Thursday, August 20, 2009

Visualise your knits

I always have visualisations (possibly known as 'hallucinations' or 'imaginations' - but I'm doing psychobabble today) about how my knitting is going to turn out. I find the stronger and more appealing the visualisation, the more likely it is that it will be actually finished and that I will be happy with it.

Case in point:

Recently, on the knitabulous ravelry group (go join it), Diane said she was thinking about making Fiona's Top in yellow softsock yarn. I clicked that link and instantly fell in love with that little top too.

Imagine my delight when not days later, an adult version of this top (or one very similar) became the featured pattern on ravelry.

My imagination pictured the following: I am wearing this this burnt orange top over a grey short sleeved marle tshirt with inky blue linen fisherman's pants and leather sandals. Comfortable and tanned, I skip from the gym/cafe/school arpark/beachlooking relaxed and stylish in my loose tunic style top. (I am always slim in my imagination, that could be why I spend a lot of time daydreaming!)

The urge to immediately begin this project was so strong, and I had just wound a skein of wollmeise twin in kurbis (which was, in my defense, way over 160g and looked immense), it seemed like a perfect choice for spring, so away I went.



So now, a week later, here I am. Faced with a dilemma all of my own doing. Top 1/3 complete. 1/3 of the yarn remaining.


Which under normal circumstances might be annoying, but not impossible. But, in this instance, well it would have to be the fecking Wollmeise wouldn't it?

So, I have three options:

1. Trawl and beg on ravelry for another skein of kurbis to finish the top for summer. Expensive, time comsuming, and more than a little pathetic, but an option nonetheless.

2. Frog it and re-do a smaller one for my daughter, buy her a grey marle tshirt and some linen pants and let her do the summer skipping.

3. Frog it and make socks instead.

And quite frankly, I am so disappointed by the sheer waste of a week's knitting time that I just can't decide. Also, the 'visualisation' of the finished top - well it's very appealing to me still. What should I do? What would you do?

Of course there are other demands too:

*Mum wants a scarf in the silk leftover from the Aeolian Shawl.
*I've got strong imaginary visions of the Sage Remedy Top hiding all sorts of ills this summer.
*I want to knit some samples for the shop.
*I nearly dropped everything and cast on for an identical (but, um, bigger) one of these yesterday when I saw it.
*The new twist collective came out, and yarnissima's sock was an instant buy.
*I haven't finished assemblage, autumn arbor, the bear claw blanket.
*I want to knit either a spanish peacock or a mediterranean lace for the Easter Show next year - and by the way, where did the first half of 2009 go?
*I haven't started so many of those projects I love on my ravelry queue like Maude (that's coming on to three years old now) and I still want a firm knit jacket, and a dress, and and and..
*I have a few ideas for patterns that could surely be a success if I could just knit them and/or size them and/or write them out.
*There are cones of merino sock in the dining room that need skeining and dyeing this weekend.

And they say knitting is relaxing!

12 comments:

diane_s said...

Beg borrow or steal more wollmeise . I have that color but in superwash not twin if that's any help . I am always 20 years old and slim in my knitting fantasies too :)

Rose Red said...

I too am always much slimmer in my knitting fantasies. I like the sound of yours very much - burnt orange, grey, navy - yum!

I would definitely do option 1 - there is an ISO thread in the WollmeiseAholics group, I reckon you'd have no trouble getting some especially if you post project pic and your knitting fantasy!!

And that spanish peacock shawl (in red) - oooh breathtaking!!

Bells said...

Go get some more. Or try. If you can't, then you have no choice but to try the other options!

DrK said...

funny, your daydream sounds a lot like mine. except for the orange, but it would look good on you. go trawl for more, it looks awesome and if you frog it it will go back in the basket and become nothing (esp cos when was the last time you made socks?)

Anonymous said...

All of the above. Offer yarn favours in return...It does look lovely as a WIP. One option might be to email Elemmaciltur http://numenna.blogspot.com/ - he works at the Wollmeise bricks and mortar shop.

I have a highly developed knitting fantasy life that rarely gets to reality - but I accept this as a motivator. I was going to have a lovely Ene's scarf made from Awaba to astound everyone at Sock Summit, and even asked Sandy to bring her blocking wires for when I finished it... Still two repeats to go!

kgirlknits said...

can you do a solid border in a charcoal grey, perhaps?

LynS said...

Definitely option 1. It's too beautiful not to finish - and it's such a stylish fantasy. Option 2 as a fallback - it's such a cute pattern it should be knitted.

SallyO said...

Who said knitting was relaxing? We're faced with these dilemmas constantly. Love the top, by the way. I'd go with Diane - beg, borrow or steal some more wollmeise.

Anonymous said...

How about using a contrast. ?
The color you have chosen would look lovely with a darker contrast.
Nicky

Susan Luni said...

As far as a visualization coming into being, that one is pretty close. It's the ones that don't come out as visualized that are the problems and should be frogged. If you think finding more of the same yarn is a must, look at Jettshin's Cloud project on Ravelry--she ran out of yarn more than once, subbed different shades, and overdyed.

Aussie Maria said...

Definitely finish it - its gorgeous. Love the colour and pattern
Wish it only took me a week to get that far on a project

Ann said...

It will be a shame to rip it out - find more yarn. I will be more than happy to help knit samples (whatever they are) for you.