All big projects go through phases:
Phase I: Unbridled enthusiasm at cast-on (Yay! I love everything about this!)
Phase II: Moderate pleasure as you settle in (This is going quite well)
Phase III: Mild ennui as things get too familiar (Ho-hum, 2 more rounds and I’ll go get a cookie)
Phase IV: Serious boredom as things seem to drag (OMG, this is taking forever)
Phase V: Absolute hatred (If I have to look at this damned chart/color/cable (you name it) for one more minute, I’m going to scream/run away from home /throw it into the fire (you name it.)
Sometimes it helps to take a little detour, so that you can get to that final goal, which is
Phase VI: It’s finished! (Yay! I love everything about this!)
Detours & side trips: When you are deep into a project and it’s at one of the middle phases, and especially if it’s at phase V, you may well have the urge to start something else. Let’s be clear: If you are detouring from a sweater or blanket into another sweater or blanket, this is not a detour. This is equivalent to being on a Caribbean cruise, spotting another ship, jumping overboard, swimming to that ship and heading off to Africa. Side trips and detours are short small projects that can be finished quickly and give you a break from that fingering weight aran pullover you’re making for your ridiculously tall husband. We all have leftovers from other projects – one or two balls of something that will make a pair of fingerless mitts, a hat, a neck warmer. Put a couple yarns together to bulk up the gauge if you need to, and go for it! It feels great to finish something quickly and then (sigh) go back to the cardigan. Here’s one of my favorite mitt patterns – cute, quick and useful:
What do you do when you make a mistake? They’re inevitable in a large project! Only you know what you can live with. Some people will rip back a whole sweater if their stitch count is off by 1. Some people will look at a glaring mistake on the front of the sweater and be fine with it. All I can advise is that, if in the future when you’re complimented on the item, you will feel the need to compulsively point out the mistake, rip it out. It goes like this:
“Oh, I love your sweater! Where did you get it?” “I made it.” “Oh, wow! You made that? It’s beautiful!” “Thanks, but _______” (Fill in the blank with that thing that will bother you till you die.)
Ripping out is part of knitting and you might as well face it and get good at it. The only way to do that is to keep knitting and rip when you need to. Taking our Oops class will give you some basic control over the process and some techniques for preventing disaster – like needing to rip back two rows and somehow finding yourself back at cast-on.
Finally, you have reached the final bind-off. Your project is off the needles, but is it finished? Again, only you can decide that. Do you love the way it looks, or is it kind of lumpy and bunchy? If it’s a garment, did you try it on and wish you had a bit more room in the sleeves, or another inch of length? If your project contains animal fibers, blocking can be the solution for all these quibbles. Fill a sink with lukewarm water and a wool wash that doesn’t need to be rinsed out (we sell Eucalan; it’s great.) Let the piece soak thoroughly, turning it over and being sure that all areas are equally wet. Drain the sink, squeeze (no twisting or wringing) the excess water out as much as possible. Drop it on a towel or two, roll it up and stomp on it to remove more water. Leaving it rolled up, carry it to a flat surface where you can leave it to dry. Dump it out, then begin to smooth and shape it into the idea you have in your head, remembering at all times that you can stretch knitting every which way, but you can’t unstretch it, so proceed with caution. Serious adjustments should be pinned in place. When it looks the way you would want it to look if you were buying it in a store, leave it to dry.
Now it’s finally done and your journey is complete. Congratulations!! Where to next??
Here’s where I started:
And here is the finished project:
This was a wonderful, interesting, challenging project. If you love it, stay tuned for our new class schedule, coming soon!!
