Project Mayhem

It seems like whenever I finish a large knitting project, I feel particularly on top of the world.  I forget about the 6 months of long work, the slog through endless sections, the yelling at the pattern when I realize that I forgot something, the yelling at Maeby when she gets in my yarn stash for her own kitten enjoyment.  I hold up the finished project and get a giant flash of happiness and say to myself "You created this!  It didn't fall apart!  It's not horrendously ugly!"  These flashes of happiness and mental patting-on-the-back instances increase or are more intense for bigger projects, such as when I finished my Vivian sweater or the intricate Alice in Wonderland mittens.  My downfall is that when I finish these projects without too many tears or hiccups, I attempt to find something bigger and harder to knit- hence my Dad's Dale of Norway after finishing only one pair of fair isle mittens, or queue something ridiculous like the beautiful Freija sweater (oooooh nom that one is going to happen...) when I feel that I need harder cabling.
Once in awhile I start a larger volume of projects instead of just hard ones, thinking "well, since that ONLY took 6 months, think about what I could do in only ONE month!"  This leads to waaaay too many works in progress (WIPs) and the inevitable Unidentified unFinished Object (UFOs), of which I am quite guilty of (ahem DALE OF NORWAY).
I could try to control these impulses.
I could pull out old projects and purse my lips at them and say "let's get you taken care of!".
I could focus specifically on long-term projects that need a little love.

I could, indeed, so all these things.

But do I?



No.

Instead, I start things like a pair of Mama Mitts for a fellow knitter that never has time to knit for herself (she has four kids all under 11, so you can't blame her!) and I think could use something beautiful that she would never make for herself.

Or, I barter with a fellow climber/photographer for some prints of his originals to hang in my apartment in trade for a hat that I've been itching to try as my new "bartering/climber" hat.


You'd think with all this schooling I would learn from past mistakes, and know better.

Nope.

(Oh, and here's a small peak at the finally-blocked and finished Poseidon Adventure Shawl:

I'm going for a nice walk on Sunday in our local park and plan on getting project pictures then, so until then I hope the glimpse is good for now!)