The Well-Appointed Desk

Every February for many years Ana and I have worked together on a little personal challenge we call “Fix it, Finish it or Frog it February.” While we specifically relate this to knitting, we thought it could be applicable to any craft or hobby you pursue. So today’s post is brought to you with knitting in mind, but broader applications.

Anyone who goes ALL IN on a hobby knows that there is lots of collecting to be done. There are the primary materials (yarn, ink, paper), the tools (needles, hooks, pens) and endless accessories (don’t get me started!). We’ve all started at the entry level, and then moved deeper into the obsession and find ourselves with a collection teeming with favorites, as well as things that no longer serve us. Keep those in mind as I move forward.

FIX IT

Any knitter has started a project that at some point has taken a wrong turn. Here’s one of my current ones. I tried to knit a sweater in November 2024. I cast on, and kept going despite the fact that I had miscounted somewhere along the way (oops!), I had the niggling feeling that it was going to be too small (double oops!) and that I hadn’t alternated skeins and they were definitely different colors (triple oops!). What I ended up with was this pile of knitting that I knew I couldn’t continue, and just made me want to throw it in a corner. Which I did.

It’s now 2026 and this mess doesn’t suit me. It’s a waste of beautiful yarn, and it keeps my tools (needles, stitch markers and the like) otherwise occupied. It’s time to fix it. That’s going to include ripping it (more on this in a bit), but it’s time to make it what I want it to be. A pretty sweater that fits me that I want to wear proudly.

What do you have that isn’t working for you? That pen you love, but the nib isn’t quite right. The journal or planner you bought that would work for you if it wasn’t this one thing. The ink that might not work in the pen you put it in, but might have another use?

Now’s the time. Make a nib grinding appointment. Take a tour down a rabbit hole on YouTube and hack that planner until it works for you. Take up ink wash painting (and visit Julia Van der Wyk at the San Francisco Pen Show for a class on that!). In the immortal words of Tim Gunn, MAKE IT WORK. If you absolutely can’t, hold that thought.

FINISH IT

Every knitter has a project that’s almost done, but for a few simple things. You made the sweater all except for the final sleeve. You need to add buttons. There’s three ends sticking out that need to be woven in so it’s neat and tidy. You finished the first sock, but you never got to the second. Or, in my case, you knit 1/4 of a hat and stopped.

You could finish that project with just a little more work but you for some reason you stopped, went to the kitchen for a snack, and 3 years passed and you never got back to it. You still love it, and you want it finished (it’s cold out – I want to wear that hat RIGHT NOW!).

So do it. Get off your butt and finish coloring in your Ink Archiving Book. Finish that really cool zine or journal you were working on. Close out last year’s planner and file it on the shelf. Whatever it is you want to finish, DO IT. If you can, do those last little steps by the end of the month. You’ll feel a huge sense of accomplishment, less guilt hanging over you (if you ever feel that way!) and you’ll have a clean slate ready for new projects.

FROG IT

In knitting, when we have to undo our knitting we say we rip it (“ribbit”) and some of us call that frogging. There are just projects that weren’t meant to be. That ink you were sure you love, but just don’t. A pen that try as you might you just can’t like (I’m looking at you Lamy Safari angled grip). A planner that just doesn’t work for you.

For me, a sweater that I knit where the yarn and the pattern are a total mismatch. The yarn is lovely, but it tends to work better in a different stitch. See all those janky stitches where nice neat ones should be? The whole sweater is going to be like that and I’m never going to wear it. And I’m not even sure I want that particular sweater pattern anymore/ But that yarn is gorgeous. And in a different stitch/project could be amazing. Or maybe someone else would enjoy the yarn more.

Enough is enough. Face reality and do something about it. In my case, I’m gonna RIBBIT real good. In your case? Sell the pen, give away the ink, admit you hate the thing and let it go. Life is TOO SHORT to spend time doing things we don’t enjoy, especially things that are hobbies and supposed to be our happy place. Don’t get caught in the sunk cost fallacy, just Marie Kondo that shit and only keep what brings you joy. In my case, that means I will have ripped out this sweater and rewound the yarn by the time you read this post!