Hit a slump in my knitting aka Knitter's Block

So now that the holiday season is over and the production knitting has slowed down, I find that every year around this time I find I hit a slump - knitters' block, similar to that fatalistic problem that writers sometimes get - writers' block. Production knitting will suck the life and fun out of knitting, if you let it. The non-stop knitting I do from August until December really gets overwhelmingly tedious and I find that when that last show of the season is over in December, I breath a deep sigh of relief.

I always think to myself afterwards, that I'm going to stop, give it up and try something else and I have these questions rolling around in my head, What am I doing? and Why am I working so hard? This was supposed to be a relaxing hobby! And then I think, I love this thing that I do with needles, I don't know what else I would do if I wasn't doing this. I work full-time and run this knitting business on the side and I think that it keeps me busy, sometimes busier than I want to be, but I enjoy the challenge and I like being busy. So I take a deep breath and take a little time off. I know its to keep the enjoyment of the craft from getting stale, I know if I didn't I would lose interest altogether.

So I usually try to occupy my time with something, anything that doesn't have to do with knitting. Well mostly doesn't have to do with knitting. I usually pull out my knitting books and/or magazines and peruse patterns and stories about knitting, spinning, yarn, etc. I also go through my WIP's (works-in-progress) stash and see if there is anything I want to continue working on, mostly not, but I always look.

And when I've done all of that I treat myself to a few weeks of reading catch up. Since I don't get to do a lot of reading for the enjoyment of reading during the high knitting season, I use this time to relax my hands, un-clutter my mind of knitting and reacquaint myself with some of my favorite authors. I look up to see what new releases they have out and browse the library's e-book selection to see if the next book in the series I was reading last year is available. This keeps me from totally losing interest in my knitting and deciding to give it up altogether, which I have done with many other hobbies over the years.

So when the times again to start knitting, I'm refreshed and ready to go! I delve into my books and magazines to look for more challenging knitting patterns, read about other people who have given up their day jobs to do what they love, open a yarn shop, start a non-profit to teach knitting/crocheting, etc.and dream about maybe doing the same all while my busy hands are creating something fabulous from yarn!

Have you found yourself getting knitters' block? How often do you find yourself hitting that wall? What do you do to keep from throwing in the needles? How do you keep your knitting interesting? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you.

Happy knitting!

Heat Wave?! Not So Much in the Puget Sound

While all over the midwest, southern areas, and eastcoast, there have been record highs and heatwaves; here in the Puget Sound we are experiencing what we would typically experience in the early spring or fall.  Yep, you heard right, we barely have been breaking 70 degrees here. I'm not complaining, as long as its not raining and the sun is out I'm pretty happy, because I have family who live in upstate New York, Texas, and Maryland who are scorching right now.

But I was pretty stoked today, it was finally a warm enough day to actually pull out the patio furniture and the grill, sit outdoors and enjoy the sunshine. I pulled out the furniture and gave them a quick wipe down, because they sit outdoors all year round collecting dust, dirt, and spiders.  I cleaned off the tabletop grill and got to cooking some hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, and boneless riblets.

I went into my storage closet and pulled out the patio umbrella I got last year at the end of the summer.  I'm quite proud of this find because I only paid $11.00 for it! Yep, you read right, it was only eleven bucks! Ya see all last summer I searched and searched for a reasonably priced patio umbrella and just couldn't find one. Until I happened to be in Rite Aid picking up a prescription and saw that they were having an end-of-season sale on their patio paraphenalia. I saw an umbrella with a tag that read $49.99 with a sign - 20% off all patio furniture, so I figured what the heck, I'll buy it because it was the cheapest one I'd seen all summer.

Well you could have knocked me over with a feather when the cashier said $11.00. I of course was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, I quickly paid my eleven bucks and rushed out of there before they could stop me, saying there was a mistake on the price! I only got to use it for a short time last year before I had to store it away for the winter, but I'm happy to be able to pull it out again!

Here you can see my set-up:

I live in a 86-unit townhouse development, one the main features that drew me to buy in this particular development was the cute little water feature that is right outside my deck.  It was a perfect day to sit outside to enjoy the waterfall.

I often like to sit out here on the weekends, in the mornings with my first cup of coffee of the day and just relax.  Its funny when I first moved here, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to sleep with the constant running water, but now if the waterfall is shut off for maintenance, I find that I have a hard time getting to sleep without the soothing sound of the running water...weird huh?

After getting the patio cleaned up, furniture set-up, and the food started, I decided to finish up one of the many UFO's I hadn't worked on in a while; the Big Bag from Lion Brand Yarn.

I added a darker brown lining for finishing - had to hand sew it in because I of course wasn't thinking ahead; I sewed the wooden dowels in before I added the lining! I learned my lesson, if I ever make this bag again, I will machine sew the lining before sewing the wooden dowels in.

Brown fabric lining for finishing. Used Lion Brand Wool-Ease
Thick & Quick in Wheat #402

18" w x 12" h x 6" d with 25" handles - It truly is a big bag!

Well that is one more UFO from the neverending WIPs bag that I can put on the finished list.  Still have a few more to go, I'm hoping that I get most of them done this summer.  One other such project is a sockless sock monkey I named Cecil, that I started almost two years ago and poor Cecil is still missing his body and head.

Sockless Sock Monkey Knitting Pattern (Rav link)
by Anita M. Wheeless (Rav link) from her blog: Mumble-Jumble2
Cecil is made using Cascade 220 Tweed and Cascade 220 Wool

 Doesn't he look so pathetic, that he's been hanging out for over a year and I only got this far and haven't finished him yet?  I think Cecil deserves to be finished and when I'm done, maybe he will find a home with my grandniece.

Well the sun has gone down and its starting to get a bit nippy on the patio, so I think its time to go inside.  It was so nice to be able to sit out here and cook on the grill, blog, knit, and just plain relax.

To all you heat wavers out there, try to stay cool and to the knitters, happy summer knitting!