Thursday, August 18, 2011

Revenant

The word-of-the-day on my desktop today is "revenant." It means, "One who returns after a long absence or death." Since I've been feeling a little guilty for not blogging for more than six weeks, I took this word as a sign.

Yep, I'm a revenant. I'm baaaaack!

Now to get caught up with things!

Like many knitters, I have Startitis Syndrome. The pursuit of the new project is such a thrill. Ravelry, with its search function, is my enabler. For example, let's say I want to knit a cabled scarf. OK. There's 67 pages of patterns for a cabled scarf on Ravelry. But then I can add filters: yarn weight, free or purchased pattern, yardage, fiber. So many different possibilities! Weeks can be spent searching.

I start and, at first, the knitting is tons of fun and I knit, knit, knit that scarf all day, all night. But, before too long, I find myself yet again on Ravelry looking for patterns for a new project. And the cabled scarf gets stuffed into a ziplock and tossed into the UFO pile. Sound familiar?

However, a few weeks ago, I enjoyed the sport of pursuing a new project without having to shout over a yelling conscience. "What?! Are you nuts? You're going to begin something new?!"

In August, the hubster and I visited a BIL and SIL in Vermont. These wonderful folks are going to become first-time grandparents in the winter. My SIL is a knitter and so, of course, she's thinking about knitting twee baby things. AND she didn't know about Ravelry!

Well, I took care of that!

What fun it was to introduce somebody to Ravelry! And it was even more fun to search through the patterns knowing that this project wasn't going to end up in my UFO pile.

She found a pattern. And off we went to the yarn store. Yarn was found. Since lucky SIL had won a gift card for the store, buying was even more fun!





SIL is now more than half done with the blanket and, I'm beginning to favorite patterns that I think she might like to knit. I like this! The pursuit without the ball and chain of Startitis Syndrome.

OH! But that doesn't mean I haven't started anything new. Stay tuned!

3 comments:

Yesterukes said...

Oh, I SO understand what you're talking about! Made myself finish a pair of socks that had languished for months, with plans to also finish the half-done baby blanket before I let myself start anything new. But finishing the socks was so much fun, that I started a new pair of socks! And now, I like THIS baby blanket pattern.

Must finish, must finish, must finish the current one.

Glad you're back here at Snit n' Knit.

Retired Knitter said...

I have been off my knitting mojo for about 18 months .... terrible time.

But it is coming back now. I, too, made myself finish up a few projects - a pair of socks that has been languishing since January 2010, a dish towel, a few wash cloths, and I frogged a sweater that just didn't thrill me. But I cast on 2 sweaters this week and I am loving it again. I have 2 other projects that probably will get "starts" soon and I have a loom with a project and some fiber on my wheel.

I think I am feeling more like myself again.

stringplay said...

I so know what you mean about losing oneself in Ravelry! At least is sounds like you stay on target. I start out looking up one thing, see it in someone's project page, start looking through their other projects, see a pattern I like, go look at that.....hours later I realize I never really researched the ONE thing I had in mind in the first place! I'm sure there is a WORD for that. When you run across it, be sure to let me know. I know you were a good enabler.