I have posted before about how knitting is what I do in response to academic stress. As my career angst mounted last month I kept casting on new projects. Last night I updated my Ravelry notebook and realized I have eleven unfinished projects on the needles. Eleven! That's out of control, since I am mostly a product knitter.
And! Last week? Right before I got that invitation to lunch, when I was feeling overwhelmed by my shortcomings? I, um, joined a Ravelry pattern-testing group and of my own free will SIGNED A CONTRACT agreeing to test-knit a sweater by the 24th of March.
[shakes head vigorously]
It is a darling sweater: cheerful polka-dots and ruffly lacy little cap sleeves. And agreeing to knit it wasn't an act of utter madness, since it's a cropped sweater without real sleeves. Let's call it an act of 75% madness. My husband might call it an act of 127% madness, however, since I bought 300g of yarn with which to make it. (Last month when my sock yarn stash dwindled to 500g and I bought another 200g of sale yarn to augment it, he was not at all persuaded by my explanation that 500g was less than a six-month supply and moreover I could see the bottom of the sock yarn tub.)
So. It is time to STOP THE MADNESS, even the 75% variety. Three of my eleven works in progress are almost finished: a baby hat, a flower for the baby's hypothetical future sister (which wouldn't ordinarily merit its own project, except that I hadn't crocheted anything in forever), and a pair of mittens to match the one project I've managed to finish thus far in 2011. (I think all those links should work whether or not you have a Rav account; let me know if they don't and I'll fix them.) They are all three leaving my house today. This means that even when the sweater yarn arrives in the mail I'll only have a single-digit number of projects on the needles. That's practically in the same area code as sane. Right? Right??
I console myself with the thought that the things I make get plenty of use. Here's a skirt I made in the fall that I wear as often as I think I can get away with it, and this is the purse I carry almost every day. The purse is an adaptation of this design, only my yarn choice made the zigzag effect much more muted. The pattern is still there, but you have to look for it. It makes me think of the hand of God in creation: sometimes you have to look closely to see that it was there all along.
See, it looks like I am doing something mindless, but really I am pondering the mysteries of the universe.
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