On big projects and long hard slogs

Journal page

It’s weird.

I seem to have a tendency to take on huge, complicated projects that take years to complete.

Cases in point:

1) Co-writing my book about feminism (Reclaiming The F Word), which took several years

Me!
(Me at the book launch)

2) Doing long distance walks like the Pennine Way, Coast to Coast.

Heading up Carlton Moor

3) Ridiculously long craft projects, like this Debbie Abrahams throw I was knitting from 2004 to 2007. It took ages, complicated by having to scour the internet for discontinued shades.

Unfinished Mosaic Throw

Unfinished Mosaic Throw

It was from from Debbie Abrahams’ “Blankets & Throws to Knit” book. Each little roll you can see is a strip consisting of 13 individual squares. In this throw there are 9 strips in total making 117 squares altogether.

The last square (117 of 117)

Unfinished throw - yarn ends

When I decided to do this project I was young and naive. I didn’t realise how much work it would involve. Example – these are the yarn ends from one of the strips that I had to sew in. Argh!!!!

Once everything was sewn in it still wasn’t over – the next stage was pressing them.

All sewn up

All pressed (took about three hours) and ready to be sewn up.

Pressed & ready for sewing.

Finally, finally FINALLY this Debbie Abrahams throw was finished. All done. No more ends to sew in, nothing to press, no more discontinued shades of wool cotton to purchase from the internet….

Finally finished!

Mosaic Throw

Admiring

Doing a little jig

The results are fantastic of course, and from my walking/hiking experiences I know that little steps can get you a big results eventually.

But for a while now I really want to do small projects. Small, easy projects.

The key is, I have to stop myself getting drawn in to a project that could completely absorb all of my time. Just the other day, for example, I had an idea to draw a picture on every page of a copy of Lord of the Rings. Which would be very cool. But I need to prioritise a bit more carefully now.

Wish me luck!

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