There are days when I feel like all I'm doing is 'catch up' knitting so I leave a bit of time, when the new magazines come out, and knit something hot off the presses just to get it out of my system before I go back and do all the other stuff I loved when I first saw it.
Thanks for the knitting backwards links, always good to have a new skill! :)

I know what you mean, I have an incredible list of wish-knits that keeps growing at an alarming rate, anyway faster than I can knit.

oooh, I can appreciate that! I have so many past knits, it's a wonder I get anything done! I am going way back too, to last fall and the dolman updated. Here's to catching up and deep breathing. :)

Oh, boy. A lot of people are making the same resolution. The yarn market will be hit hard by all this.
Those are all great and exciting projects, so it shouldn't be a problem, right? I really like the Rowan Strike. The Elsie hat is also really cool. My favorite hat pattern.
Knitting backwards? Must erase that from my already confused mind. Good luck!

Giggle- there is alot of this going around at the moment! Blogging and surfing just offer up too many ideas that we want to try, but don't have the time for - sometimes because we're spending so much time blog reading/posting..
Although I think blogging also does offer incentive to get things done... just not necessarily enough!

I feel exactly the same but I find that some of the projects I realy liked a few months ago, I don't like as much now so they just eliminate themselves in a way, which is a relief because this evergrowing list is just overwhelming.

Good job Froggy! There just is no "must" in knitting. If you or I really, really want a current fad style sweater, we can go to the Target and get one for a dollar.

Wow, I'm simply in awe. I can hardly do it "my" way these days!

Yo! Froggy!

I'm doing the same thing...knitting last years sweaters! :) (everyday cardi) I even tried to join the now defunct along!!!

Does that make us Rebels? :) no better company to be in! :) take care!!!

I think the Knitback is a GREAT idea! I need to do a Knitforward, though...where I start my Fall/Winter projects now, as opposed to casting on summery stuff, which definitely won't be done. Happy knitting!

It's always fun to experiment with something new isn't it? Can't wait for you to see the line-up of future WIPs - it's going to be all green all the time over at my place.

I'm kind of feeling the same way. I've been looking at projects that have been sitting in my stash since last summer (audrey being the biggest one), thinkin about pulling them out again.

I know what you mean Froggy. Actually what I tend to do, is stuff that's supposed to be done for summer, I put it in a bag and carry it over till the next summer if I didn't finish it. I think you may have seen my summer knitting line up and while ambitious, there are some things that just won't be finished or started this summer. But I have one item from last year that I have decided I want to finish, so I hope to start on that in the next week or so, but I only have one piece to finish for a summer tank.

It is easy to get overwhelmed, but if I truly love it, then I hold on to it till the next season and pick it back up or try to keep knitting it till it's done, if feasible. I've also been trying to knit more things from my stash, even with new knit items. But I weigh what is fashionable now and what I really want and try to have a balance of new and old knits so that I feel like I'm getting something out of the old stuff (stash and older patterns) and new stuff (new mags, possibly knitting pattern from stash). There was a pattern in the last Knitty (Soleil) that I wanted to make for this summer, but it will probably not happen now. Gotta finish up knitting for this summer and then begin focusing on the fall.

I bet all of us have been there. On the pattern stashing.

If I had to knit every pattern I bookmarked, I would have to live to 200 years old to finish them all! (That's assuming I just stop buying or checking out new patterns from this every moment!)
LOL

I knit Continental and you are right, the needles do the work. There is no wrapping. However, I say that and I have to add an aside. Everyone does something a little different when they hold the yarn. I will actually kind of push my yarn down or forward so it is an easier grab for the needles and more than a few knitting teachers have looked over my shoulder and tried to figure out what the heck I'm doing.

My Mom tried to tell me it was "wrong." But when I told her there was no such thing and that was just negativism she stopped saying that. But she will still look up when I'm knitting, watch what I'm doing and purse her lips.

Phooey!

Yout Knitback seems like a wonderful idea. We should knit what we want when we want, irregardless of the season.

Thanks for all the info on the different styles on knitting. I learned to knit by picking but I have more consistency with my gauge when throwing.

This posting was so reassuring. As relatively new reader of knitting blogs, I've felt both inspired and overwhelmed by the VOLUME of knits that other knitter seem to complete. Your posting is making me feel much better about chugging along slowly on my first sweater. Someday it will be done, and when that day comes, it will still be a great sweater! Thanks!

I’m with you ma’am. I’ve really enjoyed knitting now that I’m working on WIPs and feeling like I’m finishing things. Let yourself rest and catch up before the fall yarns come out in full force.

I adore knitting backwards – makes for a very even tension and fast wrong side rows. I’ve vowed to learn Continental and the pick method this month and was just watching an on-line video yesterday. Nice to have more tools in the box.

I sure do hear you on knitting too many projects at once. I've got a couple on the back burner as well. I've trimmed myself down to three projects at a time.

