What Eleanor Roosevelt Said

There is an Eleanor Roosevelt quote on a magnet in a store I like to go to.  It says "do something that scares you every day."  Good words to live by.

I have mentioned in the past that I have a certain level of finishing anxiety when it comes to knitting.  I know how to do it and have done it repeatedly.  But, I dislike it.  I rationalize that it is because the nature of my life is such that I knit in five minute increments here and there which is as disruptive for finishing as it is for intricate lace or cables.  In reality though, I think finishing scares me a little bit.  What if I totally screw up after putting all that effort into knitting a sweater?

Today is a perfect day to conquer some fear.  I've blocked all of the pieces for the shrugs I knit (I'm not saying how long ago but if you read my blog, well, you can probably figure out precisely how long I've procrastinated) from Manos Silk/Merino for Ellie and for myself.  I'm going to start finishing them upon pain of not being able to start anything new until I'm done.

Of course, that isn't much of a threat since I have a lot of projects in progress, but at least it's a start.  I also picked up a long-shelved cabling project this week.  It's the Vintage Velvet scarf.  I've had this yarn forever and had started it ages ago, and got quite a ways before realizing I had a mistake in the first cable cross.  I ripped it back to the very beginning this week and have started back up.

It doesn't look like much at this stage — the yarn is Muensch's Touch Me, and the cool part of this pattern is that you lightly felt the scarf when it's done, which gives it a smooth velvelty look and permits the cable to appear distinctly, whereas here it looks like a mass of yarn.

I'm also getting in a few more inches on my linen/silk Clapotis every week.  I'm about to finish the first skein of yarn.  I love knitting this.  The pattern is easy to memorize and the fun of dropping a row of stitches is enough to convince me to keep going.