Saturday, January 20, 2007

Fickle Pants

Some of you may remember a cable v-neck sweater I had started for my mother in the hopes of finishing for her birthday, which was this past Wednesday. Well, shortly after I posted my pictures of the finished Forecast, I continued knitting feverishly on her sweater. I went over to see my mom one night and happened to have the sweater in my bag (since I was knitting it any chance I could get). She saw it, and the conversation went something like this:

Mom: "Oh, that's a thicker sweater than I thought it would be."
Me: "Well, it's an aran weight, so it's not going to be real light, like a lace-weight."
Mom: "Oh, ok."

Three hours later, after I went home:
Phone rings.
Mom: "I was thinking, I really think that sweater's going to be too heavy for me. I think I'm going to get hot in it. Can you make some lighter, like one with holes or something?"

So here's what's left of my mom's sweater:



I returned the unused balls. I figured I could use these for a baby knit or a hat or something.

This led me to thinking. I change my mind a lot, too. Could it be genetic? Or is it some socially learned behavior? Either way, I often think I should rename this blog to Fickle Pants Knits. I did a little re-organizing of my WIP and to-knit list and realized that I don't really love a lot of the patterns I thought I loved a few months ago. I was changing my mind, like my mother.

Every time I picked up my Grannie Smith Cardigan, it would take me like an hour to do 2 rows with the Kidsilk Haze. I think the diamond lace pattern just stumps me. This is the progress I had made on it over 6 months:



The pattern shown is from Luxury Knits by Amanda Griffiths and is what I hope to turn my Kidsilk Haze into. The sweater looks WAY over-sized, but I plan to shrink it down a lot. The lace pattern looks easier and is memorizable, and it calls for two strands of KSH, which should be easier to work with.

And here's what left of the Grannie Smith:



More fickleness: I got some lovely Cascade 220 to make the Bell Sleeve Jacket from the VK Holiday Issue. But now I am being fickle and thinking I want to make the Cabled Cardigan from the Fall Issue instead:



But, just to prove I must have some of my dad's steadfastness in me, I am making great progress on Sahara. Here's a peek:



The Disco Lights are fab! More details later.

PS. My mom picked a lace pattern from Luxury Knits too, to be done in elann's Baby Silk. We'll see.

5 comments:

  1. It's ok to change your mind! And at least your mom told you now rather than after you'd already finished.

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  2. LOL - I'm the same way. There are just so many great patterns and yarn options that it's hard to settle in on one choice. It's perfectly okay to change your mind. There's no rules!

    As for your mom... that's why I don't knit much for others. :)

    Oh, and btw, your Sahara is looking Gorgeous!!

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  3. I change my mind, too. At least yarn is nice and flexible and can handle the fickleness. I really like the cabled cardigan you are thinking of knitting, I have been thinking about that one, too.

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  4. My heart stopped when I saw the remains of your projects. What a brave and strong woman you are to frog such beautiful work and actually take a picture of it to memorialize it; I am not that strong. I will hold on to a project for years (case in point: the nemesis) until it is finally finished (five years later).

    MarlyKnits
    www.knitthing.blogspot.com

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  5. I have lots of yarn in my stash that has changed its mind many times... In fact, some of the yarn hasn't decided what it wants to be when it grows up!

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