Minnesota Knitters' Guild Cable Gram, Volume 24, Number 1

At the time I am writing this, it is Chinese New Year, and I notice that 2008 is the Year of the Rat. In my knitting year, however, it seems like 2008 is going to be the Year of the Purse.

I try to be an organized knitter. I organize my stash according to its purpose: future projects; leftover yarn from completed projects; yarn that has no real purpose but was on sale (this is mostly Wool-Ease or Red Heart). Each year I make a comprehensive list of projects that I hope to complete based on what is lurking in my stash. I have never gotten close to finishing everything my list, but I feel like I will get more done if I commit some of my projects to paper.

Now, I know what you are thinking right about now: “She is one of those knitters.” I know what you mean—the kind of knitter you hear about (or read about in a blog) who seems to exist in a perfect knitting world. In this world, you carefully plan all your projects, you permit yourself to work on only an extremely small number at one time, and you can’t start a new one until another is complete.

I am not that mythical knitter. I have about 15 to 20 projects going at the same time; I can’t find yarn I purchased two months ago; and I will blatantly purchase another Addi rather than dig for the three sets of U.S. size 6 circulars located somewhere in my seven knitting baskets.
And every year for the past two years I have strayed severely from my annual list. Perhaps it is a subconscious urge to sabotage my own careful planning? Last year it was socks. Before a couple of years ago, I had only made two pairs of socks. I was mystified by the sign in my local yarn shop limiting sock knitters to one skein of self-striping yarn. What was the attraction? Then I bought a skein for myself. One skein quickly grew into a collection of too many to count. I collected lots of free sock patterns off the Internet and bought the book Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. A warning to those of you out there who have not heard of this book—do not buy it. Do not even open it. I firmly believe it plants a vortex in your knitting basket that sucks you into sock knitting, no matter how hard you try to knit something else.

The good news is that I don’t have second-sock syndrome. In 2007 I finished both socks in several colorful patterned pairs, and I get to wear them now. Of course, there weren’t any socks listed on my 2007 knitting goals.

Now, in 2008, my official list for the year includes three sock projects. This will make up for my straying ways from last year, right? Wrong. Three months later, what I actually have on the needles are purses and bags. Not only are none of them on my list, but half of them aren't even being knitted, but crocheted. This trend is harder to explain than the socks, so I won’t even try.

So I would like to formally apologize to the Alice Starmore Aran pullover, the Elizabeth Zimmermann yoke Fair Isle cardigan, the Kauni rainbow yarn, and all of the laceweight yarn I purchased in 2007 with good intentions. You are on the 2008 list as projects, but I can’t promise to spend much time with you. Unless you find a way to change yourself into a messenger bag.

See you at the next meeting!

Shelley