This week, I finished a thing.
Is it just me, or does everyone have a Guilt Project languishing in a basket somewhere? I’m talking about the mega-project that seemed like a r-e-a-l-l-y good idea several years ago when you bought/inherited/spun-from-raw-antelope-fibre the 80 balls of yarn that it requires.
The Guilt Project is always three quarters complete – you’ve come too far to frog it – and it nudges you into a flicker of shame every time you trip over it on your way to the wine-rack kitchen.
If anyone else mentions your lack of progress, you’ll defend this thing to the hilt, because you’re definitely going to finish it really, really, soon, just as soon as you get a spare moment. DOES NOBODY UNDERSTAND QUITE HOW BUSY YOU’VE BEEN RECENTLY?!
But in rare moments of honesty, you admit to yourself that what was once a shiny new idea has long since tarnished. (Why-oh-why were you so interested in making a lace-weight, cabled, entrelac, afghan, anyway?) It now feels like a chore. You’re starting to resent this thing, because its nagging, sulking, presence makes you feel ashamed to begin work on any of the other ideas that are fermenting in your VERY, VERY BUSY brain. Make no mistake, though: you’re definitely going to finish the Guilt Project, because YOU ARE NOT A QUITTER. So you sigh, and then you accidentally-on-purpose give this hulking heap of shame a swift kick as you walk past its sprawling unfinishedness. Ha, that’ll teach it.
My own Guilt Project was the product of chance rather than planning. And it’s a simple beast. As part of an award four years ago, I won a stonk-load of yarn, some needles, and a pile of Arne and Carlos books. In one of the books was this pattern:-
That’ll be super-quick to knit, I thought, being all sensible for once. I planned it as a giant blanket for the twinnage to use for den-building, or to snuggle under.
So I cast on. I stuck to the essence of the pattern, rather than its actual specifications. Hang on, I’ll see if I can dig out some old pictures.
Being made entirely of garter stitch, it became my mindless background project, for times of illness, tiredness, or long car journeys.
After a year or two, it reached the stage where it could keep me warm whilst I knitted it.
Progress slowed, I’ll confess. It spent many a month squished into a basket in a corner of the bedroom, staring at me accusingly whenever I cast on something more interesting. It had become a Guilt Project. Occasionally I’d drag it out and work on it in a burst of I-should-finish-this mania. But then I’d get distracted, and back into its corner it would go. Part of the problem was that it had grown too big to be portable.
There wasn’t a particular plan to its size or proportions. I just kept knitting. It got big. One day, I noticed that its length was getting out of proportion to its width, so I cast off, then picked up 354 stitches down one side to add some stripes perpendicular to the original pattern. I’ve been working on it quite a bit recently, because four years is ridiculous for a simple garter stitch blanket. And one day earlier this week, I finished a stripe and thought, ‘You know, I reckon this beast is done’.
And so it is.
I’ve been sharing the occasional picture over on my Instagram account (do come and follow along for the ride!) and the lovely @julbailey16 there suggested calling it The Crop Blanket, in honour of diagrams of Medieval crop plantings. I’m taking her suggestion. Do you know how much time I’ve spent on this thing?! Nope, nor do I, but I can tell you that it comprises 185 148 stitches, and it weighs in at a hefty 1.2 kilograms. It’s plenty big enough for a double bed. The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK.
It’s tricky to photograph something this big. (I know that sounds ridiculous: it’s not as though this thing is so large that you can see it from space.) So I took it to the park for a quick photoshoot yesterday, and the very few people who were out there braving the extreme cold gave me odd looks as I laid out what must have looked like the blanket for a solo, sub-zero, picnic. (No, we don’t have snow. Yes, that is a very sore subject.)
The twinnage are so used to this thing being a never-ending work-in-progress (and thus not eligible for being played with), that even now it’s done, it hasn’t occurred to them that they’re allowed to run off with it and make a den.
I’m going to tell them when they get home from school tonight.
Guilt Project no more.
I finished a guilt project of my own last night… I think it must be the weather!
Definitely something in the air! (Your sofa is looking splendid.)