Yeah, I get too stressed if I knit too much at the same time.. I try to limit myself to three to four with only one major project at a time :)

I taught myself how to knit backwards when I got an epiphany doing entrelac.
SO much easier to keep track of where you are when you don't stop and mentally turn the piece around to knit (or purl) back those few stitches in the segment.
I think knitting Continental makes it easier to do.
: )

I loved your post and I can totally relate to it. I think I need to start making some older projects as well. One bad thing about blogs is seeing all the neat new projects that everyone is making!

You're doing the right thing Froggy, hobbies are not supposed to be stressful. Go ahear and take your time and enjoy your knitting.

i feel relieved just reading that. i may bite your style. i am overwhelmed by patterns and ideas, and now that i'm adding all of this toy and sewing stuff to the mix...forget it!

i'm not going to worry about keeping up with everyone anymore, just gonna go at my pace, and try to have fun doing it!
thanks for the great post.

your plan is brilliant. maybe we should all roll back the knit clock---would definitely help with the stashbusting :O)

What a great plan! I have been thinking a lot lately about the projects I have planned/purchased well in advance of having time to knit them. Retrospectively I seem to be happiest with the knits that I buy yarn for and start immediately, or nearly immediately, because they fill some actual need. There are a number of patterns now that I have bought and stashed for which I still love but just don't know if I will ever knit. I am going through a slightly different process to you but I too am trying to deal with my backlog and avoid getting so many things backed up in the future.

Thanks for the links! I have really wanted to learn how to knit backwards. I'll have to check them out. :)

There seems to be a lot of 'stressed out over the knitting pile' going around. I can totally understand. I'm trying not to cast on more than 3 things at a time - one clothing project, a sock, and a bag. Or something like that mix...otherwise, I start to feel overwhelmed and it takes the soothing, relaxing feel out of the whole process.

Ah, yes. It was midnight, MIDNIGHT -mind you, last night when I leaped out of bed to find that great (and way cheap $2.50 a sk.) brown tweedy yarn for a sweater that might be done before it gets cold - which is a long way off if Albuquerque's summer keeps this up. So here I am finding the 12 other projects I have going (no wonder I can't find the rest of the needles and blue cables from my Denise set), and still looking for the yarn I want. Oops, cotton Sonnet sweater, not likely to finish before fall, 3 dishcloths close to completion, a Haiku baby sweater swatch in tiny gauge cotton(no baby in particular in mind- a-just-in-case kind a' thing), 4 pairs of socks on the needles and the koigu ones I frogged :) when i got lost on the gussets -2socks 2circs-.....WHAT AM I THINKIN?!
So tonight's project is pick one UFO, make progress on that ONE summer project. 2nd UFO, a for winter thing that can be finished in time to wear it( the brown tweedy thing that got me out of bed last night when I was almost asleep). 3rd order of business, find some spring or summer projects to organize and look forward to starting at Thanksgiving. I might even get to putting all the yarn and a copy of the pattern together for each project.
UH, oh...OH, Shooot! Christmas presents - better start thinking about those. NO sweaters for anyone this year. Just smaller things, hats, gloves, scarves, bowls, baskets, things that'll definitely get done. I reallly wish I had two or three of me to do all my stuff at once so I could see it finished faster. ;)
Thanks Froggy for sharing- it helps me know I'm not nuts or any stranger than anyone else.
Jeannie

Oh, and I taught myself to knit left-handed or continental this summer.Like it better. Taught myself to Norwegian Purl too. A total pain to get but really nice when I get faster and the gauge is pretty even between k & p.
Now I have to teach myself to crochet right handed so I can teach people in my continuing ed. class this fall.August is my month to learn. :)
Jeannie

I'm with you! I've been keeping one current project going and one UFO. I'll eventually have to have a Summer Knitting 1987 to get the last (first?) UFO finished!

ah the knitback! great idea! that might motivate me to knit my Audrey finally... have you checked out Annie Modesitt's site on knitting backwards? Hey, you should take some action shots of your picking on both sides - I'd like to see it and see how it compares to what I do when knitting miles of stockinette: knit continental, then knit backwards, yarn in right hand, no turning the work.

I really want to teach myself the Norwegian purl.

Where have you been? You are posting less & less. Must be the magic of summer! ;-)

Hi, Froggy. Just read your post from earlier in the month...very thought-provoking. I work parttime in a yarn shop, so I have to be especially careful on the new projects. Every new yarn wants to come home with me!

I HAVE to ask which Wegmans you knit at? Iknow they have proliferated the past few years, but I live near Rochester, where the Wegman odyssey began.

I just wanted to say hello and howdy Ms. Froggy. I'm impressed with your stash using ways. I hope you are having a great summer!

Oh, I hear you. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with all the stash I have and I feel the need to just knit, knit, knit until it diminishes. Then I see all the new stuff come out, and get the yearning to stash again. Hee!