My Summer 2009 Crafting Walk of Shame

Alright, so judging from my last post, the last few months have been all sunshine & roses when it comes to my crafting, right? Well... not so much. While I've had a lot of "hooray!" craft moments, there's a flip side as well.

So... my Crafting Walk of Shame (February-September 2009 Edition):

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5. The Sleep Inducing Scarf [ravelry project link]

I cast on for this project in June 2008. It's a stockinette + garter stitch scarf. Yet, somehow, it's mysteriously still not finished.

I don't know. I'm sure if you're using some reasonably weight yarn and if you have an attention span better than that of a toddler? This is probably a really great pattern. For me? Not so much. The yarn is a sort-of-nice wool, silk, & bamboo blend called Yin from Southwest Trading Company. According to ravelry it's DK weight, but to my eye, it's more fingering weight. I think I'm knitting it at too fine a gauge because it's a bit on the stiff side. I've invested too much time AND went to get an extra skein of yarn, so I feel like I can't just, um, toss this out?

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4. Colorwork That Doesn't Work

After the triumph of the sleepy monkey blanket, you're probably thinking I'm kind of fabulous at colorwork (and humble too!). The truth: eh, not so much. Since I started that blanket, I've cast on and frogged no fewer than five colorwork projects. Color contrast not high enough, yarn just wrong wrong wrong, picking patterns that make my head hurt. I've done it all. Mercifully, I didn't retain any photographic evidence. You'll just have to take my word for it.

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3. Sewing Machine Spiderwebs

You know what's laying on my sewing table right now? Stacks of fabrics, scattered patterns, and a giant piece of fleece that Necco the Evil Cat has taken over as her primary nap spot. I don't even remember the last day I turned my sewing machine on. Hoping to dust her off and whip through a bunch of projects this fall & winter. I miss sewing!

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2. The Sadly Silent Spinning Wheel (With added bonus: the spindle that scared the dog)

I've been traveling a lot for my research project and even though my lovely Ladybug is reasonably portable, she didn't make the "vital travel supplies" cut. As a result, she's been hanging out, unused, in my bedroom closet since June. Yes, indeed. I have not spun a single fiber since June.

Oh wait! Not strictly true. I recognized early on that taking the wheel along on my trips would be a challenge so I decided to try out spindle spinning. The only real outcome? Poor Oscar is now terrified of spindles, after I repeatedly launched my spindle out of my hands and directly at him. In other words: nope, didn't really get the hang of spindle spinning.

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1. My Buttercups Are Falling![ravelry project link]

Sigh. This is really the big disappointment of my summer. Now, I think any finished knit sweater is a good thing. But this sweater? It's like a cornucopia of bad choices: the wrong yarn, the wrong length, the wrong... everything.

I haven't knit with bamboo that often in the past, but I thought it would be a great summer knit. I didn't count on how heavy it would be! Yes, it's nice and silky, but it also weighs a ton. I'm not that thrilled with the fit either, especially since it kind of slides down and down and down as the day goes by. I don't know, I guess it's an okay sweater, but it's just not what I envisioned.

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Phew, felt kind of nice to get that all off my chest. Take home lessons? Kim + bamboo yarn? Not a good idea. If you like multiple crafts? Try to at least get in a little time with all of them or you'll forget how to, for example, turn your sewing machine on. Boring projects? Sometimes, you just need to let them go. Now I'm going back to pretending all my craft exploits are successful ones :)

Comments

[Erin]

I think you Buttercup is actually really cute! As far as spinning (and beading and some other crafts I do), I sometimes just, don't do it for a while. I think that's fairly normal to concentrate on one thing you're really into, and well, just flit from craft to craft. Totally normal. I hadn't spun anything since June, either, until the spinning group last Saturday. Nice to see your blog up and running again!

Smiles,
Erin