What Shall I Knit?




Vacation time has quickly come to a close and I have unpacked, prepared menus, started lesson plans for next week, and put away the few Christmas decorations I had out. It's always nice to have a vacation, to visit with friends and family, and celebrate the holidays together, but really there is no place like home. Now it's time to get back to taking care of my home, teaching my children, cooking for my family, sewing, and of course knitting!

I suppose the question isn't really what I shall knit, it should be "What shall I finish knitting?" After we unpacked, I pulled out all of my knitting and reorganized...again. I have several, many, projects started, not to mention the several projects I have yarn for tucked away. I spent most of our vacation in Kentucky working on dishcloths and not really making much progress on the two projects I brought along, Lauren's dress, and my scarf. Oh yeah, and another scarf for Lauren.

Let's see there is Lauren's jumper dress, my sweater, two blankets, several scarves, and a poncho I have started. Then there are the projects I have waiting to start, a tank top, another sweater, a shawl...and so many more projects I want to do. Soooo, I suppose I need to choose one project or maybe two and complete those before moving onto something else.

Lauren's jumper dress took me several times to get it started, but once I got passed the eyelet rows and the first set of decreases the only problem I have really had to deal with was catching a dropped stitch. It may prove a bit challenging when I get to the shoulders since I haven't learned to shape shoulders yet, but it will be a while before I get to that point.

Tyler and Lauren's blankets are pretty straight forward. Lauren's blanket is easy to take with me since they are simple 10 in. x 10 in. squares and I am only knitting one square at a time. Tyler's is one large piece, but that pattern is simple enough now (after two I got it down pretty well) and is good for when I watching TV or just needing a quiet time break.

Then there is my country jacket sweater. I have to follow the pattern, and really have to pay attention, but there is still so much I don't know about shaping that I will likely need to take it in with me to the LYS and get some help. I looked ahead at the pattern and read the directions for the front panels and basically will need to have some help understanding the button placements. This maybe the one project I set aside so that I can really concentrate it on all at once.

Then there is "the poncho", it looked so cute when I first got the pattern. But the love is lost and I will admit I just plain set it aside because I lost interest it in. I don't care for the feel of the needles nor how the chenille yarn knits. I will have to force myself to complete it, or make myself a promise of chocolate upon completion.

Then there are about four scarves...some easy, some not so easy. I should probably finish those while the weather outside is still chilly, windy and rainy.

I knit at least 20 washcloths for Christmas Gifts between the end of October to literally Christmas Eve (ended up having to reknit part of the one I had for my niece Christmas Day!). They were good for learning to read and follow directions, as well as learning a couple of fancy knitting tricks. But I will admit I am really tired of them and will set aside any washcloth knitting for the time being. I am considering that once I get caught up, which could be a few months at this point, that I will attempt to make flower shaped washcloths (Whimsical Knitting Designs). I still have a lot of yarn left that I could at least get a couple made. It would be good practice for learning to knit in the round and learning how to shape the petals.

Sooo what shall I finish knitting? I think I have narrowed it done to four projects...Lauren's dress and Tyler's blanket to work on at home. To take with me, I have two projects ready to go, a simple scarf and the squares for Lauren's blanket. Eventually I will be down to only a couple of projects on the needles! Until then I better get back to knitting!