I’ve also got a Bavarian crochet lap blanket that’s languishing in the bottom of a cupboard unfinished… but don’t tell anyone!
Too late Jan , the cat is out of the bag now!
Doh!
Well done, it is beautiful – and now you can feel guilt free!
Liz B.
Thank you. But I fear there are other projects lurking even further back in the cupboard…
Oh oh – really touched a nerve there Twisted Yarn! I too have a blanket – started when my husband was in hospital for tests (4 years ago, I think!!) and using lovely cotton yarn that I found in a not-so-local yarn shop. I didn’t realise this was yarn that was discontinued – it just screamed summer blanket to me and so I bought lots and cast on using a made-up-out-of-my-own-head pattern (that is code for ‘I hadn’t a baldy clue what I was doing’). Now it sits in a bag (with an awful lot of unused cotton yarn of the same type – whatever made me think I needed that amount for a blanket) and awaiting the time when I can summon up the enthusiasm to start doing the border! You have inspired me so I will be returning to it when spring or summer or autumn or winter arrive. Or maybe next year – 2019. It could become my Brexit blanket!! Just as slow as the negotiations and as unpredictable as the outcome. I only have to sort out the border. I live 14 miles from the border with Republic of Ireland so I hope this explains my linking the completion of a cotton knitted blanket with Brexit! Sorry about that. C
This comment has made my day! Xxx
Well done! I am sure your children will have great fun with it and it looks lovely with the alternating stripes and larger panels.
I absolutely adore this blanket! It is everything a blanket should be; a real feast for the eyes, colourfully cosy and large enough to engulf anyone who requires warmth. Maybe the snow was waiting for you to finish this blanket..? Xxx
My Guilt Project is exactly the same blanket!! Same pattern, same mindless knitting opportunities – I knit most of it so far to pass the time and keep me occupied when I was in very long and slow labour with my daughter, who turns two next week – funnily enough I haven’t had as much time for knitting since she arrived! But you have inspired me to kick the guilt and definitely get it finished, just as soon as I’ve completed these socks, oh and that baby cardigan, and maybe……
My guilt project has about 24 more rows to go…..AND. I’m going to do it….once some of these other (more pressing) projects are out of the way! 😉
It’s lovely. My sister just finished one…hers is mahoosive, over 400 stitches as she does not believe in counting when casting on. It took four months (she lived and breathed it as did everyone else, and I had to plead with her to cast it off). It covers everything in the house just about. The next evening, she cast on another one. However I curbed her enthusiasm a little and removed 140 stithes to give her a managable 250!
I then thought it was quite a cool idea and cast on two mini ones of my own but frogged both of them because I could see that they would just never get done.. So a very well done to you.
Liz
I am sure I remember you posting about that blanket when you started it? It seemed a cool idea. First I have to finish my sheep blanket…lots of squares with sheep which need sewing together.
Anyhow, love the blanket
Julie @julbailey16
Glorious guilt blanket, adore the colourful stripes & huge well done and your boys will adore it especially this week being so cold. I love the fact that we all have one of these, but mine is a crochet blanket, started a few years ago and is a double crochet striped blanket for a single bed, why did no one tell me this would take a lifetime to make ! I also recently declared all my stash to my hubby !! He took it as well as could be expected and we now have a wall of wool in my dining room, good result but it means I have to finish my blanket to use up ‘some’ of the stash he can now see, I’m inspired so will try to complete this one, wish me luck : )
Oh yes!!! I have multiple guilt projects. I had a similar blanket that I spent a year or so avoiding before finally finishing it before Christmas. Its not as beautiful as this blanket though. Its gorgeous now it is completed! 🙂
Very nice indeed! I actually have a few guilt projects hanging around the house but the oldest one is a needlepoint picture I started 40 years ago! It’s still nicely on the frame waiting for me to complete the last inch of the boring background! You have inspired me to finish it!!
Oh you are such a scream, and how I so love your blogs, lovely lovely blanket, so colourful, and the relief must be wonderful, well done.
It’s beautiful! I have 2 “lost in space”(as I call them) projects. You may have inspired me to get them out and finishe them. Maybe.
