WIPs

Although I have 3 bobbin lace pillows, I only have project going at any given time.  The one exception I made was to make a wedding related item.  It was for my brother, so I figured I could make an exception!  When it comes to tatting though, I have no such rules and I seem to always be starting projects.

Last year I realized that I was perilously close to losing control over my WIPs.  When I had time off around the holidays, I organized all my WIPs.  For each project, I made to sure to include the pattern (and source!) as well as the thread (brand/color).  The thread was easy - until recently, I only worked with DMC 80 ecru, white or black.  Those are pretty easy to tell apart!  Some of the patterns were easy to figure out, and some projects took some serious sleuthing to find the origin.  At least all that is now taken care of.  I was a bit horrified to see that I had ~ 50 started projects!  Give or take a few, I don't recall the number any more.

I still had the problem of not knowing what to work on.  I decided to limit the projects I was working on at any given time.  The thought was that I would pull out a few projects and work on them until I either got bored with them, or I finished them.  Since I like some variety, I decided to start with the following WIPs:

-doily from Mani di Fata

-series of small motifs

-25 motif challenge (metallic threads!  2 kinds!  that should keep me from being bored!)

That seemed like a goodly amount and I made a lot of progress - in the first month.  After that, it went all downhill and I have since started several projects (Arches being one).  So far the projects I have started have been fairly small and I will probably complete them before I get sick of them while also making progress on the ones I pulled out to work on.  I already have in mind several larger projects though and I'm not sure what I will do when I start those.  Probably start them and then put them away until a later date?  I don't want to put away any of my current projects (I will talk about them later).  The number of projects I have out now is a good number - even with the newest additions, but I'm afraid that if I start too many more, I will again have the dilemma of too many projects to chose from.

Some of the projects will probably become UFOs.  It also does not help that I like large projects.  I have yet to start a really huge item like a tablecloth or something like that, but I do like big doilies and mats.  I also have several books I am working through, and I count that as 1 project.  

In the end, I should probably resign myself that I will start many more projects than I complete.  I would prefer if I had some sort of equilibrium (start one, complete one), but the kinetics just don't seem to work out!  Oh well.