Saturday, November 01, 2008

All of my projects are in trouble

Do you ever over think EVERYTHING? Yes, I'm looking at you. I'm obsessed with my struggling projects. Foolishly so. I'm hoping a public airing will help. Let's see.

1. A new sock project I'm designing for a secret something in the future. They're in the prototype phase and don't have to be perfect yet. They should be fun and cute enough to keep me working on them though.

- Why am I working the stitch pattern upside down? I discover this factoid around the time I get to the heel. I keep going because I want to experiment with a "new" and "interesting" heel technique. Which leads me to...

- Why is the heel large enough to fit Babaar? Seriously. Normal leg, normal ankle, giant bulbous sack of a heel. But, you know, naturally I keep going. Until... SNAP!

- Why did I break a needle working the lace? No biggie. Nothing $8 couldn't fix. But I'm starting to feel like this sock just doesn't want to exist. I almost hear a tiny voice begging me to pull the plug... and pull and pull and pull.

- Why am I stubborn and not ripping it out already? Ah, the real question. Sounds deep. Quick, let's talk about something else:

2. I thought it might be fun to do thick, DK-weight socks in an easy pattern as a mindless project. You know, to get my mind off the giant-heeled socks.

- Why is it so terribly ugly? Or is it? I think it is. I'll need to stare at it for a long time tomorrow. I may change my mind. I mean, I will change my mind. But then again...

- Why can't I decide to persevere or rip? Indecisiveness and stubbornness (again?) I suppose. Oh dear. Let's move on...

3. The Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl. It's lovely, the Malabrigo yarn is lovely, and the colors are great. That's one way to describe it.

The other way, is that I am now at the part where each row has a kazillion stitches so I can't do "just one more row" unless I know I can commit the time. While I work the row, I am wondering when to change colors next and which color to pick. And this is really dumb, but I'm caught up on the fact that I only chose 4 colors.

4 is not a Fibonacci number and therefore will not look as beautiful as it could... or some such nonsense. These are my thoughts as I work the shawl. Scary silly.

The shawl, earlier in the process:
Feather and fan comfort shawl

4. This is the big one. You know what it is, because it is haunting you as well: Christmas Knitting. I have some ideas, but it's not working out. At all. Not yet, at least.

Are you still with me? Thank you for allowing the ridiculous self indulgence. I know I'll get my mojo back soon, honest. It's just when the thing you do to relax goes wrong, the world feels funny.

Apologies to everyone with Real Problems. I'll leave you with a helpful quote from the beloved Wollmeise herself,

"It's just yarn, people."

2 comments:

T.M. said...

I think that means that it's time to start something new. It seems like all of my projects are just...blech. But I know that I must perservere(or just not give up 'cause I won't give them the satisfaction of tearing it out!)and then I won't look at it again when it's done. I'll show all of them!!

Chris said...

Oh man- that cracks me up! I'm so glad I'm not the only one who snowballs every little thing in to one giant rolling ball of crazy! Your stuff is great - regardless of your worries, it'll all be fantastic in the end!