knitting and stashing addiction

OK, this knitting business is getting out of hand. My friends and family are going to have arrange an intervention soon. If I am not knitting, playing with my yarn, buying more yarn or at least planning a knitting project, I'm just not happy anymore. I'd rather knit than clean my house, weed the garden, mow the lawn, grocery shop, pay bills, do the laundry or do any of the mundane but necessary tasks that keep us from degenerating into sloth. Well, that's sort of a given, right? Who LIKES doing that stuff?

But I would also rather knit than go to to work, see a movie, read a book, meet up with friends (unless they're knitting friends that is), sleep, shop (except for yarn), cook or even eat. If sex were a viable option in my life right now, I'd probably rather knit than have sex too. As it is, the choice doesn't arise.

I have accumulated an admirable stash, considering that I haven't been knitting that long. I have at least a dozen major projects stored up, not to mention the scores of two and three skein bundles in my stash, just "in case." I HATE that I can't knit faster. I can't wait to get to the next project. I know some people are purely "process" knitters who don't care about finishing, once they've conquered a technique or gotten their fill of a particular yarn. I seem to be some combination of process and product knitter, combining the worst attributes of each. I am constantly eager to start something new, to try a new stitch, see what a new yarn looks like knit up, learn a new technique. But I don't actually like knitting for knitting's sake. I want to see something for my efforts. I can't wait to see the sweater blocked and ready to wear, the scarf bound off, the hat finished. So I'm never content with where I am...always hurrying to finish what I'm doing and eager to get on to the next project. I suppose that's the way I am about most everything in my life...never content to be where I am, always restless to move on to something else, something, possibly, better.

What was I thinking?

It's true. I've gotten cocky about my knitting--thinking I can do anything, if I just work at it. It's not true. These Tiffany mittens are a real challenge. I've had a terrible time getting started properly on them and now that I'm pretty well into the first one, I can't figure out a comfortable way to read the charts. I guess my short-term memory is shot, because the best I seem to be able to do is glance at the chart, repeat to myself, three pink, one blue, two pink, then try to remember those six stitches long enough to do them. And then repeat the process with the next six stitches. It takes forever.

Just getting started on them proved difficult. I had decided to try doing them "toe-up", reversing the pattern instructions, because I have an aversion to Kitchner-ing and I think the magic cast-on for toes--or fingers in this case--is, well, magic. Plus I figured, I could wait to decide exactly how to arrange the colors in the cuff until I could see exactly how the palm part of the mitten looked.

Start number one: Way too small. About 10 rows in, I realized my guage was way too tight, despite having swatched. Start number two: Way too messy. Don't know what went wrong, but it looked bad. Start number three: Ahh, success at last...the knitting was neat, the cast on perfect and the pattern falling into place. I thought so, at least, until the next day when I tried to pick up where I had stopped. I couldn't quite figure out where I was in the pattern. After puzzling over it for 10 or 15 minutes, counting and recounting stitches and colors. I realized....wait, I have 68 stitches on the needles. I should only have 60. How I managed this I do not know. How I managed this and still thought I was "on pattern", I really don't know.

So start four: I gave up on reversing the direction and started with the cuff. And, well, it's OK. In two evenings, I finished the cuff of one mitten and am about to start on the palm portion. Only thing: I somehow did the cuff pattern upside down. But I figure, it's nearly symetrical and abstract in any case, so it looks fine to me. Just hope my secret mitten pal doesn't compare the picture on Knitty with my execution too closely!

mitten exchange

Got another messsage from my secret mitten maker, who has given me two big hints on her identity. She's somewhere that is expecting a Noreaster this weekend (which I think means somewhere north of Washington on the East Coast...I'll have to check the weather channel to see exactly where the storm is expected to come ashore.) And she works in an ER.

I've finally been assigned a recipient for my mitten endeavors, so spent part of today at two local yarn shops, buying the rest of the yarn I need to make her mittens. I think I'm going to make the Tiffany ones from Knitty, which makes me feel like a cop-out. I sort of feel that I should be doing something different, but they really are SO pretty and they'll look so good in the colors she likes!