Oh boy. Those garter stitch THINGS just lay forever around here. I love this – the colors are fantastic. I wouldn’t let anyone use it. I would put it away and they would crawl over my dead body to get to it.
I hadn’t considered all the ends to weave in until this comment–now I can’t imagine doing that. Did you have some kind of magical way of disposing of them?????
I also an enamoured of your Crop Blanket. I have 2 questions: 1) did you just put the horizontal stripes along just the one edge (kind of like a hem at the top?) and 2) did you cut and change colors at every single row? or did you carry your colors along the edges??? I can’t imagine weaving in all those ends.
Hi Bex, and apologies for slow reply. Yup, I just put the horizontal stripes across one edge. And I carried the unused colours up the side within a stripe section (if that makes sense), so there weren’t crazy numbers of ends to weave in.
I really like the blanket! But I think I liked the idea of you having a solo, sub-zero picknick even more 🙂
I probably should’ve brought some food.
My guilt projects are MUCH smaller than your blanket, but I win on how long they have languished… one sweater for over 10 years, sigh… I really should frog it and use the yarn for something else. I have another 2 year old sweater, just needs sleeves … I like the idea of kicking the basket on the way for a glass of wine… as soon as I finish a project I cast on yesterday… I’m going to get to work, well maybe next Fall as it’s too hot to have on my lap right now. I LOVE your blog and your humor is delightful.
C’mon, you can finish those things! (And my humo(u)r is probably diagnosable, but thank you anyway.)
that blanket is amazing! So glad you were able to guilt yourself into finishing.
My guilt project is a pair of Vintage socks. Meaning, that crazy pattern by Lisa Grossman with like 32 little leaves, grapes on the socks, a set in leaf at the toe, and embroidery. I’ve got one done, all the leaves are knit, the second sock is almost done, and for the record I started them in 2013. There’s a tiny part of me that wishes they’d get eaten by moths so I could shrug my shoulders and toss them out. But there they sit, I check on them every six months or so but I have yet to actually pick them back up and figure out where I am in the pattern.
Those socks are glaring at you, commanding you to finish them… (But I can probably find you some moths if you’d like.)
Thank you! This is just what I needed. I’ve just finished my last project, planned the next to use up some stash, but was facing at least two days for a couple more balls of yarn to arrive before I could get started. No knitting for two days??! This blanket will help use up all (?) that other yarn in the stash.
Excellent! Enjoy…
I bet that feels so good! I have two of those projects. Really, someday, I am going to finish them. Just as soon as I dig them out from under the stash. It’s a big stash so I may not see them again for a couple of years. Regretfully though, not out of sight, out of mind. I just started a monster project (another excuse) but maybe after it’s done I’ll pick one so I can have a Guilt Free Project Day in your honor!
Judging by the comments here, I’m beginning to think that EVERYONE has a guilt project. Sigh…
After reading this, I decided that no matter how daunting my current knitting project seems to me, it is nothing compared to (in number of stitches) this beauty. Thusly, I will be energized into slogging onward!
I just hope that yours never becomes a guilt project! (And this blanket was all garter stitch, so not exactly tricky.)
last week i finally finished a prayer/comfort shawl of my own design which i had been working on intermittently for over 6 months. when my visiting nurse came by i offered it to her for anyone who would need it. she delivered it that same day to a cancer patient who loves it. synchronicity is just fabulous!
Oh how perfect! I hope that it brings great joy and comfort to the recipient.
And now, on to some guilt-free knitting, right? It looks wonderful!
Yeah, but the problem is that something else will become the guilt project now…
Is your blog only a knitting blog? You have done some nice stuff, but I only crochet. So I’m wondering.
No, definitely both knitting and crochet. I just happen to be on a bit of a knitting spree st the moment. Welcome, fellow hooker!
I’m so glad to see your blanket written up on your blog. Love the colours. I do get some projects finished but I think I am a collector of unfinished projects(perhaps I should put them on display).
Yes! And claim that the fact that half of each one is missing is a design feature!
The unfinished project! I have several projects that just need ends woven in or blocking. The knitting is done and has been done for several years now. I just can’t figure out why I am so resistant to doing these last steps! Is it that I don’t really want to be finished with a project or that I really dislike weaving ends in and blocking? It’s the latter I’m sure of it! You have inspired me. I’m going to put these projects back on my to do list and get them done before starting the next one. Ha!
