One Fast Turtle

I used to say I was a slow knitter. Despite the fact I felt as if every spare moment of my life was spent knitting, I couldn’t seem to get a project done in less than a month. Sure, there were a few items like fingerless gloves that I could eek out in a week but those are small items (and the pattern I used was all garter stitch). I would see others finish a sweater in a month and be astonished; I could barely complete a baby sweater in that time!

Not so much anymore. Since my last post (May 20th), I’ve finished one adult sweater, a scarf, and four lace shawls. I think I figured out why I’m suddenly so speedy..

1. I have more knitting time available. I have only a handful of school friends I spend time with outside of classes so I find myself with more alone time, time I use to sit and knit and think. It was rather relaxing this past semester, just being able to knit and let go of the stresses of my day. At CSULB, I always felt obligated to choose spending time with friends over knitting in a quiet place by myself. I now have the ability to knit in more than 20 minute intervals during the summer because, at last, I live in a home with air conditioning. I’ve also found a great LYS here in Virginia, where it’s perfectly fine to sit and knit and talk with the employees, regardless of your age or skill level.

2. I’ve gotten faster. With practice, comes speed. I’m much more comfortable with techniques like lace and raglan sweater shaping and, now that Olga has taught me how to knit correctly, my overall speed with the basic knit and purl stitches has increased.

3. I’m only working on one project at a time. Gone are the days when I would work on ten different projects at a time. Now, I tend to focus on one major project and sometimes have a small and/or less complicated project I work on during my bus commute to and from work. I can now stay in the rhythm of a pattern without too many distractions.

4. I’m knitting more with specific recipients in mind. I’m trying to avoid making items just because the pattern looks appealing to me. Sure, I started knitting to keep my idle hands busy but I would like my completed items, for the most part, to leave my home when they’re complete. It’s that or I’ll be suffocated by 1,000s of FOs I’ve hoarded. Having a recipient not only means the FO won’t live in my house forever but it gives me a focus, a reason to complete things instead of frogging them when I get bored and have managed to convince myself things weren’t turning out correctly. And, of course, the satisfaction of doing something for someone else though that has nothing to do with the speed of my knitting, if I’m honest.