And Suddenly It’s April

I didn’t intend to wait this long to write, but here we are, mid-April and I’m finally getting back to this blog experiment.

I was planning to take January off from writing, since I needed a break after the end-of-semester craziness, all the chocolate mayhem, and our holiday activities. Since I began knitting for other people in 2015, I have reserved December and January to knit for myself–that is, to work on personal projects, mostly for my family, but sometimes for myself.

December and January knitting this year included these fun projects: 1) a sweater for my daughter, 2) a hat for my niece, and 3) a hat for a friend.

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In February, I planned to focus on writing another pattern–the Steventon Shrug–which I first knit in the fall of 2019. My hope was that I would add blog posts for this piece as early as the end of February, however, that was not to be.

Since I began writing patterns for my designs, I’ve learned several important lessons. First, it is quite a different process to knit a piece than it is to write a pattern describing how to knit that piece. Each new piece begins with a plan, but while I’m creating that first piece, I tend to incorporate a lot of modifications as I am knitting it. These modifications can be for styling or for the ease of pattern writing. Whatever the reason, the original plan rarely gets written into a functional pattern without major revisions and changes. Hence, the second lesson I’ve learned is that it is extremely beneficial for me to make a second run through the pattern while working a second piece. My goal for February was to knit a second shrug as I re-worked the written pattern and then to knit a third piece as the blog feature in late February and early March.

The third lesson I’ve learned about pattern writing is that test knitters are as valuable as gold. In the fall of 2019, I used the Free Pattern Testers group from Ravelry for the first time. I ran a test knit for the Chocolate Cascade Cowl. It was a steep learning curve, but definitely worth the time I invested in learning the process. I got terrific feedback about the pattern and it was fun to interact with the group. And the written pattern is better for it! I decided that this would be the best way to work through my future patterns, but it does add months to the pattern-writing process. At the end of February, I was finished with my second Steventon Shrug, had my pattern written and in good enough shape to share with the test knitters and to begin my third piece.

It was all going swimmingly until the week of my spring break in mid-March. We all know what happened. The corona virus and COVID-19 upended our lives. Universities extended spring breaks. Universities switched to short term on-line learning formats and work-from-home. The state issued shelter-in-place orders. Universities extended on-line learning formats until the end of the semester. April activities were cancelled, May activities were cancelled…

We all have our own narratives during this crazy time. I’ve been so busy adjusting to a new on-line class format, that my knitting and knitting-related activities just stopped for a month. I had zero motivation for anything above and beyond getting my classes ready and answering emails. I found that I was reluctant to begin a new project, and I had no motivation to continue to work on existing projects. I couldn’t focus long enough to write and edit my pattern. I alternated between feelings of alarm, dread, guilt, panic, anger, and grief. I was reluctant to check the test knitting group on Ravelry because I knew that there would be questions that I had to attend to, and I just didn’t have the mental energy to do it. Of course, this added to the cycle of guilt, dread, and panic. (Sincere apologies to my test knitters!)

I’m finally, finally, getting some knitting motivation back. Some of my dread has eased, and I decided that I will not going to feel guilty about these missed self-imposed deadlines, though I have to keep reminding myself of that. Once I accepted the fact I could (and should!) take some time to adjust to this new normal, I finally began to move forward. I took the time last week to finish working on the Steventon test knit and get the pattern uploaded to Ravelry. The pattern is available to purchase here. If you want to skip the knitting and purchase the finished piece, you can find out about where to buy either of these pieces here. I never did finish the third piece to feature for the blog, but I hope to in the coming weeks. I’ve already featured some of the techniques in previous posts, and they are linked below.

The next few posts will focus on the techniques used for this pattern:

• Provisional Cast On
• Increases and Decreases
• Pick Up and Knit
• Short Rows – wrap and turn
• Pattern specifics

Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Take the time you need to figure this out and find joy, or at least calm, where and when you can.