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Emotional weight of unfinished projects + GIVEAWAY!

All Homesteading

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GIVEAWAY TERMS & CONDITIONS
Prizes for 2 heartfelt “My Unfinished Project” entries:
One winner will receive a Permission to Create Mini Tote Bundle which includes a copy of my “Permission to Create” zine, sticker bundle, metal “Permission to Create pin” and mini cotton tote bag.

Runner-up will receive a copy of my “Permission to Create” zine and a small batch of “Permission to Create” goodies.

How to Enter:
To enter, leave a comment on this video specifically answering the question posed in the video before the giveaway closing date. Only clear comments answering the question posed will be considered.

Entry Period:
Entries close at 11:59pm BST on Tuesday 7th JULY, winners will be announced on 14th JULY.

Winner Selection:
The winners will be chosen by me based on the two comments that resonate most strongly with the themes of the video. This is not a random draw.

Winner Notification:
The winner will be contacted via a reply to their YouTube comment within 7 days of the giveaway closing.

To claim the prize, the winner must:
Respond within 7 days of being contacted.
Verify ownership of their YouTube account if requested.
Provide a postal address privately via email.
If the winner does not respond within 7 days, I reserve the right to select an alternative winner.

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The winners’ postal addresses and any personal information provided for shipping purposes will be used solely for fulfilment of the prize and will not be shared with third parties except where necessary for postage and delivery.

Use of Entries:
By entering the giveaway, you grant permission for your comment to be quoted, discussed, or featured in future content related to this channel. If I wish to feature a winning entry in a future video, I may contact the winner for additional permission. Usernames may be displayed unless anonymity is requested.

General:
This giveaway is hosted and administered solely by me and is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with YouTube or any other third party.
By entering, participants agree to these terms and conditions.

15 Comments

@khai_ldn1609 3 months ago

Whilst I do have unfinished projects for myself I realised recently most of my unfinished projects were gifts for friends, and it’s because I find it funny when i make a mistake on a project that’s just for me, but get in my head when making for someone else.
One project that’s unfinished is a crochet frame for my sister‘s friend. I stopped it bc I thought it looked terrible and she’d hate it, but months later, I looked at it again and thought it was good! I still haven’t gotten back to it because I’m currently focusing on myself.
This year I got my creativity back and started to do more hobbies so I’m being kinder to myself so I don’t burn out. When I make projects with people in mind, my stress levels go up, even if I know they’ll like what I did. So I revert back to self projects

@SpinningChickenStudio 3 months ago

Beautifully said

@amazing-dolphin 3 months ago

10:25 funny enough, I have a project that is currently sitting in a basket staring at me that I had full intentions of working on today. It’s an amigurumi plushie and I’m stuck on what to do next since I’m freehanding it. For me, it causes more stress to think about then other projects because I’m not sure what to do yet, the plan for completion isn’t in my head yet. However, for some of my other projects, like a painting I have a reference for or a shawl I have a pattern for, those don’t feel as daunting because I know exactly what to do and I’m not making it up as I go, which is significantly less mentally taxing.

@gadgetgirl02 3 months ago

Current unfinished projects:

Knitting:
* Lace shawl
* Jacket
* Socks -- this one is a bit different because I work on socks when I'm out and about. They get finished when they get finished. I'm not fussed about them.

Sewing:
* Summer quilt made from scraps
* Summer clothing. Even though u haven't actually started any of this, it weighs on me more, because I need it, and the pants I have planned I bought the pattern and fabric for two years ago!

My secret overarching project is to have less stuff "waiting" and more stuff "done". I know I'll have made real progress when some of the cupboards currently used for yarn get converted to storing finished clothing.

@gingercoral6 3 months ago

One unfinished project I've got lying around is a decorative mirror idea. Probably 15 years ago, I got the idea that I was going to hold onto all of the little mirrors from my pressed powder compacts and glue them together on something to create one big mirror to hang on a wall. After I'd collected about 5 or 6, the brand I used changed the mirror size in their compacts. I just kept collecting those mirrors for a while, thinking I could use the mismatched mirror sizes all together, but I'd had a VISION for the uniform mirror sizes. I don't often have a REALLY original creative idea like that, so I'd already invested emotionally in having them be all the same size. I've definitely been afraid of it not turning out nice, so I've still got this box of small mirrors lying around and not doing anything with them.

@rk8711 3 months ago (edited)

I don't have many unfinished projects but THE BIG ONE is a full coverage, maximum color, cross stitch I started back in 2018. I'm a civil servant with the US federal government and during the first trump shutdown I was off work for a month. To perk myself up I went to our local needlework store and got started on this full coverage thing that had been amazing me on youtube. Now I'm probably about 1/6 of the way done and I rarely pick it up. It's huge. It would take years to finish. And I've moved on. It no longer feels creative to fill in colors on a pattern designed by someone else. I want to do my own embroidery projects using my own ideas. Yet, this piece! It's still here in the corner! With its companion - 235 DMC colors in a box. What's finished is absolutely beautiful. I can't get rid of it but spending years finishing it feels like a terrible use of my time. ETA: this might be a bit of a Sunk Cost Fallacy thing.

