Any colour you like.... as long as it's grey

My husband is eminently knitworthy. He appreciates my knitting and is suitably careful with any knitted items that I care to knit for him. A recent tally of my current projects though revealed 3 items destined for him, all of which have stalled at various points. And after careful consideration I think I have pinned down the cause.

They are all grey!

Now, don't get me wrong. I love grey as much as the next person. In fact probably a little more than the average person but there is a limit. Especially when knitting something which is so much larger than I would usually knit for myself. DH is a tall, broad chap who likes his sweaters roomy. A 51" chest sweater in DK yarn is a heck of a lot of knitting whichever way you look at it. Add in the fact that it is plain grey stocking stitch with no pattern or means of entertainment and it's easy to see why I am easily distracted by other projects. 

The challenge is to prevent his WIPs from sinking to the bottom of the pile and by working on them, even a little bit, to prevent stagnation.

My current cunning plan is to keep the giant grey sweater in the fruit bowl on the kitchen counter. That way I can pick it up and plug away at it whilst attending to the usual domestic stuff of cooking and homework. The time when I would normally pick up my phone for a bit of mindless surfing I will now be adding a few more stitches to it. 

Nothing against the pattern itself of course. It is Rift by Jared Flood and it's a great pattern with a hint of ribbing detail at the sides and shoulders. It will be a great sweater tonwear - eventually.

Don't know what to work on? Top tips for overcoming knitters paralysis

We've all been there. A mountain of WIPs beckons but nothing appeals to you. Nothing is saying ' work on me'. Some projects are in time out. Some require a decision and can't be progressed until you've bitten the bullet. And let's face it, some are just plain boring and the initial excitement of a shiny new project has worn off.

In this situation my classic response is to reach for Ravelry or mooch around in my stash and cast on for something shiny and new.

Yesterday though I am proud to report that instead of doing this I sought advice from some clever knitters in the Everyday Knitter Facebook group and they came up with some cracking suggestions for overcoming knitters paralysis. Some of them are offered here along with a few of my own suggestions.

1. Claire and Gem suggested picking the WIP closest to completion and getting it finished - going for the quick win. With several socks just needing afterthought heels that seemed like a pretty good suggestion to me.

2. Viv suggested picking the oldest WIP and doing something - anything - on it. My oldest project is a very large and very grey sweater for DH. Although I love him to bits I do not love the knitting of this sweater.

3. Go for a scattergun approach and work on each WIP in turn for half an hour. This can be quite useful to allow yourself time to get reacquainted with each project and can help you to overcome any obstacles - or to realise why you set it aside in the first place. 

4. Reach into the project pile and have a knitters lucky dip. Promise yourself that you will work for an hour on whatever you pull out. I was quite safe with this one as sheer weight meant I could identify DHs sweater by touch and therefore I could cunningly avoid it.

I decided on a combination of picking an old project (sweater) and a project near completion (1 afterthought heel completed) and I'm pleased to report that progress has been made. The challenge for today is to repeat the plan - and mostly not to get distracted by the 10 skeins of DK I want to make into a sweater for myself.

Lesson learned

I fully intended to blog every day during our holiday. I really did. But then a funny thing happened. A thing that doesn't happen to me very often. A thing called relaxation. And it was proper relaxation, the kind where you have no idea what day of the week it is, never mind the date. The kind when you struggle to remember what you do for your day job and where you left the spare key for the cat sitter.

As a result daily blogging went out of the window. Also it didn't help that I remembered my laptop but forgot the charger. I did write in my journal most days which I love to do when I have the time but I have to confess that I did miss my daily blogging.

Anyway, here we are. Back home and ready to get back into our routine. Even though part of my mind (and a good part of my heart) is 250 miles north. Many bags need to be unpacked and I need to make contact with my stash again, having had separation anxiety from it. Some knitting occurred during all that holidaying and relaxing I'm pleased to report and now I feel the urge to dust off all my WIPs and make plans to get them finished. Spring startitis is all very well but I want to see some completed projects now. And also, I've run out of 4mm needles.

And breathe...

And breathe.. .

There's something very soothing and very special about visiting the same place at the same time of year, each year. Every year we rent the same cottage in this little corner of the Lake District and it is such a special place.

The amount of knitting that gets done though can be variable and is heavily dependent on the weather. Fine, sunny days see us out on the fells as a family whilst wet and windy days are for cosy cottage hunkering down. Fortunately for me springtime is a very variable time of year here. We have been in the cottage with 5 feet of snow outside and we've been here with the boys skinny dipping in rivers.

This week is the usual mix of sunshine and showers with a good dose of knitting predicted too and I can't wait.

Holibobs

It's an early start for the family today as we attempt to cram all our possessions into the car and make our regular pilgrimage north to the Lake District. It's a mark of how busy the past few weeks have been that I havent even thought about my holiday knitting, much less packed anything 

One option is just to gather up a selection of WIPs and bung them in the boot. The other option is to grab a few skeins of yarn and my needles and start something new and unspecified - every holiday should have a new cast on...no? The sensible option would be to go for option one but I think you can probably guess that option 2 is by far the most appealing one to me.

I may be a bit quieter than usual on social media but I will still be around - there night just be a few more photos of sheep than usual.

Our most important tools: and top tips to look after them

As knitters we are often asked what our favourite tools and notions are and we will happily discuss the merits of wooden needles vs metal ones. We rarely give much thought to our most important tools of all though - our hands.

I experienced a mild bout of RSI a few years ago after trying to take part in a challenge to knit 26 pairs of socks in a year. I got to June if memory serves but all that sock knitting took its toll and I had to take a short break from knitting altogether. That experience was so unpleasant, and the thought of not being able to knit was so uncomfortable (read: horrific) that I vowed to take better care of my most important tools in the future.

1. I always try to give myself a weekly manicure. If my nails and hands look good I'm more inclined to treat them better. I try to wear gloves whilst washing up and doing the housework and have little pots of handcream dotted around the house and in my project bags. I particularly like the solid lotion bars, such as the Love + leche ones pictured above, for my knitting bag as there is no risk of the dreaded lotion explosion.

2. Some knitting friends on Instagram recently shared a tip with me for smoothing rough skin when working with silk yarns - which will catch on every tiny flaw. Mix a small amount of olive oil with sugar or salt and use to massage into your hands. Rinse under hot water and dry.

3. Frequent breaks. I take a tip from the Knitmore Girls and take a short break in my knitting every 15 minutes. Even if it is just to set down the needles, flex my fingers and move my gaze to somewhere in the middle distance (my eyes also have a habit of complaining if I focus too long in one spot). I do this even when power knitting to meet a deadline but I do find it hard to remember sometimes so I set a reminder on my phone.

4. Stretches. I found this website a few years ago and they have a great series of hand exercises specifically for knitters which I try to do as often as I can. 

I hope these tips help you to take care of your mitts and if you have any top tips that work for you do please let me know, I'd love to hear them.

If you need a bit of motivation you could always check out the #nailsandknitting hashtag on Instagram where people (myself included) have fun matching their nails to their yarn. If you are going to be taking a photograph of your hands that's always a good incentive to slap a bit of handcream on.