The Worst Word I Know is

Procrastination.


This sweater is a soft pink pile of procrastination.


I was planning to finish the Haruni shawl for my best friends wedding, but the baby came a week early, and another work deadline was moved up by two weeks, and somewhere around the Monday before a Sunday wedding I realized that the shawl would not make it. I spoke to my friend about the shawl's state of borderless-ness and she gave me the go ahead to not go ahead. She wasn't planning on wearing at the ceremony, so I didn't feel too bad.... yeah, I still felt like a jerk. Thankfully she's having a reception toward the end of July, and so I have a chance between now and then to finish what I started. This whole finishing what you start thing is very important. My mother told me so.


The problem is my Dad and Mom sent me some yarn. I wasn't expecting it, it just arrived looking all soft and smelling of a real American yarn shop. I put it up in the stash with every intention of waiting until after I'd finished the shawl, but with the new baby around I needed something easy to knit on. Evening after evening passed with no knitting. That was unacceptable, but I knew that I couldn't pick up that complicated lace knitting without a good solid block of time. If this sounds like a real B.S. excuse then you've got a good sniffer. I, however, was not savvy enough to see through my own thin excuses. I ran upstairs and grabbed a ball for swatching. "Yeah, I'll just swatch a little. A little swatching never hurt anybody. Besides, I'm not actually going to cast on for anything." This is a slippery slope, my friends. You see, that same day I had received the summer issue of "Interweave Knits". I was clearly lying to myself at this point. If there were a court of law that had an interest in whether or not unfinished handknits were being held hostage in my closet I would be in cuffs right now. The rest of that evening is sort of a blur. I know at some point I was tearing my desk apart looking for a ruler to check gauge. I think I started cruising Ravelry for pattern suggestions. I don't think the word "cruising" has been used to describe a good behavior since the 1950's. Everything spun out of control when I realized that my favorite sweater from the new IK was knit in one piece from the top down. That tidbit of info was what sunk my battleship of good intentions. I mean, top down sweaters pretty much knit themselves. Am I right?
Flash forward a week and I've got a nearly complete sweater in my lap. The shawl is languishing in a basket. I need to start bailing out the battleship right now. My friend's reception is coming up fast. Time to suck it up and start doubling the number of stitches on my needles in preparation for the border. Oh sweet baby Hitler that sounds like a lot of stitches. Sigh.