Today was the Knitting & Stitching Show at Ally Pally, and for the first time in 3 years I managed to get there 30min before it started and was the first one through the door! I went straight to my favourite stall The Black Sheep, and set to rummaging through the multitude of packs of yarn, ended up buying 3 packs all at least half price to RRP:) Then I wandered around a bit and bought a few more skeins of beautiful sock yarn from Colinette, Yarns of Distinction and Araucania. Buy this point it was only 10:30am and I was already through my entire yarn budget. The place had started to really fill up by then so I headed for home with my bag of loot:)
The only problem with going to knitting shows is the overwhelming urge to buy yarn that you don't really need for a start, and second the overwhelming urge to abandon all current projects in favour of starting a much more exciting brand new project with the new yarn you've just bought! As you know I am in the midst of creating the Luna Blanket, constructed from 99 individually knit squares and have only recently passed the halfway point after more than 3 month's concentrated knitting almost solely on this project. I say almost because I got distracted by the socks I was making for Lewis (which I am currently wearing, with his permission of course!), but am now back in full swing with the blanket. I have just finished weaving in all the ends of the completed squares, which I had neglectfully forgotten about until I realised how many messy squares I had compared to the nice neat ones ready for blocking.
The plan tomorrow is to start blocking the squares methodically so I can make sure they are all blocked to the same dimensions, making for easier blanket construction later on. I also think that as I have made more than half the squares, it would probably motivate my to finishing if I actually started putting some of the squares together. Currently it feels like I've made a thousand of those pesky squares and that this project will never end. I never realised how much a boring project can ruin your enthusiasm for knitting, hence the involvement in between of other much more interesting projects. One of these interesting projects is the red cardigan/ jacket thing I'm making for my mum, but I have discovered something even more soul destroying than knitting all those squares: knitting a belt to go with the jacket. It is only 12 stitches wide and 72" long (or is supposed to end up that long), but do you know how long that is?? It's as long as I am tall! So I have taken to conducting this mindless knitting while watching the rugby in an attempt to just get it over and done with.
The desire to start a new project with my new yarn is pretty strong, but then I feel a bit guilty over the other unfinished projects I started at least 3 years ago, namely a pink camisole top in Australian Pear Tree yarn, a pair of stockings made from Lorna's Laces, 3 skeins of which I had to buy from a lady in USA just to get more of the same dye lot to finish the project, and a lace weight scarf using some expensive silk/ merino Sundara yarn I won in a competition (which was abandoned due to the similar tedium of trying to complete such a mundane thing as a scarf).
I know it will all be worth it in the end once I finish each of these, I just need the motivation to finish those projects (and also to not buy any more yarn for a while, that might help!).
Wish me luck!!
