Last night I looked at the blanket middle and I decided the only reasonable thing I could think at that point. I decided that I was never going to finish, and that the sooner I accepted that this blanket middle was what I was going to be knitting every evening for the rest of my life, the happier I would be. I gave up. I accepted my destiny. Resigned myself to boring little lace diamonds on garter stitch and let go. I stopped even trying to finish.
Ten minutes later I was done. It was like the blanket just wanted my humble admission that it was in charge and I was a mere puppet in the plan it had for our destiny, and as soon as I admitted I was powerless it released me. Tonight I start the border, and only other knitters will understand that after the monotony of knitting a big square, the idea of moving on to the border is as exciting as finding first a hundred dollar bill – and then a 50% off sale on your favourite yarn.
Things are looking up.
Funny how that’s how it always seems to go… 🙂
Celebrating starting the border. With great flourish and a resounding drumroll…..let the border show the love, the meaning and the history of this blessed baby.
Connie a/k/a Maltesecross
You go Steph!
Yay for throwing in the towel! And congratulations on reaching border nirvana. You do realize that the border will eventually pummel you into the same sort of submission, right? Just checking.
Daaaaaaaaaaarn it, I thought I was going to be the first comment. How did you get in there Leandra???
Connie a/k/a Maltesecross
Concede…and Bob’s your uncle? Who knew?
It’s like raising the baby that will be wrapped in that blanket: the stitches are so long but the years so short, as the parents look back someday on this stage.
50% off yarn sale??? Where!?
Maybe I should try this on my never-ending sweater of doom. Maybe then it will stop pointing out that that purl diamond is lopsided because I messed up the pattern and forcing me to drop a whole section of knitting to fix it. I worry that it wants a sacrifice to appease it though. Think a little Red Heart melted over a metal bowl would work?
I am glad that things are chugging along. It sounded for a while there that you were going to need an IV drip full of coffee and screech in order to power through.
And then the border goes on and on and on….
It’s funny how that works out. I know this is what my current sweater wants, but I’m just not there yet. Knowing that you have to admit something like that and actually getting around to admitting it are two entirely disconnected steps. I’m still in the “maybe if I just don’t let myself knit anything else I will recapture the joy” phase of denial. Who knows… it might happen… maybe…
I know that knitting is the boss. 🙂 Happy bordering now, Stephanie. Glad the middle is done.
My theory is that the blanket was bluffing and you fell for it. Actually, you broke it’s spirit of dominance/resistance when you started attaching markers every 10th row. Next time hold your ground and attach markers from the get go!
I truly thought you gave up hope. The monotony is what makes us knitters cast on so many projects. It looks like this will be a gorgeous finished piece 🙂
We knit, and the gods laugh.
Congrats on getting to the home stretch!
So there is hope for the baby blanket I’ve been knitting on forever? I only have to admit I’m never going to finish it? I thought I’d done that already…
Seriously, I mean it. What was wrong with the first ball of yarn?
(And why can’t I put my question in italics? What a cheap blog; you’d think it was free or something.)
your blog should have a Like button that we can just click =)
Maybe that’s what I should do for the seemingly neverending wrap I am knitting for my MIL …
I think that is how pregnancy works too…
How come there’s a stinking gully in the middle of a big project when I hate its guts, but when it’s all knit and done, I miss it?
It feels similar to having a baby…
So knitting and parenting are the same, you say?
Yay! You go, girl!
“Concede…and Bob’s your uncle? Who knew?
Posted by: Julia at February 1, 2012 12:31 PM”
I AGREE completely. Julia, you are onto something. Stephanie, I think you should name the blanket “Uncle Bob”.
I understand the theory, but moments like that make me highly paranoid. If the universe can change reality in my knitting, what else is changing behind my back?
I know the feeling only too well. I started a blanket while I was pregnant in June 2010…since then, said pregnancy has turned into a son and he has already turned a year old and I’m still not done with this blanket. I was thinking last night how I’m never going to get it done and written and out to testers when all of a sudden, I’m working on the border stitches. I might have it done with a couple more hours worth of knitting……..
Amazing.
Whenever what I’m working gains the epithet “the stupid”, then I know I’m about 2/3rds of the way done. Size of project or time spent on project -it doesn’t matter, as soon as I’ve called it “the stupid project” I’ve got another third left.
