DIY & Crafts

Binding off, casting on, ripping out, changing plans

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DIY & Crafts

Binding off, casting on, ripping out, changing plans

Sweater #4 is off the needles and yes, I'm almost a month behind and yes, 12 sweaters (8 more to go!) is a lot of sweaters and yes, I'm starting to think I might be crazy. But it's suddenly hot here and I'm so pleased I chose to make a sweater I could actually wear on a day when it was almost 30C outside. I was all ready to start Sweater #5 on Tuesday night, but I got tucked into another (top secret) project instead. And in the meantime, I changed my mind. This is not an unusual event in my knitting life. I've noticed that as I knit the last few inches of whatever project I'm working on, I'm totally caught up in thoughts of what I'm going to do next. I skim Ravelry, I page through my knitting books, I start asking nosy questions about other people's sweaters. I make lists. Long lists. In much the same way that I look forward to Payday Latte or Friday Night Pizza as a reward for proofreading recipes or setting up photoshoots, Next Sweater becomes the reward for all the hard work I'm putting in on Current Sweater. I imagine cables and lace and colourwork and triumphant first wearings in the same way that I fantasize about walking home from work on Friday night with a 16-slice pizza with ALL the toppings...and extra cheese. But come Friday night, I always order the same medium pizza with pepperoni, bacon and mushrooms, and once Current Sweater has been bound off and blocked, Next Sweater gets abandoned after only a few rows. Almost invariably I've convinced myself that I'll get gauge (I won't), that I've got more than enough yarn stashed (I don't), that despite the experts' advice, it doesn't really matter if I use superwash for a steeked sweater (it does). So the yarn I had wound and ready to knit on Tuesday night is not the yarn I was knitting with on the subway this morning. But that's OK. I think that The World's Cutest Baby (Not Counting Archie) will look pretty darling in a February Baby Sweater, too. And maybe I'll make that beautiful steeked sweater in a few months time, instead. (The pattern is in Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac. The yarn is Tanis Fibre Arts Green label in Royal Flush, which is a fancy name for PINK!)

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DIY & Crafts

Binding off, casting on, ripping out, changing plans

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