Misc by Amy

Silly procrastination

Your comments on my “making sweaters easy” post are super exciting to me. I’m so glad to hear your thoughts, keep them coming!

Today, something from the “what it’s really like in Amy’s house” files: When life gets incredibly busy, I tend to want to make progress on lots of big ideas, rather than focus on bringing one to completion. So… I procrastinate.

This is utterly evident when I look at the unfinished sweaters laying around. Right now, there are 4. I’m almost one with a 5th. I’ve swatched for the 6th, and I know what the 7th will be.

*cough*

I love the rhythm of a good mattress stitch, so these are all seamed… but I have to admit that I procrastinate on edgings. Button-bands, collars, etc. Once the main part of the sweater is together and I can try it on…

…well, if life is super busy I’m likely to dive into the next sweater. Witness:

finishing-procrastination

From the top:

  • My next design. Needs 10 buttons sewn on and the neck edged.
  • The design after that. This has been done for almost a year now. (I know!) Needs button band, neck trim, and buttons sewn on. Naturally, I have the buttons all picked out.
  • The design after that, or maybe later in the fall / early in the winter? Not decided yet. Needs a collar.
  • My own version of Chimera. Needs… you guessed it… buttons. Ahem.

So there’s my secret and silly procrastination. What’s yours?

30 thoughts on “Silly procrastination”

  1. Caro

    This is exactly where I am right now. Bellevue, Andie, Flutter, Catskinner. All need just some seaming and edging. I’m thinking we should have a finishing party.

    Reply
    1. Donna

      Caro, A finishing party is a grand idea! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Alison

    Oh, yeah. I don’t mind edgings but I hate sewing on buttons with a fiery passion. I’m not so fond of weaving in ends, either, and have been guilty of only weaving in those ends that will hang out visibly and leaving the internal ones for several wearings (or longer!)

    Reply
  3. Donna

    Oh geez. Since I began knitting in March of this year I have not completely finished ANY of the projects. I have 4 scarves that need to be stitched together and ends woven. I’ve been so consumed with learning to knit and trying different techniques to maintain correct tension on my yarn that actually dotting my I’s and crossing my T’s has been on the back burner. UFOs I am embarrassed to say how many. FOs, zero. Procrastination needs to stop and reading this post has been my wakeup call. An afternoon of finishing those scarves is now my official agenda for this afternoon. Thanks, Amy. At least I feel a little better to know I’m not alone in this!

    Reply
  4. Amy

    Well, I’m reading this while taking a break from seaming my CustomFit sweater. I guess my break was actually procrastinating. Thanks for pointing this out! But glad to see it’s something the “pros” deal with, too.

    Reply
  5. Lynne Sosnowski

    I have a sack – a literal sack – in my yarn cupboard of things that need a button band here, an I-cord edge there, and a remarkable number that just need ends sewn in. It’s the curse of the shiny string – always wanting to move on to the next pretty thing – and part of the game we play in our heads that when we finish the knitting, we are “done”.

    Reply
  6. Connie

    Buttons are the bane of my knitterly life. I finished my Sylvi cardigan from Twist Collective more than 3 years ago, and I’ve worn it many times. It still doesn’t have buttons. Every time I buy some, they just don’t seem right. It’s maddening.

    Reply
  7. Iryna B.

    Oh, ladies, and I actually like to do all those tedious detailing! LOL!

    Reply
  8. Caroline

    I’m the same. Once the pieces start coming together, I feel like I’ve won the sweater and it’s so hard to motivate myself to pick up a neckline or buy & sew on buttons.

    Reply
  9. Bobette bridenbaugh

    When I have to grade kids homework, I immediately hear the call of my needles

    Reply
  10. Nancy N.

    Um, I hang out on FB instead of knitting? And I get to a tricky bit and lose my mojo I have a sweater for my niece I’ve been working on for nearly two years. Ahem.

    Reply
  11. Susan aka Buttonband

    The last sleeve! I actually seam as much of the sweater as I can before starting the final sleeve. Then I just stare at the ball of yarn while researching and swatching for my next project.

    Reply
    1. debbe

      I knit both sleeves at the same tie as well as both front pieces (cardigan) at the same time….then no worries one will be a little bigger than the other…

      Reply
  12. christine arnone

    i have several unfinished pieces of weaving. they just need fringe tied and a good bath. yet, they’re sitting on my table, a couple of years now, some of them. sad.

