Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Oh know, I'm doing it again!

The other day I got very frustrated with my knitting - I think I've talked about his before (but am too lazy to read my previous posts and check). Sometimes, I get too caught up in thinking my knitting should be perfect and literally shut down. This is how it starts..

I'm sat in my favorite chair happily knitting away thinking what a beautiful fall day it is and how I love the colors of the yarns I'm knitting and how they reflect the pretty fall colors. Then I glance a little closer at my work to admire the colors .. uh oh.. Doesn't the stitches look a little uneven? Do my stitches slant slightly to one side? Why do I always have to push the yarn and stitches so much around the needles? Is it me or does my knitting always lean forward on the circulars and will this create an uneven tension? What if I knit this whole hat and not like it? Not even enough to give to someone else? Did I swatch enough? Should I go up a needle? Should I go down a needle size? Maybe, I'm using circular needles that are too short in length? Maybe I should rip this out and start again?

And so it continues until I have worked myself up into quite a tizzy (?sp). Then I shut down on my knitting and mope around - wondering what non-knitters do with their hands when they watch TV?

Then I start to miss watching my hands knit and the feel of the yarn sliding through my fingers (of course, I only stopped knitting a couple of hours before I feel homesick for knitting). Next thing I know, I'm knitting away happily on a newly cast on hat, swearing to myself that I will just enjoy the knitting process because it's the process that I love. I am back in knitting heaven.

Wait a minute, does that stitch look twisted?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

ahaha. so glad i'm not the only neurotic knitter. i'm always irritated with slight flaws (i.e. that no one else would notice) in my knitting and sit there stressing whether or not to rip out and re-do or keep plugging away. when really frustrated, i just put my knitting away and hope it's either repaired itself the next time i pick it up or that i've figured out how to make it perfect.

Carrie K said...

Yup, tizzy it is, and that's pretty much my internal/external dialog with my knitting. It doesn't have to be perfect all the time - but once in awhile? Pretty please? ;)

Marji said...

hmm, lighten up on the tiz factor, although I certainly hear you on the circular biasing issues. Back in the day, I knit two sweaters in the round that both twisted on me.
Do you like to knit cable sweaters in the round?

Earthtones Girl said...

Hey there,
I finally made it over to your site...very nice. And don't worry we all have those moments when you look at your project and think "what am I thinking", this isn't going to fit, my stitches look awful. But then it all works out perfectly...Just knit and enjoy!!
And thanks so much for visiting me, EarthtonesGirl.

Jessica said...

Thankfully I don't have a perfectionist bone in my body.
I didn't know you had a blog. You're sneaky. :)
I've been meaning to write to you. Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting often. It already feels like a conversation.