Letting go of project guilt

I have a confession to make. I hate "finishing". I hate doing anything to my projects other than stitching them. That's the fun part. Sewing on buttons, seaming, weaving in ends, etc., all those little "finishing" details, drive me nuts and make me seek out seamless, buttonless patterns. The moment I hit a button-sewing obstacle I become the world's laziest crafter.

Ravelry is doing a lot to show me just how incredibly lazy I can really be. I have a skirt that I made from the CrochetMe book.

"in progress" shot...ha

I vaguely remember working on it...once...long ago. I remember crocheting it, I remember it being all-but-finished. Ends woven in and everything, just needs some buttons. It's been sitting in my Ravelry projects at 95%, just waiting for buttons. I've been pointedly ignoring it. It was actually sitting in a box hidden away behind my couch. Last week I decided to look through my projects and Ravelry tells me that that poor skirt has been waiting for a button since March 2008. Oh Jesus. Yes I am that bad.

It was then that I realized, "oh wait I hate this skirt". That's why it's been so long. That's why it's hiding. I would have sewn on a button by now (surely, right?) if I had liked it at all. But as soon as I was done with the crocheting I suddenly had this insight: "Why on earth would I have ever thought that a thick, shapeless mini-skirt crocheted in acrylic be at all flattering on me?" Seriously? Crafter, know thyself! Wrapping a pound of heavy-duty Red Heart around my, let's say "generous", thighsection is probably the worst possible clothing choice I could make.

I want to be clear, I have no problem with the design itself. It worked up fast, it was cheap, it looks fine, it's a perfect beginner project, and it turned out exactly as the designer intended: a cheap, durable skirt for someone adorably petite to wear while bike-riding. I was lured into making it for myself because it looks so damn cute on the model in the book; the problem is, it looks so damn cute on the model in the book because she's the model in the book.

So for over a year I've had this project sitting there, making me feel guilty every time I take up another project, ruining my crafty self-esteem and threatening to wreak havoc (again) on my body image.

This is Knit(or Crochet) for Yourself June (per declaration of Katie), so in the spirit of that, I am officially tossing this project! Frogged! Ripped! (Thrown away!) I believe this is in the spirit of the month.
I am now an un-project-burdened girl.

Congratulate me! I did not poke my eyes out!

I've been meaning to learn to knit for many many moons. This year I resolved to actually do it. I probably wouldn't have stuck with it very well except my friend Katie dared me to give up not-knitting at Stitch and Bitch for Lent. I'm not sure that's the kind of thing Jesus or the Catholic Church would have in mind, but I stuck with it. And just as Easter Sunday was winding down:
Yayayay! I did it!

To be fair, that shrug is just...awful. I mean, the pattern is cute as hell, and I actually ended up really liking the yarn I used for it. But. There are all kinds of uneven stitches, yarn overs in the wrong places or extra yarn overs or shifted yarn overs, increases and decreases randomly (and all accidentally) placed, etc etc. As one might expect from one's very very first knitted project.

But I'm really proud that I finished it! I'm also really proud that I did not, as I had threatened so frequently, poke my eyes out with my size 11 needles.

This project, if nothing else, will always be a souvenir of SnB to me. Like a patchwork quilt. Gwen taught me the long-tail cast-on, Katie taught me how to actually make a knit stitch (I was doing it wrong), Elspeth taught me how to tink back, Kelly (who I barely knew at the time) taught me how to yarnover, Tanya (who I also barely knew at the time) donated stitch markers, Beth helped me learn how to bind off. Those are just the specific examples. Basically every person in this group that I love so much is somewhere in that (tiny, misshapen) shrug of mine, so for that reason alone I will always treasure it.

T.G.I.F(inished)

Oh, praises be, she is done.

This is the blanket I have been working on since January 2008, got terribly behind on, and spent the first part of 2009 dreading. I finally buckled down and worked through it, and it's done. D.O.N.E.

And yes, it was exactly as much of a pain in the butt to join as I was dreading it would be. Many, many hours of joining.
If you are considering doing a similar CAL or KAL or some such, here is a piece of advice I wish I had been given: the number of stitches along a side is WAY more important than the rough size of the square. Meaning, for every month I made squares and was careful to add or subtract rows so that they would be about 12" across. And then when I got to the joining, I ran into this nightmare: one square would be 47 stitches across, and the one I was joining it to would be 36. And the next one would be 42. And so on. So it wasn't even mindless crocheting, because I had to count each time and do careful math so that I would space out the joining stitches evenly, in order to avoid wonky seaming. It was quite the headache.
Also, squares in this gauge are pliable and will stretch a little to fit into the right size. So really, if you are making an afghan with different types of squares, please heed my warning and try to make the stitches the same, and worry less about the exact size.

