Knitting In Public

I’ve been knitting like crazy, trying to maximize the number of donations I can make to the Knitters’ Guild charity project for 2010. I missed the December meeting (where we were supposed to hand in our completed items) as our time schedule changed due to the death of my uncle Jake. As a result, I have arranged to turn in my items on January 5, at the next service committee meeting. It will give me a chance to finish the last few items. Pictures will be posted when I’m done - I don’t want to take the time now to photograph them when finishing time is short.

I have high hopes and big plans for 2011. I’ve joined the “I Make Mittens” group on Ravelry, and want to participate in the “11mittensfor2011″ challenge, as well as the NaKniMitMo ‘11 challenge. In the 11 for ‘11, the challenge is to knit 11 pairs of mittens (or gloves, or convertibles) in 2011. For NaKniMitMo, the challenge is to knit as many mittens as you can during the month of January, 2011. No prizes or anything (or at least, none that I would expect to win - I am the slowest knitter ever!) but a challenge to get me going for 2011. I really liked the idea of the Yarn Harlot’s Self-Imposed Sock Club although I don’t knit many socks right now - and don’t have much motivation to knit them - I thought I might take the idea and create a “something of the month club” like PinkLemonTwist. She is alternating socks and shawls (no, not the time-consuming, lacy ones). I agree with the Harlot that a sock-of-the-month-club is challenging and can be fun, however I’ve decided that I just don’t care much for mystery stuff. Too often I don’t like the finished product, and while I can give it away to charity, I am just too slow of a knitter to spend my time knitting on something that is not enjoyable. The clubs often include the yarn, and while you get the chance to try different yarns and colorways that you don’t normally choose, it is hard to want to knit with something you find unattractive. Clearly it seems a better idea, especially for someone who has a substantial stash and an amazingly long queue on Ravelry to create my own knit-something-of-the-month club.

I am knocking around a few ideas for my ‘club’ - and wondering if I am (again!) attempting to be too ambitious in my goals. There is always a huge need for mittens for so many charities that you can’t possibly knit fast enough, so I can indulge my desire to try several different patterns, etc. and donate them. This will also fit nicely into my 11 in ‘11 and NaKniMitMo goals. Mittens can usually be completed fairly quickly, so this would leave time for me to knit other things that interest me, or gifts for next Christmas, or any upcoming baby gifts. However, I’ve been thinking for quite awhile that I have had the yarn for the Great American Aran Afghan for several years and have only knit 3 squares. They are only about 12 x 12, and even though they are heavily cabled, knitting one per month seems a reasonable goal. There are also several afghans on my queue, and lots of old acrylic yarn in my stash that would love to become one of these afghans… so is it unreasonable to think I could run concurrent ‘clubs’ and knit one pair of mittens *and* one afghan square per month? How about an FO club? I’m sure I have at least 12 unfinished projects. Could I finish one per month?

Let me know what you think! More on this after the 5th, and Happy New Year!