Fair warning, some of the links are Not Work Safe.
When one thinks of knitting, most think of scarves, sweaters and socks before anything else. I do, anyway. Some might think of willy warmers, prosthetics and stuffed animals, but we don't usually talk to those people.
A couple close friends have asked me why I do not knit two out of those three seemingly core knitted garments.
The simple reason is attention span.
I have a short one. Some days I wonder how I have cranked out over 20 dishcloths in the past 2 months. They're simple garter stitch with a few YOs and some k2togs here and there.
Sweaters and socks have shaping, short rows, heel flaps. Some of them have lace!
They're just a whole pile of different stitches one after the other in different orders on every single garment! Except socks, they're different on every other one, unless you only have one foot. But still, you get my point!
Why doesn't this captivate me?
Like I said, attention span! These things take time!
In the time it takes you to knit a sweater, I could easily knit 4 or 5 scarves. Maybe 10 dishcloths. A couple baby blankets. Any number of items. And you will only finish one!
And if you knit socks, once you're done, you think YAY! I FINISHED SOMETHING! But NOOOO! You have an other one to knit! Like I said, unless you only have one foot.
Plus, sweaters and socks have to actually FIT something. With a sock, it has to fit over your foot, around your calf, and be long enough so your toes don't poke out the end. With a sweater, you have sleeves for goodness sake! Some people have abnormally long, orangutan-like arms that drag on the ground. You probably wouldn't notice this until the sweater you spent 10 years knitting for them doesn't quite look right when they put it on.
Dishcloths, scarves and blankets are kind of a one size fits all sort of thing.
Long story short, I would rather knit my boring scarves, dishcloths and blankets than stress out over so many issues with socks and sweaters.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Right on! I've knit sweaters and socks, but my favorite things to knit are scarfs and hats. They are done in like a day, instant gratification.
ReplyDeleteI hear you on that- although I had an elderly knitting friend once tell me that if I always use the same pattern for glover or for socks, then I can make a bunch in any random order or color, then mix and match them and not have to worry about making two that are the same:) I thought that was cute coming from this 86 year old woman- I can just see all her miss matched grandkids!
ReplyDeleteI'm totally with you there. I had someone at a craft show ask me if I ever did socks. I said I didn't have the attention span for them. She started laughing and said yet you have the attention span to make hundreds of scarves. To each her own when it comes to knitting.
ReplyDelete