How to Avoid Startitis

It's January, and as every knitter knows, there's a familiar bug going around. Startitis. It's the cold-weather-meets-start-of-a-new-year push we get to start casting on. We eye patterns, buy yarn, start multiple projects all at once.

I manage to avoid that last symptom year-round, but it's the hardest to do in January. I do it through a sheer force of will, the will to finish one project before I allow myself to start another. That's why I haven't cast anything new on this month, despite my repeated yearning looks at all the patterns in My Grandmother's Knitting. I requested this particular knitting book probably half a year ago from the library and it finally came in this past week. Not only are there all these wonderful stories about big knitwear designers' elderly family members and what they may or may not have knit, it also has a bunch of gorgeous patterns, including vintage gloves, a few interesting sock patterns, reinvented knitted slippers, and a very intriguing dishcloth. In particular, I'm itching to knit myself the Ice Skating Cape, which doubles as a very cute ruffled skirt.

I haven't cast on any of them though. I'm too busy, you see, trying to finish that giant blanket I started in December, the Family Plaid Woven Crochet Afghan.

Don't get me wrong, I've made a lot of progress. I've had the base grid finished for probably two weeks now. It's pictured above, with Kitkat at the top to show a sense of the scale involved. If I gave up now, it would make a lovely rug, but I'm going to finish this thing.

The next step of the plaid-creating process requires one 60-inch chain for each column of holes in the grid. For all of those who don't want to get a magnifying glass to count how many holes that is, this means 109 60-inch chains: 17 in light blue, 6 in white, 38 in dark blue, and 48 in green. So far, I have the 17 light blue, 6 white, and 28 of the dark blue done. That leaves 58 chains left total before final blanket assembly. Then I get to weave 109 chains through a zillion tiny holes and then weave in all the ends, two ends per chain, 218 total. What was I thinking?

I've been trying for 10 chains a night. If I keep at it, I'll have all the chains done before the end of next week.

Of course, I haven't forgotten all those patterns I've been eyeing. I'm looking forward to making another sweater for myself to wear to work, a celebratory full-time employment sweater, plus that delightful cape. First, though, my niece needs a cowl stat to combat a bout of Bronchitis, and my brother's best friend Johnny, who feels a lot like a member of the extended family, has requested that I make him a Michigan beanie too. There's still a lot that needs to come off of these needles before the month's out.