How has it been a month since I last posted? Sometimes it feels like the year is marching along and I am still dilly-dallying in first gear. I suppose it doesn't really matter, I don't have to be anywhere in particular, and life is good whether fast or slow, but lately it seems I have been running rather on the slow side.
I have not gotten back to my cardigan, although I did just finish the second round of swatches and think I am now settled on needle size and gauge. Next up is to redo the math and write out the pattern with the alterations I intend to make.
In the meantime, the temperature blanket is moving along nicely. Shown above is the first quarter of the blanket, representing daily high temperatures here in Knoxville Tennessee for the first quarter of the year. The idea is to knit one garter ridge for each day of the year (two rows).
Considering that I did not start this project until March 1, I think I am doing well. If I knit two garter ridges each day of this month, I will be caught up by the end of May. I will be traveling much of June however and am not convinced I will take the blanket with me, so I will fall behind once again. I have made my peace with that. Although I can easily knit one or two garter ridges a day and still work on other projects, I don't by nature tend to run that way. I tend to toss myself completely into a project, losing all sense of time, until I put it down. Then I repeat the process with another project. I suppose in one sense this contributes to the fact that I feel like I rarely finish anything. On the other hand I am rarely bored.
In love this project. I love the yarn, Rowan's felted tweed, which is 50% wool, 25% alpaca, and 25% rayon. Generally rayon is not my favorite thing, but it adds a nice drape, and I love the rough wooly softness of the yarn, the colors, and the way the colors are playing with each other. I see much inspiration for future color combinations. Although I do not want to knit only blankets, I remain obsessed with the idea. As I stated, neither this blanket, nor the alpaca blanket, will be finished before the end of the year.
At the moment, this blanket has provided a necessary bit of calming knitting at a time when my mental focus was not up to knitting that required greater focus. I suppose this is one reason I tend to have multiple projects going at any given time. A long time ago I realized that it was not true that I never finished anything, I do finish, although sometimes there are long stretches where it seems like nothing is happening. I have also learned that I cannot force myself into being a completely sequential, one project at a time person. Rather than finishing more, I actually do less when forced into that pattern, as it is against my nature, and I do grow bored and eventually resentful. Much better to follow the path of least resistance, and let my mind focus on whatever ephemera captures its attention on any given day. I've earned this.
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