This is just a simple sc join, first joining the squares width-wise and then going back length-wise, if that makes sense. It was the fastest method I could think of (hah) and also used the least amount of yarn, considering I was very much running out of the white. There's a simple sc edging around. I was thinking about adding more edging, in another color, to give it a bolder border, at which point my harried boyfriend gestured wildly and said STOP and so I did.

It's done it's done it's done!!
Now I have a beeeeautiful and warm and heavy and huge afghan, and I can make other projects with no UFO guilt!
Oh I can't wait to have my first house guest. I'm going to insist they sleep under this blanket, no matter how warm it might be.

Beth's comment + design notes

My friend Beth is one of the most organized and level-headed people I know. Read this:

"when I have to cast-on (or chain) so many stitches for a project, I often place stitch markers every 25 or 50 stitches so that I don't have to keep re-counting those beginning sections more than two or three times."

That was in response to the Madness Note at the end of the pattern in this post. I swear to you this strategy had never occurred to me. I usually just grit my teeth and try to power through and pray no one interrupts me. So um please use Beth's method, not mine, if you want further sanity preservation.

Beth also asked if crocheted scarves are usually done length-wise as opposed to width-wise. I want to say that I don't think this is the case; most of the patterns I've worked with have been width-wise. But for the both of the scarves that I've designed here, I knew that the length was more important than the width; I wanted length to be a prominent design element of each. Also, the seed stitch, which I used for Snow Angel, and its variant which I used for Frosty, are very stretchy heightwise, and less so widthwise. I wanted my scarves to be flexible and soft when wrapping around your neck, but I also knew that if they stretch lengthwise they would have a tendency to thin out in the middle, right where you need the most warmth; so for those two reasons I chose to design both of them oriented the way they are.

That's a long-winded answer, hope you like it :)

Frosty

Allow me to introduce Frosty, a new scarf design!

I am wearing this scarf right now. No, it's not that cold, but I love this scarf. It's the length that really sells it for me. It feels very stylish, and the yarn is so soft. It's the same yarn as my Snow Angel scarf, so the same yarn notes apply.

For those of you on ravelry, I hope to have both of these scarves available as free pdf downloads in the next couple of days.

A big, HUGE thanks to my wonderful pattern testers, Erin, Suzen, and Ann-Marie!

I hope you enjoy!

“Frosty” Scarf

The color of this warm winter scarf reminded me of the coal eyes of a child’s snowman. The subtle texture emphasizes the softness of the yarn and makes the scarf thick and cozy, without being too heavy.

Materials: I Love This Yarn! (distributed by Hobby Lobby) 100% acrylic, 355 yds/198

grams: 1 skein, Black. (or 350 yds other soft, bulkier-weight worsted)

M hook

N hook

yarn needle

Gauge: not really important

Finished size: about 4” x 104”

Special stitches:

Seed stitch

Seed Spike stitch (sdsp): in seed stitch pattern, dc into ch-1 sp two rows below,

overlapping sc immediately below.(note: in .pdf version, charts will be included to explain this stitch)

With M hook, ch 252 LOOSELY (see notes below). Switch to N hook.

Row 1: Sc into second ch from hook; sc into remaining ch; 251 sc.

Row 2: Ch 1 (count as 1st sc now & throughout), sc in next 2 sc, * ch 1, sk next sc, sc into next sc*, repeat from * to * until 2 sc remain, sc into each of last 2 sc. (123 ch-1 sp).

Row 3: Ch 1, sc in next sc, *ch 1, sk next sc, sc into next ch-1 sp*, repeat from * to * until 3 sc remain, ch 1, sk next sc, sc into each of last 2 sc.

Row 4: Ch 1, sc into each of next 2 sc, *dc into Row 2 ch-1 sp (sdsp made), sc into next ch-1 sp*, repeat from * to * until 2 sc remain, sc into each of next 2 sc.

Rows 5-13: Repeat Rows 2-4 three times.

Row 14: With M hook, sc in each st across. Fasten off.

Sizing note: The pattern as written will produce an extra-extra-long scarf, which is part of what I love about it. If you want to re-size it, just calculate any odd number + 5 for the base chain.

Madness note: I understand that chaining 252 without losing count can be insanity-inducing. Trust me, I know. I strongly recommend going into a room where you can shut the door (especially a sound-proof room) before attempting this. I think it’s worth the effort! And everything after this is a piece of cake in comparison.