Friday, March 30, 2007

Self-bribery.

Anyone else do this?

"If I do a pattern repeat (or whatever the goal is) on this, then I can work on whatever else I want, the rest of the day." For me the goal is a pattern repeat a day. I actually met the goal yesterday - yay. And I'm six rows into the fourteen row repeat already today, so it's looking good. (Plus I'm out of yarn to dye, which helps the focus.)

The other project I want to work on is, of course, this:

The half-round shawl. Yup. Still working on it. In fact, I'm within a couple inches of doing a whole lot of garter stitch and then starting the knit-on edge. And after that - Happy Spider's Lace yarn! Eeeee! I don't think I realized how much I enjoy knitting lace until I got this huge pile of new lace books and suddenly have all kinds of new things to knit. Very exciting.

And speaking of books, I lost my head at www.overstock.com yesterday and bought a huge pile of books. They're knitting, patternmaking, and design books, so you should all be subjected to them soon.

I'm also considering an epic design project that would take about ten years' solid knitting to accomplish, but would produce a bunch of patterns for me to sell... I'm rather afraid of how seriously I'm considering it. I think I'd do it in blog form, with an entry per new pattern. Hmmm. Maybe I should work up a pattern first and then decide where to post it.

Otherwise, The Baby has figured out the See and Say and is sitting in the living room trying to imitate barnyard animal sounds. It's very cute.


Well, she was. Now she's flung herself on the floor, face down, wailing, in true drama queen style. Oh yeah. Loving motherhood today.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Right now, I'm loving everything I'm knitting, so I don't have to resort to bribery, but it has (& will) happened.
Cassie's latest post at toomuchwool got me so hot & bothered, I just had to have the laceweight you dyed--so the Bleeding Violet is gone! Should be just enough for an Icarus shawl.

Amy Lane said...

okay...baby cute (sometimes even the drama queen stuff is cute...Chicken used to put her hand on her chest, fall to her knees, and then face plant from there...it was loads of entertainment value for a single 'no, you can't have that'.) And as for self bribery? I will work on something that's pissing me off until I ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT STAND IT ANYMORE and THEN I will pick up something I love (or something easy) and go to town...

Sarah O G said...

aren't children grand, cute, but some days absolutely crazy

debsnm said...

I'm currently gritting my teeth and finishing several projects so I can start new ones without guilt. I've almost finished the Opera Fichu - need to block, and knit on the ties and I'm done! Finishing some old stuff I promised my sister, then need to finish some gloves I wanted to do for a friend who was MAJOR help over the winter, then I can start some cookiea socks! YAY!!

Shelly Kang said...

Hi, I'm not sure if I commented before, but I've been reading since the last Knitty came out. I love your dyeing projects. I've tried dying with all the food coloring products before and kind of enjoy it. I was wondering where you buy your blank yarn, if you don't mind me asking.

Your baby is beautiful!

Sheepish Annie said...

I bribe myself daily. Many, many times. If I didn't, I'd never get anything done!

Rae said...

I almost let DD go to bed the other night completely naked because she was having such a tantrum about putting on pjs. Finally I got her clothed and down, but only 45 min after he bedtime. Jerk baby.

Bells said...

yes I do that. I said I wasn't allowed to cast on a new sock until I finished the one I'm currently on. Never mind it doesn't have a mate yet, I just couldn't start a new one in a different pattern until the first was done.

It worked.

Does The Baby get her drama queen tendencies from your side of the family or the husbeasts?

Carol said...

Feh! I do that whole thing with ironing. Okay I'll iron 7 things. Once I finish that, I'll switch the iron off and do something else. Then come back and another 7 things.

Or I set the cooking timer. I have to iron until the timer goes off.

Kind of not the same really, but it made sense in my head.

Love the jacket, the colours are amazing.

Catie said...

totally the same, I do this with school work: if I finish x of homework, I can read a novel/do anything for the rest of the morning/afternoon/day. I should really do that now with cleaning the house and then knitting...
Oh, and about drama queen, my mom always says the that there are two things she loves most about grandchildren: she can spoil them and they eventually go home...

Fancy Pants said...

I totally bribe myself too. Like today, I told myself that when I finish the back of this Shortie jacket I'm working on, I can start a pair of socks. Not a bad deal, I think. BTW, the baby is cute, super cute. I hope you are having a great weekend!

Anonymous said...

Bribing self,
I'll have to try that...
I've been having such a lazy weekend no knitting, no fiddle, no chores, nothing but reading fav. blogs (im behind, hence the late post) and re - viewing episodes of Jericho on the website.
Maybe if I try bribery, I'll even get around to doing the laundry.