WIP and Pending Projects

A friend brought more bags to me this week. It's always fun to see an assortment of bags all at once. There was one Target bag for my shopping bag which was pending more bags. That one bag is cut, tied together into plarn and crocheted into the bag already. One bag doesn't even go halfway around a shopping bag. Well, the bag is just over 7 inches tall, so it's big to hold skeins of yarn for the nativity sets I'm making. So it's useful even while it's pending.There were also 2 large and 4 regular sized Big Lots bags. They work into a white bag with orange and black spots. Perfect for October. I like the big bags. They make longer loops, which means fewer knots to crochet around. I'm making a shoulder bag with them. After crocheting these bags into it, I have it 5 1/2 inches tall. I like shoulder bags to be 9 to 10 inches deep, so I need a few more.
There were various other bags of colors I'm not currently making into anything, so they'll go into piles until I have 10 of  a color to cut and roll. I like to make balls of plarn of 10 bags. That's a good size. Not too big to hold while rolling, and big enough that I'm not stopping all the time to tie on a new ball.
I like calling some projects pending.  Really, there's no progress on a project while I'm waiting on more bags for plarn. Having fewer WIP makes me feel that I'm making better progress on them. Am I just fooling myself?

 This is a shoulder bag, already finished it. It's made of Target bags, just to let you see how my shopping bag will look. And another baby blanket, WIP.

Thoughts on the Crocheted Nativity Set

The free pattern, and pictures, are at www.5littlemonsters.com/2015/11/crocheted-nativity-set.html#more
As I've said before, this is too cute for words! My daughter-in-law, my older daughter, and I all want sets. I usually get bored if I make the same pattern over and over. However, I've been working on this pattern all the past week, and I've found that the pattern is so many little parts that I don't get bored.
I have made a few changes to the pattern which I think make it easier to make. Remember, patterns are just suggestions.
First, the manger. I don't like to make little parts and sew them together if I can make one bigger piece, so I made the bottom first. Then, instead of finishing off and starting another little piece, I just started working around the sides, no increases so the sides would go straight up. This is the same technique I use on my plarn bags.
Second, the hay. The pattern called for loop stitches. I don't like loop stitches. I think they come apart too easily, so after the sc, instead of wrapping the yarn around my fingers to make a loop, I chained 10, sc in next st, ch 10 across. On the next row, sc in each sc.
Third, the weighted bags. I made the cloth circles as described in the pattern, but used BB's for the weight. I found them in the sporting goods section of Wal-Mart.
I'm also trying to make a stable. I recently had 4 trees cut down in my yard, so I have lots of twigs. I've been spending lots of time in my yard, cutting twigs, and small sticks into 10 to 16 inch lengths. I don't have enough yet. I'm surprised at how many I seem to need to make 3 walls and a roof. I have brown crochet thread to tie them together. If that's not sturdy enough, there's always my hot glue gun!
Besides being cute, the set will be kid friendly. Little ones always seem to want to play with nativity sets. My mom had a ceramic set which my youngest sister always wanted to play with. Mom didn't want the figures chipped or broken as the set was a gift my dad's secretary had made for them over several years. Crocheted items don't chip or break and won't hurt a child if they fall.
I'll make 3 sets of  Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, the donkey, star, manger, and hay first. If I still have enough time, I'll make the shepherds and sheep. If not, I'll add them next year. The year after, I'll make magi and camels, providing I can find or make up camel patterns. I'll probably use crochet thread for the presents, crowns and blankets for the camels' humps. That will give me more color and I have silver and gold thread.
This is making good inroads on my stash of left over yarn, although I have bought some yarn for colors I didn't have. (Yellow, grey, and purple)

Yellow Plarn Shoulderbag: Finished

...Finally!
I wondered if I would ever finish this shoulderbag. I rarely shop at Dollar General Store. It's just not on my shopping route. It's odd because there's a Dollar General Store closer to my house than any other store. Anyway, this bag has been sitting in my wip pile for over 2 years, usually waiting for more yellow bags. The bags would come in one or two at a time, usually from a friend. I would work them into the bag as soon as I got them, then I'd have to wait for more.
These shoulder bags take about 28 hours to make, including the time to cut and fasten the bags. That's one reason why these two years of waiting for more bags has seemed so long.
Maybe I need a new category for my projects: Pending (more bags to make plarn). That way my wip list isn't so long. I have a Big Lots shoulderbag that could go there. It will be white with orange and black spots - perfect for October. The Target grocery bag will soon go there. I'm working on the last plarn ball I have for that bag. I don't like working with Target bags. They're a 4 instead of a 2, so I don't think they mix well with most of the rest of my bags, too stiff and they stretch easier. It may sound strange, that a stiffer strip would stretch easier, but they seem to do just that. It's like mixing worsted and sport weight yarns.

Also, I don't think the red on other bags is the same. These seem to have more red in the mix. Just my OCD, unless I'm making stripes, I want the color to be spread evenly in the project.

So, it looks as if I can pull out some more wip.....maybe the crocheted Nativity set. I only need 4 of those! Back I go to the 5 little monsters blog for the pattern.......

Is it Possible to Have too Many WIP?

Yes.
While I like having several wip, so that I can switch when I get bored, I have found that 10 is just too many. I only have so many hours to crochet, and having 10 projects going at once means that I don't see progress on  most of them.

 I have a wedding doily started which I haven't touched in several months.

 This shoulder bag has been waiting for more yellow dollar general bags. Happily a friend brought me more, so maybe I'll get this finished. I haven't touched this baby blanket in months, either. I find lack of progress depressing, even if I do finish other projects, so I really mean it this time when I say, "I have to finish several projects before I start something else!

Too Much Pinterest

I don't know why I keep going to Pinterest. Those e-mails about "??? re-pinned your pin" catch me every time. I'm just too curious about which of my pins looked good to someone else, I guess. Then I just have to see what's new. There is always some thing that catches my eye.Then of course I have to pin it. I don't know why I have a kids board. I have no young children and no grandchildren (yet). Still, that seems to be the board which gets the most new pins.
I have so many wip. I need to be working on them. I NEED those wip baskets!
Granted, I lost several hours this week when my old phone died. I'm still trying to learn how to use this new phone. That and the new games on it are like a black hole. I don't even notice how long I've been playing with it. Oh, well, eventually, it'll be old hat and I can get back to my life!
This week on Pinterest, I noticed more "vintage" items. Not that I'm likely to make myself a granny square dress, but it was just too cute, so I pinned it. And that baby ponco! No grandchildren to need it, yet, never know, so I pinned it. Shawls! I really like shawls! I might make myself some more shawls, so I pinned them. Afghans! I still have months without  a special afghan to put on the back of my couch just for that month, so I pin lots of afghans.
Do I really need these pins, patterns, and pictures? No, but at least they're not taking up shelf space like my pattern books. That's some consolation....Oh, look, Pineapple Doilies!! I have to pin those...