Be My Accountability

I’m finally at a place where I don’t want to cast on every thing I see and I need your help.  I want to finish up all of the lingering knits-in-progress and straighten up my crafting space.  That would be  my side of the couch and the floor around it, plus all of the little hidey holes I have for yarn around the house.  But, in a tiny house, every inch counts.

So what are these lingering projects, you ask?  I have dug up photos and posted them here for the record.  Could this work like a support group for those of us with Castonitis?  I confess my excesses and you rally around me to keep me clean?

Here goes.  My name is Michelle and I bite off way more than I can chew, knitting-wise.  There’s no good reason for all of these needles being “in use” without actually being used.  I start sweaters that I love, but they got set aside for another sweater I love, or because I couldn’t make a decision, or because… “brown.”

I’ll start with the one I’m mowing through right now. The Gingerbread sweater is a relatively new knit.  I posted about it a couple of days ago.  It only needed an hours worth of focus to join the neckline pieces and then it was 12 inches of stockinette.  There was really no excuse.  Now, I’m about to move to the arms.

Journey does need more of my attention.  I mean, look at all of that cabling.  But, then, look at all of that cabling!!  I’m really, really excited to wear this one, too.  It has some of my favorite things: mustard, cables, tweed, positive ease.  It’s only waiting on sleeves.  That was me, sighing.

My second Fire Opal tee , in Blackberry colored Comfy Fingering, is a totally appropriate summer knit.  However, I set it aside for winter knitting.  I feel like that and the fact that it is my second time to make one of these tops earns me a little slack.  But, it will be finished.  I wanted this version to be more fitted than the last one.  Of course, it was so long ago that I have gained weight since then, so it may be too fitted.

My True Friend is another beautiful design that doesn’t deserve to be wadded up in a bag for two years.  I should have waited to cast it on until I had the time to do it.  When I began, I knew it would take forever to be knit.  I was in the middle of several test knits but I saw Vanessa and Dani knitting theirs, so I caved and cast on like the follower I am.

Here’s the thing, it’s not long sleeves and it has a very adaptable shape, so there’s no excuse not to knock this one out ASAP.  In Madelinetosh 80/10/10, it’s not a summer-friendly top, but it is more wearable for our mild winter.

Now, this is the one I was mad at.  It’s Pomme de Pin.  I was basically finished when I realized the oddness of the centered double decrease stitch wasn’t going to be fixed with blocking.  I had knit it incorrectly…for the entire sweater.  There were no pomme de pins, just weird lace that would enrage me every time I wore it.  Needless to say, it is now two cuffs attached to two balls of yarn, stuffed in a sack with several other frogged balls, in a beautiful knitting bag that isn’t seeing the light of day.

This one will need my brain to be higher functioning than it was, previously.  I will also need to swatch again to make sure my inconsistent gauge hasn’t changed much.  But time has passed and I’ve mellowed, so I think I’m ready to look at all of those pommes again.  It is a classic.

Below is the beginnings of a Cobblestone Pullover.  It is the project that brings me shame.  It was supposed to be a Christmas gift, then a late Christmas gift.  Now, it just needs to be a This Century gift.  I have no excuse, unless the words “solid brown” count.  I’m actually onto the sleeves now, so it wouldn’t even take a week to finish.  My poor son-in-law is patient.

For the next one, I really need your help.  What should I do with the Hualpa Kimono?   I knit it large and blocked it out to be the perfect width, but it’s ridiculously short.  It looks like it would hit mid back on me.  I knit it so long ago that I don’t know what I was thinking.  Maybe I planned to undo the bottom edge and add to it, if I couldn’t stretch it both length and width-wise.  The pattern sample must have required extra balls of yarn, because no one who has knit it has gotten the oversized width with the same length as the sample.  Knitting at a larger gauge just didn’t look good.  So, my options are to fashion something else from it, or add to the bottom, or put it back in a sack in the closet.  Adding to it would be difficult because knitting Fair Isle with this cotton kind of sucked.  What would you do?
     

Oh, and I need your advice on this one too.  It is Lonely Souls.  It is an awesome sweater with a horse silhouette, inspired by Twin Peaks.  It was frogged because my bottom edging was loose and floppy.  But I never re-started it because my body started changing again, this time losing weight.  I don’t know about you , but I’m rolling my eyes pretty hard at this point.  At least the weight loss seems to point to my hormone crisis being over.  I lose, then hold steady, then lose some more, all with no change in my lifestyle.  Anyway, this sweater is one that needs to fit right, if knit as directed.

Guys, I haven’t knit anything that needed to be fitted for two years, except for another sweater from the same Twin Peaks collection.  And now Cherry Pie totally hangs on me,  especially where my estrogen belly was.  So, you see I don’t want to that to happen with this one. My options are to either modify it to be a more traditional straight shape that could look good fitted or oversized, or else wait a while longer.  I do have quite a bit to keep me busy.  What would you do?

(ravelry, kollabora, instagram, and flickr)

So, it’s all out there now.  The only undeclared projects are ongoing scrap and swatch blankets that will eventually merit their own post.  I actually do feel a bit lighter, like I’m leaving the confessional and ready to be a responsible adult by knitting for five hours straight in front of the tv.  Maturity rules.