Setting Goals

I'm currently knitting on Heirloom Knits'Princess Shawl. I started in early June, and am nearing the end of Stage One: I'm at 78 of 85 repeats of the lace border that surrounds it all.

When people see my lace knitting, the biggest question seems to be "how long does it take to knit something like that?"

A fucking long time, that's how long. For the mountable round lace pieces of 100 or more rounds and depending on the complexity of the pattern, the knitting process can take 150 to 500 hours. During the winter months I can pull one off in one to two months. During gardening season, or if I'm putting in a lot of extra hours at work for one or another reason, those hours are spread over a longer period and progress is slowed.

Many people cannot imagine spending more than a few weeks on any knitting project. My view is what's the hurry -- you get out of a project what you put into it. What does it matter if I knit one piece, or four, in the same four month period?

One trick to this, though, is to consistently accomplish something. Barring illness or emergencies, I make sure to knit at least a little every day -- and set mini-goals for myself. On the Princess edging, my goal has been 3 pattern repeats a day. Sometimes I've only made 1; other days I've done 4 or 5 (those are really dull days at work). And some days -- like today -- there are so many distractions I have a hard time finishing off one.

I've learned over the years that if you put something aside for more than a couple of days, it becomes too easy to never pick it up again, or at least not until after a long delay.

So I plug along, consisting knitting at least a little, until the project is through.

For the Princess, it likely will take about a year to get it done. But hey -- what else would I have been doing?