The Satisfaction of Finishing

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. It was so nice to have a long weekend and very productive on the knitting front. The son and I enjoyed our trip to the coast and many hours were spent happily knitting on our balcony overlooking the water. I grew up on the water and I just love being near it whenever I can even if that means just sitting by the neighborhood pool! Hey, you have to get it where you can when you live in an inland location like we do now.

I finished one almost two projects this weekend. The second would have been finished, except we got home to four hours without power yesterday! Finishing – the last frontier. I have three sweaters that are just about done except for the finishing. When it comes to finishing, my resistance meter goes way up for a couple of reasons. The first goes back to my perfectionist tendencies. I learned how to seam fairly well years ago at a LYS class and side seams are no problem, but I procrastinate about setting in sleeves and to a lesser degree shoulders. Collars and button bands can also make me doubt my abilities. I must say that Lucy Neatby’s DVDs have helped me a lot and I feel more confident about my technique, but when you get to the finishing stage, you are at the make or break point of a project. Once you get to this point, the project is either going to be great or it is going to be a flop and don’t you just hate the possibility of a flop?!?!

So, without further ado, the first completed project of the Great Expectations’ odyssey is Cookie A’s Monkey socks. This was my first experience with the Monkey and it was a real pleasure to knit. The pattern is interesting yet easy to memorize and I made them in Socks that Rock. This project was a double first – my first pair of Monkeys and my first experience with STR. The yarn was great to work with. The colors are so rich and the yarn is so soft. I have several more skeins in my stash and I can’t wait to use them. I think my next pair of Monkeys will be done in one of the tone on tone colors so that the pattern really stands out. So, what did I learn from this project? Socks can be a lot of fun and the rate of progress is very gratifying. I also learned a new technique for the Kitchener stitch and that worked out really well. I also learned that I will always have a pair of socks on the needles! Next up? Spring Forward from the new Knitty and they will be knit in Socks that Rock Algae.