The Uphill Battle Continues

Almost there.  Scoobie Mitte

I am continuing the uphill slog that is the Holiday gift knitting. It's slow and painful the way that wading through waist deep leech infested swamp water would be. I am hoping that by the time I post this the Scoobie Mitts that I am working on for Steve will be finished.  The Scoobie Mitts are actually an incredibly mind-numbingly boring knit, but they are fast and portable and it has become a tradition that every male friend or family member has received a pair from me. (Hence the name. Scoobie Mitts means you are part of the Scoobie Gang. Yes, I am a huge Buffy fan.) This pair was specifically requested of me this year since the recipient did not receive his pair last year as he should have. (His lovely wife told me to make him a hat, which I did. Turns out he wanted a pair of the mitts.)

I was hoping to have the mitts and a hat finished by the time this is posted, but I know I'll be happy if just the mitts are finished. I do unfortunately have other things to do this morning that will interfere with my knitting time. (If anyone out there has figured out how to do your dishes and knit at the same time please let me know.)

I have figured out that this is the problem. This needing to always have more finished really drives me insane at this time of year when it comes to my knitting. I realized that it's not the knitting that I am not enjoying. I still love knitting. It's not having the moment of gratification that comes with finishing a project. Think about it. Whenever we as knitters finish a projects, we all have that moment where you look at the knitting and (hopefully) admire it. You get to let a little sigh escape your lips as you think, “this is cute”, or “thank god it's done”, or “I love it.” If it's a really big project that has taken up a lot of time or required great effort, I've noticed that the phrase “I have no idea what to knit now even though I have 5 other projects on the needles” is really very normal. This is what I'm missing and craving. Now when a gift is finished, I think “great, another one finished. Now I have to start the hat for my Father-in-Law.” And the aforementioned finished gift gets tossed into the finished pile. This is why I love gift knitting in June and kind of hate it at this time of year. In June I get to have that moment of reflection that I don't get to have now. The hurried feeling also pours over into the rest of my knitting and I start feeling the pressure of all my WIPS wanting to be FO's and I can't get to them. I can't finish things as quickly as I would like and to accommodate the knitting and the training for a 10k run in May and a 75K bike ride in June things like the dishes get ignored. Clearly things get out of balance in my life and that drives me insane. And I need that gratification.

So, today I will finish the mitts. I will then pour myself a cup of coffee and admire the mitts. When the coffee is gone, I will only then cast on the new project and I will try to convince myself that I am doing okay this year and that I will not be weaving in ends on a scarf while my husband is driving us to a Christmas party where the scarf is being presented. (You can laugh, but if this hasn't already happened to you it will one day. If you are the type of knitter that this never happens to, I bow down before you.) I will take a deep breath and I will enjoy my FO. Then I will figure out just how quickly I can knit that damn hat.

And, they are finished!