Knitting: Long-term projects; Sylvi coat and Beekeepers quilt

I’m a “process crafter,” I enjoy learning a new technique.

In some cases, I’ve spent hours learning something new only to erase the project and start fresh. Most recently its been crochet, since I learned in December 2011. Occasionally I’ll learn something new with knitting, although I’ve been doing that for 33 years. When my daughter was younger, she used to be shocked that I’d erase a project… “Mommy, why did you do that, you spent a lot of time on that?” But as I told her, it was obvious that I was just learning, since it showed in my work… there was no way I was going to pass that product off as “complete” unless it was made correctly. I enjoy the process, regardless of the craft.

Works out perfectly for those people/groups that I deem “craft worthy” since I also don’t mind giving things to others…

I like to see items being used, and while I could keep all the items I’ve created, how useful would they be tucked away in some closet collecting dust? That, to me, is wasteful, since I don’t need to physically keep the items, to relieve the crafting experience. So yes, for me, it’s better to give those items to someone who’ll actually use them.

But here’s the thing…

I make the items for whomever I want, on my terms. A lot of the items made, go to someone besides me. And many of my crocheted, knitted, and sewn items are given to various charity organizations. But, the moment someone starts assuming I’ll make something for them, without even asking me, things change. I dislike self-entitlement, and for someone to automatically assume that I’ll make something for them, without even asking me first, is a bit rude. I’ll say no quickly.

I rarely make something for myself, that’s because I have what I need/want. But, I do have a few long-term projects in my queue…

Such as this gorgeous Sylvie coat, isn’t the detail amazing?

When I look closely at the picture, it looks as though they’ve used seed stitch too. I’ll be making mine a bit longer, currently I’m unsure of the color, and of course I’ll be deviating from the pattern a bit….

I really love what the designer, Mari Muinonen, did with the cables… just look at those lovely cabled flowers! While I’ve been making cables since I was young, I haven’t done too much intricate cabling such as above and so this week in my “creative” time I’ve been playing around with intricate cables. It’s been a lot of fun…

And this amazing knitted beekeepers quilt. I believe I’ve written about my fascination with bees on this site before. Well, I’m fascinated by most insects, and I absolutely adore honeybees. They’re hard workers. I’ve been fascinated with bees since I was a child, and would spend a lot of my outdoor time watching them, and studying their activity. I tried to follow them back to their home a few times, but that never worked.

But back to this lovely knitted quilt. It’s made by knitting hundreds of honeycomb shapes aka hexipuffs. I’m planning on making at least a queen size quilt… think about that, I’ll be turning yarn into honeycombs, which will then be joined to create a queen size quilt. That will take some time.  This is an item that will be passed onto my daughter. The beauty of it is; she’ll be able to watch some of the process. I plan to start on knitting this quilt this Fall.

Question:  Do you have any long term projects, it doesn’t have to be craft related?

Photo Source:

1. Sylvi; Ravelry
2. Beekeepers quilt; Miso Crafty