Are you loyal to your knitting projects? Do you work on one project at a time or do you shop around…different projects for different moods? Two weeks ago, the weather was beautiful. The warm March sunshine had me thinking spring-y thoughts. I cast on with Berroco Remix for the Beatnik pattern and was merrily knitting along when the thermometer took a sharp turn downward. Suddenly, it felt like mid-winter again and I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t knit with this soft summery yarn anymore. I needed warmth…and so I cast on for something new.
There is an ebb and flow with loyalty to knitting projects. I usually have more than one thing started but focus on only one project at a time. There are times when I travel a lot and have projects that I can cast on and knit for a while without having to pay too much attention to what I’m doing. Other times, I have projects that require me to work on in a quiet room, so I tend to cast on another that I can get out and work on in a more social environment. Sometimes I just stop mid-stream and go for something else.
Knowing that the cold snap is temporary (spring will come eventually), I’m indulging myself a little. I chose a fairly quick, small(ish) project on big needles. I started knitting Knik from Norah Gaughan vol. 10 in Berroco Voyage. It’s a fairly easy project, with an interesting construction and some fun details to keep me from getting bored. I’m a week into this shrug and optimistic that I’ll be wearing it by this weekend (and for a few to come). Hopefully, the spring weather will return and I can get back to my regularly scheduled Beatnik update.
Do you struggle to stay faithful to your WIPs?
I generally enjoy one project at a time. I really like to focus and finish KNITTING the project.Where I get side tracked is in the finishing. Then suddenly like yourself…I just can’t do it. 🙁 Working on it though, there is hope for us all!
I’m one of those mostly monogamous knitters, too — I start to get stressed if I have more than 2 or 3 projects going at a time. I’m almost entirely a project knitter, which I think accounts for it. Although sometimes if I’m working on something big, I’ll take a break for a “dalliance project” in the middle. 😉
I used to flit from project to project, but I got weary of buying more needles because they were all tied up in WIPs. So now I have 2-3 projects going at a time, one of them a design, and the others something I can just follow along.
Mostly I knit one project at time. I’m not very fast knitter. I like to see my project growing and get finished. It doesn’t mean I don’t have any wip’s waiting to be finished for years. Just happens sometimes.
I started out at a monogamous knitter, but after knitting on the same project for 1.5 years (my first sweater). I decided that I’ll work on one big project (another sweater is in the works) and a couple of smaller projects for breaks (right now a hat and a dish towel that I’m doing a Sister’s Knit-Along with my sister who’s living in Germany). I found total focus rewarded me with a wonderful soft, warm sweater, but I realized that it can get a bit boring, so will break bigger projects up once in awhile.
I am an unquestionably polyamorous knitter – I rarely have fewer than three projects on needles at any given time. One will always be something portable and easy to work on in meetings or continuing ed classes, one will be my TV/movie project, simple pattern repeats or stockingette, and one is always a knitting challenge of some kind. In addition might be a project (or two) I am “resting” out of sight in my office until I am ready to figure out what I did wrong 🙂
Nicole, I can totally relate to your style and I like it!
I second ChoctawGirl77. I like the way you expressed it. I decided to buy a little bigger purse so I can keep a small project with me at all times.
Unless I have a deadline of some sort, I am not even close to being faithful to my knitting projects. Participating in KALs, knitting challenges (like NaKniSweMo for which I knit a Merle this year), and knitting contests (like the current Sock Madness) helps me keep my WIP count down and increase my number of FOs.
I’ve tried being a monogamous knitter, but it rarely works for long (1 month or 5 projects is my upper limit, it seems). Unlike Katinka, I stress if I stick with one project at a time for too long.
I do not “struggle” to stay faithful to my WIPs…it’s a foregone conclusion that I won’t!! =) I have a friend who used to say, “It’s my stash, if I feel like taking one stitch in everything, I will!”
love it lottloft – feel, and do, exactly the same
I knit AND crochet (along with sewing, embroidery, needlepoint, cross stitch and other crafts). Everything I do is affected by the weather and my stress levels. I always have dozens of WIP. Example: I was working on three afghans-they are all almost complete. Then it got warm (in the 80s today). I just can’t bring myself yo sit with those huge heavy things on my lap. I’ll finish them during a cool spell or maybe even not until fall. I’ve been working on cotton blend as tops and a spring cotton lace scarf. I sometimes envy people that work on one thing at a time but I’d just be bored to tears doing it.