Procrastination Makes it Happen

I’ve often observed in the past that procrastinating a task makes me exert extra energy in another area to make ignoring the first task easier. For instance, If I’m putting off a phone call, I might wash the dishes. If I’m avoiding scrubbing the bathroom, I might fold the laundry, or sweep the floors. And if I’m trying to put off designing a sweater –

I might launch into a project that seems easy only by comparison. What you see here is the first third (maybe first two-fifths) of a long-sleeved lace shrug. It’s gorgeous. I’m using fingering weight yarn (Red Heart Lustersheen! Unexpectedly cottony texture), it’s got a very long cuff which will have buttons, but the shape I’m shooting for is like the slouchy shrug Drew Barrymore wears in Music and Lyrics. (Which I watch all the time. Good movie.) I’m ridiculously pleased with this project. Another nice touch is the lace pattern, which when stretched out…

reveals a subtle floral pattern that I think is just beautiful. Now, I would have a lot more of this done than I do, but on Wednesday one of my friends found out that the baby she’s having is a boy. The email containing that news was quickly followed by one from another friend, saying that we were going to surprise her with a shower…in a week! (A week? Don’t they know I need to MAKE THINGS?! …I was indignant for a while, but someone else told me that the rush is so that another of our friends who is moving in about a month will be able to come. Fair enough.) Anyway, I decided to make a BICO, since it’s billed as a three-hour baby sweater, so I could be sure of finishing in time. I had some yarn I thought would work back in the bottomless stash, I found the right hook, and got to work! And, I mean, I totally finished it, but it’s a little…how do I put this…

Froofy? I mean, it’s a little…floofy. For a boy. For someone else, especially, whose boy-froofy-level-tolerance I do not know. (She has daughters but this is her first son. I don’t know.) Add to that the fact that it turns out Red Heart Baby Clouds is perceptibly thicker than the Homespun called for in the pattern, so that I created by accident a sweater more likely to fit a 12-18 month old than a 6 month old, and it grows even less…possibly appropriate. Bother. Fortunately, I began far enough in advance that there was still time for another project!

I thought about crocheting another sweater, but I’ve crocheted three baby sweaters in the last month. Free, appropriately sized, unisex and CUTE patterns are a bit thin on the ground for crochet baby sweaters, so I decided I’d go for a knit sweater, even though I’m a slower knitter. After all, how long could something actually called a ‘5-hour baby sweater’ take?

Why yes, those needles ARE a bit short for this project, thanks for noticing! I’m making the Baby Boy 5-Hour sweater, which eliminates the little lacy holes you see in the classic 5-hour baby sweater to make it more masculine. But it’s cute, right? And clever. I haven’t had to reattach the yarn once. You knit from the center front to the sleeve, knit the sleeve flat, slip stitch up to close the sleeve and bring your working yarn back up to the level of the rest of the stitches, knit across the back, work the second sleeve the same as the first, knit across, and then work the body flat. Ingenious! So, the sweater is taking me longer than I think it would take a more accomplished knitter (or someone without children…) but I should be finished in good time, and that thing is adorable.