On my previous post one of you nice folks asked about how many knitting projects I have on the go at once. My short answer is I actually don’t really know. Like a probable number of other knitters out there who have been knitting for, well, nearly ten years now (geez, time flies), I have the active projects that are seeing regular use in the rotation, and then there is the sort of string of started-but-discarded projects of various ages and provenance. Actively, I like having at least 2 if not 3 projects on the go – one that I can knit without looking at it or paying much close attention (for movie theatres, waiting around times, etc), one that is complex enough that I can really focus on it and sink my teeth into it a bit, and then a third of choice – usually something that I’m designing myself.
But of course the discarded projects do happen. Sometimes they come right back in the mix at the right moment, though, as happened with the pair of Jaywalker socks I started last summer.
I like getting a few pairs of socks on the needles throughout the year, because inevitably the sock drawer needs a refresh every so often. I rarely dedicate myself to a pair of socks in the same way I might do for a shawl or sweater, though – usually sock projects are there for when I need something portable, or different from the other things I’m working. These just fell by the wayside as fall knitting started to take over last year, and last week they popped back up on my radar. I found myself wishing I had a sock project to work on but the very idea of choosing & winding yarn just seemed too tedious (ridiculous, of course, compared to the tedium of knitting the same stitch thousands of times over on a single project, but I digress), so I held off. And then I remembered that I started these last summer and never kept going, and ta-da! Instant sock project. Even if it isn’t exactly “new”, it’s new to me now, and so these Jaywalkers are happily resting in my handbag for just the right moments.
Of course, I must confess that in the process of locating this discarded sock project, I discovered 2 others also stuffed away in their own little project bags. I’m choosing to quietly ignore those for the moment. One WIP ressurection at a time, I say.
Have a fabulous knitterly weekend, blog friends! Maybe you’ll discover some “new” old projects as well.
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Pattern: Jaywalkers (Ravelry link), pattern by Grumperina originally featured on Magknits, now free on Ravelry
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, in ‘vampire tea party’ (limited edition colourway from 2009)
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Glenna Knits 
I know how you feel! I have just finished a jumper for my Dad I abandoned 7 or 8 years ago. Put it this way, the yarn was so discontinued my friend who owns my LYS had never heard of it! I had ignored it for so long it felt brand new and I enjoyed finishing it a lot. (I also have several sock projects in progress!)
I always way too many socks going, they are kind of littered everywhere- (I have a LOT of sock yarn) and I have about 5 sweaters started- in various stages- and I don’t actually really feel bad – cause it’s cheaper than therapy- sort of 🙂 oh and I think I have at least two shawls 🙂 YUP
Wait until you’ve been knitting twice as long. I have SO many abandoned projects (they multiply and divide in the dark when I’m not looking).
Last year I actually ended the year with fewer partially knit projects than the prior year, so maybe I can gradually work my way through them.
I have two blankets that have been going for over 5 years. I work on them when its cooler weather and then they get put away when it warms up. I am hoping that by the end of this year I can finally cross them off my project list once and for all.
[…] at: https://crazyknittinglady.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/i-knew-i-was-saving-that-for-a-reason/ On my previous post one of you nice folks asked about how many knitting projects I have on the go […]
I also have usually more than one project. The other day I discovered a lace shawl I really had completely forgotten. How can THAT happen? Yes, and there is a single sock …. and I know alreday the pair will never be completed. I guess all knitters are somehow alike.
Greetings from Germany,
Anneli
I am so happy when I read others have more than one project on the go. I will not confess to how many wips I have, though some might never make it off the needles. I am suffering this week as I have just actually finished one such project, which for me was done almost at breakneck speed (under a month for a whole cardigan!), but unfortunately I HATE the finished item and it doesn’t fit me. Not sure what will happen to that but I think I have hit a wall and will sew for a few days instead of knit……
Jaywalker Socks are really great – the perfect in-between, pick-me-up project for when you need something a bit different. And I am really loving that yarn choice as well 🙂
Socks are really the best project for “purse knitting” – I try to have one in my bag at all times, because (of course) the time I didn’t I’d have a few free minutes and could be knitting! Love your Jaywalkers and the colour. That pattern has been in my Ravelry queue for ages! I’ll get to it someday…
Love that color combo!!
Like you and many others who have commented here, I always have several projects going at a time and even one or two that have mostly been abandoned. I even have three different crafts represented, knitting, crochet, and spinning. I usually finish everything, though. It just takes time, but I am never bored!
Asking questions are actually pleasant thing if you are
not understanding something entirely, however this piece of writing provides pleasant understanding yet.
I always have multiple projects on the needles–one or two design WIPs for daytime knitting, and one or two projects designed by others that I can knit at night on auto-pilot while I’m watching reruns of The Rockford Files and Columbo. You’ve inspired me to go through my hibernating WIPs and finish something.
Wow! I know I’m crazy for various projects I have going but never have started and forgot a project, lol or left it on a pair of needles for months! Lol maybe I just need to add a few years to my knitting experience and I’ll get there 😉
This makes me want to cast on Jaywalkers again, immediately. It’s such a fantastic pattern and fun to execute. I used to have many old projects hanging around on the needles. Two fall seasons ago I made myself finish up most of these or abandon them altogether. I had two sweaters that were about 30 minutes and some finishing from being done at that time, and some other abandoned items. I still have about 3-5 things going at any given time though…
If I find an abandoned project and when I look at it and it does not sing a song in my heart then the needles come out and the yarn is rewound. I have only 1 WIP and that is my Bridgewater Shawl that want’s it’s edging finished. I don’t keep a lot of projects hanging around because I need the needles for something else!
I am currently working on a sweater and two scarves…I have never tried socks but I am looking for a project that takes less time to finish, just so that I feel I have finished a project now and then :)) Might give it a try !
I love the stitch counter or whatever it is !
I reckon I must be too knew to knitting to have abandoned or forgotten projects yet…give me time though 🙂
I just ripped out-for the second time-my start at a top down sweater. Every time I start over it gets better and I understand the mechanics of the pattern more clearly. Thank you for making it ‘normal’ to rip out and start fresh. It still freaks my husband out a bit when I do it, but he’s coming around.
Haha. that’s the same reason I knit socks. They are not my favorite, but sometimes it’s the only thing that fits the bill. I recently rediscovered a pair I started knitting on a road trip last summer. They have become my commuter project.
[…] probably makes no sense that the actual knitting of them makes me hesitate. So, yea verily, when I finished my last pair of Jaywalker socks last week and it was time to pluck another bit of yarn from the stash for the next one (my […]