To ask how you stay motivated for big crochet/knitting projects

[LEMtheoriginal]

So i am about 2/3 way through crocheting a blanket for dd2. Its single bed size and essentially justrepeating the same stitch (attic 24 coast ripple for those who'd know)

It sat in its bag for ages as life got busy and ive got it out again this week after nearly a year!

What keeps you going through projects like thus? I get distracted by my phone but also get a bit borrd but don't feel i can start anything else until this is finished? Do you have mini projects on the go?

If i do a sripe a day and the finishing off i should complete by Xmas

Ohhh those dogs!! So cute and love the blanket.

Am already thinking about my next project. There is anamazing mandala blanket that i adore, cant remember what its called . It wont be that one!

My dd has requested a "toothless " from how to train your dragon! If i start nw i could present it to her on her 18th!

Oh and heres the blush emoticon

I finished a kinship hug recently... I actually started the blanket for me in 2015 😂😂

It is not my longest WIP though... I have a Ripple that I started in 2011

Yes box sets really do help. I try and have one WIP going but so often knock out a baby blanket when close to a baby due date to liven things up. Usually I get very excited about a new project and go like the clappers to start, then run out of wool and come back to it aaaaages later to carry on. I've recently finished blanket I started last Christmas and am a tiny bit into a ripple for DD1 now. It may be finished before Christmas, this year or next. 

I've got at least three or four Attic 24 blankets in non progress plus an embarrassing number of other unfinished projects and enough yarn to open a wool shop
I lack oomph to just get on and finish things 😊

I'm the opposite, I find it really hard to start something new when I have something that needs to be finished. I've just rocketed through a Persian Tiles blanket so that I can be free for the Little Box of Crochet advent calendar.

Grey's Anatomy. And other series of course, find a good one and crack on

I also do small projects and leave the big one for a while (week / month / 2 years )

I tend to crochet on auto pilot if it's a mind numbing repeating pattern too. I've tried to listen to music to crochet but my mind wanders too much and apparently I need two-fold stimulation to be able to actually get somewhere, hence the TV

You could try a fire video on YouTube, the crackling open fire kind, play it on your smart TV / fire stick / Chromecast etc?

As far as small projects go - you could make baby hats for NICU babies, hats for Innocent smoothie bottles, bobble hats for kids, hats for the homeless, slippers for Xmas pressies, etc etc. I find the self gratification from completing a small project helps me to pick up the larger project again, as if the end is back in sight, if that makes sense?

I don't think there's anything wrong with taking your time. If you're not currently feeling a desire to work on one project, work on something else. Or on nothing. The urge will take you again sometime.

I currently have an Attic24 granny stripe which is maybe 2/3 done - I worked on it a lot over the summer break, but haven't done anything since September. I've got a cardigan which I had left for a couple of weeks, but which I worked on quite a lot yesterday and might finish off tonight. I have just finished a small baby blanket for a colleague, and I have part of one legwarmer in a bag that I take for work lunchtimes. Oh, and I have part of a scarf in another bag.

Bath, cup of tea, bed, Netflix and get stuck in. I’m currently half way through a ripple blanket for my daughter. The yarn is gorgeous but quite heavy so it’s getting quite laborious now but I’ll finish it this week!

I agree OP about the mental health, once my baby is in bed I'm straight to my crochet to help me have some unwinding me time before the night shift kicks in

I'm another one who cannot leave projects alone - we did personality types in a team building exercise at work, and I was a "completer finisher". I look forward to my crochet time, it only happens near the end of the day and usually involves tea and Netflix! The project is immaterial, it's just the feeling of having a hook in my hand that I like.

Too many crafts, not enough time. My Coast is 4 years old and still not finished!

This is my first major project. I have done a couple of scarves - one for dd and another for a friend.

"You could try a fire video on YouTube, the crackling open fire kind, play it on your smart TV / fire stick / Chromecast etc?"

I have the real thing its lush!

Actually have cramp now - lol

I find it so hard to stay motivated too! I just tend to pick things up as and when I feel like it and don't force myself if I don't so that I keep enjoying it!

I get really anxious about picking things up that i have left. I was convinced id forget how to do it!

I'm in the middle of a ripple blanket too. Did the coast one and it took me a few months, then DS requested his own one in particularly garish colours. This one is taking longer...

I like ticking of the rows as I do them (currently 33 out of 85!) as it means I can see the progress. I also find DS is a motivation in himself as he keeps asking when it will be complete.

But I agree with you that it's good for my mental health (plus you can't mindlessly drink wine while crocheting!). So for that reason, I don't put myself under pressure - it'll take as long as it takes. And usually interspersed with a bit of colouring or puzzles - anything to relax me and take my mind off work in the evening.

My aunt asked me to make a corner to corner graphgan for each of 2 cousins children, the same pattern. I've done the first, it took ages because I kept messing up the pattern. I've barely started the second and have 0 motivation. I need to get it done.
I'm never making 2 of the same every again.

I am guilty of doing the exciting bits first (I do like a round yoke icelandic pattern) - so I knit the yoke so I can see the prettiness, then I can sit and knit the boring body of the jumper while watching TV - in fact, I forgot I did that - I always have an exciting bit and a boring bit, so if I want to actually watch a show, I can do a boring bit (I barely have to look to do simple knitting/crochet), and if I'm happy mainly listening I do the complicated bit on the go.

The weight of full size blankets is what puts me off - I don't like knitting/crocheting anything in one go that's bigger than an adult jumper, because it's just to hard on my fingers. (and when my joints start to squeak, I know I've got too obsessed with something and need to dial it down!)

I would love to crochet, my granny made some beautiful things but I worry that I'll get pissed off of it like this and miss the point.
It's about the journey as much as the destination.

Well you've prompted me to get my finger out, and I've just finished my cardigan.

I can go months without picking it up. So far I haven't done anything that's needed to be finished at a certain time so it's not a problem. I've not long finished a large sofa blanket and am now making two different ponchos. Might give one to one of my adult daughters.

Usually do a bit here and there when in front of the tv

I like to have several projects on the go at once, and then every so often when it’s getting a bit unmanageable (maybe every 12 months or so) I refuse to let myself buy any more wool until I have completely finished everything I have on the go.

And then I allow myself a serious wool buying session!

@3luckystars take a look at the woolly hugs threads on here - thats what got me started. I only had to finish squares and it didnt matter if i did one or twenty. It was also nice that my "practice" pieces were going to a good home.

YouTube was how I learnt @3luckystars... I found it easy to watch, pause and rewind and a square doesn't take long once you've learned the basic stitches

And everyone then thinks you're super talented, which is a motivation to do enough to put together into a patchwork blanket over time 😁