I am filled with a lot of words about these socks, but very few of them are fit for typing. They were, to put it mildly, a major pain in the tuckus.

BMFA Socks That Rock Heavyweight, colorway Tea & Alchemy. Click for project page.

I began them in October as a sneaky Christmas present for the Fiasco. Since they were sneaky, they were difficult to find time to work on, but I managed to finish the first sock by the holiday despite my too-late realization that the needles I was using really hurt my hands. When he tried that sock on, it just barely fit. I mean, it was a struggle. The square needles I had used combined with slipped stitch patterning tightened up my gauge enough that these seriously lacked stretch. He insisted I knit the second one rather than frog and re-knit, and I think I dragged my feet a little because I was so unhappy with the fit.

JUST ENOUGH YARN.

Then… the toes. OH the toes. Since this was my own design, it was particularly unhelpful that I had lost my notes. I found some note I had made somewhere, tried it, AND RAN OUT OF YARN. I joined some green yarn I had amidst mumbles of “he’ll just have to deal with a mismatched toe” and finished up. Turns out, the toe was way longer than the toe on the first sock. I ripped back and re-knit with some other notes I found. Ran out of yarn again, rejoined the yarn, knit nearly to the end… and nope, still too long. Then it sat in time out. Finally, I threw caution to the wind and made it up as I went along and ended up with a toe that pretty much matches and (thankfully) didn’t need me to join new yarn in, I had just enough left for the kitchener stitch at the end. So while I’m happy these are finished, I’m not so sure they’ll fit well and I generally am not feeling much love for them. I had intended to write them up as a pattern but that would involve re-knitting them (and taking better notes, obviously) and I just don’t think I love them enough for all that.

Since it’s basically the end of March, now is a good a time as any to review my ridiculously ambitious First Quarter plans. Here’s what I had intended to focus on between January and now, with % complete and new things I had not intended to do marked with asterisks (***):

New Projects:

• Camelot Monkeys – Monkey socks –> begun, 20% done
• Garnet Filemot – Filemot shawl –> abandoned in favor of following project
• ***Garnet Tonic — Tonic Water cowl –> COMPLETE, YAY!
• Yak Ecclefechan – Ecclefechan Mitts –> abandoned in favor of following project
• ***Bijou Basin Ranch cowl — my own design, barely begun
• Thrummed Slippers – Cadeautje –> never even cast on
• Yaksi Cancan – French Cancan shawl –> begun, 60% done
• ***Sweetest Troll — Troll hat –> COMPLETE, YAY!
• ***MalMarch Sundry — Sundry shawl –> begun, 60% done
• ***Tropical Traveller — Intrepid Traveller socks –> begun, 50% done

Sock WIPs:

• Alchemy – socks of my own design –> COMPLETE, YAY!
• Blue Loasa – Loasa lateritia socks –> not touched, still hibernating
• Mom’s Flocked Socks – Flocked Socks –> not touched, still hibernating
• Lillypad Take Two – socks of my own design –> not touched, still hibernating

Other WIPs:

• Overdyed Cypress – Cypress vest –> lots of progress, 90% done
• Deep Dark Stellaria – Stellaria shawl –> COMPLETE, YAY!
• Kelp-y Kelpie – Kelpie shawl –> not touched, still hibernating

So for those keep tracking, of 5 new projects I had intended to work on, I abandoned 2, never started 1, and made some progress on the other 2. I also began 5 different projects, finishing 2 of them. It appears that this whole ‘predict what I’ll want to knit over the next 3 months’ thing doesn’t work so well for me. As for WIPs, between socks and ‘other’, I had intended to focus on 7 projects, and I finished 2 of them and nearly finished a third. Perhaps I can try to bust out my Cypress vest before the month is up since this rainy, dismal spring weather is perfect for vest-wearing.

I believe my goals for the next quarter will need to be less… stringent, less planned. Perhaps instead of choosing particular projects, I’ll say “1 socks, 1 shawl, 1 garment” or “2 WIPs and 3 new” or “this yarn and 2 other WIPs” something like that. This will take some thinking.

How do you focus your crafting? Do you try to make a plan, or do you just go with what you feel like doing?