Everywhere Knitting: Lists

I am a list maker. I make lists and sub-lists and sub-sub-lists. I really only make to-do lists these days, but I also like to catalog things, which is why I love Ravelry. I can list and catalog there. Swoon.

My work lists (when I have a job) are numerous. I have a top-level to-do list that outlines all the major tasks I could accomplish in the near future. I don't keep long-term lists, by the way. I'm strictly a short-term lister. Then I have the middle-level to-do list that has smaller tasks that I should accomplish within the week. Finally, I have a lower-level list that has three or four things I would like to accomplish that day. Month, week, day. I log everything I do each day (plus a phone log), and I save both the log and the to-do lists. Then the next year I simply refer to what I was doing the same time of year and add those to my monthly list.

On Ravelry, I currently have 1296 items queued. These are things that I could knit someday. There's a great feature in the advanced search that lets one "compare" projects. So I star the things that I might want to knit next and then look only at those. I wish there was one more layer (I seem to like three layers of listing) to pull out the things that I really want to knit and leave the things that I don't want to forget as near-future possibilities in the comparing section. Sometimes I delete everything but the next possibilities and sometimes I just open them all in their own tabs. I usually have my next project narrowed down to three or four before I settle on it.

18 of the 20+ projects with no homes

After moving to Reno, I found myself both bored and listless. This lasted for a month or so until I started to make lists. I realized there was a lot I could be doing, but I could never settle on anything. Sometimes I couldn't think of anything to do. Finally, I made a list. The list had everything from "apply for a specific job" to "knit a hat" on it--both productive things and leisurely things. These were all things I could do. Then each day I made a list of three things I would like to do that day. Since I'm not working a regular job, nothing on my list is ever that important, so if I didn't get to the laundry, it wasn't a big deal. In fact, I still have a pair of shoes to clean that have been on and off the list since this summer. This finally gave me some direction for my day. I haven't been using the lists as often, but I don't feel listless anymore.

So, in the spirit of lists, here is a catalog of the last few things I've knit. I've also included a photo of April in the Essential Cardigan, but it's a bad picture from a dinner out at one of my favorite Reno restaurants, The Brewer's Cabinet.