Frogging Frees the Mind

I love to have several projects in progress at the same time. At the moment, I have 9 WIPs that I am working on, most need to be finished for Christmas. But there are also the projects that are on the Back Burner and they seemed to be growing in numbers and preying on my mind.

The Back Burner projects seem to have been growing over the last couple of years. So a while ago I lifted out all of my back burner projects and looked at them lying on the table.

• Alpaca bunny
• Snowflake Fingerless Gloves
• Fingerless Texels
• Lattice Scarf
• Rilievi Scarf
• Hub of Fashion Socks
• I Love Gansey Socks
• Reina Socks
• Sunshine Socks
• Vorticity Socks

I decided to divide the projects into 3 groups: Love This; Hate This; Keep as Sample;

Alpaca Bunny

This will be the Bunny Girl in a Dotty Dress designed by Julie Williams of Little Cotton Rabbits. I’m using Artesano Alpaca for the bunny. Love the slightly fuzzy texture. Okay, I haven’t touched this project in a while but I still want to finish this gorgeous bunny! Definite “Love This” work in progress.

I Love Gansey Socks

Okay, love these socks. Love the sock yarn. Love the pattern, although the main change I made to these socks was to lose the Gansey moss stitch heart pattern on the stocking stitch front and back panel. I’m just not a moss stitch heart type of person. But I did love the travelling stitch pattern on the sides of the leg. They are elegant. At this point, the sock was a singleton. This project went into the “Love This” work in progress group. The second sock has now been finished and blocked.

Reina Socks

Finishing the Reina Socks was the most annoying project. Sometimes, leaving a single sock sitting for a couple of years without finishing the second isn’t completely frustrating, but with this project I didn’t make a note of the size of dpns that I used for knitting these socks. I had the spare ball of Delight yarn in the box with the finished sock, and a copy of the pattern that I was knitting but the post it notes that had been attached to it had disappeared… Annoying… I tried using the needles specified in the pattern not the same tension. I tried going up a needle size – not the same tension. I just couldn’t narrow down the definite needle size I had used. My tension varies depending on all sorts of variables mood, how much knitting I am doing, and finally TIME seemed to change it. In the end, I settled for closest match. The reason the Reina Socks had ended up on the Back Burner was that the fuzzy Delight sock yarn wasn’t really a good choice for these socks. The lace pattern and bound stitches kind of disappear into the yarn. They certainly are a long way from popping. But I liked the yarn, I loved the colours, and decided to place the sock into the “Love This” work in progress group – the second sock has now been finished. I wear them but I didn’t love them enough to want to blog about them.

Hub of Fashion

The Hub of Fashion sock is beautiful. But knitting the sock sideways on fine metal needles left my hands feeling very very painful for quite some time afterwards. So the second will not be knit. The sock is now in my Samples Box. I left the second ball of Regia yarn with it. Well, never say never. But I very much doubt it will become a pair of socks.

Sunshine Socks

This sock was just a disaster from start to finish. The sock yarn is too jarring for me to want to ever wear. For me the pink, peach, fuchsia, blue, purple and yellow really didn’t work. Perhaps I could have coped without the yellow. But, the other problem was that the lovely textural pattern was utterly lost in the midst of these bright colours. I thought about knitting the second sock and then over dyeing them but I couldn’t face knitting a second sock. This sock went into the “Hate This” – destined to be frogged.

Vorticity Socks

I cast on the Vorticity Sock after seeing the pattern in The Knitter a few years ago. I loved how the sock looked. But this sock was a faux pas. I used the wrong yarn – a beautiful Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn – which didn’t show off the lace pattern at all. As the lace pattern continued down the foot, it twisted. I knew just by trying on this sock that it would not be comfortable to wear. I even tried washing the finished sock to see if that would help. It didn’t. The lace pattern became even more lost. This sock went into the “Hate This” – destined to be frogged.

Snowflake Fingerless Gloves

I liked this snowflake fair isle fingerless mitt. But, what can I say, I have a perfectionist streak. After I finished and cast off this fair isle fingerless mitt, I put it on and there was a flaw in the star. I thought about trying to fix it in duplicate stitch but alpaca yarn tends to be slippery and I didn’t think that the duplicate stitch would remain in place. So, as I loved this mitt, I popped it into my Samples Box – it joined the Hub of Fashion Sock. An interesting piece of knitting.

Fingerless Texels

Fingerless Texels – truly beautiful. Quite heavy and textural though. Love this. I’m using 4ply yarn for these mitts although they look heavier in weight. The texture pattern is very 3 dimensional. The Fingerless Texels are in the “Love This” work in progress group… still…

Lattice Scarf

Lattice Scarf – a pretty lace pattern and I know that blocking a lace pattern can make a huge difference. But the merino silk yarn just doesn’t feel like it will show the lace pattern and hold it well enough. I just feel the lace fabric feels too soft. This project went into the “Hate This” – destined to be frogged.

Rilievi Scarf

This scarf is so horrible to knit. It just seems to take forever to knit a row. It looks reasonably pretty but the fabric feels very solid so although I am knitting using the correct needle size and the correct weight of wool, I feel the yarn needed to be much lighter weight to give the scarf a lighter feel. Although I don’t like this scarf, it has taken too much time to knit the 40 cm length that I have done to consider frogging it. It has been interesting trying this new technique but I don’t love it. The section of Rilievi Scarf is now in my Samples Box still wearing its two circular needles.

Having too many ‘historical’ projects on the go at the same time can be frustrating and I find it a bit stressful because the unfinished projects on the Back Burner are always in the back of my mind. In fact the fact that they exist and I don’t feel like knitting them makes me feel really guilty.

I put on Housesitter – love Goldie Hawn in this movie – she is very funny – and then I attached my yarn winder onto the coffee table and I unravelled and wound the yarn. I found the whole frogging process very relaxing. In fact Frogging Frees the Mind and the project boxes for new projects that I will look forward to knitting.

So what do you do with all of your long term WIPs?