I was talking earlier about wanting to start some new things. But then I realized: I have two complex sock projects, and a sweater, and a scarf, and a complex lace shawl that I haven't worked on for a long time. Better to finish the ongoing projects and clear the decks and then start something new.
So last night, I pulled out the long-stalled Alpenglow socks. These are from the "Knitting Socks from Around the World" book - they are a pair using Bavarian twisted stitches. I like the look of the twisted stitches, once you get the hang of the chart symbols they're not that hard to do, it's just, they take a while.
The first sock, I think I started it over a year ago. I had got up past the gusset decreases on the foot, and just kind of stalled out. Part of it is, when you are busy, sometimes those complex patterns, especially those that take a long time to see any progress on, just don't appeal. Another thing is that when I'm tired or my brain is worn-out, I don't want to work on something complex. Partly because I fear I'll make an error and have to rip back, but also partly because, just, "meh."
But one of the nice things about knitting - one of the things I really love about the needlecrafts in general - is that if you keep a halfway-decent record of where you stopped (or even if you can "read" your knitting, which I have learned to do), you can put it aside for months or even years and then come back to it. Oh, sometimes your gauge changes, and that can be a pain, but my gauge has remained remarkably consistent over the past 10 years or so.
That's true of other needlecrafts- embroidery is that way, I suppose needlepoint is that way, piecing and quilting are that way - you can leave them and they just wait patiently for you until you can come back. With some other arts, not so much - clay won't hold over well if you can't be working with it, paints dry out, bread dough goes bad. I think it's probably harder to stop and start on a sewn garment but then again, I've done it and my mother has done it over the years with decent success. (Just as long as you don't lose the cuffs. I think she has one blouse where she had to use contrast fabric for the cuffs (and I think she took off the collar and replaced it with a matching contrast-fabric one, so the change would look more planned) because the cuffs had been cut out and misplaced.)
1 comment:
I've been having a lot of trouble lately with, "I don't want to do this anymore; I want to do something else." I have a quilt that I've been working on for over a year and I stopped that to make a baby quilt that needs to get done by October. But I haven't worked on the baby quilt for several days. I'm working on a sewing project and got to a part of it that seems like it will be easy to screw up so I'm stalled on that and thinking about starting something else. I have a quilt top that I was working on and really want to get done but I'm "not in the mood" for it. I really need to make some new chair cushions for the dining chairs and I've had the stuff for them for months but I just can't get interested in doing it. I'd rather make another dress instead but I keep thinking of all this other stuff that I should finish before I start something else so for the last four days I haven't done any sewing.
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