Planning

I have this great long list of things I want to make.  One of them is someone else's pattern, the rest are ideas I've had for a while and am really excited about.  Normally I want to start projects right about, I tell myself I'll figure out the details as I go along, and I do, but it can lead to many unnecessary frustrations, and as I start to get more involved in selling patterns those frustrations are multiplying.

I'm trying to get better at really investing time in a project before I start.  It's something that I find difficult, I'm so product oriented that spending an hour knitting what is actually just a series of swatches, some that are scrapped, feels like I'm wasting time.  I know, in my head, that I'm not wasting time.  That time has been spent figuring things out, eliminating ideas that won't work the way I want them to now rather than later when I have half a project to pull out.  But it still feels like making that half a project is more productive because the fruits are tangible.

Nevertheless, I'm trying to persevere.  For this round of projects I want to have my schematics done before I cast on the project for real.  I want to have swatched not just the main part of the project but played around with borders and other elements that I would normally leave to the end to figure out.  I don't want to run to the other extreme where everything has to be fully written before I cast on, there are pitfalls there too, but I need to get more organized that I have been.

Yesterday I worked on a blanket I'm planning to make a friend, she's having a baby.  I'm really excited about the idea, and the swatch is going to be quite big because it involves a lot of textures.  Part of my brain keeps saying, "Swatching is for determining gauge and you're just making a big SQUARE."  It's untrue, of course.  One of the main things here is to eliminate textures that aren't working the way I want them to.  I am really excited about the blanket though, if it turns out anywhere as nice as I imagine it's going to look so great.  And a local yarn store is having a massive sale next week, so if I plan it out today and tomorrow, I might be able to get there Wednesday to buy the yarn and start next week.

Then I need to hide the blanket from my really good friend who I constantly knit around.