I've got finishitis!

For some strange reason, I'm determined to finish the projects I have on my needles before beginning another. For non-knitters, it may seem strange, but having several projects in progress is the natural state of being a knitter; to focus on one project from start to finish is something of an aberration. I've wondered why this is- after all, you don't get to show off your finished objects if you don't have any. Then, I cast on.

Knitting is an adventure. Each stitch, each yarn over, takes us closer to a destination unique to every knitter, for no two knitters are alike. Knitters often make slight (or dramatic) changes to a pattern, lengthening sleeves here, adding cables there. This creates an object even more different from that created by the designer. Knitting is not the mindless parroting of a designer's will- it is a dance of the fingers that makes art of piles of string.

I've blocked and sewn up Zak's bath mitt, and the swatch for his sweater has been blocked and gauge noted. But before I'll allow myself to buy the new size four needles to start on his cardi in earnest, I must, I must, I must finish this sock. It's my first pair, for Zak, and in a charming shade of yellow green. I've already done the first, and got down to the heel on the second. Perhaps this is a new knitter's disease- Postpartum Second Sock Syndrome? I started the first sock while in labor, and managed to finish it by some miracle while Zak was a newborn. Yet, the turning of the heel for the second sock stopped me cold for a while.

Knitting a sock is the closest thing to magic that can be accomplished without a scantily clad assistant. You use straight needles to create a round tube, and without bending the needles or the time-space continuum in any way, you change direction. No seams, no glue, just knitting around and around until you're at the toe- or cuff, depending on where you started- and you graft or cast off your way to an exquisitely well-fitting sock.

But the allure of this magic trick seems to fade with the second sock- no matter how many socks a knitter makes, the second holds less charm than the first. I'm determined to finish before I start a new project, in part because I tire of white socks on Zak, am too cheap to buy colored socks when I have some on my needles, and just because I want to. Oh well.

Happy Knitting!