It’s a lovely sunny Saturday morning here and I have a whole glorious weekend ahead of me which I have dedicated to generally catching up with all the odds and ends of left over projects that have been put on hold. All this has been inspired by my huge studio clear-out that has been an on-going concern all this week. I have tidy shelves, look!!

And I have tidy yarn!!! This is actually only the very tidy tip of a rather large and not quite so tidy woolly iceberg, lets just say that the whole yarn issue is still a work in progress. This yarn thing, as the famous quote says, is bigger than the both of us, (or possibly bigger than all of us put together). Yarn not pictured is currently waiting to be sorted out and is well hidden from view in various wicker baskets until I have a spare year or two!

All this tidying naturally led to a big sort out of the dreaded ‘Unfinished Projects’

The excitement when I’m making up a brand new pattern knows no equal but the dark side is the fall-out of all the left over heads, limbs and bodies from the pattern testing phase. Once I’ve put together the necessary finished pieces for the pattern photo shoot I find it really difficult to make myself finish the rest. By this stage I’m  itching to get on with the next new design that’s burning a hole in my brain!

So this is about a third of what I found poked away in all sorts of nooks, crannies, baskets, boxes and dark corners of the room. These are closer to being completed than the rest and so seem to be a good place to start. There are approximately eighteen dolls and animals here, so to get those finished will be an inspiring start to the end of Operation Clear Up.

Once they’re done they’ll be tucked away in storage ready for the next craft fair, or the day I finally get around to opening up an Etsy shop selling actual toys and not just patterns. It’s going to be lovely having more space on my shelves – into which I plan to  install more yarn – and clear room corners where, lo and behold, a tiny bit of skirting board may be allowed to have it’s moment, uncluttered and basking in daylight for a short while! I contained them all in a basket, where I think they look much less intimidating and much more approachable.

Yes, yes, I know I have all these odds and ends to finish, but I just couldn’t resist having a little play around with my new Christmas present from my hubby, a graphics tablet with a cool pen that lets you enliven your photos with terrible scrawls and spidery handwriting virtual enhancements. This photo just seemed to be crying out to me to fill in the gaps! So now we can play a little game of spot the difference!

Hmm, I got a bit distracted there with my new toy and ended up spending a larger chunk of time doodling than I had originally planned! It was fun though, and I think I got a bit better at using it towards the end of this little exercise. Now I’ve finished all my projects via the medium of the pixel I really think I should  go and finish them via the medium of needle and thread. No more  putting off the inevitable…

I’ll leave you with my belated New Years Resolution, which is not to move on the the next batch of designs until every last piece of the various incarnations of the current designs are finished off, stuffed and sewn together. And I’m going to aim for a maximum of three designs on the go at any one time! There, I’ve written it down for all to see, it’ll be embarrassing if I don’t do it now! (I’ll update you in a years time on the outcome of this rather tenuous promise to myself!)

So has anybody else out there made New Year’s resolutions they know they’re highly unlikely to stick to?!!