UFO Production: When Does a UFO Become a UFO?

Dear users, dear authors,
Fun-Design recently asked a question like this, and I wanted to bring it up again. At what point does a paused craft project become a UFO—that is, a craft project that’s been sitting around for a while and will have to wait a long time to be finished?

For me, it’s like this: before I finish a project, I already have new ideas—or orders for my grandchildren. So I set it aside for a while. Before we started tracking UFO months here, projects like that would sometimes sit around for years. Luckily, that doesn’t happen anymore. But it can still take a few weeks.

I’d say that, for me, it’s a UFO as soon as I start at least two other projects—and then actually finish them.

For me, UFOs are projects I’ve started but keep putting aside in favor of other projects. If I’m working on a big project and squeeze in something small but important in between, it’s not a UFO to me—it’s a PIA (Project in Progress). But I don’t like UFOs at all, because I’m always eager to see whether the finished piece turns out the way I imagined it. Even if weaving in ends, for example, is annoying, I do it anyway before I let anything new onto my needles! 

I have a few half-finished projects lying in the corner. But to me, those aren’t UFOs, haha. Because once something ends up in the corner, I usually don’t finish it. Most of the time, it’s because I don’t like the pattern combination, or the yarn is hard to work with. Eventually, I’ll rip those projects out and make something new with the yarn.

For me, it’s considered a UFO when it gets moved from one spot to another while I’m tidying up, and I don’t feel the need to finish it. Sometimes, when I’m rearranging things, I’ll sit down and want to get back into the pattern, so I’ll keep working on it. But even that can drag on for months or years.

Often, I can’t even remember what needle size I was using or how the pattern goes, so I end up unraveling it.

If I don’t like the pattern after just a few rows, I unravel it right away. 

For me, it becomes a UFO when I actually know exactly how it’s supposed to turn out, there are no more unanswered questions, and I just don’t feel like working on it…
If I’m unsure whether I’ll finish it and it sits around for a while, I don’t really consider it a UFO—it’s still in the development phase. The same goes for those “I’ll just rip out a few rows…” breaks to think things over. It’s fine for it to sit there for a while until inspiration strikes, without it immediately becoming a UFO for me. These projects are more like WIPs—or PIA, as they say in German; I hadn’t heard that term before. UFOs are always accompanied by my inner slacker and somehow turn into annoying projects—luckily, I never have very many of those. It’s just hard work that I get through, but it’s usually really worth it once the project is finished.

How many UFOs do you have right now?

Unfortunately, I have another one of those because other projects take priority. This one’s been sitting idle for two months now. Well, it’ll get finished eventually, thanks to the monthly threads here.