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| Big basket of NO |
Last week, I started planning a new project: some seriously cool Kraken boot cuffs. I had a magnificent vision of what they would look like, and I dug through my stash and found some perfect 4-ply yarns. I set about swatching, planning colorwork charts, and looking at sizing options. And then it hit me.
I recently made a list of every craft commitment (professional) that I have until the end of the year, along with patterns I want to release. *Spoiler alert* There’s so much on there that I had a mini panic attack. I posted about my stress on Instagram.
Along with a blanket for a magazine (which I did actually just finish), there’s a LOT on that list. A lot. A ton. So much that I need to be very careful how I manage my time, especially if I have any intention of doing any Christmas knitting this year – and at this point, that seems unlikely. For those who don’t know, I’m half craft, half musician (and all gamer, obviously) – and that means the run up to Christmas is usually (hopefully) littered with concerts, rehearsals, and caroling. Conductors tend to frown on knitting or crocheting in rehearsal!
I cast on the 4-ply boot cuffs and spent 90 minutes knitting ribbing, and I was only about 1/3 done with the amount of ribbing that I had planned for these cuffs. Yikes. I did some mental math(s) and estimated that it would take me about 5 hours per cuff with the design I had in mind. While 10 hours for a project isn’t world ending, it’s also more than I have to spare on a “personal” design when I have hoards of deadlines looming on the horizon.
So I frogged, and I thought, and I redesigned.
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| That’s more like it. |
I re-vamped my design using an aran weight yarn, reworking the colorwork chart, the gauge, and the process. While 4-ply offers heaps more scope when creating a colorwork design, or making something look very chic and professional, sometimes we just need an aran weight knit in our lives to speed up the process.
I’ve reworked the charts now, and hopefully these will appear on Ravelry in early October. I hope when they are finished that my decision to forgo 4-ply this time around won’t have been a terrible one!
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Happy Crafting!
That's so funny! I just bought worsted weight Malabrigo for the very same reason! 2 and 4 ply are not for the countdown to Christmas!
Amen to that! If anyone on my list wants something in 4-ply, they better be prepared to wait a year! XD
Yep! I refuse to knit in anything under an aran weight now. I don't have a huge amount of spare time and its demoralising having a project take forever.