(Lack Of) Progress Report

Oh my goodness, yesterday my mother posted an entry on her blog showing off all of the awesome things she knit during the month of February. I have to say that (in addition to being very impressed and proud that she's my mama) her post made me feel like a big ol' lazy bum. Why? Because I started my current project, the Doctor Who scarf, over a month ago and am nowhere near done with it. Truth be told, I spent as much time in February not working on it as I did knitting.

(And before you start to suggest that might have something to do with my glut of gaming of late, know that my allotted gaming times and my allotted knitting/crochet times don't even remotely overlap.)

I did make some progress. I am about a third of the way done with it at the moment, I think. Here, see for yourself:

Progress as of March 1, 2011.

I think part of it is I just took a big fat lazy pill this past month. I mean, yeah, the Doctor Who scarf is pretty big for a scarf, but it's nothing compared to a blanket, and I can crochet up a queen to king-sized blanket in about two weeks. Now granted, this is only my second knitting project, and it is definitely bigger than anything I have tried to knit before. I do also think part of it is the somewhat monotonous nature of the project (this is actually what mostly derailed me when I tried to crochet a version a few years ago). It is just back and forth, back and forth. The only real "pattern" is the changing of colors every so many rows. So, easy, but (and I hate to say this about anything Doctor-related, but what can you do) boring.

But this happened last year too, come to think of it. I started off in January being mildly productive, and then come February I just tapered out. Then, March rolled around and I got into a frenzy of fiber-crafting again. Maybe, like my mother, I do not react well to February. Instead of being inspired to create as much as possible like her, however, I seem to just not want to do a damn thing productive. I blame the final gusts of winter, I get antsy for spring and maybe I get super lazy before it comes so I can store up energy for its arrival.

Also, once spring arrives, I usually start to have a better idea of the things I need or want to crochet for other people. This means deadlines.

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
~~Douglas Adams~~

He wasn't that far off, you know. While missing a deadline is not something I like to do by any means, actually having that deadline in the first place gives me a chance to set out an actual workable schedule. When I don't have one of those, well, you get February.

I have finally found my first deadlines of the year. I have four, count 'em, four, baby blankets to get made by the end of May. Two girls and two boys headed our way. I am going to pick up the yarn for the first one today when I go to the store. I already have a pattern in mind, I just need to alter it a little bit to be baby-sized. If that goes well, it will probably do for the other girl's blanket as well. The boys are getting diagonal stripes. I will plan to start blanket Alpha when my husband and I get back from Seattle next week. I'll keep working on the Doctor's scarf as well, I just think I am gonna have to break it up with other projects. This may be the year of me finally mastering the multiple projects at once challenge.

I had actually been waffling for the last couple of days over whether I wanted to bring a crochet or knitting project with me to Emerald City Comic Con. Part of me really didn't want deal with the hassle of keeping track of all of my craft-related odds and ends while traveling, let alone deal with airport security and knitting needles (they are allowed, but sometimes the security people are unpleasant about it). The other part of me though, really, really needs to get a project done to get my confidence back up. It also acknowledges that having some yarn handy will be very useful at the airport, on the plane, and while we are sitting in a convention hall all day on Saturday.

The latter part of me won out last night. I finally settled that I would go ahead and bring a small project along. Something that could be carted around in my bag easily and that I could more than likely get finished over the weekend. Sadly, these two conditions rule out the Doctor's scarf (there is too much yarn involved to make it easy to travel, and there is no way I would finish it anyway). Seeing as how I am going to a comic convention though, I felt like I should take something nerdy to work on nonetheless.

It wasn't hard to pick the project that will be coming with me to Seattle, really.

The Jayne Hat.

Jayne Hat by firepile on Flickr.

It is a project that will be instantly recognizable to any Browncoat in attendance, it will give me a chance to work on circular needles for the first time, it is a small and portable project, and most of all, when I finish, I will have my very own Jayne hat. There's nothing not to love about this outcome of events.

Goodbye February doldrums. Hello March, thanks for bringing spring with you!