@orenaus.d 3 months ago

Hi Natalie, an unfinished project living rent free in my space is a pair of knitted socks. They're knitted two at a time and almost completely done - right up to finishing off the heels. The yarn is dedicated sock yarn (merino/nylon blend) that came with a pattern, which I followed, wore for a season, got sick of the not quite right fit, then UNRAVELLED. The next year I followed a tutorial to knit up socks to my own measurements, found myself knitting them toe-up, and putting in a heel as the last step. And that's when I ran out of steam. Sick of the 2.5mm needles. Sick of the nylon tensioned against my hands. I put them away in their bag and onto my craft shelf. It's another year later and I want warm socks. I'll have to look up the tutorial again to remember how to finish the heels. I think I'm going to do it though. I've changed a lot in the last year. I'm a hell of a lot more patient now. Ocean xoxo

@VicS-hn5hu 3 months ago

This is the first of your videos that didn't really resonate with me. I have plenty of UFOs but drove them in a cupboard and truly forget about them. I am always surprised that they exist when I find them, then promptly forget about them again. They definitely do not live in my mind or cause me a moments thought! I have no guilt about not finishing a project if I have lost interest in it. Fab video, as always ❤

@_maia_m 3 months ago

I like what you said about the emotional load connected to unfinished projects, compared to the blank slates of new ones. I hadn't thought about it before, but can absolutely relate to it. If I worry that I won't manage the next step, or that I won't be happy with the result, that's typically reasons I put projects away. I have an almost finished skirt that I have to make some decisions about, but I don't want to make those decisions 😅 But I've come to realise it's never too late (at least for some projects). A while back, I finished a granny square blanket that had been packed away for probably 10 years. When I started it, I was relatively new to crochet, and it felt like it would take an eternity. But in the meantime, I got a lot of practice on lots of smaller projects, so when I "rediscovered" the squares, making up the remaining ones wasn't such a big deal anymore.

@jennifergreene7907 3 months ago

The UFO that my brain hangs onto and keeps mentally peeping over at is the River Ripples poncho by Yumiko Alexander. I bought a kit at a show back in early 2020, weeks before shelter in place began. It was still fairly early in my knitting journey and before I started using KnitCompanion, so my notes are on paper where I was marking off the section repeats. I mention this because after years have gone by of putting this project down, I cringe at trying to figure out my brain’s process at that time and working out where I am at on the pattern and the meaning of my notes. I work differently now and I look at patterns and my stitches a bit differently, so I’d have to meld my brain back to what it was before to understand it all, and it makes me hesitate. Part of me doesn’t want to look back. This would be something interesting to look at with my therapist. I wonder why I don’t want to look at baby-knitter me. In my musings on what to do with this WIP, I think the easiest is to rip the whole thing and start from scratch as the current-knitter me. I’m sure my gauge is different. But I hesitate at that, thinking it’s like an interesting puzzle to figure it out and continue, and this could be a piece that contains old me and new me. Then there’s the pattern itself. This is like a sophisticated accessory that fancy ladies wear, and I have no idea where I’d wear it. 😂 I thought I’d wear it to work functions, but I’ve been working from home since lock down, and we have very few in-person work events, and they’re mostly casual. But I’d still like to have it and find somewhere fancy to wear it. Alas, there is sits, in my ottoman o’ WIPS. Waiting.

@craft_gal 3 months ago

About 10 years ago I started an academic book researching adult colouring. I did loads of research, was writing stuff, talking at conferences. Was going fine. Then we had lockdown and my dad being diagnosed with cancer. I did still care about it at that point but my main goal was having a piece of research that would help me get a permanent academic job. Publishers were half hearted in their interest and I still didn't have a job at a university, so I started a new career outside of the sector where I actually got paid. (Most academic writing is unpaid.) The folder is still sat on a computer somewhere but I haven't opened it in years. It doesn't sit heavy on my heart - I know it was going to be interesting but it was symbolic of my unsuccessful academic career. I now feel that I'm well out of that sector - it's funny how most of the people who I thought were friends haven't contacted me for years now I'm no longer useful to them. I'm much happier with my unfinished sewing projects and crafty friends. Crafty friends see the value in my sewing projects, even the unfinished ones, where academia was just endless one upmanship.

@barbararobson2098 3 months ago

I have lots and lots of not-yet finished projects - between knitting, stitching and crochet probably around 15. I don’t really feel any stress around any of them as if something isn’t working or looking as I expect I make a fairly quick decision to frog. I pick up what I feel like knitting or the project that needs to be finished, for example a gift. Different projects suit my concentration level. Sometimes I pick up a partially made project and I’m really pleased it’s already partly finished.

@Millieplays-13 3 months ago

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

@Erinknits2 3 months ago

I have 4 unfinished projects but not all of them weigh on my mind equally

1) a stuff Santa doll that I started in 2020 that weighs on me a lot and I’m in process right now of finishing. I really hate seaming it together

2) a tessellated pullover by Andrea Mowry. I want to make this sweater badly however I knit a significant portion and realized I knit it way too small! Undoing all of that work feels bad for me and I’m still interrogating why

3) a little dinosaur stuffy that I started and is super close to done and will be done by the end of June. I only started it a month ago so that’s not a big deal to me

4) starting a YouTube channel. I’ve been wanting a place to have a creative video diary of sorts and the idea of it being permanently out there scares me even though that aspect is also something that entices me so I can look back on my making journey fondly and not forget the great things that are happening to me despite all of the awful things happening around us

@p.s.itsaudrey 2 months ago

Excellent points throughout the vid!

For me, the "what ifs" and potential of so many things... projects, relationships, myself etc were so impossible to get out of my head (perfectionism in disguise probably!) one concept that's helped me a lot is the knitting myth of making sure there IS a mistake in what I make, some people say it's because only God is perfect, others that if you make it perfect that your soul will be trapped in that thing you create. Whatever the reason, it has helped me to just relax and become more process-oriented. I will frog something so many times if I feel I don't like it and that's ok! Partly because I don't want to waste the yarn and partly because I know myself, I will be bothered if it is put out in the world when I think it isn't ready. I get stuck at the 95% finished mark usually. So I've got two things to block and one to put a lining in and they're just sitting there! I'm waiting for the energy to come to me to just do them all in a day.

Looking forward to the next video, thanks again!