Circular Reasoning

Some of you might have noticed that I re-organized my works in progress section. I broke my projects into three categories:

1. Projects I am actively working on.
2. Projects that I started but stalled out on.
3. Projects I could start if I wanted to.

I understand that there is nothing revolutionary about this scheme. However, like any good scientist, I couldn't just leave well enough alone and go on to something else I needed to do, I had to analyze exactly why these projects fell into the categories they did. Why things fall into the first and last category is more or less self-evident: I'm either working on them or haven't started yet. But what caused me to get stalled on the rest. Hmmm...

So I dug into my big basket of stalled projects... several scarves, the Pebbles sweater, the Malin sweater, a project I can't reveal here and a sock. Well, they aren't all the same kind of knitted item, so it couldn't be just shape or size. They're made out of wool, ribbon, acrylic blend, polar fleece, a cotton-wool blend and a cotton-silk blen. So no correlation there either.

Hmmm... Hmmmm... Hmmm.... Certainly there must be some connection. After all, I am a human, a creature of habit!

And then I had one of those "A-ha!" moments. I was doing all these projects on straight needles. And all the ones I was plugging away at happily were on circs. "But wait", you say, "What about that sock? You never do socks on straights!" Heh. Well. I frogged the sock when I realized that it had stalled because I hadn't followed the pattern and I wasn't going to be able to fit my foot into it. In other words, like all good scientists, if some data point didn't fit my model, I threw it out.*

Now, in the spirit of making deals with myself, I decided that I couldn't start anything off the third list until I finished something in the second list. I really do want to wear the Pebbles sweater before I grow old. Maybe you don't remember Pebbles? Here she is in all her Rowan glory:

And here is how far I had gotten as of May 7th. The back and one of the fronts.

And then I started on one of the sleeves and just coudn't keep myself moving on it. I told myself at first it was the moss stitch. And then it was the dry texture of the yarn. But now I know it was something else: the needles. I slipped that sleeve off the Casein straight needles and onto AddiTurbo circs. Et Voila! The stitches just seemed to fly by. No more problems with moss stitch or dry yarn.

Now I am in absolute love with this project and with the Summer Tweed again. This stuff has great drape and the moss stitch makes for a perfect texture for it. I've only got one more set of increases to go before knitting straight to the cap. It was all in the needles. Not only is the nickel plated surface better for me, but having the weight of the fabric shifted from my elbows to my lap is much more pleasant.

So Pebbles is no longer stalled. And I have more insights into my personal knitting demons. All it needed was a scientific approach. And if I can get it done by the weekend, I'll do my best to wear Pebbles just like the model -- minus the beach. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

*I hope you all realize that I am joking about scientists fudging their data sets. That's a no no. I would never do it in real life. But this is knitting, not trying to find a cure for cancer, so I hope you'll all be lenient with my data selection/manipulation techniques.