Slooooooooow

When we were in Cape May I splurged and bought some funky yarn and a new pattern to make a sweater for Liza, because I don't have enough craft projects right now (hah!). I've been diligently working on it, and after an entire season of Lost episodes on DVD, I have ... the back finished.

This slow production is because the sweater is knit, and I am probably the slowest knitter on the planet. Okay, there's probably some one-armed blind lady in Mongolia who spins her own yarn from yak fleece who takes longer than me to make a sweater, but even with several projects' worth of experience, my speed could still be described as "glacial."

I'm probably not actually that slow, especially since I'm persistent and motivated to finish projects once I start them. I may have to chip away at it, 1/2" per night, but by god, I will finish that sweater ... or Christmas stocking ... or baby hat. So if you count the span of a project in days from beginning to end, I'm much faster than those people who knit fast but set the project aside a lot so it takes them two years to finish a scarf. That would drive me insane, to have a project sitting there half finished for that long.

I think I'm also spoiled because my garment-making method of choice is crochet. Compared to knitting, crochet is finished in a flash. It eats up a LOT more yarn, and it usually ends up with heavier finished products (remember that 8-pound baptism dress I made?), but damn, it's fast. I mean, some of the projects I've done recently have used large hooks, so each ROW is 1/2", not each night of work.

There are some really cute knit hat patterns in my new booklet, but I keep looking at them thinking, "Yeah, but if I crochet a hat, it won't be quite as cute, but I can finish it in two hours and move on to another project." And since Liza's going to outgrow whatever I make in at most two years, I don't have much motivation to make projects that will annoy me during the construction, even if they will be really cute. I mean, in order for me to make the effort, it would have to be amazingly cute. So cute that I'd want to take her picture every time I saw it. So cute I would pack it away in the box I have labeled "Mementos I feel I have to save so Liza can throw them out when she's 30." It would be in there right next to the eensy weensy hat I knit her when I was expecting, and that damn baptism dress.

What? You've never seen the hat? Well, I can fix that:

Yes, that's the precious pumpkin in the hospital, so new she's still got vernix in the creases in her skin, ready to come home and start raisin' hell. This hat fit better than the first one I made, which is big enough that it will probably fit her this year, but it's not quite as cute as the third one I made, which (purposely) looks like a lavender eggplant:

My god, was the kid cute in January, or what???? Oh, and the stocking? Here's Liza's, one of four (gah!) I made during a fit of insanity last year when I was busy trying to ignore my screaming child and I thought extra experience might make me knit faster. Nope - but I now have enough stockings for me, Jason, Liza, and at least two extra people, if you include ones we already had on hand.

Okay, time to get back to my knitting ... groan.

Oh, while I'm talking about crafts ... if you haven't checked my etsy shop recently, there are some new hats and scarves up, as well as the second official Lazy Mama pattern, this one for quick quilted placemats. Take a gander at: http://lazymamadesigns.etsy.com/ . Tell all your friends! Buy lots of stuff!