Snow Days

The weather has been pretty ugly here lately and a lot of snow days have been called. You would think that would mean a lot of crocheting. Sadly, no. But that doesn't mean there hasn't been some going on!

One of my goals for the year is to design a scarf each month. I have aKees books that contain instructions for crochet, knit and cable stitches. I usually pick A stitch pattern that fits the yarn I have and go to town creating a new scarf.

My first scarf of the year is crocheted in a butterfy stitch which creates a pattern by simply repeating the same two rows throughout. The yarn I chose I bought at the Fiber Arts Yarn Shop in Watkins Glen, NY, a beautiful chocolate brown and green camel hair yarn. It's a delicate DK weight that has a beautiful sdrape in this stitch.

I'm excited to finish the scarf so I'll keep you posted. Happy crocheting!

PS - I haven't finished the sweater yet :-P

Crossing the Finish Line

I had an epiphany today. I hate to finish projects. What, you say? That's impossible. No, not really. Here's the story....

I love starting new projects - the challenge of a new pattern, the feel of new yarn in my hands. What I love even more is the repetitiveness of the stitches and the movement of my hands. Knitting and crocheting are stress relievers for me. I don't pick complicated patterns for that very reason. It's not because I don't have the experience to tackle them. The fact is, I truly enjoy what other people would find mindless. It's my drug of choice (well, wine might fit here too!). When I've finally finished all of the stitches, my brain tells me I should be done. Unfortunately there are yarn ends to tuck in, seams to sew up, trim to create. And, sometimes that can take almost as long as it did to actually make the parts.

Look at this picture. It's a sweater for my grandson but it's not finished. I had a blast knitting all the parts. I even got one shoulder seam sewn and the neck band knitted. Now I have to sew the sleeves on, sew up the side seams and tuck in all of those yarn ends. Seriously, do you see how many yarn ends there are? Yuck. It'll get done but it's gonna be a struggle for me. But, I certainly will be proud when it's done and he's able to wear it!

Maybe someday I should hire someone to do the finishing for me. That would solve my problem, right? Well, sort of. I wouldn't have the satisfaction of truly finishing a project - a scarf, a sweater, a pair of socks. That's simply not acceptable to me. So, I guess I'll just have to cross the finish line myself!