Racing Myself

Sometimes, I can focus on a single project. I can knit with dedication, determination and purpose. This is not one of those sometimes.

Sometimes bribery works (see past four posts). This is also not one of those sometimes. When one has already in effect bribed oneself (note photo here with observation that I purchased enough yarn for 2 sweaters), the whole motivation thing is gone and one must admit that all one is doing is accumulating stash. More yarn is no longer a bribe, it's just pressure.

Sometimes time is incentive enough. A deadline can work wonders. I may have ended up with an afghan that I hate, but the time pressure of the Knitting Olympics assured that I ended up with an afghan. It's just not enough incentive this time.

The sad and sorry truth is that the fun part of the Puntas Sweater is done. It's straight stockinette in the round from here on until it's time to split for the sleeves and yoke, at which point it will be largely straight stockinette back and forth. So I've decided to set up a little competition. A race with myself, if you will. The knitterly version of playing checkers, right hand against left. I'm knitting this, too.

This is Rosemary's Little Sweater. Like the Puntas Sweater, it's a Green Mountain Spinnery pattern (That yarn for 2 sweaters? It's all Green Mountain Spinnery yarn, remember?). At this point it is also straight stockinette in the round, but I have little cables to look forward to.

a4A wants sweaters for youth. They want them in hand by May 14. That gives me 17 days until the sweaters have to be in San Francisco. That's the same number of days as the original Knitting Olympics. I owe them for completely blowing the last campaign.

It's an all or nothing challenge. I'm risking not finishing either sweater in time. The victory, however, will be on multiple fronts. I will be knitting against a deadline. I have to allow time for shipping, but I have already started, so I'm still looking pretty much at 17 days. It will be a victory over undue stash accumulation. The yarn will have been here less than a month. I don't think it will count as stash at all. And in some sort of twisted sideways way, it will atone for knitting a hideous afghan for the original Knitting Olympics when I could have been knitting sweaters for kids.

That, and sometimes project monogamy is just not what it takes to actually, you know, finish a project.