Monday, November 16, 2009

Planning For The Win!

Last year, around the beginning of December, I got the knitting bug. Determined, I bought some nice soft yarn (it's amazing how much your yarn preferences can change in a year) and set out to make scarves for the three women in my immediate family. I thought a month was plenty of time. I mean really, I was just making garter stitch scarves... how long could it take? Three weeks, hours upon hours of knitting, vaguely arthritic hands, and three days of being very ill later just days before Christmas, I found myself knitting the last scarf on the car ride to my in-laws on Christmas morning. I wanted to cry. Wait, I did cry... I was never going to finish in time and I had stayed as long as I could keep my eyes open the night before. Knitting on three hours of sleep with a 20 minute deadline was not exactly what I had signed up for.

So, this year, I decided I would have a plan. Over the year I really dove into knitting headfirst. I tried to learn all sorts of techniques from intarsia to lace, using the the internet as my guide and practicing to increase my speed and quality. It's truly amazing how much help you can get by using YouTube! Whenever I can't remember how to do a stitch or there s one I haven't heard of... SURPRISE! YouTube has a video for it. So, a few weeks ago I decided I better get my butt in gear and start making all those gifts I had ideas for during the year.

If you can't tell already, I am currently eyeball deep in my Christmas projects... amazingly I have finished a good chunk of them. There are sooo many things I want to share with you that I have made, but until these little projects find their homes on the 25th, I'll have to be patient. By the way, did I happen to mention....? Patience is not one of my virtues. So, to stem the tide of my eventual glee at posting them all, I have included a few pictures of my current work(s) in progress. Also, if you can't tell I've been playing on my computer a lot lately. Knitting really fills in during the down time of waiting for groups and flying. I love how my hobbies are complimentary despite their vast differences.

2 comments:

Skulan said...

It's somewhat odd that WoW almost requires a side project to do while you play. I used to keep a book handy. Unfortunately, all my hobbies require other people, and I don't think anyone would have appreciated me logging on during a D&D game, or in the middle of a 40k battle. But now I'm out! Which means... I have nothing to do BETWEEN those hobbies. Dang.

-Sam

jjphotoFTW said...

That's it! You need to get another hobby to fill in for the in between times. :) Get crackin!