    Reply
  13. drleonesse

    Oh, if was only sweaters! My son says I have Barracuda Syndrome…Oh, Look! Something shiny! lol. It helps that I have realized I have a definite cycle…startitis, panic-induced finishing, and oh, hum, knitting? Not that I am always finishing OLD projects. ahem. Last details? Once I learned a way to make them look great, I don’t mind that part….’cuse me, I see something new. Gotta dash….

    Reply
  14. Jennie

    Mine is a vest that needs to be extended by an inch. I just have to pull out the small bind off at the shoulder tops, but ugh.

    Reply
  15. dclulu

    Oh man! I thought it might just be me. My Petrea is done (and has been for weeks or perhaps over a month) save for the button bands and buttons.

    Reply
  16. Kathryn

    I hate sewing on buttons, so I generally procrastinate on them. It’s such a pain to get them lined up and to actually sew them on.

    Reply
  17. Kathy

    I’m the opposite. The busier I am, the less I knit. Or, more precisely, the less I knit anything complicated. I probably knit 20 dish clothes the year I got married because that is all my brain could handle.

    Reply
  18. Carolyn

    I stall at working out the mods for things. I’m working on Vignette but want long sleeves. I’m halfway up the second front but have stalled because the sleeves come next and I haven’t quite worked out what I’m doing…and it would be dreadful to finish the front and not be able to cast on straight away! I’m not too bad with seaming, buttons or button bands.

    I meant to ask this the other day after I read one of your recent posts, but how do you knit and read at the same time? Doesn’t turning the pages interrupt your rhythm?

    Reply
  19. Emma in France

    Buttons. They are my nemesis. I have a finished Tangled Yoke cardie and an February Lady Sweater that I have been wearing for a couple of years minus buttons.

    The irony is that I have a massive collection of vintage buttons that I have acquired with the aim of cleaning them up and selling them on.

    Reply
  20. Christina

    I get tired of the color and then put things aside. It is the feel of the yarn, the color and texture I love. But knitting is what I do to relax.

    Reply
  21. Nicole

    Procrastination Expert here.
    Unless it NEEDS to be done,… well, there’s always time, no?
    ‘sigh’ 🙂

    Reply
  22. Lee

    Swatching! You know how some people hate swatching? I swatch too much. Seriously. I am a loose knitter and I have a fear of being off gauge. So every project has at least two swatches. And that is after I have definitely decided on a yarn. In fact, I often get so paralyzed swatching that if I don’t start immediately they lay in swatch. So, I currently have one sweater, for which I hadn’t decided the yarn in advance but tried to match sweater gauge = 8 swatches. One which I did decide the yarn, but had the yarn change gauge after washing -= 3 swatches and because I didn’t start right away I will probably have to re-swatch when I pick it back up. One for which the yarn (100% alpaca) didn’t behave as expected, 2 swatches and I didn’t write down which needles I used! (these are all sweaters.) And the swatches are getting bigger (per someone’s ;)) instructions. So the last swatch was 52 stitches and at least 7 inches long, and there were three of them! One to cover SS back and forth, one to cover SS in the round and one to cover lace in the round! I am happy to report that sweater is actually in progress!

    Reply
  23. Carolyn

    the ends the ends–weaving in all the ends–and then it its deciding on the buttons when I really have many choices right up in the collection from my Nana!

    Reply
  24. NutmegOwl

    Unfortunately, my blocking runway is so backed up, it is in severe need of air traffic control. At last count there were nearly a dozen items, mostly lace shawls, waiting for their turn. Sigh …

    Reply
  25. lorelei

    How about a video of yourself actually knitting? You must be wicked-blur fast!

    Reply
  26. Grace

    Wow. The rhythm of a good mattress stitch? I only wish. Since attending your workshop last winter I switched from knitting seamless sweaters to doing some pieced. I think you may be (ahem) right about seams giving sweaters better shape but looking at the various fronts, backs and sleeves in my knitting bags waiting to be seamed I can only aspire to “make peace” with the ole mattress stitch! Hope you had a good summer. See you around CMS.

    Reply
  27. Maggy Wolf

    I am looking forward to your release of that cabley thing 2nd from the top of the stack! It looks gorgeous! And where I get stuck is, like everybody, buttons, and also if I run into an issue I can’t fix – usually fit – but that won’t happen any more now that I have taken your class and have your book!

    Reply
  28. Leigh

    You are on the cusp of a glut of Finishing Glory. Don’t let a few buttons stand in your way!

    Reply
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