Silencing The Screamers

There's been many debates through the years that have played out in the knitiverse.  Circulars or straights? Seamless or seamed? Organic or acrylic? Is your knitting art or craft?  Do you knit for love of the process or product? Does declaring your work "Not your Grandma's knitting." make you hip and progressive or a short sighted ingrate? (In the interest of full disclosure I would have to say circulars, seamless, organic, craft for me, art for a rare few, both, and the latter.)

The Land of Lost Knits

On the matter of how many WIPs (Works In Progress) are acceptable and how one decides which WIP will become a FO (Finished Object) first, the choices are left largely to the individual knitter without judgement or condemnation.  Even the most monogamous of knitters can come down with a mild case of Startitis on occasion.  Years ago I was listening to a podcast, I believe it was either Craftborg or SSK, I confess I'm not sure which, and the co-hosts were discussing how they like to work on "the screamers." They defined screamers as those projects which demand your attention and cry out to be worked on at any given time. In the past I've heard of knitters who only have one project on the needles at a time, but I don't believe I've ever actually met one. I've also heard of knitters that keep a log of their WIPs with a set schedule of which projects will be worked on certain days of the week. Neither option sounded like much fun to me.  I fully embraced the concept of giving my fickle attention to the squeakiest wheel in my knitting bag, casting on whatever and whenever.  No limits. No deadlines.   So here we are all these years later and how's that working out for me? Have you seen my updated sidebar of WIPs? I'm sure what's most amusing to my husband is how incomplete it is.  I've left off all the small unfinished objects still lurking in drawers and cupboards.  He knows where the bodies are buried.

Two recent events have caused me to reconsider.  First was my decision to cast on a pair of socks for a friend and let her know that some lovely, silky, stripey socks were forthcoming. Do you know what happens when I knit a pair of socks with even a flexible self-imposed deadline?  I finish a pair of    *$%#  socks, That's what happens!  Brilliant.  The final confirmation came for me shortly after this...

The most important work in progress

Sublime Yarns, Little Captain
Cableman from book 8

The hubby and I began day dreaming and planning even before the wedding, but thought, "If it happens it happens and if it doesn't... life will still be wonderful, but wouldn't it be nice, but let's not get too excited.  I mean we're no spring chickens and it probably won't happen...can't happen, but if it did....can you imagine?"  Then whammo! Two months of trying and convincing myself that we were just setting ourselves up for disappointment and there it was.  Two faint lines on a home pregnancy test and life changes in an instant.  Here comes the son.  All of a sudden I had a brand new deadline.  A certain amount of time and blue yarn to tackle with all these cute little baby knits just flying off my needles. They're quick, they give me the chance to tackle new techniques on a small scale and I am focused. I had forgotten how helpful that last piece of the equation can be.


Newly inspired I pulled out all those lingering FOs.  I will finish these off one by one.  I have declared socks and travel knitting exempt, but I will tackle the rest one at a time and I will take back the knits!!!  In the spirit of a previous KAL (Knit Along) of several years ago, "Naked Sticks by 2006" I tried to come up with a catchy title for my belated New Years resolution, but the best I could do was "WIP it out in 2012" which,  A) doesn't rhyme and B) runs the risk of attracting a very different following than the one intended.  I guess I'm just going to put my head down and get this done.  If you'll excuse me I must tend to my knitting.

Vitamin D Cardigan in Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool