So we got off the road, and out of the caravan, and have landed straight back into exciting new projects. I'm still book-writing, but I'm also working a thrilling new project for The Craft Sessions that I'll share with you very soon.* And then we have a lot of life stuff going on at the moment....

Anyhoo, the thing about having exciting things in the works, is that my making time becomes really limited. And when my making time is limited I find that - as a total reaction to the time-restriction - my head fills up with distracting, shiny-eyed ideas that sing to me from the shelves and the cupboards. It's like they know I can't, so they multiply in number. Like gremlins.

So in an effort to find some clarity, by getting them out of my head and onto the paper, I thought I'd update and share my current making list.

My Making List is something that I started as part of Stash Less, but that I update in an ongoing way, to keep me on track and help me to sit in gratitude for what I have and what I get to make.

My Making List includes what I have to make for birthdays and the like. Then what I should probably make for to show others the love. And then a crazy long list of what my heart is telling me I need to make right now. Most of these will never see the light of day but by getting them out of my head I will hopefully feel a bit clearer about which ones fit the time I have available. Maybe seeing my love-to-make-but-chance-in-hell list on paper will give my swirling idea brain have a break.

There is one idea that I'm currently a little obsessed with that is causing much of the swirling. Over the last few months I've made up this cardigan pattern which uses shoulder shaping that I've never come across. I'm incredibly chuffed with it. In the words of the lovely EZ** I've "unvented" something that makes my heart sing, and I just want to keep making them. And the best bit is that they fit beautifully with my Stash Less philosophy by providing a wonderful way to be able to make something with your scraps that is colour-blocked, rather than striped, but that is also top-down and sometimes-seamless. I've been using the new pattern as a way to get rid of my ridiculous pile of worsted weight scraps. Happy Days - but distracted days.

In the last few days since I started writing this, I've managed to hoon through some of the list already.....yay!

My Making List - backend of 2017

July
- DONE! Finish smallest kid's new Stash Less cardie.
- A Stash Less cardie for my niece to prove the pattern works in this way.

August
- Start again on my middle child's quilt and then work on it until it's done. Her birthday in December. This is a lot of work!!
- DONE! Baby cardie for my cousin's first bub.
- Little vest for my delicious niece's birthday.

September
- Birthday dress for the smallest kid.

November
- Boy child version of Riddari for our Xmas in the UK. He currently doesn't have a single handknit sweater that fits.
- Birthday dress for the middle child for December.

December
- Quilt for the middle kid which is hopefully a masterpiece.

OK so that is all that needs to be done.

My I-Want-To Making List.

- Sew myself a long sleeve Glacial Tee using Nita-Jane's new pattern. I have tried this on in real life and the shoulder shaping is perfecto. NJ is a genius with the shape.
- Knit myself a Helga Isager cardy Daffodil - I can never figure out how to buy this pattern. It drives me nuts.
- Sew myself a Oslo coat with this beautiful wool I got at The Sheep Show from House Of Cloth
- Knit myself a sweater using my odd handspun balls from Cocoknits book.
- Sew myself a Highlands Wrap Dress from my beautiful Nani Iro Linen that calls to me everyday. Ridiculously inappropriate for the middle of winter.
- Sew myself a pair of the super lovely Flint pants by Megan Nielsen - I have the perfect charcoal linen in the cupboard.
- Make the kids a bunch of long sleeve tees using the best Japanese kid's book I've found since Happy Homemade V2. I think it's called Fu-Ko Basics? It's ISBN is 978-4-529-05296-2.

My Favourite Non-Necessary Making Idea

- Knit myself a Stash Less grownup version of my new cardie pattern using all the scraps I have of Australian worsted weight yarn as kind of a FibreShed-StashLess mutant. This is my very favourite idea of the moment.

Weight off chest? Swirling ideas slowing down? I'm not really sure. I'll see how I feel about all this in the morning, cause I'm feeling the overwhelm of ideas. The one thing I do know is that writing it down gives me clarity over what it is possible to get done. I can see the time I have available to me more clearly and it helps me to prioritise what is important.

Might have to head back to my visual diary to make sure I'm vaguely on track.

What do you do when the ideas are coming thick and fast?

Felicia x

*If you think you might want to hear about our latest venture - which is very different in nature to what we have offered so far - then please join our mailing list. It will be worth your while I promise! We also have had a bit of a problem with our mailing list whereby people were filling out the form but it not transferring through to the list. It's fixed now but if you think this might be you then please join again.

**EZ believed that everything in knitting had been done somewhere at some point in time so we didn't really get to invent anything. Instead we were simply unventing it.....or uncovering it. I love this idea. That we are part of an ongoing community of people who are just making shit up.