Crafting Ennui

I'm not one of those people who can keep up lots of projects. Essentially, my personality makes me  obsess on ONE THING and it is THE BEST THING EVER I WILL LOVE IT ALWAYS and everything else just sits on the side. After a (week, few weeks, month) then my love for it starts to die down and is replaced with another obsession. It's actually the main reason why I've talked for years about starting an Etsy store and still haven't started one ... I knit four things for it and hit the  "blah, knitting" wall.

Actually, a large part of that wall is my on-again-off-again project, the 15-foot-long scarf of DOOM Doctor Who scarf. Do you realize how much garter stitch is in 15 feet? Too much. Here, this is about what it'll look like it when I'm done:

The 4th Doctor and his crazy scarf.
via

Really, I've made pretty good progress. I started it in February, and even after taking off a few weeks here and there, I have about 5 or so feet left. But whenever I go to work on it, I end up putting it down in favor of doing something - anything! - else. I hate the yarn I'm using now. I hate the color scheme (it looks like the 70s barfed a rainbow.) I hate the mindlessness of garter stitch, and how tight my stitches are getting.

So what did I do at the beginning of summer to get my mind off of it? I started working on Christmas presents. I'm not going to go into detail about them because some of my friends read this blog, and all of my friends are getting pretty much the same thing, but it involves sewing, some embroidery and applique, a little paint, and one will even involve lights. (Don't worry, it'll make sense in a few months when I write a post on them.)

Of course, the sheer task of sewing up approximately 20 (spoilers) in addition to the gifts I was going to make for my family is, well, overwhelming to say the least. And when I get overwhelmed, I shut down.

What needs to happen is that I need to finish something, whether it be completing one of the Christmas presents that I've already started or finish knitting the monstrous scarf. I think that, once something is finished, I will get back my energy and find the motivation to finish more projects. So for right now, I'm going to shut down my computer, pick up my needles, and knit the heck out of that scarf. Wish me luck!

When you feel no motivation to work on a project, what helps you get working on it again?