Monday 1 June 2009

Sssshhhhhhh......

..... this is posted in a whisper, because Owen is asleep!

Anyway, I am here to announce that about 3 weeks ago I rediscovered the will to knit. More to the point, I joined up two thoughts in a logical and coherent way and that sort of enabled me to see the root of my loss of knitting mojo.

For a while now, I have been feeling the urge to knit something, but somehow I never manage to actually make a decision about what I want to make or what part of my extensive yarn collection would be best for it.

The dilemmas involved are enourmous - do I knit for the baby, only to have to make it in acrylic and have him grow out of it in 10 days? Do I knit something for me only to have him puke on in after 10 minutes, and then not get round to washing it for 6 weeks because it is handwash? Do I knit another scarf/shawl knowing full well that I'll not wear it for months because the summer is finally here? Which of the thousands of ideas for jumper designs I have floating round in my head is the best one? Why don't I do something useful and finish one of the many things I am half way through?

It was all too much thinking about knitting, feeling oppressed by the stash and my lack of time and will to knit it, and not enough sponteneity and fun.

And then I was struck by the aforementioned coherent thoughts. The first one said - you are having trouble stringing thoughts together, so stop thinking about designing something and just knit from a pattern with no modifications. The second thought was - stop bleating about not having enough time (while spending a good chunk of every morning on the internet) and use the time you do have to cast something on.

Then I saw the perfect project - simple, quick, useful, a couple of yarn options in the stash. It was the Whisper Cardigan from Interweave Spring. I saw the pictures and liked it. I swatched in laceweight and didn't like it (far too open) so went to sockweight and liked it a whole lot more, but then what is there not to like about Posh Yarn Laura!

Anyway, that little bit of inspiration was all I needed to start the knitting, it went surprisingly fast and now Whisper is blocking upstairs and I am praying that it is going to be dry by tomorrow so that I can wear it. Photos will follow soon, just as soon as I can commandeer Francis and the camera and a spare 5 minutes, but I am dead chuffed to have finished something, and am casting round for ideas for my next project.....

4 comments:

Walden said...

Welcome back.

blue hands said...

Yay! pleased to see you back. One of the things I like about knitting is that someone else has done the thinking and I can follow a pattern. In the rest of my stitch, yarn, dye life I expect myself to do the designing, so it's pleasantly restful.

florencemary said...

Looking forward to seeing Whisper! I'm knitting the Featherweight cardi atm (by the same designer), though I am using laceweight as specified. It's certainly a bit different!

Linda said...

I look forward to seeing your Whisper. I bought the yarn but am a bit afraid of casting on in the tiny laceweight!