taking stock
Every so often I look through the yarn I have and the projects I've started, and I take stock. I usually end up asking myself a lot of questions like "What was I thinking when I started this?" and "Wow, there's a lot of yarn here. Maybe I should use some of it up?"
I thought maybe if I were to come clean here, it would help de-clutter the knitting part of my brain. You know, the part that's left after school stuff (dissertation and exit recital being the biggies there) and kid stuff and man-oh-man-what-should-I-fix-for-dinner-tonight? stuff. Besides, I've been having wicked insomnia lately and that "dissertation" area of my brain is pretty much burnt out at the moment.
Let's start with Projects That I Know I Will Never Finish for some reason or other. First up, a couple of sweaters:
The green blob is about 2/3 of the back of the "Aran Rose" pattern from the Spring '06 IK. This sweater just wasn't doing it for me, partly because the design is a little blah, and partly because the green doesn't suit me as well as I thought when I got the yarn (Patons Classic Merino -- at least it wasn't expensive.) This yarn is already being reclaimed for the endless sea of garter (a.k.a. child's tomten for Afghans for Afghans) I started last week. The purple thing on top is a baby sweater I started out of a random skein of Cascade 220, striped with gray leftover yarn from something my mom made (because I thought there wouldn't be enough purple). This was intended for AFA, but I didn't get it done to send with the baby blanket in May, so I put it down. In fact, I put it down where Daniel could reach, and I realized this project was doomed when he pulled out the needle, frogged a few rows, and looked up at me proudly, and I didn't mind one little bit.
Come to think of it, that green and purple look kind of cool together, don't they? Maybe I'll throw some purple stripes into the tomten to avoid going into a garter stitch coma.
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Next, a fuzzy wuzzy fern lace wrap out of Louisa Harding angora something-or-other in bright teal that I bought on impulse from Lakeside Fibers because it was on sale. I started knitting this at SongFest to keep my hands busy during those long masterclasses, but because I was concentrating on several things at once (the music, the teaching, the knitting), I kept messing up the pattern, even though it isn't hard.
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I'm really having my doubts that this yarn works with any kind of lace pattern. It's just so damn fuzzy you can barely see what's happening. So I'm going to frog it and make something else. I have six skeins, which would be a substantial scarf. Anybody have suggestions? I'm thinking something light and airy but not at all complicated because the yarn is so textured.
Just three things headed for the frog pond? That's not so bad, after all. Of course, this isn't counting a couple (or few) stalled works-in-progress that I don't know if I'll finish by the time the intended recipients grow out of them. And my two most recently started projects - the tomten and Daniel's socks - are coming right along, slowly but steadily.
It probably wouldn't hurt to make some rules for myself. No casting on of a new project before another is finished is a good place to start. How about: Always have a charity hat or sock or mitten or blanket square on the needles to use up leftovers. And here's another good one: Make sure you really want to knit a project before you start it.
Ah, well. Rules and discipline are necessary in every other facet of my life. At least with knitting, it's no one's loss but mine if I'm a total scatterbrain. (That's even true for gift-knitting, by the way, unless you tell someone you're making them something before you actually make it, and I think it's very unwise to make that kind of a commitment. You can always surprise them--they don't need to know it took you 3 years to knit that sweater.)
I thought maybe if I were to come clean here, it would help de-clutter the knitting part of my brain. You know, the part that's left after school stuff (dissertation and exit recital being the biggies there) and kid stuff and man-oh-man-what-should-I-fix-for-dinner-tonight? stuff. Besides, I've been having wicked insomnia lately and that "dissertation" area of my brain is pretty much burnt out at the moment.
Let's start with Projects That I Know I Will Never Finish for some reason or other. First up, a couple of sweaters:
The green blob is about 2/3 of the back of the "Aran Rose" pattern from the Spring '06 IK. This sweater just wasn't doing it for me, partly because the design is a little blah, and partly because the green doesn't suit me as well as I thought when I got the yarn (Patons Classic Merino -- at least it wasn't expensive.) This yarn is already being reclaimed for the endless sea of garter (a.k.a. child's tomten for Afghans for Afghans) I started last week. The purple thing on top is a baby sweater I started out of a random skein of Cascade 220, striped with gray leftover yarn from something my mom made (because I thought there wouldn't be enough purple). This was intended for AFA, but I didn't get it done to send with the baby blanket in May, so I put it down. In fact, I put it down where Daniel could reach, and I realized this project was doomed when he pulled out the needle, frogged a few rows, and looked up at me proudly, and I didn't mind one little bit.
Come to think of it, that green and purple look kind of cool together, don't they? Maybe I'll throw some purple stripes into the tomten to avoid going into a garter stitch coma.
------------
Next, a fuzzy wuzzy fern lace wrap out of Louisa Harding angora something-or-other in bright teal that I bought on impulse from Lakeside Fibers because it was on sale. I started knitting this at SongFest to keep my hands busy during those long masterclasses, but because I was concentrating on several things at once (the music, the teaching, the knitting), I kept messing up the pattern, even though it isn't hard.
.jpg)
I'm really having my doubts that this yarn works with any kind of lace pattern. It's just so damn fuzzy you can barely see what's happening. So I'm going to frog it and make something else. I have six skeins, which would be a substantial scarf. Anybody have suggestions? I'm thinking something light and airy but not at all complicated because the yarn is so textured.
Just three things headed for the frog pond? That's not so bad, after all. Of course, this isn't counting a couple (or few) stalled works-in-progress that I don't know if I'll finish by the time the intended recipients grow out of them. And my two most recently started projects - the tomten and Daniel's socks - are coming right along, slowly but steadily.
It probably wouldn't hurt to make some rules for myself. No casting on of a new project before another is finished is a good place to start. How about: Always have a charity hat or sock or mitten or blanket square on the needles to use up leftovers. And here's another good one: Make sure you really want to knit a project before you start it.
Ah, well. Rules and discipline are necessary in every other facet of my life. At least with knitting, it's no one's loss but mine if I'm a total scatterbrain. (That's even true for gift-knitting, by the way, unless you tell someone you're making them something before you actually make it, and I think it's very unwise to make that kind of a commitment. You can always surprise them--they don't need to know it took you 3 years to knit that sweater.)
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