UFOs and Beady Things – Thoughts on Clearing out the Aliens in Your Stash

I’m convinced that socks are aliens.

They certainly are UFOs – Unfinished Objects that multiply without your consent, encroaching on your work spaces, whether they were meant for bead work or not.

This month in the design studio, they have been busy…or has it been my husband has been busy making holes in socks and turning them into UFOs?

That’s it, he must be an alien. I suspected as much. He’s too nice to be a human male.

At least the timing of these quiet, evil, alien invaders (my socks, not my husband) was better this month rather than last month, as I had begun tackling my bead work UFO projects several weeks ago, albeit unintentionally.

It’s surprising, how, under the right circumstances, you can wipe out UFOs – and quickly – if you have a plan that hits them when they aren’t looking. But in order to successfully do this, you have to know several secrets first.

One of the secrets is fairly obvious, but not often thought of – you have to work on them more than you work on new projects. At least until you get them caught up. If not, you can never hope to stay ahead of their invasion plan and will one day find yourself surrendering underneath their unrelenting attack.

Most people don’t realize it takes more than just sitting down and tackling the little buggers to win the war. And that is something that the secret’s secret to the secret. 

Another secret is motivation. And surprisingly, motivation often waits for the right time and opportunity. I found this out by going to my local knitting store for a completely different reason one day. 

I work at home now after retiring and often feel the need to be social (I joke that I’m a Socialist to my friends). A month or two ago, upon picking up a special order of beautiful titanium, unicorn-shaped embroidery scissors from my local knitting store, I happened to ask the Assistant Store Manager if they had any time where I could bring some bead work projects to work on. My intention was to bring something new to work on for my two Etsy stores. Happily, I learned they have a weekly UFO knitting circle every Friday evening.

Weirdly, as time went on and I went there regularly, it had the effect of clearing those projects off my studio desk, making way for older projects (UFOs) I could work on it in the evenings. Kind of backwards in how I tackled the backlog, but it still worked.

Yesterday I added as second place to go to, one closer to home, but on a twice-a-month basis. This is promising to work out perfectly as the second space won’t overcrowd my schedule (being less often), while allowing me to make even more new friends and give my husband more alone time to work on his script and novel projects.

Now if I can just stop him from inviting UFOs into the house!

Postscript (PS); feel free to join me at these crafty circles. They aren’t just limited to knitting or any one craft. If it’s portable, it’s probably okay to bring. A quick call or visit to the store can confirm it, as well as help you gauge the existing amount of space available for your projects.

Hope to see you there!

The Altered Stitch, Lake Balboa, CA (Weekly UFO hangouts every Friday).

My Creative Outlet, Chatsworth, CA