Skip to main content

Knitting Panic Time

There are some who can plan ahead for deadlines and meet them.  In fact in my work life I am one who generally is much more comfortable completing a project well in advance of the deadline so that I have time to review it again and again before it is due.

Then there is my personal life and in particular for this post, my attention to knitting projects.  I have in my head the things I'd like to get done as Xmas gifts.  The list is developed with more than enough time to complete everything.  This year I even finished projects in the summer for holiday giving.  But then something happens.  I seem to develop attention deficit disorder for knitting projects.  A small or new interesting project (or as some of us call it--the next new shiny thing) calls to me and I don't control myself.  I take it on and of course it takes far longer than I expected and then it is the end of November!  In fact I shocked myself this year because I had started to create a list of those things I wouldn't get done and then got a couple done anyway thanks to snowfall in Minneapolis during my holiday.


So it is now December 9 leaving only 16 days before Christmas.  I still have some finishing to do on a few items.  I'm unfortunately the type of person who believes if something is almost done it is as good as done.  Now I know you purest who would prefer that strings aren't dangling or that sides are actually stitched together won't agree, but to me these shortcomings to being done are merely trifles.  If I'm visiting Mom, she often helps by finishing projects for me.  But this year I'm on my own.

It is becoming abundantly clear that some of the items on my knitting to do list will become gifts later in the year.  The recipients generally don't know the gifts they get were meant to be holiday presents because, of course, I don't reveal that information on December 25 or whenever the gift is actually delivered either.  But inside, right now I am experiencing a knitting panic.  I am feeling the strong pull to move on to the next new shiny project and leave these other projects until later.  But I probably won't just leave them.  Perhaps I need some sort of medication, I know maybe a glass of wine will cure it.  (Not so great for knitting but so comforting to the mind.)

So if you see me around in a sort of a funk, know it is likely nothing more than the knitting panic or too much of the medication.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time.  One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock.  So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep.  Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot.  And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms...
11 comments
Read more

Gosling's Meme and Knitting

What is a meme, you may first ask? Well Dr. Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, came up with the idea in the late 1970's and stated something like: a meme is to a society what a gene is to a human. Both are an element or unit that can be replicated or passed from one individual to another. During the Internet age memes can be easily shared, replicated or otherwise passed on to another. Recent examples can be found on Gawker . Memes can include piano playing cats, a honey badger, the Call Me Maybe phenomenon and so on. The political campaign in the U.S. helped fuel memes using some of the most unusual statements like, "binders of women" and "you didn't build that." A few memes have staying power but most have a relatively short life span. Gosling's meme related to knitting has been around for some time; so when I again saw another post about him recently, it was time to figure out the origin. Ryan Gosling is a Canadian actor born in Onta...
1 comment
Read more

Yarn Usage II: Crochet vs. Knit

All four swatches were made.  Each is 6.25" or 15.875 cm square; each prepared with the same sized yarn and needles or hook.  It took 25 stitches to get the appropriate width for the knit swatches and only 20 stitches for both of the crocheted squares.  That already says something, but I'll get to it in a minute.  (Don't know what I'm talking about here?  Check out this post first.) Unfortunately, you'll just have to trust me that four swatches were prepared and that they were all the same size.  In the excitement to get to measuring and weighing of the swatches, no photographic evidence was taken.  Luckily for me the results of this research doesn't have to be reviewed by a jury of my peer.  This blog post will be the sum and total of where this information is published. The remains of my four swatches What can be shared, however, are the balls of yarn rewound after the weighing and measuring was completed.  You will note the size ...
10 comments
Read more