Definitely agree with seeing people on social media who seem to finish multiple projects in a week. Makes me feel like the slowest knitter in the world. Reading this post made me feel part of the community that sometimes seems to have forgotten the joy of the slow make.
I'm definitely a tortoise 🐢 and I'm slowly knitting the lace section of my current project. Yes to simply being myself. Thank you Anne for the reminder it's OK to take your time. 😊
Thank you for this--I am a reformed hare--trying to embrace the tortoise in myself! I am re-knitting the body of a sweater. Somehow, when I put the sleeve stitches on holders and cast on under the arms for the body I managed to mess up the front and back stitch counts. I only noticed this when I had the body ALMOST finished. I ripped back to the underarms and am reuniting it. Did I mention it's in half-brioche? I find that the older I get I want fewer and better items--sweaters I'll wear more--that are more me. I have been in the process of paring down my ravelry queue because it makes me feel like I have SO MUCH KNITTING to do. But just because I can knit it...doesn't mean I should.
This resonates so much with me! I'm also finding that the older I get, the more I want fewer, more perfect sweaters I wear all the time. I'm more inclined to rip back and re-do. What a great part of getting older: gaining this mental space and perspective!
Thank you for this gentle reminder to embrace the moment! I have a hat on my needles and a tangled mess I’m slowly unravelling. Several other WIP’s as well, but these are the projects I’m leaning into and savoring. Blessings!
I LOVED this post today!! Honestly, I feel that way pretty much every week. 😊
But, today’s post is something I’ve been thinking about a lot! I’m so tired of thinking I need to rush through my day and that all that matters is how much I get done. Then, if my self imposed levels for that day aren’t reached I feel like I failed, or very tired, or flushed and sweaty! None of those things are healthy or pleasant. At the heart of who I am, I’m a tortoise 🐢. I want joy, peace, fulfillment, contentment, and to be ME! Thanks for your encouragement Anne!❤️
I am definitely a slow knitter. I often feel like I should knit faster so that I can publish patterns faster, and it sometimes destroys the joy of the whole thing for me. So it’s definitely helpful to accept my inner tortoise and just work at the pace that I can.
I am trying to knit fair isles Christmas balls. I have never knitted fair isle nor knitted Christmas balls ever so I will have to be very patient with myself.
I am so on board with this tentacle thing! I'm glad the photo shows it holding a pencil-like object, because pencil-holders are what I need and I'm not good at thinking outside the box. Having dropped my Apple pencil into my organ pedals and not having gotten it out yet (do I need to take the pedalboard off? Probably).
Lovely post. It's good to feel validated as a tortoise knitter - that's definitely me! I also love the idea of knitting for knitting's sake, rather than for making anything. The completely pointless knitted tentacles in this post are just wonderful.
Because someone (me) will ask--is there a pattern for the golden cardigan pictures you are working on? It’s so lovely with your yarn. My yarn wants to make it.
Ah, the pattern. First off, some caveats: I don't recommend it EXCEPT for the fact that it's a gorgeous sweater. The pattern itself feels sloppily constructed and I made a number of mods:
(1) The front and back patterns (which have strong vertical elements) do not line up. It's been noted by many others in Ravelry projects, so I was forewarned. I adjusted the back patterning so it would match up, but if I had to do it over again, I would math it out and adjust *front* and back seed stitch areas so that the numbers lined up, and so it would match.
(2) I did a visible 3-needle bind-off at the sleeves, for a nice design element that would cleanly accentuate the now matching vertical elements.
(3) The back chart is a hot mess. It's accurate, but so very very small and hard to follow. I figured out that the central element is repeated 4x if you remove the side bobble, so I did, and got it down to a manageable 40-stitch chart that I could enlarge and follow using KnitCompanion to track my rows. That made the knitting enjoyable. Otherwise, I'm quite sure I would not have finished the back. It's an 88 stitch chart. And OMG so small.
