The need to knit

Why do I knit?  Why do I make stuff to wear and use, - and then don't?

Looking at both my Ravelry project page and a shelf at home, I find that I recently made quite a few garments but I have them folded in a neat stack on a shelf, - basically I'm not wearing what I am making.

D'uh.

There are success stories: I love and wear my grey cable vest.  Bit of luck with that one.

But there are numerous garments I don't wear.  A short-sleeved turquoise top I just (almost) finished, a rose steeked cardigan, several cowls, a plum-coloured very wide but short top, a white slippery yarn jumper...  The list goes on*.

I also started quite a few garments where I will knit like someone possessed and stop when I get to a bit where I need to think things through, really use the focus of my designer eye, my instincts if you will.  Instead it's as if the soothing motion of motoring through acres of stocking stitch is the one thing that attracts me to knitting right now.

This is not a problem: I have so much yarn sitting around that any progress is indeed progress, even if my completion rate is rather miserable.  At some future point in time I will be happy to go over projects and get them done.  It'll be nice not to have the whole lot of work ahead of me, but instead only a little bit to finish.  It will be a quicker route to achievement gratification.

Now I am keen to start yet another project.  Only this time it's not something with oodles of stockinette to keep me happy, no it's a sort of cross between a sock and a slipper, kind of a house shoe type foot covering.  There is a big difference to my usual modus operandi:  I actually need slippers.

Because I can put them to good use, I am highly likely to make good use of them too. So let me at 'em!

I am so pleased to be starting a supremely useful item.  You never know it might kick off a trend!  Though I wouldn't exactly hold my breath...


* the problem with most of those projects is that they don't fit as well as I'd like (whereas the grey vest does), or it's not the right time of year, or I've simply forgotten that I have it.  Darn.


The problem with the turquoise top, pictured as a WIP, is that I put the shoulder seams in the wrong place, they ended up too far back.  So not a good look.  I also knit the sleeves with the wrong needles, thinner ones - no idea how I managed that mistake (severe case of absent-mindedness?).  And I'm not all that happy with the general fit to begin with.  I have a feeling that I might rip this one down and start over.