Lately, since finishing my Swirl, I haven’t felt much like knitting because… oh, well, your guess is as good as mine. But I suspect it might be this: while I have a handful of WIP I could work on, the very fact that I arguably “should” work on them makes me less inclined to do so. Worse yet, none has a definitive deadline, not in the near future anyway. So the impetus to get crackin’ is missing.
For a while, I tried to be good and finish up existing WIP before starting anything new. That didn’t work; I simply lost enthusiasm for knitting.
So I wound pretty balls of Socks that Rock with the idea of swaching for socks. Lovely stuff. But, nope, that didn’t get me going. Still too close to the concept of “should,” I suppose.
STR in Flower Power and Lenore
STR in Pining 4 Ewe and... I don’t recall
Then, on a whim, I bought a skein of Malabrigo Lace, a yarn I’ve been meaning to play with for some time. I started a scarf, worked a couple repeats of pattern… and set it aside. I wasn’t feeling the love. But I may pick it up again while at TNNA and Knitter’s Connection. Or I may rip and re-start with another stitch pattern.
combo of yarn and pattern: not doing it for me
Still searching for a project with some zing, I figured maybe a change of pace was in order. I pulled out my copy of 1000 Knitting Patterns Book, and swatched Seduction in pattern #760—a crochet pattern. Nice, but not nice enough to sustain my interest.
pattern #760
Finally, while wandering with coupon in hand through the Jo-Ann Fabrics that just opened nearby, I spotted some Full o’ Sheep and an idea hit me: a felted bag. Something knit in stranded colorwork, then fulled. It was perfect: I could go wild with the colors and not worry about the perfection of the stitches. Not caring about the final size or shape of the bag, I could even forgo swatching without too much guilt.
Better yet, it was an excuse to play with charts. I happily frittered away the better part of an evening in leafing through stitch dictionaries and sketching out variations of Turkish-inspired stitch patterns.
ah, charting: my favorite hobby
Why sketch out so many variations, when I already have folders full of sketches I’ve done in the past? And when the original patterns in the books were just fine to begin with?
Because I felt like it, that’s why. And that was the feeling I’d been looking for.
Who knows? I might even finish this WIP.
bag in progress
In other news, the Loop in London just announced they’ve received shipment of Charts Made Simple. Hurrah to UK knitters! Thanks for your patience!
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