Monogamous knitting has never been my strong suit. Although I do get projects finished (eventually and occasionally quickly), I am more of a *squirrel!* knitter. I am easily distracted by some new project or yarn or idea or even by a reminder of a previous possible project. Sometimes I rapidly work through the knitting and then fail on the finishing.
For example, my coping mechanism for the first several months of this year was knitting socks. I would cast on, knit, bind off, and move on to the next — whether the mate of the pair or a whole new pair — without stopping to weave in ends, wash, and block the previous item. As a result, when I decided to finally finish all of those socks so that I could wear them, I had a pile of twelve pairs of socks.
These days I am trying to focus a bit more … with somewhat limited success.
I have finished the striped socks mentioned in the previous post and started a second pair. I would like to get a third pair of a different variation either finished or well underway by October 1st so that I am ready to start with my marvelous minis from Dragon Hoard Yarn. I was feeling all focused and motivated when the distractions started (resumed might be a better word since this is not an uncommon occurrence).
First came the snow socks. There is a yarn line called Regia which produces lovely self-striping and self-patterning sock yarn, usually fingering weight, sometimes sport weight. The fine folks at Spinning Yarns in Dover, New Hampshire, sent me an e-mail to let me know that this year Regia is offering worsted weight, self-patterning sock yarn in five different “snow” colors. Worsted weight. Self-patterning. Sock yarn. Sign me up. I couldn’t get myself out the door fast enough.
As an added bonus, the skeins are 150 grams rather than a more standard 100 grams, so with a little supplementation from my stash, I should be able to get two pairs of socks out of a single skein. I cast on as soon as I got home, and it’s going well so far. One sock is finished, and I am well on my way with the second.
The second distraction was a cowl, but at least it did not involve new yarn or a new project. A friend and I had a conversation about Copenhagen Calling (Ravelry link), a cowl pattern designed by Isabell Kraemer. It inspired me to dig out the partially finished one I had languishing in a project bag somewhere. Except that it turned out to be a completely different pattern, although by the same designer.
I started Beloved Berlin (Ravelry link) at least two years ago, and quite possibly three, right about this same time of year. For some reason the approach of Halloween inspires me to knit in related colors more than any other holiday or season. If I want to actually finish the projects in time for the holiday, however, I really should start in July, which I can’t quite bring myself to do.
The good news is that I was farther along in the project than I remembered. The less good news is that it is 352 stitches knit in fingering weight yarn on a size 3 needle, so there was a fair bit of knitting left to do. Each round takes about 20 minutes, and I had about 40 rounds to go, plus the bind off. I have made more progress since this picture was taken, and I am down to 9 rows, so if I don’t get distracted yet again by something else, it could be finished this week.
Once it is finished, perhaps I will go back to an even older Halloween project, a pair of socks which I started before I figured out that I could turn fingering weight yarn into thicker yarn by holding the yarn doubled. Yes, I could pull out the work I have done so far and begin again with my new preferred formula, but I am about halfway through the first sock, and I love how the colors are striping and pooling, so I will continue as is. These socks probably won’t get finished this year either, but they have waited this long, and progress is still progress. The yarn is from Oink Pigments. I think the color is called All Hail the Pumpkin King.
Right. So that list puts me at four active, in progress, projects. I could start in on the sweaters, both in progress and planned, but I will save those for next time. Let’s see if I can finish something first.
Small Town Hermit 
Love all your socks!! You knit much faster than I. It takes me a month just to make one pair. I do prefer knitting 2 at a time to avoid the missing second sock. Congrats on handling multiple projects at once. I find it stresses me to have more than 4 going at one time and I prefer to have one large project (sweater/top) and one small project (socks) going at a time. I kinda like Regia. I have 2 pairs of their watermelon yarn but the dying isn’t deep enough and I don’t like that I can see through to the base yarn color. No one but me would even see it.
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Thank you!! My output has a lot to do with the fact that I knit socks with thicker yarn or holding fingering weight yarn double. I have a pair of single strand socks on size zero needles which I call the Never Ending Socks because they have been “in progress” for years. What I need to do is get disciplined and knit a couple of rows each day.
I used to be concerned about how many projects I had started. Other than cluttering up the place, however, they don’t hurt anything, so I have long since made peace with the situation. Occasionally I go through the lot and decide to “finish or frog,” but for the most part they get done when their time comes.
That’s disappointing about the watermelon sock yarn. It would bother me, too, especially for a specific color\pattern like that (as opposed to just stripes). Sometimes Regia’s color leaves a bit to be desired.
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Ahh, I do use fingering and size 0 for my socks. This year I switched to tracking stitches since it takes me so long to complete projects since I use almost exclusively fingering weight – even for sweaters/tops. I still have projects I want to get done but I get satisfaction from meeting my 1000 stitches per day goal.
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I like the stitch tracking idea. I try to do at least a little knitting every day, preferably as early as possible. That way if the rest of the day goes off the rails at least I have made some progress on a knitting project. Are you familiar with NaKniSweMo? The goal is to knit a sweater of 50000 stitches or more in the month of November. It is based on an event called NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where writers bang out 50000 words of a novel in a month. NaKniSweMo has a Ravelry group, if you use that site: https://www.ravelry.com/groups/nakniswemo-kal
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