Friday, May 12, 2006

Too Many Projects!!!

What's this condition called? Start-itis? Project ADD? Second Sock Syndrome? I keep starting things and not finishing them. It's just pathetic.

Exhibit A
not done yet
Elfine's Socks. This is still the first sock. Haven't touched it in a week.

Exhibit B
Calla languishing
Saddy languishing Calla. Haven't touched this in a week either. I'm bothered by the many mistakes I know are present in this item. I am trying hard not to frog it and start over. I know I could just make this the back and no one will see the mistakes, but I will know they are there....

Exhibit C
sock in progress
I just had to try out some of the sock yarn I dyed last week. I really can't decide how I feel about this. I really am not pleased with how the colors are pooling. Someone at the theatre saw me working on this tonight and said she really liked it. And she didn't know that I had dyed it myself, so I consider that an unbiased opinion. But I'm really not loving it. I'm not using a pattern for this.. just kinda making it up as I go along. Toe-up, magic loop... I am trying an afterthought heel for the first time. (you might be able to see the pale yellow/green stripe near the top - that's the waste yarn where the heel will go.) And I'm kinda playing with alternating K's and P's for the cuff.

And Exhibit D
first lace
It doesn't look like much, but hopefully one day it will grow up to be the Flower Basket Shawl. It's Laura's fault. I blame her. She brought this to knitting group the other night. Isn't it beautiful? I sooo wanted to try it. So far, I've ripped and restarted 4 times. The pattern calls for double stranding the laceweight, and I'm only single stranding it. I may need rip AGAIN and double strand, but I kind of wanna work on it a bit more and see how it will look with just one strand. And again - dyed by me laceweight, had to try it!

cocoa blue
I love how this turned out. It's much browner and less yellow in real life.

I'm also deliriously happy with how this turned out...
walking on the moon
I'm calling the colorway "Walking on the Moon." I have no definite plans for it yet, but I'm thinking if I can tackle my first lace with the flower basket, then this may turn into a lace xmas gift for my sister.

I still have three skeins from my dyeing class that are hanging on hangers on the back of my bathroom door. I haven't re-skeined or ball-wound them yet because I'm convinced I will want to start yet another project when I see them re-wound.

Besides this mountain of projects I have going, I can hear my Koigu calling me....Knit me! Knit me! Not to mention the other yarns I got at S&W, the Lorna's Laces from Heather, the Trekking I bought for April Project Spectrum, the Hill Country yarn I've had forever...

And I can't even discuss this lonely object:
lonely potomooose

I think maybe I need to grow another set of hands...

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ooops :) Yes, gotta agree, these are quite a lot of projects :) But you'll see, no matter what happens, one day you're gonna finish them all!
I know what you mean about YOU knowing the mistakes are there - I was absolutely neurotic about such things as well, but with the time I calmed down considerably :) People hardly ever look at each and every stitch closely when you wear a self knitted item, actually they hardly ever look much at all (sad experience of mine), so who cares about some little mistakes here and there? It takes a bit of time though to get this little "but noooo, I'm gonna see that" out of one's brain - but with thetime you'll forget about these little mistakes and will be able to wear your project proudly!

1:56 AM  
Blogger KT said...

When you find those other hands, let me know. I need a pair, as well! Particularly since I just realized that one of my best friends is getting married in August and I haven't even started her afghan yet! (I'm thinking big needles and chunky yarn...)

It is an interesting pooling situation with that first sock pic. I'm kinda hooked on it, I think. And that blue sock yarn - um, yummy!

4:04 AM  
Blogger Laura said...

I have the same problem, Coleen. Many, many projects and none of them close to being finished. And I was thinking of starting a Flower Basket Shawl too!

8:54 AM  
Blogger Theresa said...

My first reaction to the hand-dyed sock was "oh, I like!" It is funky, in a good way, I think.

I know what you mean about the shawl, I only saw pictures on Laura's site and want to try it. But am really (clenching teeth), really resisting casting on anything new right now.

8:54 AM  
Blogger Stacey said...

All the projects are so pretty (and a huge range of colors! Looks like PS is having an influence!) Have you tried maybe doing some ribbing on the hand dyed sock yarn? It may use up a little more yarn and stop the pooling (though I think it's kinda neat!)

I think that laceweight is so pretty - the picture didn't do it justice. It looks like you weren't the only one who caved - I saw her shawl also and have been contemplating delving into lace!

I figure as long as stuff eventually gets done, work on what makes you happy!!

9:22 AM  
Blogger laura said...

It's ok to restart over and over you know. I did.numerous times. I just did all my restarts the first 24 hours since I had that deadline.

I use a sz 6 US instead of the 7. I tried double stranded and didn't like it. And then tried single, and decided I would need smaller needles to do that (which I now have, hooray for All About Yarn) and then I tried that Baby Ull, which was just right. (And I just replaced those two balls with a nice claret color of it, and can't decide if I want to make it lace or wait on that sock pattern.)

I found the Baby Ull a lot easier to work with than the lace weight. Perhaps smaller needles, or try a fingering weight for your first one to get a feel for doing it.

9:23 AM  
Blogger aija said...

Oh, but they all make sense and think of how amazing it will be when they're all done at the same time :)

1:53 AM  
Blogger Amie said...

So I'm only just now catching up (sllloooooowwly) but if you knit from the inside and outside of the ball, alternating rounds, that will help fix the pooling a lot...

Good luck!

10:08 PM  
Blogger Jenny said...

Hee hee, your post title is the same name as my blog! It's so exciting to start something new that I do it far too often, at the expense of my WIPs.

7:26 PM  

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