I thought I was so close…finished the placket and the sleeves…so close to finishing the sweater I’ve been working on for nearly 2 years. What is wrong with me? I love to knit, but this past year has been so filled with other life stuff that I find I’ve been barely-able to do more than stare blankly at a tv in the evening after work and then fall asleep.
The sweater was a challenge, knit in a pattern called Modern Lace Henley from knitty.com. It seemed do-able at the time I started. I’d made a lace shawl in wonderful Ritratto, which wasn’t the easiest to knit with so I knew I could do this sweater. Little did I know that increases and decreases in lace pattern are incredibly challenging. There was way more counting than I care to ever do again.
Along the way during this sweater so much happened in my life, my daughter graduated from high school, I became president for this local professional organization I belong to, and on top of all that my job situation changed quite a bit with more responsibilities and even less time to accomplish them in. I should probably have been knitting a simple scarf or something else, but I really wanted to do this English Lace sweater. It was lovely and I’d chosen a spring green. This was a short sleeved sweater and it would be the first I’d done that was a non-cardigan. I remember like it was yesterday (instead of nearly 2 years ago) that I bought the full bag of the yarn color-way at my local yarn store. It’s been so long since I started in fact that my local yarn store has gone out of business.
Over Thanksgiving weekend I made up my mind that I would finish the sweater and so I began the task of fitting in the cap sleeves and sewing up the sides. I’d finally finished all the knitting so sewing things together was all that was left (well if you don’t include blocking, which I still FEAR and DREAD!). Thanksgiving was almost a month ago and here I am still with a UFO…(un finished object). I sit down to do this, but just can’t seem to finish. Exhaustion, work, lazy couch potato-ness all over take me.
Christmas is now on the horizon. There are all the holiday to-dos piled up too. I know I should just give myself a break, but I am a doer…a finisher. I don’t start things and quit them. That is not me.
I have now accomplished the side seams. They have been sewn together. Now just need to get to all those loose ends and weave and sew them in. Then BLOCK. Then try on.
Maybe I fear finishing because it will bring the end to the pleasure of knitting? But there are so many other projects to do. Must finish…get off the computer dammit and SEW!!!
Bella Fiore 