Our Most Ambitious Projects: What Holds Us Back?

There’s a project that you’ve been thinking about for a long time now, isn’t there?  It’s there, sitting quietly at the back of your mind, waiting for you to work up the courage to start it.  It something you’d love to make, that you really want to conquer, but…  but… oh!  It’s ambitious.  It’s bigger than anything you’ve tried before.  Or it’s more complicated and…  and…  oh!

So there it stays, tucked away in the back of your mind…  no closer to being cast on than it was the day your first saw it and fell in love.  Ambitious projects can be wonderful, motivating, exciting…  But they can also be paralysing, can’t they?

Sara Bench's amazing lace projects

Yeah, Me Too…

When I first started knitting, waaaaay back in the late ’80s, I opened a book one day and fell head-over-heels for Kaffe Fassett’s Romeo and Juliet Coat.  I desperately wanted to make it but…   I was new knitter and it just frightened the life out of me then.  How could I possible knit something as amazing as that?!?  I didn’t think I’d ever be a good enough knitter to create that.

These days, it’s not the skill level that would stop me from starting it so much as the fact that the late ’80s and I parted ways quite a while ago.  The projects that I aspire to now are much more intricate — when I go to knit night and see my friends pull out masterpieces like Honeysuckle by Sarah Hatton or 2011 KALendar by Carmen Oliveras, my heart goes pitter-patter.  But I wonder if I could ever make something so amazing myself…

SpaceCadet Creations Luna Laceweight yarn in Merino and Silk for knitting and crochet

What intimidates me most now, be it Kaffe Fassett’s coat or those amazing shawls, is the sheer the amount of time it would take.   It’s time, not skills (or courage!), that I lack.   And I find I bypass as many projects now for that reason and I did back then for the other.

Is It The Same For You?

I’ve been thinking of this a lot lately — the projects we aspire to and what it is that holds us back from making them — and wondering if your experience is like mine.  Are there projects that you aspire to but have never yet had the courage to start?  What is it that’s stopping you?  And do you think you will ever get past it and cast your project on?

So I tweeted that question last week…

Thinking about our most ambitious projects... What projects are on your maybe-someday list? And what holds you back from starting it?

And the responses told a real story…  Some of you are intimidated by new techniques; some, like me, just too time crunched; a few have too many ambitious projects on the needles already.   And one response I love more than any, because it took that story and turned it into a real conversation…

KnittingBrow discusses ambitious knitting projects

(Also, does he have the coolest mustache or what?!?)

Tell Me About You

So tell me, what projects do you aspire to?  What do you have on your maybe-someday list?  And — the most important part — what is it that’s holding you back?

, tell me on Ravelry, or leave a comment right on the blog.  Because I’d really love to know!

 

5 thoughts on “Our Most Ambitious Projects: What Holds Us Back?

  1. I actually have a most challenging knit OTN. I started Bridgewater by Jared Flood this spring. I am on the central garter stitch panel now and it is going fine, but the directions and the amount of time it will take to make the lace edging has me a bit scared. I hope it can be one of those baby steps kind of projects where I can manage to stay with it and persevere. The yarn is Classic Elite Yarns Silky Alpaca Lace, the color is a variegated tangerine, raspberry and lime. I will use solid raspberry for the border edge of lace. I chose it because I love garter stitch, Jared Flood and a challenge!

  2. I would love to make an allover stranded colorwork sweater, but it probably won’t happen, at least not for a while. The main issue is that I am a slow knitter and my size and shape keeps changing. I don’t want to spend all that time making it and then not be able to wear it. At the very least, I’ll be waiting until I’m done having kids.

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