When I am trying to avoid something, there are virtually no limits to what I will do to avoid said thing.  Specifically, my first Year of Colorwork project is killing me.  Just absolutely killing me.  It’s not that it’s hard.  Dear God, if only it was hard. No, what it is is tedious.  It’s just following a chart, stitch by stitch.  This is why I don’t do needlepoint pictures or counted cross-stitch.  Yes, you get a pretty picture when it’s done, but at what cost?  My sanity, that’s what.  Every stitch is a knit stitch, and it’s either blue or black.  Once in a while, I got to decrease two stitches in a row.  Now I’m at the point where once in a great while I get to increase two stitches in a row.  And that’s it. Blueblueblue black. Blackblackblackblueblueblackblueblack.  See how boring that is?  And it’s not even in a sort of rhythmic pattern that I can autopilot while I converse or watch TV.  Nope, I need to pay attention.  And I can’t, because of the boredom.

So I have temporarily bailed.  I’m not giving up.  It’s still a really pretty sweater, and I still want to own it and wear it.  But I can’t right now.  So here’s what I’m distracting myself with, in addition to the Geek-Along of last post fame!

A Provence Shawl , done in the Achimenes colorway from Gnarledpaw yarn…

You start with knitting the flowers, then pick up some stitches to knit leaves, and then segue into a shawl.  Interesting and fun so far!

And also, a multi-project Planned Pooling KAL/CAL!  The gnarledpaw group on Ravelry is doing a year long, do-what-you-want exploration of planned pooling.  There are some suggested projects, but basically you can do what you want.  I love doing what I want.  Here’s what I am doing for this KAL so far…

A Strandwanderer shawl, done in a custom yarn from Gnarledpaw.  (I really do have yarn that isn’t from Gnarledpaw, but she is an awesome dyer, and I do a lot of projects with her yarn. )  Anyway, this is a kind of nifty exploration of the way colors pool and shift with a pattern.  After this I have a few free-form projects in mind.  We’ll see where it takes me.

So I’m already falling down on my big pronouncement, but saving my sanity.  I’ll be back, Princess Line Sweater – I’m not through with you yet!