these days. But then again, I think there will be a time when I will feel a bit in "limbo" and get a fit of startitis!

[steph]

oh course!!!! At times I'm as flighty with my casting on as a knitter can be (the startitis bug is most definitely a real disease that hits me several times a year).....and then, for no known reason----I get so focused on a single project that I can hardly sleep until it's finished. If you come up with a sane solution to this schitzophenic behavior, please let me know!

[Cee]

Before I knew how to knit I crocheted and back then I had no qualms starting a million projects at the same time. I carried the habit over into my knitting but it came to a halt because my needles are limited. I would end up having to pull the needles out and use scrap yarn as a stitch holders. The hassle was too much...plus my I would hardly ever finish anything once the needles were removed. I'm a monogamous knitter by circumstance not choice :)

[Bonnie]

You know, it's interesting, I tend to cast on all the things but then settle for just a couple. All the others get put aside to be worked on later or ripped out. Reading that article is strange, because while I do focus on things I didn't do, I don't require closure to stories. Suspense and cliff hangers regularly have the opposite effect on me then what was intended. I do get urges to wrap up WIPs though, and I have currently been trying to finish some to get some guilt knitting off my lap. (It's a sad fact of knitting so much, some guilt knitting appears.)

[Nicky]

Thanks for sharing the article Andi.

I'm a process knitter and it used to be after I get a technique or stitch down, I want to move on to the "new thing". That made it so I'd have a million little swatches and half finished projects in my basket.

Now I'm finding that I want to finish things. I want to see well done end products. I'd say working on my mood blanket has made me monogamous. Having to stay on top of the rounds every week has made me focused and willing to set aside time to work on just that. I'm chomping at the bit to see it at the end of the year and am at the point of doing whatever it takes to make that happen -- even if it means practicing project monogamy. To that and all the other WIPs I have currently.

P.S. I promise if you cross over, there'll be tea and scones ... no hazing! LOLOL! But I can only speak for myself. ;P

[Sam]

I go through cycles, depending upon what else is going on. Sometimes I want to see things completed if, in other areas, I feel like I am not making progress. Casting on a new project today though (despite having a pile of wips elsewhere). This one is a reward for completing a bunch of slippers for family :)

[Andee]

I didn't read the article, but I'll come back to it. I rarely have more than three projects going at once. I say as long as you're knitting it doesn't matter how many projects you have on your needles, so as long as you are knitting. It is like listening to the radio. Sometimes I don't want to hear a song so I turn the station. I always enjoy having one simple mindless project on my needles. That way I don't get overwhelmed by the overly complicated ones! Knitting should be fun and that is how I like to keep it!

[Tracey]

I was thinking of you yesterday Andi as I cast on a new project even though I have several already on needles.
Honestly, I just wanted that "I just cast on a new project" feeling, then I set it aside to work on an older project :)

[karen]

In the summer I tend to have one to three projects going and am quite content. It's in the fall that I go a little crazy with the cast ons and with holidays looming closer I can justify the starting of projects.

[Katie Rice]

I can say I go through stages with startitis and then back to monogamous knitting. I have had several years when I finished everything that was started but the next year always saw the start of a great number of projects. Stress seems to bring on startitis and a recent move has made me monogamous for the immediate future. (I don't want to have to organize THAT many WIPS for moving again!) I usually have one or two mindless projects going and a few that require concentration and some in the middle. As several said, just keep knitting!

[Audry]

I think it just depends on the stage of life you are in. With knitting, or anything really, I think that a person's needs change, so their habits change to reflect that.

[AngelaH]

Oh, you are funny! I get on finishing jags too, but they only every last long enough for me to finish about half my WIPs before the urge to cast on something new inevitably results in a bout of startitis. Enjoy the finishing while it lasts :)

[bekswhoknits]

I find it really fascinating the different ways 'realjobs' overlap with our knitting life. (Which only really gets blogged about rarely for I'm what I can only assume are the same reasons as me. Namely I don't want the internet to know where I work or rather I don't want work to know where I internet!)

