Facing startitis head on -- and getting stuff done in the process

April has been a very good month for knitted things.

I finished Beyond The Sea early in the month, and just wove in the ends this morning. The pink lacework shawl I made for a friend saw its knitting completed last weekend, and currently is hanging out on my bed getting blocked.

I never thought I'd see a month where I made not only a sewn thing, but also two knitted things. And, I'll probably hem the skirt from March today, so that'll be *two* sewn things.

I'm quite pleased with this, and I have one reason I can think of to explain how it's getting done: I've gone cold turkey on startitis.

Yep. You read that right. I'm refusing to start new projects (the iPad case was an exception, because that was a desperate need) until old ones are finished.

My mother is probably shaking her  at this, but I can see now why I was only allowed to have one coloring book at a time as a child, and why I couldn't get a new one until I'd colored all the pages. Frankly put, I'm finding as a grown up that if I start a project while in the middle of another craft or sewing project, project A is simply less likely to get done.

So I'm going cold turkey. No new projects until WIPs are finished. Period.

After I finished the pink shawl, the next up was Life Changing Shawl. I've called this shawl many things since it was started. I first cast on for it after Ex and I started talking about futures, and he asked for my ring size. So I figured I'd want something blue, and pretty, to wear on a certain day. As you can tell by his pseudonym here, that didn't quite pan out.

I put it away for a while, and dug it out of hibernation the first time when I started thinking of buying a house. I could wear it to a closing, I thought. But now I know that this thing is going to be huge, and will block out big, and that might not be all that practical for a closing.

But this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to knit it. I'm going to block it, and I'm going to wrap it in tissue paper, box it, and put it in my cedar chest. When that moment comes that is truly magnificent, whether it be a new house, another cat, Mr. Right, or something like that, I'm going to have it ready.

Whoot! I made stuff.

And not just a blog post. :)

I may have been slacking in posting, but for once, I have not been slacking in crafting. I, like, actually finished projects. And now am actually writing a post.

This latest project is an awesome example of stash busting. Yesterday, for my birthday, I received an iPad. There aren't many words to show my pleasure about that.

But with an iPad, and my need to carry it in a purse most days, comes the bed for a sleeve. So off I went to Joann to buy quilted fabric.

I can see you shaking your heads now. "That's not stash busting, you say."

And no, that step wasn't. But three hours into the project, when it wouldn't work, and then the iPad didn't FIT, I turned to the stash. I had the idea that if I could wrap stash fabric around the quilting, that it might actually work.

Yeah. This was one of those projects that was so crazy it actually worked.

In less than two hours, I sewed it together, and tried it out. I'm actually happier with this one than I am with the Plan A version. It looks somewhat sophisticated, and only cost about $9 to make!

Stash busting and frustration for the win!