Monogamous Knittery vs. Stitch Strumpet

With a hard freeze in the air and temps this week in the 40's and 50's fall has definitely arrived. The bummer is that the leaves definitely are not as pretty as in years past. While there are spots of yellow and orangey red, it seems that the drought and high temperatures of early fall have zapped the trees of much of their vibrant color. Many of the trees seem to be going from green to falling crunchy brown with not a lot of passion.

While cooking dinner last night I was listening to various podcasts and taking stock of knitting projects. It occurred to me that I have way too many projects going to be personally comfortable, my own passion level is perhaps a bit too spread out. How does serial monogamy affect knitting? Do we embrace singular projects vs. abundant projects as a matter of personality? Can we enjoy knitting a large number of goodies from our project bags at one time in our lives and shun the variety for one true love at another? Do the quiet introverts among us choose to knit stitches from one project while the more extroverted, wacky knitters bounce between many works in progress? It's interesting when you think about it! From my experience, I think that very few people create projects in the same way ALL the time. For example, a one at a time knitter may do that 80% of the time but may perhaps expand their horizons seasonally (the call of the gifting!). Conversely, it seems that for the most part, the person who has many works in progress going at once almost always is able to choose from a variety of things to work on.

Me? I have discovered that I truly prefer one love in my life at a time! While I enjoy the heart pounding flirtation with beautiful and exciting knittery and have recently succumbed to the multi-zippy bags containing items in various stages of completion----- I have to say, I don't like it! Perhaps I'm a one project knitter at heart? Less of a stitch strumpet? (Don't you love that word? It's definitely a throw back to a gentler time!) Currently, the Elizabeth Zimmermann leggings from Lemongrass Swish have been a slog of a project (read:miles of stockinette) since September 3rd for pete's sake! Granted, I also had the Mitered Square Sweater on the needles and it had a higher 'woohoo' factor--------- but the leggings just flat need to be finished. They're almost to the waist so will require a couple more inches of straight stockinette before switching to several more inches of 2x2 rib. We're getting there. I'll feel sooooooooooooooo good when it is done, you just can't know! Well, blitters---- of course you can!

But the rest of the projects? The ones cast on with mad abandon in the name of travel knitting? Hats and shrugs and socks? Even a scarf I didn't tell you about, it was my sordid little secret! Of course, only one project was actually finished and now the rest sit in their plastic prisons and taunt me! I don't like having so many wip's going! Personally, I think it says about me that I'm one of those simple people, a neat freak of sorts that requires life to be Just So in order to have even the feeling (and feeling is the operative word) that life is firmly in hand.

My plan is to focus on the leggings right now and get them DONE! Then I can turn my attention to the smaller projects on the docket for holiday gifting. I believe it was Kathy Elkins from Webs whose voice told me how many days until Christmas there were from her podcast listened to last night. Ack! I feel less stressed somehow if there are not a bunch of projects waiting in the wings, the amount of stitches are impossible to calculate and somehow I'm just way less in charge.

Having a buttload of hats on the agenda wasn't exactly planned, and the whole notion of 'in charge' is a mirage............... but it's my reality! I'm knitting my way (for the moment anyway) back to a more monogamous relationship with my knitting.