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You are here: Home / Knit / How to Survive a Knitting Slump

How to Survive a Knitting Slump

By Know-it-All Nikki 5 Comments

Since the start of this year my enthusiasm for knitting has gone from passionate to placid. One minute I was working on my first original scarf pattern and the next I was leaving the house without taking one of my many WIPs with me.

That’s how I knew I was in a serious knitting slump.

After the completion of my niece’s poncho for Christmas 2016, I felt the amount of time I spent knitting decrease. Don’t get me wrong; I still knit. Yet for some reason, the spark went out of one of my favorite hobbies.

Recovering from the Knitting Blues

In the past month or so I’ve started working my way out of my knitting slump. Aside from climbing into my hope chest with all my yarn and rolling around in it Indecent Proposal style, there’s no quick fix to a knitting slump. Rather you need to try different things until something clicks. Here are some suggestions:

Find Inspiration – Inspiration comes from many things. Go to Pinterest and do a search for a type of project or even a knitting keyword. I managed to find a few boards to follow that I hadn’t been following before and pinned some new “inspiration” projects.

Ravelry is another great place for finding inspiration. There’s always something going on in the groups. That’s where I came up with the idea for my scarf. Be careful though, you may find yourself on inspiration overload.

Take Your Knitting Everywhere – Again, this was something that I had almost stopped doing altogether but when I went to the hospital in January, I took my scarf project with me and it prompted a fun conversation with one of my nurses. If you can carry it with you, you can knit it. Coffee shops, the dentist, school pick-up line, bus drop off, movie theaters… you get the idea.

A basket, or three of unfinished projects, or projects that have been put in “time out” need to be dug through on occasion. When I feel a knitting slump hit, I start digging through my project bags.

Start a New Project – Okay so maybe the UFOs have been hidden away because you’re bored with them or they were really naughty and time out may last for a year or two. I completely understand.

In that case, you should start something new but with a few guidelines: it should be a small project. Something that won’t take you more than a couple of hours, or at the most, a day to complete. Think bookmarks, hats, coasters, a dishcloth, you get the idea. The project should solve that need for instant gratification and keep you from getting bored.

How to survive a knitting slump

My purple puffball hat took roughly a day from start to finish.

Get Organized – Every knitter has a method to their madness. We sort our yarn by weight, type, color, softness (okay maybe that one is just me). If you feel overwhelmed or lost while going through your knitting supplies, it might be time for some re-organization.

My yarn is typically stashed in clear plastic bins with snap-on lids. My needles go in pouches, and notions are in various notion bags. The notions could be organized a little bit better, but I like to keep my notions portable so I can simply grab and go.

Find a Knitting Partner – This is something I have yet to do. There was a group that met every week at one of the local bars in town. I was thrilled to find a group that had such an eclectic bunch of people; young, old, male, female, novice, expert. It was my knitting dream come true but over last winter the group has disbanded.

If you’re blessed to know other knitters in your area, set a place and time to meet-up to talk and knit. And for the love of superwash baby alpaca, meet consistently so you can form that common bond and make new friends.

Give yourself a Time-out – You’ve put cranky yarn in time-out but why not yourself? I believe the worst thing you can do is to knit when you’re not feeling it. Maybe it was a pattern that peeved you or someone didn’t appreciate something you made for them, (or worse, someone nagging you about if you’re ever going to finish a project).

Dig through those UFOs – I don’t trust a knitter who doesn’t have a lot of projects on their needles. (There, I said it.)

Knitting is more than just making pretty things out of yarn. Knitting is therapy. It stops being therapeutic the moment you feel like you “have to” do it (And that, I think, is how we end up in a knitting slump.)

What do you do when you end up with the knitting blues?

 

Filed Under: Knit Tagged With: knitting, Knitting projects, WIP, yarn stash, yarn stories

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Paula Hendrickson

    July 10, 2018 at 7:45 pm

    I’ve been in a similar slump. But I’ve never been one to bring knitting everywhere I go (afraid of losing my place in the pattern or dropping stitches), so I only realized it when I was playing around on my iPad so much each evening that I had to recharge it.

    I think the only knitting I’ve done all year: finish my Sediment Blanket and make two quick drop-stitch cropped sweaters for my sister.

    But today I learned a cousin is pregnant, so I started searching Ravelry for baby blanket patterns and checked Pinterest, too. Her baby isn’t due until January, so there’s no rush.

    Reply
    • Nikki

      July 11, 2018 at 1:07 pm

      I hear ya. This one has been rough. I’ve had them before but not like this. I am lucky if I can get through two rows of anything before I put it down and do something else. You’ve been far more productive than I have but I’m pretty sure everyone has been far more productive than me lately.

      Reply
  2. Jodie

    July 15, 2018 at 8:15 pm

    Hi Nikki. Thanks for sharing your suggestions on what we knitters can sometimes experience. I am sure our readers will find your post helpful. I’ve included it in our latest craft inspiration collection on Crafty Like Granny. Cheers Jodie 🙂

    Reply
    • Nikki

      July 20, 2018 at 2:49 pm

      Thank you so much for including it. I hope they find it helpful!

      Reply

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When you're trying to find something to eat for lu When you're trying to find something to eat for lunch and didn't bring the big bag in to carry your wallet and phone, you decide you want a plastic basket like the one(s) @heatherspinsayarn and your daughter from another mother has. And once you have said basket, you get your lunch and checkout...

But THEN you decide the basket oils perfect for taking only the essentials into the library so you fill it with your WIP, the jerky your bought, pens, your journal, phone, wallet, and keys. And now you feel all minimalist even though the big bag is still in the car with everything else. 🤣
I decided today to clean out my bag. And by "bag", I decided today to clean out my bag. And by "bag", I mean the giant @landsend tote bag I received when I went to the last ever GOOD Type-A Mom conference in 2017.
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Here are some of the items I found...
2 pairs if wired earbuds
3 pairs of wireless earbuds
2 disposable masks
1 reusable mask
4 types of loose leaf herbal tea packets
- A more than comfortable stack of receipts for someone who doesn't work anymore
- An even more than comfortable stack of garbage
1 pen bag
1 small makeup bag courtesy @ipsy 
- a plastic closable case for bobby pins and hair ties
Saline solution
Flonase
2 rolls of washi tape
1 bobby pin
5 hair ties
5 scrunchies 
3 small notebooks
1 phone charger adapter that you plug in🔌 
1 phone stand
1 tablet or book stand
1 gauge swatch for the temperature blanket @heatherspinsayarn and I never started 🤣🤣
1 medicine bottle with extra strength Tylenol
2 moist towelettes (packaged)
3 kinds of hand lotion
1 lip balm
1 office clamp
1 small paper clip
1 really awesome microfiber eyeglass cleaner (I can share a link if you want it)
1 pair of very dirty clip-on sunglasses 
1 travel size pack of kleenex
1 notepad I made out of the library's recycling paper
A pair of fingerless gloves (not knitted)
A business card for the Alaska state troopers
1 knitting needle sizer
2 stitch markers
 A complete set ofstitch markers
A Travel size tooth bush, toothpaste, and flosadeck of tarot cards
4 fabric headbands
1 sports headband
Passport
Wallet
5 pens
1 mechanical pencil
- Too much Alaska sand in the bottom
- A combination crochet hook / knitting needle
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