When things feel wonky and overwhelming, I develop a strategy.  I feel better and more grounded with a solid plan — but a semi-solid plan is even more practical, I find, as my days tend to morph and bumble along.  So, as I was sighing heavily and almost remorsefully over my last two viable Summer knitting projects — which are not even half-way done — and grimacing over my full slate of Autumn projects (including 2 baby sweaters and the pieces I hope to be wearing at Vogue Knitting Live in Seattle the first weekend of November), I decided to pull myself together and devise a strategy or two.

Strategy 1:  I know full well that I am a highly seasonal knitter (I could no more knit Christmas mittens in July than I could knit a linen tank top in November).  And I cannot see myself pouring a lot of time and energy into the linen skirt and cotton hoodie which will not be wearable (even in our mild-ish climate) until Spring — especially when, quite frankly, I need to be spending all my knitting time on my Autumn projects if I have any hope of finishing them by the time I need to have them finished.

My usual recourse is hibernation — not for me, but for my summer projects.  That is, I simply set them aside until Spring starts sniffing around the edges of Winter and then I dig them out and start up again. Except that the starting up is rough.  Even though I keep good notes, I have to totally re-acquaint myself with every part of the project — including the tricksy bits that I mastered back in Summertime, but are now, um, elusive.  And the ratty little post-it notes with numbers and circled check marks.  And the overly creased and maybe a little faded and maybe even coffee-stained pattern with cryptic penciled adjustments and things crossed out and question marks…..well, you get the picture.

Imagine setting down a Russian novel in September and picking it up again in March.  It's like that.  The project goes cold, cryogenic cold and waking it up again is archeological!  Hence my hesitation to hibernate my skirt and cabled cotton hoodie.  

So, I decided to designate Sundays as visitation days for these projects.  Every Sunday, I pull them out and knit a couple of rows (or at least one row!) on each. Just to keep them warm and breathing.  So far, it is working.  It is such a minimal amount of knitting that even I cannot justify skipping it!  Brilliant!  My progress is infinitesimal (imagine reading a single sentence of that Russian novel once a week).  But the purpose is to gently nudge the projects along until, say, February (when, no doubt, I will have finished my Christmas knitting).  Then, I can move ahead at full speed again.  

Strategy 2:  I have an as-yet sleeveless baby sweater that is scheduled to travel with the new grandma and grandpa to Arizona in mid-October.  It needs to get done.  But the yarn is cotton (Baby being an Arizoneon) and the double-pointed needles on which the sleeves are being knit are metal.  It is all very slippery and even getting the project out of the bag to work is kind of a pain.  Definitely not a travel in the car project (I accidentally slid the stitches off one needle while sitting in a chair today!) and kinda fiddledy and kinda tedious, at this point.  And it just wasn't getting any playing time.

So, I devised a strategy.  I have removed the project from its bag and set it in a basket by my chair.  Not only is it easier to just pick up and knit a round or two on it this way, but it STARES at me — as shamelessly as only a baby project can — and quietly suggests that I look at the calendar because, tick-took, time and tide and grandparents headed to Arizona to hold that baby wait for no knitter.  Pretty effective.  

So, now that I have a handle on my knitting issues — for the moment — I was able to spend yesterday morning on my deck (out of sight of the baby sweater in the basket) finishing the Autumn Garland for my wooden squirrel!  A beautiful day and a beautiful way to welcome my favorite season 🙂