My Realjob involves documentation and quality management, and so quite often I find myself getting distracted by the different ways pattern writers present their work.

[Leigh]

Hahaha, Andi! And here I am, with a life-long preference for monogamous knitting who is all of a sudden enjoying knitting a little bit here and a little bit there! (personally I think it is all down to your influence :) ) In any case, I'll be happy to see more FOs off your needles! Have a lovely week! xoxo

[Bekah]

I would say that I have always had 2 or 3 projects on the go... I never let it get too out of control! But I like just enough variety to switch it up if I get bored. One thing that has changed is the quality of my projects - when I started knitting 10 years ago it was all acrylic and garter stitch and knitting random shaped stuff just for the sake of it. But a few years ago I started trying to refine my knitting, and thus get better quality yarn and needles and really trying to get good quality items when finished. There is always room for improvement though - I am still on my quest for the perfect sock!

[Rebecca]

I am so glad you wrote another post on this, as I am still pondering from the first one. I agree that I think knitting as a form of self expression, will to a certain extent mirror our general psychological disposition. I have noted a change in myself as a knitter from being a punishingly monogamous knitter...knitting through the pain and boredom of some projects or not knitting at all, until it was completed. Now, I am a lot kinder to myself and have a few things on the go, for different occasions and will go where the enthusiasm is, trusting that I will finish things in their right time without flogging and pushing. This completely reflects the change my psychology. The finishing itself is not without some sense of loss and it will take me a few days at least of neutral limbo before embrace the new item and wear it out or send it off! I cast on new things as old things are completed. Thank you for such thought provoking musings. Most non-knitting folks just don't understand how profoundly compelling it is to knit!

[Linda]

I tend to c/on different projects all the time. some I go back too and others I loose interest in and rewind . so tell me what is that first picture you are knitting at the top of the page? curious minds want to know.

[Carrie]

I wish I could be a monogamous knitter...But I just do not think it will ever happen....that being said, I would love to knit down my wips....but I am not sure that will happen either...ha, ha!

[Kepanie]

It's so cool how that pink yarn is knitting up for your sock. I can't stand having unfinished WIPs. I try to have no.more than three projects going at a time although I would prefer two.

[Kaiya]

That was an interesting article - thanks for sharing! I'm not sure it applies to my knitting, though... I seem to treat "knitting" as a whole as something that upsets me if it gets interrupted, but I'm quite happy to flit between projects within its sphere.

[katie]

hi andi! to answer your question, i don't know why i do the things i do???? i love the satisfaction of a completed project & the thought of gifting it to someone is even better. does that make me finish something... no. do i instead cast one yet one more project...yes. i seem to ramble through life & other hobbies much the same way. i've often ask myself why starting a new project is so much more fun than finishing one? i do wish i experienced the same "high" from finishing as i do from starting. so, with that said, i'm gonna go cast on something!
xoxo

[Kimberlyn]

Your blog post inspired me to write one about this same topic this week. I finished three project in a two-week span in June, and then I just went crazy!

[ellen]

I feel like I've gone through some kind of change with casting on the past year or so. I noticed I rarely I have more than 3 active items on the needles (I'm not counting a bulky winter sweater I have hibernating on purpose along with some kind of cotton scarf I cast on in like 1979 ...)

I feel compelled to finish something before casting on something else. I thought at first it at had to do with the pattern, like I didn't want to have to relearn it or with the gauge -- who wants two socks of varying tension?

But no, I think it's just to tick things off a list. it could change like you say. I'm rolling with it now. I also notice that I am more comfortable with frogging with this focused project perspective.

Always love an MSKN post.

[Kim]

I go in waves. Cast on all the things. Finish all the things. Not be happy with just one thing on the needles. Cast on all the things. The world is a circle for me. Sometime I'll be in the middle of a sock and think of another yarn that would be beautiful in the same pattern. That has to be cast on immediately, even if I already have five socks on the needles because I have to see that yarn and that pattern immediately. I can (sort of) take my time finishing it as long as I know what it is going to look like. The thing that confuses me is I set deadlines for myself and I hate deadlines. I've been trying to work on that lately. ;-D