Yes! I hope you succeed! (What I was too ashamed to mention in this post was the blanket I finished YEARS ago, with well over 1000 ends. In cotton. I’ve woven in maybe 100. Sigh.)
That is a wonderful guilt project. All the colors and very little pattern to get in the way. End result is wonderful. And inspirational.
Claire Holmes, there is a reason I have several king sized blankets but only a queen size bed!! I get it!
My guilt project alas is crocheted lace flowers turned into squares by scrolls. The finished square is 12 inches by 12 inches. Each square uses 4 scrolls. It’s join as you go but the gauge is small enough that I’m using a steel 0 or 00 hook to crochet with 3 strand/sport yarn. (I bend size D and smaller hooks so my options are limited.) (3 or 3.5mm, I think?) It’s always on my list to work on, but is sufficiently hard on my hands and sense of humor that it is rarely on my hook. I don’t kick the project as I go by but my stomach turns a little when I see the yarn. Perhaps I will pull it out again tonight.
Wow! It certainly sounds wonderful. I really hope that you do finish it.
Love the colours and congrats on getting it done
Thank you and thank you!
That’s an impressively huge blanket, wow! It looks amazing and a pat on the back to you for getting that done!
S x
It’s certainly big. To my surprise, the twinnage haven’t shown much interest in it but my husband has stolen it!
Now whatever were you thinking garter stitch on a thing that big? It does look like a very good den blanket! My guilt project was a baby shawl in white so fine yarn it doesn’t have a ply and very lacy pattern. Baby born no shawl, baby two born no shawl, baby three born, no shawl, finally the moth had it. Relief at least one of God’s creatures felt the benefit.
That’ll larn ya to make a blanket in DK yarn, specially knitting rows that long!
It looks gorgeous! Think, if I was so inspired, I’d use chunky yarn, but as you won the DK . . .
I have a couple of Guilt Trip WIPs, one an alpaca sweater for Niece, who would really appreciate it this week. Trouble is I’ve left it alone so long I can’t remember a) where I was, and b) how to progress. That’ll larn me to not make sufficient notes as I work!
Then there’s a cotton cardigan I started a couple of years back for me. Since when I’ve lost a lot of weight, so it’ll have to be a rip-and-reknit project. Ah well, _when_ I’m finally fully re-sized myself I’ll have a go at resizing this WIP.
I’ll also be resizing the wool-and-alpaca aran weight cardigan I’m currently wearing. It kinda hangs on me at present, but it’s too darn cold to take it off this week. We even had snow here in Portsmouth on Tuesday. All of two fifteen minute flurries, most of which promptly melted. The beach looked pretty for a short while!
Right, gas fire on high. Off to find a shawl. Dread to think how cold it is in your house!
Hooray! I can see you again 🙂 Not sure what’s changed but picture sight has been restored and what a stunner to see. I’ll now be going over all your recent posts which I have been diligently saving in my email and catch up on what I’ve been missing 🙂
I’m nearing the last stage of a stashbusting blanket. My goal was to use up my Noro kuryon yarn. When I was down to five golf ball sized bits I realized the ‘blanket’ wasn’t large enough for anything and I would have to buy more yarn to finish it. A friend suggested I ask members of my guild for their leftover bits and bobs so I now have enough to finish a fair sized blanket. Garter stitch does get boring after hundreds of thousands of stitches with no end in sight. Congratulationson finishing your beauty.
Looks fabulous – love the edging, really finishes it off. I’m about 2 cm into the same pattern. I’ll come back in 4 years to update with my progress ;o)
Congratulations on finishing your guilt Afghan – what a beauty it has turned out to be. And thank you so much for sharing the fact that you too have the guilt issue too, I feel like I am in good company ????
Woo hoo well done! That must feel good 😀 I’ve nearly finished my guilt project, and it’s so small I’m not sure why it’s been languishing for so long
I used to have four afghans OTN. Finished one a couple months ago. The others are still guilt projects. Yours is awesome!