So,
Back in February or March I started my Christmas knitting project and am REALLY losing steam right now. Not exactly trying to throw a pity party but how do you knit, knit, knit, knit?
I am really excited about finishing my stockings for everyone but it seems like time is running out. What to do?
–Everything in the present moment is perfect whether I like it or not.–:knitting: :knitting: :knitting: :knitting: :knitting:
Maybe you started too soon and are running out of enthusiasm for these projects. Take a little break.
First of all,do not stress. Knitting, whether for gifts or yourself, should not be rushed. Do you/did you really want to knit gifts for others? Something we make with our own hands is a gift of pleasure, not stress. I would say, please (been there, done that etc., etc.,) re-evaluate. Enjoy kniitting for YOU.
Like Sue said take a little break. If you are really sick of doing them you know you could make them for next year instead. There’s no knitting police and you did certainly give it a good try if you’ve been knitting them that long!
When I knit Christmas gifts, I think about the person I’m knitting for while I’m knitting, and all the wonderful things that make me care about that person (or if I’m knitting for a charity, I think about why I care about the cause).
Therefore, my closest friends and family get the most complex gifts, and others get easier ones. For instance, I knitted hats for all of my friends one year. I felt obligated to knit one for my best friend’s jack@$$ boyfriend because I was knitting one for her twin sister’s boyfriend…
The sisters got complex Fair Isle patterns on their hats. The nice boyfriend (now married and with a baby on the way!) got a double-knit ski cap in colors I knew he would love. For the jerk, I put in the bare minimum of time and money. He broke up with her a week before Christmas and I donated it to a charity.
I like to vary the kind of knitting I’m doing: some intarsia or fair Isle, some complicated aran sts, something in plain, easy stockinette. I find that the variety keeps it all fresh and that may help for you too. Also, I’m very good at rationalizing late gifts (after the baby’s birth but before its college graduation is OK; if it all doesn’t work out for this Christmas, it certainly will for next Christmas).
My mom made my brother and I each a cross-stitched bible passage for our first communions.
Of course, we received them for confirmation.
I’m working on a baby blanket for my best friend’s daughter (due Jan. 1) at the moment. My goal is to have it finished by her due date, and if not then, to at least have it done by the next time I am home after that. Which will be March.
As a result, I’m not knitting any Christmas gifts. The baby blanket is a priority and realistically, too much of a time suck.
Feeling the same way…I love the challenge of a new project, but get bored doing the second mitten (or sock or slipper). I have resorted to the sticker method of rewarding myself with a sticker on the calendar when one project is totally completed. After I have a certain number of stickers I treat myself to something special that I normally don’t get (a trip to town for a bakeshop treat, specialty coffee etc) Keeps me motivated and my knitting basket is getting full of gifts!
Just to confound my master plan… baby Lilly was born Saturday.
Yup! Leave it up to those little darlings to confound our plans from the get-go! They’re so [I]good[/I] at that!
Congrats to your friend, though, on her new baby, and hopefully the early arrival of the little one will inspire you to finish up your project.
I like to mix things up. I’m a gamer in addition to being a knitter (among other things :P) so when I hit a knitting wall I’ll go play my favorite MMO for awhile, or lately, Skyrim. It also helps if I change what I’m watching on TV when I knit. Presently I’m watching Battle Star Galatica while I finish up the Christmas stockings I’m working on. Fast pace show for boring knitting 
Other times I watch Six Feet Under or Larkrise to Candlefort when I’m in a wrap sort of mood. Dying to have that one on DVD, but it’s kinda pricy for a PBS show and only reason hubby bought me BSG a couple years ago was he likes it too :woohoo:… anywho, hitting a knitting wall isn’t uncommon by far as other posts show. Just take a break and come back :yay:as others have said too. Hope it goes well
I’ve been putting in a lot of hours at work because of Christmas. I just don’t have the time to knit as much as I’d like lately. I was stressing out trying to get these hats done for Christmas when it suddenly occurred to me: Why am I beating myself up over this? I temporarily set them aside. They’ll get done after Christmas but that’s okay. In my pjs in the warm comfort of my own home, I went online to Amazon and ordered movie dvd’s for the kids. I don’t have to fight the crowds and long waiting lines, look for a parking spot, don’t have to wrap presents and wait at the post office, and they ship it for me.
I did three big knitting/crochet projects for Christmas presents, and I just finished the last. It was definitely a marathon! I find that I work better when I have something else to focus on. I think I worked through four seasons of Top Gear, four of Doctor Who, and two seasons of my favorite radio drama! Give it a try; after a while I found that I wanted to keep working just so I had reason to keep watching!