When a Project Takes Longer Than You Thought

I think this is something a lot, dare I say most, designers face. You come up with an idea. You swatch for it, play around with charts. And finally you cast on and begin the sample.

Everything goes smoothly for the first bit and then natural little hiccups happen. A twisted stitch here, a purl where a knit should've been there; easily spotted and fixed blips that happen to all knitters at some point along the way. So you keep working on it, making a few small tweaks and making note of them as you go.

Somewhere a bit passed halfway through, you sometimes start to lose interest in the piece. It looks good, you're still happy with the idea/ yarn/ design itself. But you have another idea you want move on to, or your hands need a break from the current yarn weight and needle size, or ... Any myriad of reasons really. And that item that you were so excited to get started becomes a chore to get through, a seemingly never ending abyss of a project... 

In case you haven't guessed, I'm currently stuck in the slog phase of a design. I started knitting the sample in August, and it's roughly 2/3 finished. And it feels like it will never be over and done with. I've tried giving myself a strict deadline for it to no avail. I've started bribing myself with other projects: "Knit 2 rounds on Neverending, and you can have x amount of time with Fun-thing-designed-by-not-You".

I have other designs I'm resisting casting on even though the patterns are fairly much written because I want to get this one done and into tech-editing before I go on to something else. Even knowing I have fun things coming up once this one is out of the way isn't spurring me on to finish it. It's very frustrating. While I still really like it, I'm starting to loathe it at the same time. 

Do you ever find yourself in like and loathe of the same project at the same time? How do you get yourself through that stage? 

In Jakey news

The little floof is doing excellent, I'm happy to report. He's got a few dissolving stitches that should be gone by the 30th (when his next/final? checkup is). He's running, cuddling, rolling around like normal. If it weren't for his shaved backend and tail, you'd never know he had anything wrong! 

Funny aside: He was so happy when The Cone came off and he could wash everywhere that he started showing me his butt when he'd get on the bed at night. Jakey is a really furry little guy so the sight of his shaved back end and part of his tail looks very strange next to the rest of him, and prompted Auntie (Bad Auntie!) to start calling him "Captain Velvet Butt" whenever he'd do it. The fur is definitely growing back in but it's still such a contrast to the rest of him. Poor guy goes through everything and then gets an ignominious nickname on top of it all! In true Jakey fashion, he just purrs happily because he loves the attention. 

Our fundraising efforts have stalled a bit, (check out my 25% off pattern sale on the Patterns tab at the top of the blog!) so Jakey's Mom (Krista) started a 50/50 to raise the last bit needed. There are 120 squares total going for $10 Canadian each; that'll be $600 to the winner. You can paypal her at PayPal.Me/KristaDani85 adding "50/50 for Jakey" in the comments section.

That's all today!

Yours in Neverending sample knitting, and Jakey snuggles,

Síle