The “If Onlys” of Knitting

My Ravelry knitting queue is quickly approaching seven pages (over 170 potential projects) and my stash inventory is slowly back on the rise (it’s a sickness people). I always say “if only I could knit faster, then I would be able to breeze through my queue of projects and empty some of these bins of yarn.” But knitting faster just means that I don’t have the opportunity to enjoy the process of knitting each project. What’s the point of having a relaxing hobby if my main goal is to rush through it to meet some invisible deadline?

When I attended Stitches Midwest in 2011, there was a woman in our classroom who bragged to everyone about how fast she could knit and how unique her knitting style was. When the instructor gave us a task to complete, this woman was finished in no time flat and kept remarking about how fast she was, making sure we all knew how inferior we were to her. I’m sure speed is important if your job is to quickly knit projects for samples or photography, or if you're in a rush to finish those holiday gifts, but what really is the point of knitting as fast as you can just to be faster than everyone else? Seems odd to me. 

I’m not a slow knitter. I’m not a fast knitter. I’d say I’m somewhere around medium speed. I’m like the Goldilocks of knitting I guess. I think of it this way … imagine a field of the most beautiful flowers you've ever seen. Do you run past it at lightning speed because you want to get to the other side of the field, or do you slow down to a jog or a walk to enjoy the flowers—the way they look, the way they smell, the way they feel. For everyone’s sake, I hope it’s the latter.

Last month I set a goal for myself … one sweater a month for six months. (That’s knitting at a medium pace, right?) I’m happy to announce that my September sweater is completed. I've had the owl sweater in my queue for a long time and it was a super easy knit. I don’t know why I put it off for so long. I loved watching the owls come to life. I debated on the button eyes and purchased three different kinds of buttons to help me decide—small dark pink, small iridescent white, and buttons that looked surprisingly (but not creepily) like brown eyes. I spent over three hours on a Sunday driving all over the Chicago west suburbs buying up all the buttons I could get my hands on (42 of the same kind of button is not easy to come by). I think it turned out great.

Designer's Photo

This week I started working on Carrie Bostick Hoge’s Sibella pullover. I may make it a little longer (just a personal preference), but other than that I think it’s a perfectly beautiful sweater. I really love the lace detailing at the top. I've been spoiled with worsted and bulky weight projects lately. Working with a sport weight on smaller needles will be a change of pace. But hey, there’s no race to the finish line here!