Friday, August 26, 2011

Fair Isle Fingerless Mitts, Or: Do UFOs get less finished over time?


Earlier this year (I know it was a long time ago because it was cold and snowy), I taught a workshop on designing your own Fair Isle fingerless mitts.

In preparation for the class, I worked up a design for a pair of sampler mitts, as examples. The two are deliberately different, both using a random assortment of classic Fair Isle peerie (small repeat) patterns. And I had some fun mixing up the colours, so that the ribbing is worked in different colours on the two mitts. (Yeah, yeah, I know: I love this sort of thing, even if it drives some of my... er... saner friends and students bonkers.)

I finished the first one before the class, but I never got around to completing the second. It's been sitting at the bottom of my to do list for months... I've been distracted with other work, and given that it requires a chart and three balls of yarn, it's not been a very good portable project.

So it's been gathering dust. I dug it out the other day, as I'm in need of a travel project for an upcoming flight, thinking that it would be perfect.

Well, it would be, if I had more than 20 rounds left to knit. I'd forgotten how far along I was... I'd separated off the thumb, and was already partway through the hand portion.

I never cease to amaze myself - honestly, there's less than 2 hours knitting left on this project. Why on earth did I put it down?

I know this is fairly common - knitters tell me all the time that they they're often surprised how little work remains when they dig up old UFOs. I suppose it's like the ironing - the pile gets bigger in my mind, the longer it sits. If you'd asked me to guess, I would have thought I had at least 10 hours of work left on this project. I bet this has happened to you, dear readers?

Still, I'll have a lovely new pair of fingerless mitts ready for the first cold snap.



Perhaps I should publish this pattern - that would encourage me to finish it!

1 comment:

Vanessa said...

Hmmm. This is good advice for my dissertation *and* my knitting.