Sitting down and adding a few stitches to your WIPs is typically a relaxing slice of your day, but as of late, arriving to my craft kit leaves me wanting to throw it up the garden, there’s so much going on in there.
We’re all guilty of starting something for it to turn into the WIP of the century as something else has caught our eye. Perhaps there’s an element of us ‘hanging on’ due to the thought that we’ve put so much time into something that it deserves to be finished. In some cases, yes, but if our friend is reading a bit of a pants book, we’re more inclined to remind them that time is too precious to spend reading a “bad” novel – so why can’t we bring that energy to the craft bag? After a word with myself, I’ve decided to do what I’ve never done before – let go of a couple of my projects!
I wrote a post about my new year’s resolutions for 2025 and with seven WIPs, I’ve got to be honest, I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel! I’ve been sorting my stash recently and it’s skein city and yours truly is drowning. So in the light of this very delayed realisation, I’ve made the decision to frog two of my projects – hold the tomatoes, please!
“What is Frogging?!” I hear you cry! Well, Frogging is having to correct a mistake by unpicking your project or to ‘rip it, rip it’, mimicking a frog. I’m sure we’ve all had the sharps to a project for a few incorrect rows in the past!
So with that said, I’ve decided to unpick my Orange Tree by Antique Stitch and another Lara Croft piece. I will be keeping the patterns and what I’ve marked off already is still somewhat legible. But I think having all these threads taking up prime real estate in my thread boxes just isn’t the one. There’s a part of me that feels disappointed, but I think it’s the right move for both me and my craft kit. Below are the images of what they would look have looked like and where I was at.
As you can see, I hadn’t put too many stitches on the ‘board’ and in terms of time, I’m a relatively quick stitcher so this hadn’t taken me too long at all. It’ll probably take me longer to unpick it than anything else! My aida stash will outlive me, so I think being able to use these pieces again will be absolutely fine to do.
You can’t help but feel a little bit wasteful when thinking about doing this, but I’ll salvage the fabric which I will absolutely use again, as well as the longer lengths of thread. Any shorter pieces will go straight in my ORT jar, which has certainly grown in size since I spoke about it last time! So I don’t consider my ‘wasted’ threads as that, as I’ll be using them to go towards a keepsake any way. Sometimes having a ponder over a cup of tea and rerouting your thinking does help.
Full transparency, I’ve not long completed the Holly Jolly Kitchen SAL from Caterpillar Cross Stitch. I started strong back in October after swapping some colours around, then slowed, spent a weekend whizzing through three of the six parts at the start of December and, what with the chaos of Christmas, I hadn’t picked it up since. So after frogging the two above, I completed the last section very recently and I’m glad to have another ticked off the list. I’ll most likely give it a proper press and frame it closer to Christmas, but to have it done is a load off the mental ticksheet!
I’d really like to finish my large Lara Croft piece this year at the very least, but I’m sure I may be held accountable for further actions once I check in with myself, and fellow Woolly Workers, about how we’re all getting on after our New Years posts. I, for one, have already caved. I’ve been focused on my Sydney piece that I started a couple of years ago, so hoping to have that one finished soon. Watch this space!
How do you feel about Frogging? Are you a project-at-a-time crafter? Or could you put on quite the WIP parade? Let us know your thoughts over on our socials and tag us in your photos!