Finishing school

I started Hubby's socks last night and they are now living in a bag in my car for all those elusive times I am stuck somewhere with nothing to do (when does that happen?). The yarn for them is chunky and that's making it a little more interesting knitting, as in I'm used to it taking a while to get a few inches and here I knit a few rows and I'm already at an inch, working on 2". They are CO 40 stitches and I'm using #2 Addi Natura double points (3.0 mm), 2x2 ribbing at the top for about an inch, then stockinette for the rest, knitted top down. I had thought about knitting them toe up but reading the book I bought that teaches that sort of scared me off for the moment. No big deal, just I don't feel like learning something new at the moment.

I'm actually working on letting myself sit without scrambling for something to do. The knitting projects aren't squatting on the back of the couch where I sit in the evening, looming over me, singing sweetly about how much there needs to be done, they are across the room on the side table where I store my knitting supplies. I had worked on the Knitting Class wrap for a while last night and found myself wanted to rush through and get it finished. That was not the goal for that project. If anything, that project was one to work on slowly and enjoy, pacing myself while I work on other things. That told me to take a step back and RELAX. That is not an easy concept for me but I'm learning.

Saying all this, Hancock Fabrics is having a fleece sale and you KNOW I am headed up there to get some in order to finish a fleece patchwork quilt I had sewn together YEARS ago (like, when I worked at that store, which was like, college, which means it was like, at least 8 years ago and this has been sitting un-backed in my cedar chest this whole time; I found it the other day looking for something else and it was moved to my stack of "FINISH THIS!!!!") and also buy double fold bias binding to finish the quilt and a Christmas tree skirt (something else I also found that I had bought years ago, never finished, and stuck in with the Christmas with plans of finding it later and having the time somewhere to sew it up; i.e. also in the "FINISH THIS!!!!" stack.)

So maybe a break from knitting and sew instead? Knitting has really helped me appreciate sewing more and love the process, rather than wanted to rush through and wear the clothing. Knitting MAKES you wait for the sweater.

I do enjoy finishing though. I don't know if I've mentioned this but one of my favorite parts of finishing projects is cleaning out the bag the project was living in. This cleaning out and reorganization is done after binding off, weaving in ends, and blocking/washing the project (or at least putting it on the dryer to have this done eventually). It's like cleaning out your school locker at the end of a school year, or your desk when you get a promotion (not fired; here you have upgraded because you have completed something else and are slightly higher on the knitting pole in terms of experience which is always good, no matter how many times you frogged that thing). Everything is gone through, looked at, keep what's still useable, throw away those bits of yarn left over, save the skein wrappers if you need to or it has a neat pattern on the back for future reference, and shake out all pockets, dust the outside, and tuck the bag with the others to wait for something new. You never know what you will find in there. There are always random sets of scissors and pencils in mine, along with that lone pad of post-its I hunted for for 3 days and gave up. There are occasional candy wrappers but I swear they aren't mine. SuperGirl tucks things in Mommy's bags all the time because she knows that way they'll get thrown away eventually and Mommy doesn't like trash on the floor.