I’m always surprised when people comment on how much I get done. I never feel like I’m getting anything accomplished (particularly not when I compare where I am now to what I used to do). And yet, I do manage to make steady progress, often by taking baby steps.

For instance, last Sunday I managed to get these out of the closet:

They have been sitting on my desk for a week, and I finally managed to take a picture of them this afternoon.

On Thursday, I pulled out my drum carder, and left it sitting in the middle of my office floor. It is still sitting there, waiting for me to do something with it. This is part of the plan; it bothers me to have things out of order, so things that are “out” and in the way get higher priority. It also overcomes the inertia barrier for days where a two-step project feels like too big a deal.

Last weekend, I put my wheel squarely in front of my usual chair, with a bobbin loaded up and ready to go. Between Friday night and this afternoon, I have managed to ply off 850 yards of 2-ply fingering weight from 8 oz of fiber that I found hidden in the stash.

I’ve been working on this spinning for a month or so, and it just hasn’t been getting anywhere. I needed to clear out the wheel to make space for the sweater, so I’ve put an extra push on to get this done. And now, I have two squishy skeins of very dark red/burgundy yarn. (No, I have no idea what it will become, but I love the color.)

That is all the crafting that I have done this week, but it’s getting me closer to a place where I can just pick things up and go when I have the time and the energy to invest. And I guess that’s the trick; always leaving things in a state that I can make 15 minutes of progress when I have a few minutes here or there. When I don’t manage to have something at the ready (as is the case now with my knitting), then nothing gets done. But if  I can keep it moving ahead one little step at a time, it’s amazing how fast all those little steps add up.

Next week is spring break, so this project will probably get a big boost of effort for a few days, at least. Once it’s on the needles, I’ll find time to knit. Only time will tell if I’ll get anywhere before we run out of snow!