knitting guilt

One of my favourite hobbies is starting knitting projects.  I love it.. the new yarn.. the deciding what to make.. casting on..seeing how it knits up.  Problem is, I’m not always great at finishing projects. 

I have completed lots of things.. but my home is littered with the remains of UFOs (unfinished objects) , some of which are older than my teenage son. The problem is partly because I seem to have a short knitting attention span.. I get bored and have to have several projects on the go at once. Actually there is some sense in this, as some projects are easy knitting - can be done whilst chatting, or watching TV, whereas others are more thinking things.. and its good to have both..

Other reasons to not finish an item are:

1. my son growing faster than I can knit  - I have two jumpers I started and the fink grew out of before I got to the end!,
2. yarn being a mistake purchase.. you know it looks lovely in a skein or ball but knits up totally differently.. I think I have learnt how to visualise the knitted project now, so that happens less.. but still the bags of wool are here waiting to be used another way.
3. Summer.  This is the big one.. as soon as the daylight hours open up into evening, we are out there gardening, tending vegetables and animals, or just enjoying the great outdoors.  There is little time for knitting, and it gets packed away. Only the following Autumn, when the clocks change and the fire gets lit again do I consider knitting.. but, ack!, I am most likely to start yet another new project.  Then the knitting guilt goblin mutters in my ear about how I will never finish it.. look at all those other UFOs!, and to prove her wrong, I pick up old projects.. try to work on too many at once, and the place fills up with yet more bags of yarn

To add to the stash-guilt, when my Gran, now in her nineties, decided to give up knitting… (she was always well into knitting, and was fast too) she gave me all her old needles and wool stash. So I have two under bed storage thingies, full of odd balls of wool, left over from my previous finished items, and inherited from Gran too.  as well as the bags of UFOs…

Then, I made it know to himself, that some special wool always went down well as a present.  And it does, I love getting a ball or two of some lovely yarn. At that winter festival thingy, he gave me some lovely sock wool, and some spun sari silk.  Love it! Really enjoy imagining what I am going to make…My friend in New Zealand sends me yarn now and then too.. different things we cannot get here. Great! 

and a HUGE stash of yarn… and if that is not enough, now we are spinning the wool from our own sheep…

So time to be a bit more organised. I have decided to work only on five projects at a time . yeh I know that’s still five, but it keeps me interested. I’m going to list them in the side bar here, and that way, come Autumn, I should at least remember what I am working on.  I shall try and make it a mixture of old stash (which is largely acrylic), new stash (lovely sock wools and gifts of special yarns) and home spun.  I shall also try and keep the mix of large and small projects.. so a turnaround of work in progress is maintained.. and I can add to the list as soon as something is completed. Well.. it might work..

so current WIP:

1. browny pinky green socks. yarn from opal (lost the label already..) It came with a pattern, but it was in German, so am following a different recipe..I have a feeling you are supposed to start at a certain point in the colour stripes.. but I have just knitted as is, and let it develop as it wants.
2. bright yellow green red socks, yarn from colinette -jitterbug. present from himself
3. multicoloured jumper for me, made out of all sorts of colours, yarn from stash.
4. rework of cardi I bought in a charity shop.  It was £2.50 and marked XXXL. Although not exactly skinny myself, it still was wayyyy too big for me. The shoulder seams came down to my wrists.. and the sleaves hung over by another 1.5′! I am rewinding it, and will make something new from it for me.  Long job, but I love this sort of recycling.  Saved it from landfill, got myself some cheap yarn too!
5. a jumper for my son. Part new and part stash. I had a large ball of wool left over from a jumper I made for him when he was much younger.. I bought another huge ball (400g) of a different blue, costing only £5.49, and together they should make a nice stripey jumper for not much outlay.