All Projects Great and Small

I have a friend named Lynn in my quilt guild who once nearly bowled me over when she told me she does not have a UFO (Unfinished Object) pile, that she finishes everything she begins.

Now every artisan I know, most definitely including me, has at least a small pile of projects that got started but were never finished. Quilters can be particularly prone to this because for many of us, the fun is in piecing the top where you get to play with color and design, etc. Like this top here, the first star in my book on designing with scrap fabric called New Cloth from Old.

It's called Cate's Quilt because it is made by a character of the same name in a novel I'm working on called The Road Not Salted.

(Yep, I read more than one book at a time and I write that way as well.)

Anyway, Lynn's words got me inspired to take inventory of my UFOs with the idea of getting them done.

A worthy goal, I'm sure you'll agree. (Especially if you're a crafter yourself.)

A subsequent conversation, however, revealed a hidden depth to Lynn's madness. I always have at least two projects going at the same time, she said, one that I can do by hand, one that needs to be done by machine. In other words, portability (which is impossible with a quilt of any size) is key here.

Which is why I crochet.

I decided that, at least for the time being, I'm going to stick with small, simple projects in crochet, things I can finish in a very reasonable amount of time.

Last winter, I started developing a pattern for hats. This winter, I picked that pattern back up, read my notes, and have been working on variations. And I think I finally hit on one that truly works for me. Of the three pictured below, the one made from the purple and white yarns is the prototype.

The light blue hat is in the original pattern. The dark blue is my first variation and the purple/white combo is the final tweak.

I can make one of these hats over the course of three evenings without breaking a sweat. And that finished feeling is terrific.