Stripes Make Me Smile

Apparently, if you fall in love hard with a project and knit (get this) only on that one project, unceasingly, devotedly, even ardently....


you will actually finish it rather quickly.

No way!  Way!!!!

Behold my Madeline Tosh Merino Light yarn Color Affection:



Many towels were sacrificed to the merino gods.



I love this thing so hard.  It was riveting.  The fact that someone designed this, starting with a few stitches, increasing, adding stripes of color, then adding another color to make....whoa...three stripes of color, and all in garter stitch.  I'm so easily amused it's painful.  I would, in fact, do this all over again, and I'm considering it.  In lace weight.  Look at this and just try to resist.  It's like the Borg of knitting patterns right now on Ravelry.  I kid you not.

I am Merino of Borg.  You will be assimilated; resistance is futile.

There was one little, eensy, nearly insignificant, glitchy-poo with this pattern, in my humble opinion, which other knitters noticed as well.  The straight edge of the shawl had a tendency to be very tight and, if you weren't careful, puckery.  Far be it for me to criticize the designer in the least, but I believe in fair warning for those of us who have been sucked in to the glory of it.  The Yarn Harlot recommended putting in a Yarn Over in between the first and second stitches of it and then dropping them at the end, in order to get some ease into it.  I thought I would try slipping the first stitch of each row, to see if I could get some relief from the puckering/tightness that way.  When I first cast off, I was concerned I'd have the pucker effect as well, but after blocking it is tolerably ok.  It's not loose like I'd like to see, but it is not scrunched in on itself, and I got to avoid the gut churning act of dropping stitches on purpose.  I know it can't unravel itself sideways, my head knows that, but my heart and my stomach always end up swooping like I'm base jumping when I drop a stitch.  I don't know how I survived Clapotis. 

So, I have this theory now, about projects in progress.  See, I like to knit.  I'm one of those process knitters I talked about before.  But now, after finishing something, having it to drape about me, I'm having a thought.  What if I delve back into my largish pile of unfinished objects...my UFOs...and finish something else???  Like, then I'd have...TWO finished projects.  Stuff I could wear, for cripes' sakes! 

Do we have any opinions about this, out there in the blogosphere?  I have several options to choose from. 

Behind Door #1 we have Corcovado:





If memory serves, all I need is to knit a sleeve and the other front part and then BAM--done.

Behind Door #2 we have Vlad:

                                             

But bear in mind my affliction/handicap regarding lace making, and the fact that it is really hard to write a blog when you're in lock down at the ward and you're not allowed computer access.  But I will roll with it if you think this is the one to finish.  (gulp)

Behind Door #3 we have the Far Afield Vest: 





Designed by Connie Chang-Chinchio, and my Rav-o-meter says I'm about 75% of the way done with it.  However, I've lost some weight since I've last knit this, and I might just have to do a frog and reknit. 

What say you, O wise knitters of the blogoverse?  Dost thou give a hoot?  If so, pleaseth posteth a commenth on the blogeth.