First post & first project

“To be or not to be?” was Hamlet's burning question. “What to knit first?” is mine. I have, literally, hundreds of beautiful MUST KNIT patterns awaiting my time & attention, not to mention a larger number of "maybe I'll knit this" patterns and "knit one for me, then knit one or more as a gift" patterns. So, in what order do I knit them?

My first decision was to knit online patterns first. Books and magazines and purchased patterns seem less ephemeral than online ones that can disappear into cyberspace, never to be found again. Of course I will have to print them, but the project of printing every online pattern that I ever want to knit seems a bit daunting, not to mention impossible since there are so many and probably new ones appearing every day, so I am going to take it one at a time. I have bookmarked a seemingly infinite number of patterns so I made an executive decision to make my life easier by starting with Knitty, which has a thorough archive, clear pictures, instructions, and the advantage of organizing patterns by type and degree of difficulty.

Next, I made an honest assessment of my huge pile of WIPs and my tiny pile of finished projects and came to a reluctant conclusion: I am a beginner knitter pretending to be an advanced knitter. I drop projects because they are too difficult for my current skill level and attention span. Also, I don't have time to concentrate on complex knitting challenges. Right now, I need portable projects that I can put down frequently without losing my place. So, I have decided to start with scarves.

First, I made a spreadsheet with three columns: KNITTED, To Be Knit, & Rejected, and rows with Knitty's four degrees of difficulty (Mellow, Tangy, Piquant, Spicy). Actually, there are no scarves in the Spicy category, which is somewhat reassuring.

Then, I went through the scarf pattern archives and the current issue, whose patterns are not yet in the archive. Although it makes perfect sense that patterns in the current issue are not yet indexed in the archive, it is a bit worrisome, as I will have to keep careful track of new issues as I work through the archive so I don't miss any patterns. I also wish that the archive could be sorted by degree of difficulty. My plan is to start with Mellow patterns and then Tangy, and so on. By the time I have knit all of the Knitty scarves that I like, I hope to be more skilled and ready to move on to the next category.

I discovered as I was perusing scarf patterns to accept into my knitting queue or reject that sometimes the level of difficulty in the archive index does not match the level listed on the pattern. And some of the patterns listed as Mellow or Tangy seem quite difficult lace or cable patterns. I'm not sure how accurate the labels are, and if they are chosen by Knitty editors or the designers themselves.

It seems selfish to knit for myself when I owe so many knitted gifts, and have so many gift project WIPs. But I haven't yet gotten a knitted gift finished since they are all beaded lace shawls or fiddly baby sweaters that I keep putting down in confusion before I have even succeeded in casting on. Or, worse, they are sitting there depressingly needing to be frogged because I discovered errors due to losing my place or misunderstanding complex instructions. So I am trying the scarves not to be selfish but as training for future gift-knitting, or so I tell myself. In fact, some of the scarves will be gifts. Another notation on my spreadsheet is for intended recipient.

In the Mellow scarf category, I found two scarves that I like: Abby and Wisp. I really agonized over each scarf pattern, considering, even if I didn't like it, was there anyone for whom I could knit it that might? I really tried to like them all but these were the only two that I could see myself devoting the time and effort to knit. These two are both ethereal, soft and feminine, imparting a bit of romantic mystery to the wearer.

For the sake of order, I will knit them alphabetically, so it looks like Abby is my next project. I should use up my stash rather than buying more yarn I can't afford, but this calls for only one skein of Rowan Kidsilk Haze. ("Yarn crack," as it's known, in the same way that Friesians are "black crack." I wear everyday a hat that I made from RKH.) Besides, I plan to print the pattern out at school this week and begin it next Sunday, February 1, when I go to Webs annual Super Bowl Sunday Escape knitting party, and I hate to go without buying something. At least this planned limited expenditure might keep me from maxing out my credit card as I usually do whenever I cross Webs' threshold.