Working out Kinks and Fingering Yarn

For most knitters, and I think most people, there is a completion rate that is needed to feel like the activity being pursued is valid or worth the time that is put in to it. In other words, if I don’t finish anything, I don’t feel like an accomplished knitter. The needed completion rate varies with each person, and for me, it varies with time. At the moment, I am 100% certain that I am choosing the wrong projects because I feel like I am getting exactly no where with my knitting.

The first problem seems to be that I’ve cast on approximately 18 fingering weight sweaters and cardigans. Well, only 2, and another with DK yarn with a small gauge, but it seriously feels like 18. These sweaters are going to be wonderful when I finish them, but the knitting time for a fingering weight sweater is probably twice that of a worsted weight version.

Rose Cardigan

Soft Texture Pullover

Windswept Cardigan

In an effort to remedy this, I am making a cardigan for my son with bulky yarn. He is smaller, and the yarn is bigger, so it will take less time, right? Yes, but he has grown since I bought the yarn, and I am worried that I won’t have enough yardage to finish the sweater. Between worrying about running out of yarn and the need to sit by my computer when I work on it so that I can follow the chart, the sweater still isn’t finished. If I wait much longer, he is going to grow again.

Urban Hiker Cardigan

And, don’t forget about that beaded shawl that I was making great progress on until I had to stop because there was some crazy mistake that I needed help fixing. It has been fixed and waiting on me to work on it for months now. The problem with that one is that it is now taking something like an hour to knit one row, involving a whole extra level of motivation to pick it up.

Stockinette Haruni Shawl

On top of all that, two of the sweater projects have mistakes that I have to fix before I can continue the knitting. They are not major mistakes, I just don’t want to take the time to do the least fun part of knitting. At some point, I will though. In the meantime, I think I need to find a few quicker knits to balance out the more long-term projects.