Maybe you’ve experienced this yourself. You’ve finished a project and after too short of a celebration, your mind turns to deciding what to make next. You then frustrate yourself by spending hours trying to pick from all the projects that you have planned. Each one is important and has convincing reasons to be done first. It was in this kind of situation that I began to develop my Crafter’s Arbitrary Rules System (or CARS).
Inspiration for my system
I knew I needed to make rails for my choices like discussed by Charlotte Mason (of homeschooling fame) and in James Clear’s Atomic Habits (Amazon affiliate link). In the rails concept, you set up a system that keeps you from having to make decisions because you just follow a preset path like a train running on its rails. This has freed up my mind from the small decisions to allow me to think on higher matters, like which cool new yarn I want to get.
After developing my system I felt I should share it with other crafters who may be struggling in a similar fashion. Perhaps you can also reduce some of the wasted time in your hobby and start enjoying it again. Fair warning, this post is very intense, so you may need to tackle it in parts.
Framework of my system
Note: This is a very general overview of my system. The components will be discussed in more detail in other parts of the post.
I have organization/storage for:
- Projects I’d like to do eventually but don’t have materials for
- Projects I have materials for
- Projects I’m currently working on.
Across all these classes I have 9 categories of crochet and knit projects and 6 categories of sewing projects.
The 9 crochet and knit project categories are:
- Socks
- Accessories (scarves, hats, gloves, cowls, small shawls)
- Shawls
- Sweaters (and cardigans, etc.)
- Home (bags, stuffies, pillows, kitchen and dining decor)
- Blankets
- Thread crochet
- Washcloths
- Holiday
The sewing project categories are:
- Home
- Bags
- Craft-supporting (needle and hook cases, etc.)
- Wearables
- Quilts for the kids
- Quilts for my husband and I
I put any new pattern and/or project I find into the category it fits best in. Then when I finish a project, I get out the next project in that same category. Once a month at most I allow myself to rearrange my patterns.
My physical system
I have 2 binders to keep my waiting patterns in. Both are 3 inch 3-ring binders (Amazon affiliate link). One is for patterns I’ve bought materials for and the other is for patterns waiting for materials. Yes, I have a 3″ binder full of patterns I have materials for. (Check out my monthly craft reports for my progress on them.)
Additionally, I have pocket tabs for each category (like these, Amazon affiliate link) and page protectors for each pattern (like these, Amazon affiliate link). The pocket tabs are a useful way to store patterns that are waiting to be sorted into the rotation as well as ones I’ve taken out of the rotation. The specific tabs I got allow me to see the dividers past the edges of the page protectors.
I also have a smaller, 1″ binder (Amazon affiliate link) that I use to hold the next project for each category. Additionally, this is where I keep the next project in every category for which I plan to buy stuff. I have them in this smaller binder that I can keep handier so I have quicker access to it when I’m in the market for buying some yarn or fabric. I don’t have dividers in this binder.
My current works in progress are kept in a folder-like pattern holder (the one I have, Amazon affiliate link). I have them stacked in the order I’d work on them every day. The stack is just that, a stack. There’s no division of any kind in this one either.
Deciding what to do each day: My 5-3-1 system
Each category of project (mentioned in my overview) has a designated amount of rows or rounds I’d work on them every day. When I sit down to craft, I start with the 5 row, then the 3 row, then the 1 row. After I’ve done these 9 rows or rounds I just continue working on the 1 row project.
How I’ve split my crochet/knit projects into row categories:
- 5 row categories: socks, thread, washcloths
- 3 row categories: shawls, accessories, home
- 1 row categories: sweaters, blankets, holiday
I decide on 3 projects from the 9 categories list to set up my 1st rotation of projects. For instance, I’d have a pair of socks, a shawl, and a sweater being worked on at the same time. These patterns go in my pattern holder.
The rest of the patterns from the other categories are kept in my 1″ binder. I have a page protector each for the 5 row, 3 row, and 1 row waiting projects. This puts several projects in one page protector, but it doesn’t seem to be too much for the page protector to handle. Then when I finish a project, I pull the next pattern out of that row count’s page protector. So if I finish some socks I’ll pull out a washcloth or a thread crochet pattern.
Rules for adding new projects to the system
When I find a pattern I like I print it out. If I can’t print it (like if it’s in a book) or it’s not a full sheet of paper I write the name of the project on a piece of paper to give me the ability to put it in the binder with the other patterns. To waste less paper I’ll probably re-use the placeholder papers for other project placeholders. These patterns get put in the front pocket of a section, which is the back pocket of the divider at the front of the section.
If I’ve fallen prey to some pretty yarn, I’ll usually find a pattern to use it on. This pattern gets put directly into the “has materials” binder. It’ll still get put in the front tab pocket for sorting later, though.
On rearrangement day I then sort all the new patterns into the existing order. If I decide I don’t want to make a pattern anymore I pull it out of the page protector and put it in the back tab pocket of the section. This pocket is technically the one on the front of the divider behind the section, which is the divider tab for the next section.
Modifying the arbitrary rules
You may have noticed the acronym for my system spells out CARS. This was a happy accident because I felt it was a perfect extension of what I was trying to do. With vehicles we pick them and customize them based on our needs or interests. Some people change big things like the paint color or the exhaust system because they like having that customization. Others won’t really do much modifying beyond maybe adding an air freshener or a steering wheel cover. (Guilty, though I finally convinced myself to put a sticker on the back of my car.)
This is my invitation to go ahead and tweak this system to fit your needs. You don’t have to use the whole system and you don’t have to continue to use it. I’ve continued to modify my system, too. Yes it made it harder to write out this post, but it has made my crafting planning smoother.
Examples of my modifications
If you’ve been around my website, you’d see I have a problem with starting too many projects, I’m trying to rectify this situation by working through all the projects I’ve actually started until I only have 3 to 5 started projects. To work toward this goal, I’ve rearranged my patterns in my binders to put all the started projects first or close to first. I’ve also been skipping categories if they don’t have a started project going. When I get caught up I’ll probably start rotating through the categories without skipping any.
I have a lot of pattern books and plan on getting more. So I’ll have to find a way to integrate those patterns without copying all of them all at once.
I’ve since stopped, but at one point I started adding a special project to the front end of my rotation. This project was a project I was looking forward to or one that used a yarn I thought was pretty. I did this when I was getting a lot less crafting time so I wanted to make sure what little time I got was spent on something that brought me comfort and a bit of happiness.
How I came up with the Crafter’s Arbitrary Rules name
If you’ve made it this far you may be curious as to how I came up with the name of this system. I wanted to make a cool name for the system to make it easier to remember and explain.
I’ve heard the phrase “arbitrary rules” thrown around before and I thought it would fit here. Especially since these rules are VERY arbitrary. I then added the crafter’s part to make the abbreviation CAR or CARS if you add the word “system”. I felt comparing crafts to cars worked. Each craft is like a class of vehicle (truck, van, etc.). And within those classes you have sub-classes (like cars are sub-divided into sedans, coupes, etc.). Plus like with vehicles there are basics that apply to whatever vehicle you’re in. All that is mostly important if you, like me, have multiple crafts worth of projects to plan and also have a penchant for drawing similarities between completely unrelated things..
Do you have any crafter’s arbitrary rules you would add?
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