Saturday, February 08, 2014

When Bad Things Happen To Good Knitters

This should be an awesome day - Larry and Brian off skiing, the girls playing at a friend's house, me with PLENTY of knitting time on my hands, right?  But, unfortunately, 2 of my 3 knitting projects are in a timeout for misbehavior, and the 3rd is being knitted on high-priced metal needles that mysteriously became bent, making for an inefficient knitting experience.

I'm thinking maybe you don't understand.  And that's all right, I don't really either.   I need to woman up and deal with my knitting problems, instead of passive-aggressively complaining about them online.  I need to face the fact that one set of two-at-a-time socks should have just been ripped back to the beginning 10 days ago, because I could have reknit them by now.  Instead, I keep waiting to do the more painstaking task of ripping back just to where I made the mistake, because that would SAVE ME TIME.

Gah.

She's smiling, because her scarf cooperated.
And my scarf - my beautiful linen-stitch scarf, which was going along so swimmingly, has lost a stitch, which I have to locate or I will throw off the entire pattern.  I keep looking for the darn thing, but I CANNOT FIND IT.  So I keep counting the stitches, hoping that it will miraculously reappear. 

Yet knitting is supposed to be "extremely relaxing." It's supposed to reduce stress and anxiety.  Oh, yeah?  Then why am I SO STRESSED OUT?  WHY? 

I'll tell you why - I have 3 weeks to finish 2 pairs of socks and one scarf, and they are NOT COOPERATING with me.  3 weeks, or my knitting plans for the year will be irremediably derailed.  I have a schedule, people.  I need to stick with it.

So I can't for the life of me figure out why the above-linked article says that "knitting offers a break from busy schedules."  What's up with that?

[Scarf image: Needlework Unlimited]

4 comments:

  1. That just sounds way too stressful.

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  2. I'm with you. Struggling with needles and yarn is NOT relaxing. So I mix in some easier projects to---I hope---give me patience with the tough ones. But it doesn't mean that I sometimes don't want to throw a misbehaving project across the room!

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  3. Oh, I've totally tried to "save time" knitting. It ALWAYS bites me in the ass.

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  4. Will this make you feel better?
    http://kcinnova.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/a-stitch-in-time/2011-january-077/

    [my best sample out of 3 attempts to make a dishcloth]

    ReplyDelete