(4) It's knit bottom up. Many other knitters on Ravelry noted that the stated lengths are ridiculously short on the larger sizes. One knitter was like, this doesn't even cover my bust. So, I adjusted lengths to my usual preferred, hits around the top of my
(5) I don't like the giant bobbles on the original, so I made smaller bobbles using the method from Claire/Flossi Knits (which is adorable and her designs are so lovely).
With all those caveats (!!!!), the pattern is the Bookish Cardi by Annie Lupton.
Not my easiest project, but I'm grateful to Ravelry so that I could identify all these isseus ahead of time and think of solutions. I don't usually work so hard to make a pattern work for me, but, alas, the texture and cables and seamed structure were perfection for the yarn I wanted to use.
Oh my goodness! Thank you for all the explanation and for working it out here for us. That’s a lot of work just do math it out and then write it out. I do appreciate it!!
I’m making a fade raglan sweater for my grandchild to grow into. It’s in a new to me European type way of knitting the neck on a raglan shaping and decreasing as you move upwards. It fades from pale aqua to turquoise to medium blue to darker blue to purple on each miniskein. I’m hopeful that in the end there will have been enough yarn to finish and in a pleasing way. We shall see. It was a close out yarn no buying any more, no plan to change it if I lose at yarn chicken, an experiment for sure!
Your yarn color description sounds beautiful! Sending hope that you win at yarn chicken. I also appreciate the idea of knitting the sweater for your grandchild to grow into! Great reminder to take the stress off that everything has to be knitted for NOW! ❤️
Definitely agree with seeing people on social media who seem to finish multiple projects in a week. Makes me feel like the slowest knitter in the world. Reading this post made me feel part of the community that sometimes seems to have forgotten the joy of the slow make.
I'm definitely a tortoise 🐢 and I'm slowly knitting the lace section of my current project. Yes to simply being myself. Thank you Anne for the reminder it's OK to take your time. 😊
Thank you for this--I am a reformed hare--trying to embrace the tortoise in myself! I am re-knitting the body of a sweater. Somehow, when I put the sleeve stitches on holders and cast on under the arms for the body I managed to mess up the front and back stitch counts. I only noticed this when I had the body ALMOST finished. I ripped back to the underarms and am reuniting it. Did I mention it's in half-brioche? I find that the older I get I want fewer and better items--sweaters I'll wear more--that are more me. I have been in the process of paring down my ravelry queue because it makes me feel like I have SO MUCH KNITTING to do. But just because I can knit it...doesn't mean I should.
This resonates so much with me! I'm also finding that the older I get, the more I want fewer, more perfect sweaters I wear all the time. I'm more inclined to rip back and re-do. What a great part of getting older: gaining this mental space and perspective!
Thank you for this gentle reminder to embrace the moment! I have a hat on my needles and a tangled mess I’m slowly unravelling. Several other WIP’s as well, but these are the projects I’m leaning into and savoring. Blessings!
I LOVED this post today!! Honestly, I feel that way pretty much every week. 😊
But, today’s post is something I’ve been thinking about a lot! I’m so tired of thinking I need to rush through my day and that all that matters is how much I get done. Then, if my self imposed levels for that day aren’t reached I feel like I failed, or very tired, or flushed and sweaty! None of those things are healthy or pleasant. At the heart of who I am, I’m a tortoise 🐢. I want joy, peace, fulfillment, contentment, and to be ME! Thanks for your encouragement Anne!❤️
Oh, I love all of this!
I am definitely a slow knitter. I often feel like I should knit faster so that I can publish patterns faster, and it sometimes destroys the joy of the whole thing for me. So it’s definitely helpful to accept my inner tortoise and just work at the pace that I can.
I am trying to knit fair isles Christmas balls. I have never knitted fair isle nor knitted Christmas balls ever so I will have to be very patient with myself.
Fair isle balls! (the 12 year old in me snickers with delight!)