I did the happy dance when I finished the center rectangle to my Celes shawl. I’ll do another happy dance when I can figure out how to knit around the dang corners.
ready for the border? it must be beer o’clock!
Love the analogy and boy does it feel that way sometimes!
This is why I don’t knit blankets anymore.
That about sums up my feelings at the end of my pregnancies. Accept the fate of being pregnant forever, and then what do you know? You have a baby. The baby, like your blanket, holds the power. 😉
Funny how we have this love/hate relationship with knitting. When it seems that something is taking forever and I’m bored, I start to question why I ever thought I loved to knit. Then, when I get to the end (or close to it), I realize why I love it. Very confusing.
tell me how you feel at round 10.
So glad it’s moving along! I was the one that commented last week about how deep denial can be…well, I just fell in that river. Must happen to all of us at sometime. Good luck with the border on your beautiful baby blanket.
I just finished a shawl that totally reminded me that the knitting is the boss! So glad that you are on to the border. Have fun!
Often knitting reminds me of yoga poses. You just have to give up the hope that the instructor is ever, ever, ever going to let you move into something else. Once you accept that you’ll be in downward dog forever, the pose is easier to accept.
Woot woot! You go girl! You made it past the black hole of knitting unscathed (or mostly so). Have a blast with the border.
It’s true, nonknitters don’t get it. No matter how many times I wave the eternal strip of sweater vest in front of my boyfriend, he can’t quite bring himself to look any more excited than last time. Go figure.
(This sweater vest by the way, is destined for him…and that thing about smaller men being just as easy to love? I missed that boat completely. He’s 6 feet tall and not small in the middle. AND he’s got a long torso. Yeesh.)
Okay, gotta hear the knitter pirate poem. We can’t see the baby blanket so the poem will be our consolation.
You go girl! I’m just sad that you’re in stealth mode but I understand. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.
It is about the surrender. I learned that in yoga, and my three week late baby. It even works with knitting. Three biggies in my life, but yet… I forget. Why?
(Saw the pond scum/rum tweet. Writer genius.)
This sounds familiar. I vaguely recall another project wanting you to admit that it was in charge before deciding that it would cooperate.
Knit onward sister! Kick that blanket’s butt.
Congratulations, Stephanie!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I’m waiting to hear from GeniaKnits, hoping that her precious package has been returned to her, so that she can send it to the correct address! Sometimes these wheels grind slowly………..
Many of my large project seem to do this exact thing to me. I’m sure I have a permanent black hole hovering over my favorite knitting chair. It’s just sad. Glad you made it through to the other side.
I want to find a $100 bill and find a 50% off sale. I just finished the first of three socks (none that match!) so I’ll be going to the second sock tonight. The knitting is so in charge! loved today’s post. thanks!
You can waste a lot of time on the ‘are we there yet?’ Sometimes the best course of action is to ignore where you are and just knit.
Snorkle.
Yep……just like knitting socks – the foot and the instep!
Bridget
LOL! Enjoyed it.
Hah, that sounds just like transition in labor… as soon as you just relax and accept the fact that you are going to be in labor forEVER, that this baby will NEVER be born, that this is probably going to do you in… THAT’S when we know we’ll see a baby soon!
Sometimes we just have to submit to our projects ! Bravo !
Wooo hoooo!! The yarn has to be respected. I’m glad it decided to throw in the towel.
Congrats!!! I hate picking up all those stitches, but when i get to that point I never remember why as I’m so glad to be doing something new. Go girl!!!
Sounds like Ekhart Tolle’s “the Power of Now”. Do not resist the present moment.
I know just how that feels and understand perfectly!! I am on the decreases for the center square on the Bridgewater Shawl by Jerod Flood. It has been garter stitch isolation for a month and a half now. I only work on it at my job on lunch break and I am glad to have it at that time.
I did take it to knit night and boy was it a downer. It seems to never end and I to want to get to the border!
bjr
Some days, you rule the knitting. Other days, the knitting rules you.
My current knitting pain in the butt is an afghan I’ve wanted to knit for at least 3 years now. I know what yarn I want to use, but I’m still trying to find the right color combination. By themselves, the colors tried so far are rich, nuanced, and gorgeous. Put them together and they turn into something as garish and loud as a cheap boom box. The project is in time out now. Maybe I’ll revisit it when the yarn company puts out its Winter 2012 color selections. . .or I might donate the yarn I already have to a local charity!
