I love the process of knitting in most cases, but sometimes I really get bored. I know my work in progress pile will honestly never get finished if I haven't finished them yet. In one case, yeah, I broke my needle, so I had to wait to replace it. That's a good reason for exception. However, once it's been put down, I may as well call it forgotten for the rest of time.
Don't get me wrong, there are pieces I do eventually go back and finish. There's a hat I had stuffed into hibernation for near forever. I'd tossed aside a blanket for a while and eventually pulled it out again to finish it. I do like going through every once in a while to rediscover old projects that have been forgotten. It's refreshing to revive them. They don't seem to be as painfully boring then, especially if I'd been doing the same repetitive pattern for what seemed like forever. My fall/winter seasons shawl by Knit Picks is a perfect example. I remember looking at that shawl, praying for the point I could finish knitting that stupid falling leaves pattern and move on to the next chart. By the time I was up to twenty-two repeats across and had already worked through five ever expanding layers of that blasted chart, it's not surprising I was sick of knitting it. It just got repetitive. Going back at that point is refreshing. It's like starting over new again.
Even so, I do have to be honest with myself. The reason I knit is for the finished product. I really can't wait to have it done so I can wear the project around and show it off. It's something I'm proud of and I want the whole world to fawn over it. I love those moments when people mention how beautiful things I made are and ask where I got it, or if I made it myself. I have to admit, when people ask where I got it, that's the best moment. It's so satisfying to say, "Oh, I made it." I toss it out there so casually, as though it took me no time to make, as if it didn't take hours on end of cursing as that stupid pattern tripped me up.
I have to say, knitting a shawl has taught me one thing. when you're knitting three rows at nearly three hundred stitches across each row the idea of tinking back a couple of rows to fix it is all the more unappealing. I'm not a fan of frogging back unless I have a life line because I don't have confidence in picking up my stitches in pattern. I'm too afraid of screwing it up more. As a result I find myself finding ways to leave it or "fix it" so that only someone truly inspecting the details can notice. I justify this in reminding myself of something I heard once about Persian rug makers. The makers of oriental rugs always deliberately include one mistake in their rugs, no matter how flawless the rest of it might be. They do this because no one can create something perfect unless they are God. Because of this, they have to honor God and always leave one small mistake as evidence that they recognize they are only mortal. I guess that's what the little flaws in my knitting are, signs that, just like everyone else, I'm mortal.
In truth, I have to wonder if I could be considered a product knitter. I don't have a huge list of UFOs. Those that I do have are simply because I realized that the project simply didn't fit my needs and wouldn't get used. What's the point in making something if it will never get used? I suppose I could always give it away to someone who would appreciate it, but the idea of that breaks my heart. I like having something at the end of it all that I'll wear or use. There's really something to be said for useful things.
Perhaps this has to do with my whole thing with clutter as of late. Our apartment has very little storage space. The storage space we do have is filled with Magic cards
, clothing we're holding on to for one of my kids to grow into, dance costumes, and a yarn stash. I suppose some day we'll upgrade in space. I'd love to have a four bedroom so each of our kids can have their own room. A five bedroom would be even nicer so each kid could have their own room and I could still have an office, but for now that's just dreaming. Now we need to think on conserving space, and probably getting more useful furniture, like a couple of dressers for my bedroom! We've been spending a lot of time downsizing and decluttering over the past few years, so I can't justify making things that really aren't going to be used. I only want stuff in my house that has purpose, that's useful.A lot of people seem to think useful items are very limiting. When I tell people I tend to keep my crafting to useful things I generally get the response, "So you only knit sweaters, socks, and hats then, huh?" Well, for the most part that's true. I mostly knit things that we can wear, but that doesn't mean I don't like home decor items. As we get more organized and less cluttered I'm finding that I like to sprinkle our empty spaces with a few nice things to decorate. I'm starting to find that I like seasonal decorations. I love to have things I can put up, hang on the walls, and set out on display. I get jealous of those beautiful houses with all matching furniture in each room, living room sets, a matching dining room set complete with a hutch to store the china. I love matching bedroom sets and would love to have all of my rooms decorated from matching furniture to having sheets, blankets, and curtains that all coordinate. I'd love to have art on every wall, decorative vases with flowers in them, and other nice things. However, my knitting has been pretty limited to useful things. I like things that I can wear and show off, and I honestly don't have enough people over to make it work decorating my house all that much. Of course, if my house were beautifully decorated, coordinated, and lovely I would probably have a lot more people over, even in the neighborhood I live in!
One of these days I'm going to break through my financial barrier with knitting and make a real investment. I look forward to the day when I can drop over a hundred dollars in yarn just to make myself a nice sweater. I've already got my eyes on a few nice sweaters that don't match my style at all, but I love them. I think they would look flattering on me, even if I don't tend to dress nice enough to wear those sorts of things on a regular basis. I think if I ever made myself a beautiful sweater I'd have to run right out and get pants or a skirt and a shirt or blouse that would go with it well. I'd probably have to look for a cute beret or something to match with it. Yes, I like to be coordinated like that as well. Perhaps I should start smaller and knit sweaters for my kids first!
Then again, I'm also the kind of person who will only knit each project once. Once I've made something, that's it. I'm done. I don't use that pattern again. I might do it under the right circumstances for something cute like a mother/daughter project, but even then that's something that I can make in two different sizes, which makes it different. I like knitting projects that are going to be challenging as simple knitting tends to bore me. I'm a little afraid that one day I'm going to find I've got nothing left to knit because I will have done everything that could possibly challenge me, no matter how crazy that might sound.
From the way it looks, I still can't tell if I'm a process knitter or a project knitter. Perhaps I'm a bit of both, or maybe I just don't understand the terminology all that well yet. I'll admit it. I'm still kind of new at this. I haven't made all that much yet.
Of course, I'm feeling inspired for sweaters right now. Maybe I'll go check out Knit Picks, Knitty, and some of my other favorites to see what they've got to offer this time of year. While I'm sure there won't be many sweaters coming into summer, I'm always curious as to what's new out there!
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