Knitting Philosophy

Four months into this whole knitting "thing," I find myself defining what, exactly, my knitting philosophy is. I've learned I'm not a process knitter - I love the feel of yarn, and I do thoroughly (obviously) enjoy knitting, but for me, it's about the project. The finished product - who it's made for, what it is, the end goal. As I'm growing my stash, I'm finding that every skein is purchased with a project in mind. The best I can do in the absence of an assigned project is determine that one good skein in a fabulous colorway would make perfect SOCKS. I have started a collection of travel yarn, though - when we were in DC buying a house a couple of weeks back I found myself severly stressed and in need of some wool therapy... Not only did I find a great store, but they dye their own yarn - so I got 2 skeins of it, just to have (although in my head I was thinking boot socks or a hat - see? Project knitter) .

So, now I return to the story about this little lace shawl beginning. I was reading Mason Dixon Knitting (the book) and while I became completely obsessed with the warshrags and the log cabin knits, the shawls just didn't do it for me. And I came back to this little shawl. I have no motivation to work on it. I love the pattern and I love the yarn even more, but really, at the end of it all - will I EVER wear a shawl? No, no way! Not my style! But I'm drawn to trying to knit up something lace weight - what a conundrum. Maybe a scarf. Or a tank top - yes, this yarn would make a delicious tank top. I SHOULD learn how to knit filmy lace, learn to block it, see the pattern emerge. But what the heck would I do with it after that? Give it away? No one I know would wear it, either! *sigh*

So, I frogged it. Rewound the yarn back into a ball. Put in back in the stash, with a new assigned project - tank top. And an acceptance of the fact that just because I can knit lace, that doesn't mean I should if it's not "my thing" and I wouldn't use or enjoy the end result. And so starts the development of my knitting philosophy - as a project knitter who needs to have a real, tangible, useful end product that I (or my loved ones) can use and enjoy.

I Heart My Noro Blossom Shrug

Seriously, the simplest project in the world. It's just a giant tube, broken apart in the middle, made with this nubby, yummy yarn. I initially intended to wait to cast it on, but the yarn came in the mail and I had to start...and then, it was downhill, mindless knit until the center, then just stockinette. I worked on it before classes. While DH was cooking dinner. In the morning (hides spilled coffee well). While watching TV. Skein after skein passed through my hands, and then, yesterday, I hit the last skein first thing in the morning. I knew my work was almost done, and decided not to shower and get dressed until I finished, so I could have the joy of wearing my new creation right away.


Somewhere around lunchtime, DH came home and saw me sitting there on the couch - "my butt got numb sitting in my usual chair in the kitchen" - and he said: "I thought it was almost done?"
Damn. I didn't escape it - that part of any large knitting project where you hit a certain point, and knit and knit, and it seems to just be stuck. Never grows. It's the knitting abyss. Everytime I checked the length of the second sleeve, thinking that surely this shrug would fit a monkey and that I should stop, it was still be 4" short.

At 2:30, the sleeves seemed to be the same length, and I blissfully bound it off and wove in the ends. Took my long-awaited shower, and put the glorious thing on. Well worth the wait!