I decided to be good and not buy this great silk & wool blend yarn on the Web at the 50% sale price. But then I saw your comment about the joys of buying great yarn at 50% off. That’s a sign, right? Shouldn’t I buy my stuff?
Guffaw. Knitters are the most impressive bunch of happily optimistic masochists I’ve ever know. I’m so glad to be included in their numbers.
I swear, I’ve knit that blanket – the neverending portion for me, though, is the edging of doom. I fully believe in thinking good thoughts while knitting a baby blanket, to snuggle the newborn in love, but I admit to cursing while knitting the edging on my favourite blanktet. (It can’t be that bad, I guess; I’ve only knit the same blanket over 14 times…)
For B. Rickman. I knit the Bridgewater shawl. I agree, the center garter stitch square is seemingly neverending. The only thing worse is the outer 13-stitch border. I recommend learning to work the WS rows backward to save your sanity. Nothing like turning a huge shawl for 13 stitches to motivate you to learn. Good luck.
You are and inspiration me.
Thank you
I had a similar experience today with a sweater I’m knitting. I was on the stockinette portion of the body, and I’d been going round and round, just knitting, for over a week (in my spare time of course – not all day, every day). I was sure it was going to take me another week to finish it. But when I measured it this morning, I only had two inches left to go. And when I checked again this evening, I’d finished, and was ready to move on to the bottom border.
I’m really going to enjoy wearing this sweater, but I think I’ll enjoy being done with it more.
This blanket reminds me of knitting socks for my husband. No matter how much I love him and no matter how much I want his feet to be warm, I HATE his insistance on a foot devoid of pattern and a cuff of only k1p1 ribbing. The sooner I give in to the monotony, the sooner they are finished and I can surrender them to be beaten and worn through. Why can’t he be as nice to his socks as I am to him… never mind.
Aha! You’ve discovered my secret reason for never knitting a baby blanket: I’m terrified that it borders on the insane. It’s all the boredom of scarf knitting, but mooooorrrre. If only blankets had shaping…
Once again I wish blogs had a “Like” button!!
Yeehah! ANY progression to the ‘next bit’ of a project is a real high, I find – even if it’s on to the plain old stocking stitch part of a part lacy garment – it’s the conclusion of a step in the making, and it’s PROGRESS!
Enjoy the first half of the border – before you become its puppet, too, and must give it the same admission!
You know, it’s a 12-step program. Step one – accepting that you are powerless over your knitting.
Now do what other stealth knitters do… post pictures of your crazy cat hee hee hee
Once again, the knitting proves that it (and not we) are in charge. Resistance is futile.
Oops. Sorry about that.
I had unraveled a sweater I got at a discount store. Yarn ? The softest wool,hand spun thick & thin. Dark navy with specks, an inch or so of bright colours. Started a cabled neck warmer, on large needles! Ive been knitting this neck warmer for two wks. With NO VISIBLE PROGRESS ! I understand exactly what u mean about your blanket. I want to cry every time I see tha yarn!!! I am back to knitting socks. Socks don’t reduce me to tears.
It was your Dark Knit of the Soul….
I know just what you mean about the blackhole! I’m knitting Ysolda Teague’s Vine Cardigan for my daughter. It’s a lovely pattern BTW and I’m knitting the smallest size so there are only 90 rows for the back. I hit the 50 row mark in no time at all and then… nothing. I was knitting and knitting but nothing seemed to happen. It took forever to hit 70 rows and the, suddenly, I was done! The black hole had spit me out and I’ll finish this weekend, I’m sure. Enjoy the border!
You are FABULOUS! I believe it’s called the Religion of Knitting! Yippee! Let the blanket reign and the border begin!
Woot!! Go Stephanie go!
Well done! It’s like thinking this sock will never be finished and wow – there’s only the toe to do. 🙂
Hi Stephanie – I just had to tell you (I’m usually a “lurker”) I finished your newest book, All Wound Up. It was GREAT! The best one yet. I have all of your books and have enjoyed each one (or I wouldn’t keep buying them). This one is my favorite. It was one of those rare books that I didn’t want to end! Thanks so much for the hours of enjoyment. Can’t wait for the next one!
AYUH!!! Hear DAT!!!!!
That is very much like labor(labour) and birth! Once you give in to the power of it and release any control over it you get that urge to push. I love that this same occurrence applies here as well.