…to make me knit monogamously!  One project — the same project — day after day.  But here I am being joyfully and uncharacteristically faithful to my Lake Tahoe Q’mitl!  Forsaking all others and clinging only to thee!  The deadline is September 21st when Sarah and I head down to Reno for the Jimmy Beans Wool “Biggest Little Getaway” Knitting/Crocheting Retreat.  

And why am I so set on completing this particular piece for the retreat?  Well, it started when we attended the Jimmy Beans Retreat at Lake Tahoe last Fall.  Our classes were all based on intriguing ways to knit squares — very fun!  We got to choose yarn colors as we went along.  Then one afternoon as Sarah and I were knitting outdoors at the retreat, I realized that the colors I had chosen were the colors that surrounded us!  They were Lake Tahoe!

So, I decided that I would take the squares I had knit in class — and the stack of squares I now planned to knit — and make a Lake Tahoe Q’mitl 🙂 After we got home I continued to knit squares…for awhile.  Then, of course, I got distracted by Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas — then Winter  knitting, Spring knitting, Summer knitting….But as we headed back from the Beach last month I started things about the Lake Tahoe Q’mitl again….Really, really thinking about it….and about how perfect it would be to wear at the upcoming Jimmy Beans Retreat!

So I pulled out the stack of squares and did a little math and realized that I was really about half-way there!  So, I started knitting squares again.  And I designed a couple of patterned accent borders (which are being knit as rectangles).  For a couple of weeks, I was balancing the squares-knitting with two other pieces (lace knitting!) which I also dreamed of completing in time for the retreat.  But last week, I had a moment of clarity and realized that my only chance of finishing the Q’mitl in time would be to set aside the other projects.  I would have to knit squares and only squares….and the borders, of course.  

Fortunately, the squares are simple, portable knitting.  Fortunately, there is variety in the squares (the different techniques we learned in class) and the borders are in slip-stitch color work (which is interesting to knit — a bit of pattern dancing).  Fortunately, I still have 2 weeks.  

Sarah is also knitting monogamously.  A lace shawl of her own design.  So wish us luck!  We may yet end up sewing squares together side-by-side on the plane to Reno — and weaving in a lot of ends the first night in the hotel while blocking a lace shawl on the floor of the bathroom, but I do think we have a fighting chance.