Noticing Knitwear Everywhere!

Do you find yourself noticing that great scarf on the person in the grocery line in front of you? Or the cool knit cap on the guy pumping gas next to you? Do you wonder if it’s knit or crochet? What stitches were used to make it? Or could I duplicate it when I got home or find a pattern that closely resembles it? Since I’ve started my new love of knitting I’ve been noticing knitwear more and more when I’m out and about. Friends laugh at me when I approach them and ask to feel their sweaters or scarves or want to get a closer look to check out the pattern that’s used. Going a step further I’ve begun noticing the knitwear that are on screen… that is the TV screen. I watch the MoviePlex station on cable and it shows old movies that I watched as a kid and am seeing again years later, but the difference now is I’m paying more attention to the knitwear more than the story line.

I’m even noticing in my favorite TV shows the knitwear of many of my favorite characters. For instance, recently, I started watching a new show on USA, Fairly Legal, on Thursday nights. I’m into cop and lawyer shows so this piqued my interest. The main character “Kate Reed” played by Sarah Shahi is a lawyer in her father’s law firm. The premiere of the show begins with her returning to the firm after his death and she has decided she doesn’t want to be a lawyer anymore but wants to help people, so she’s the firm’s mediator. Well I really got into the show and even found it very interesting, but I found myself paying more attention to the cable knit hat she is wearing when she’s riding the ferry. It stood out to me because cables are the bane of my existence, I can’t seem to get them right and this one looked very complicated and I thought how would someone even attempt to do that? But not only did I notice Kate’s hat, but later in the show you meet her assistant Leo who sports a couple of different sweater vests and regular sweaters that I couldn’t help but notice, they were very stylish, with classic designs and great colors. Matter of fact the one he’s wearing in the photo below reminds me of the Classic Camel Vest by Tara Jon Manning from the Men in Knits book, although the one Leo is wearing doesn’t have the cables, which is what I would prefer making.

Here are some of the knitwear that I've noticed while watching some of my favorite shows:

Sarah Shahi as "Kate Reed" in Fairly Legal
Cable Hat

Baron Vaughn as "Leo" - Kate Reed's assistant
V-neck vest sweater

Candace Accola as "Caroline" on CW's
Vampire Diaries wearing short-sleeved lace shrug

Right: Meaghan Rath as "Sally" in the SyFi Channel's
new show Being Human wearing a short
front/long back cardigan

Chris Colfer as "Kurt" on Glee wearing a fair isle cardigan

B.D. Wong as "Dr. George Huang" on
Law & Order SVU wearing argyle v-neck pullover

Have you taken more notice in the character's knitwear than the actual show?  Tell me about it, I'd like to hear from you.

Delving Into My WIP's Goodie Bag

Like many yarn-users out there (knitters, crocheters, etc), I have a work-in-progress (WIP) pile that has many a knitting/crochet project that I found myself starting but before even getting half-way through starting another one. And as of right now almost all of my unfinished projects are stuffed in my portable knitting bag – which has gotten so over-run that I can’t fit my current WIP in it. I don’t like lugging it around with all those projects reminding me that they need to be finished!

What does my WIP pile have in it? The bottom half of a knitted sock monkey, one blue sock I started 3 years ago, a crochet shrug that I’ve only got a portion of the collar done, half of the back panel of a men’s basketweave jacket, a front panel of a boy’s pullover sweater, and one completed slipper of a pair of felted slippers. I know it’s terrible that they are sitting around waiting to be finished. Of course I had every intention of completing them when I started, but I have this little problem, and maybe some of you can relate. I get bored easily and when I come across a pattern that is more interesting I immediately want to try it out leaving the unfinished project to be added to the growing pile of WIP’s. In my defense though the main reason why I haven’t delved back into any of these projects is that they weren’t being made for anyone in particular they were patterns that I found interesting and I wanted to try out, well except the Men’s Basketcase Jacket by Tara Jon Manning published in Men in Knits – that was my November NaKniSweMo (knit a sweater in a month) project - which obviously I didn’t finish.

NaKniSweMo Project: Men's Basketcase Jacket

I haven’t a clue as to how best to deal with these unfinished projects, without getting bored with them all over again and end up starting something else. I have requests from 2010 that I haven’t even started yet, a reusable market bag, 2 hat and scarf sets, a pair of striped socks, and 3 pair of felted slippers, not to mention the projects I’ve committed myself to just in the last two weeks: 2 baby layette sets, another hat and scarf set, a crochet cloche, and a diagonal scarf like the one I’m already working on.

Wakefield Diagonal Scarf by Melissa LaBarre
materials used: Cascade Yarns Cherub Collection DK
in brown, size 3 needles

Should I finish the old WIP’s or start the 2010 requests? As you can see I need help staying on track, can anyone give me some advice or have any solutions to this dilemma? I’d like to hear from some of you on how you stay on task without getting distracted with more interesting patterns and designs.