I got the free pattern in one of the many knitting emails I get. They look so nice and they are certainly a challenge for me at the moment.
I am so on board with this tentacle thing! I'm glad the photo shows it holding a pencil-like object, because pencil-holders are what I need and I'm not good at thinking outside the box. Having dropped my Apple pencil into my organ pedals and not having gotten it out yet (do I need to take the pedalboard off? Probably).
Oooooh, as an Apple pencil holder! Great idea!
Lovely post. It's good to feel validated as a tortoise knitter - that's definitely me! I also love the idea of knitting for knitting's sake, rather than for making anything. The completely pointless knitted tentacles in this post are just wonderful.
Because someone (me) will ask--is there a pattern for the golden cardigan pictures you are working on? It’s so lovely with your yarn. My yarn wants to make it.
Ah, the pattern. First off, some caveats: I don't recommend it EXCEPT for the fact that it's a gorgeous sweater. The pattern itself feels sloppily constructed and I made a number of mods:
(1) The front and back patterns (which have strong vertical elements) do not line up. It's been noted by many others in Ravelry projects, so I was forewarned. I adjusted the back patterning so it would match up, but if I had to do it over again, I would math it out and adjust *front* and back seed stitch areas so that the numbers lined up, and so it would match.
(2) I did a visible 3-needle bind-off at the sleeves, for a nice design element that would cleanly accentuate the now matching vertical elements.
(3) The back chart is a hot mess. It's accurate, but so very very small and hard to follow. I figured out that the central element is repeated 4x if you remove the side bobble, so I did, and got it down to a manageable 40-stitch chart that I could enlarge and follow using KnitCompanion to track my rows. That made the knitting enjoyable. Otherwise, I'm quite sure I would not have finished the back. It's an 88 stitch chart. And OMG so small.
(4) It's knit bottom up. Many other knitters on Ravelry noted that the stated lengths are ridiculously short on the larger sizes. One knitter was like, this doesn't even cover my bust. So, I adjusted lengths to my usual preferred, hits around the top of my
(5) I don't like the giant bobbles on the original, so I made smaller bobbles using the method from Claire/Flossi Knits (which is adorable and her designs are so lovely).
With all those caveats (!!!!), the pattern is the Bookish Cardi by Annie Lupton.
Ravelry link: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bookish-cardi
Designer's website: https://bohochicfiberco.com/collections/knitwear-designs/products/bookish-cardi
Not my easiest project, but I'm grateful to Ravelry so that I could identify all these isseus ahead of time and think of solutions. I don't usually work so hard to make a pattern work for me, but, alas, the texture and cables and seamed structure were perfection for the yarn I wanted to use.
Oh my goodness! Thank you for all the explanation and for working it out here for us. That’s a lot of work just do math it out and then write it out. I do appreciate it!!
(4) .... hits around the top of my mid-rise waistband. (Not sure why the last part of that sentence disappeared!).
And I looked up Flossi knits--very cute stuff!! Thanks for that too!
You make me feel so validated. I love your notes.
Right now can’t afford to become a patreon, but buy your kits!! I love the upcoming tentacle kits and yarn!
🥰
Oh, and I am making a beautiful wrap of my own design using five different types of yarn. Quite funky
I’m making a fade raglan sweater for my grandchild to grow into. It’s in a new to me European type way of knitting the neck on a raglan shaping and decreasing as you move upwards. It fades from pale aqua to turquoise to medium blue to darker blue to purple on each miniskein. I’m hopeful that in the end there will have been enough yarn to finish and in a pleasing way. We shall see. It was a close out yarn no buying any more, no plan to change it if I lose at yarn chicken, an experiment for sure!
Your yarn color description sounds beautiful! Sending hope that you win at yarn chicken. I also appreciate the idea of knitting the sweater for your grandchild to grow into! Great reminder to take the stress off that everything has to be knitted for NOW! ❤️
Needed to hear this today.