Startitis

Originally posted 10/29/13:


Startitis is when a knitter is overcome with the urge to cast on all the things! Now, I've been reading Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's knitting books lately. I cry and laugh by turns. I do not share her dislike of crocheting, but I find a preference for knitting over crochet (let's just say that when I first learned to knit, I stopped crocheting entirely--and have yet to pick it back up again). But one thing I've noticed that I've had a difficult time relating to at all is the dreaded Startitis. This tends to come around in Spring for her and I tend to not get it at all. I've come to accept that I am what she calls a "product" knitter, not a "process" knitter. I knit for the items I create, not the process of knitting.

I do "zen" while I knit, but I'm always eager to complete the product, not sit there and knit only because I need to knit something, anything. It is extremely rare for me to have more than one project on the needles at a time because I want to finish that item someday and this ensures I finish before I look at other things. It is even rarer for me to want to knit one item more than the item I am working on at that precise moment. Startitis has reared it's head only twice in my knitting life and both times were when Christmas season had begun. So, right this moment...I have two projects on the needles. *gasp*

They are both very small projects...literally. I am knitting baby-size stockings for Christmas stocking stuffers for family gifts. I've already completed three of these. On my other needles I am knitting my second sweater ever for a doll. The first sweater was also for a doll. The only other Christmas knitting I have planned at all is the promised Tardis socks for my sister. My mother is getting jewelry I promised to make to match a necklace of hers I repaired (these are the handmade gifts, not the only gifts). But...I am being tempted with casting on those socks for my sister. I want to dig through my stash and locate some fabulous yarns and make myself another hat or cowl or maybe even mittens. Oooh, mittens! I'm slogging through the sleeves on the sweater and am bored. I've memorized the pattern for the stockings, so I book through them quickly (which is good). This has brought me to the part where I just don't want to knit what I'm knitting.



But then, perhaps it isn't Christmas that is causing my current bout with Startitis. Perhaps it is the ending of autumn. Perhaps I want to cast things on to ward away the cold, not to welcome Spring and rebirth and renewal. Perhaps... I'm saying goodbye to warmth and sunlight. That just seems more me, actually. I'm not worried I'll not get those socks done for my sister because I've knit the pattern before and I have a minimum of distractions scheduled in my life. I just don't want to knit what I am knitting...and that weirds me out.

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