Waves

Life sometimes gets in the way of knitting. I haven't knit much at all this week and I have to knit a small sample for a class. It is a modular knitted piece and I need to make two mitered squares that I can use to demonstrate joining. Somehow I am not in the mood for modular knitting.

I go in waves as far as my knitting is concerned. Back around 2000, I was into modular knitting in a big way. I designed everything as modules and multi-directional, knitting every which way I could. I saw everything around me in terms of modular knitting. Then I got into shadow or illusion knitting and did a number of pieces using that technique.

Now I am really into traditional knitting. I want to knit texture and use traditional shaping and construction. I want to combine lace and cables and experiment with stitch patterns. I find myself drawn to simple lines with interest created by texture and classic styling.

In a few years, I don't know where I'll be. Some day maybe I'll go back to stranded color-
work, or beaded knitting or something I haven't done in a while.

This is why working on multiple projects is not for me. I pulled out a modular shawl I started years ago because it was one of the few examples of beaded knitting I still possess. Most of my beaded work has gone to other places and people. I thought that pulling it out would re-kindle my interest in it. I remember when I conceived the design for it. I bought the yarns and worked it all out in my head. Now I look at it and it doesn't hold my interest at all. I was thinking seriously about frogging it and doing something else with the lovely yarn. Of course, being a modular project, if I frog it I will have lots of bits of yarn. Maybe I could make random stripes of different lengths in a sweater or sock? Could I take what I've knitted and make something else out of it? It is Koigu so I don't want to lose it. I've used bits of leftover Koigu to add interest to socks so I could do that.

I may let it marinate for a while and see if my interest returns. It is one of my few UFOs. Mostly I work on one project at a time and finish it and move on to the next one. I plan and design and see other projects in my head but I don't start knitting them till the one I'm working on is done. If I didn't do that, my house would be littered with projects like the shawl because my interest in techniques and ideas changes all the time. Sometimes I'm riding the wave and sometimes I'm paddling.