Thursday, January 21, 2010

Too Many WIPS

Tartan Argyle Sock legI blame my sporadic blogging last week to having too many projects on the go.

Scattered knitting leads to scattered blogging.

Five Project Rotation
At least I think it's still five. It could be more at this point and I'd never know.

This is a far cry from where I was last year, practicing project monogamy, and finishing projects.

It happened subtly. I got frustrated with the Tartan Argyles and put them aside in favor of Stella (Girly Top in the side bar). I needed a small travel project, so I cast on the Angora Bed Socks of Power and Fortune. I ditched everything for Hubby's Striped Sweater (which is, of course, finished). I needed a mindless project for proofreading and line waiting, so I started the Green Step Socks. Hubby wants a new scarf.

Now all those have been ditched for yet another sock.

Phew. I can hardly keep up.

Rather than go back to project monogamy, even though I know it works, I decided to go with a rotation. Each day I would work on a different project.

It was working rather well. The ABSoPaF were flying along. The Tartan Argyles are through their first diamond.

There were two problems with this idea. First, I never wrote the rotation down so wasn't sure which project I should be working on. I figured as long as it wasn't the same project as the night before I was good. Second, seeing the progress on a project made me want to stick to it and get it done.

I guess monogamy is my first instinct.

Error Prone
The Girly Top was also part of the rotation, but wasn't working out as well.

When I abandoned it for Hubby's Striped Sweater I had the back and both sleeves done. When I picked it up again, I had a devil of a time working the set-up row. Which was an issue I had when I first started. I remembered having and issue and over-thought the situation. In the end I must have started it four times before I got it right.

Then I was working on the Tartan Argyles and the pattern wasn't working out right. I saw I had messed up on the previous row. As I was tinking back I saw that I'd made a second mistake of not working the diagonal line in one spot. Fortunately, both mistakes were on the same row.

The ABSoPaF were a whole other, special issue. I knew I might have to fudge things since I started at the ankle with a provisional cast on. I thought I had it right, but six rows in I went to cross the cables and had too many stitches on one side and too few on the other. Happily, the yarn is a bit sticky, so I was able to just rip back without worrying about running stitches. The judicious application of many stitch markers to establish the first couple rows got me through it.

Don't even get me started on the number of times I had to restart Hubby's Chunky Cable Scarf. I lost count.

Realigning
Everything is back on track now.

I think when I'm done with P's sock I'm going to go back to working on one project at a time.

Part of the reason I started the rotation was because I couldn't decide which project to prioritize. Which one was closer to being finished? decisions, decisions.

Now, however, that question has been answered. Hubby's Scarf will get priority.

Getting puppy eyes from Samson and Baru is bad enough. I don't need them from Hubby too.

1 comment:

  1. I like CC's method for several projects at once. Give it about 45 minutes, take a break and switch.

    My method is by my mood and the level of difficulty - if I can't work it when there is family stuff happening then it gets worked on first thing in the am.

    (Thanks for working on my sock!O)

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