Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Communal knitting

I was sitting in the campus coffee shop today working away on my Mousie Masala sock for J (finished & turned the heel & am working my way down the foot decreasing every other row) and started to think about communal knitting.

You know how you get to a certain point and suddenly whatever it is you're currently working on is...........boring? You were totally excited and could hardly wait to get started when you first came up with the idea, but after a point you just hit that wall and it's just a total drag? And that's when starter-itis kicks in and you abandon that project and move on to something else. Now there's a good chance that someday sometime that old project will suddenly call to you again for a bit - but chances are just as good that after row after row after row you will AGAIN become bored with that same project all over again and set it down for a bit.

So I was sitting there thinking about this and working on my sock when suddenly I though that I needed to live closer to my Mom. She and I could have a communal basket with a variety of knitting projects in it - and we could both pick up & put down those projects as the spirit moved us. So when I was bored with knitting away on the leg of that sock? She could take it over for a while and as it was a new project to her it would actually be exciting! And when she tired I could take it over, and as it would then be in a completely different spot it would now be new to me and I could certainly muster some enthusiasm for a "new" old project! Now of course, there might be a slight issue with gauge, but probably nothing that couldn't be blocked out without any trouble or fuss.

Doesn't this just seem like a totally workable idea? Now if only I didn't live 10 hours away from Mom...................

I put in my KnitPicks order last week - 4 skeins of their Gloss superwash in chili pepper plus two sets of dpns (size 6 & 7) oh no wait - make that THREE sets of dpns (5,6, & 7s) plus two circulars (5 & 6) which I figured should totally cover all the bases needed to start in on the EZ moccasin knee-high socks for Peggers. Now all I have to do is finish the Mousie Masala socks ASAP so that I'm prepared and ready to go as soon as the order arrives.

WOAH! I just checked my KnitPicks order and cast your eyes over this!


October 3, 2006
4:47 AM
Arrival at Unit

Okay, folks, that means that all of the above KnitPicks goodies will be arriving at my door TOMORROW.


..................hmmmmmmmmmmmm.......
.........................anyone interested in taking over a few rounds of a Mousie Masala sock gusset for me?


4 comments:

StonesThrow said...

Would if I could!

Left a present on your doorstep. Nothing as exciting as 4 skeins of Gloss superwash in chili pepper! Did you find it?

Kate A. said...

I love the idea of communal knitting! This is probably the subliminal reason I've been trying to coerce everyone I know into knitting (so far I netted two, but they're still in scarf and hat stages). Somewhere in the EZ canon there's a picture of Elizabeth and Meg both working on the body of a sweater at the same time (on two circs, I think). I've always been fascinated by that photo, and longed to have someone nearby who would knit with me *literally*!

Gryphon said...

I've done a variation on your communal knitting when pressed for a deadline: I hired a knitter, sent her half the yarn, and we each made half the sweater. Not quite the same as grabbing projects of interest from a communal basket, but it did work over a distance - she's in Illinois and we've never actually met. You don't think having to figure out what's going on half-way through a project is an obstacle? I frequently don't pick up old projects of my own because I can't bear the thought of trying to remember what in the world was going on.

Anonymous said...

Whether it's for knitting or not, I just wished we lived closer - BTW, when you were little you often would pick up my knitting and "help" me with it!