There’s no question that I cannot do the same things for a period of time without getting a bit bored, or at the very least without it feeling like a chore. I especially have noticed this with knitting projects.

I joined a Mystery Knit-A-Long run by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting (NNK MKAL). I knew going in that it was going to be challenging. Alana herself rated the pattern, a shawl, to be for intermediate knitters. After a lot of frustration, ripping out and starting over (multiple times), I managed to complete the first of 4 clues. The clues were released weekly, and it took me more than a week to finish that first clue. After that it took me even longer to complete the second clue.

On a positive note, I’ve learned so much – especially when it comes to reading your stitches and understanding how the pattern ‘grows’ row by row. The pattern itself is lovely and I’m looking forward to the finished product.

But it’s taking f o r e v e r….

Or at least it feels like it is; and the pattern can start to feel a little boring when you repeat charts several times. I’m notorious for starting a crochet or knitting project, getting bored with it and setting it down – only to come across it some time later and frog the whole thing.

For that reason I started to limit myself to the project I was working on before moving to the next one. Instead of helping the situation, it made the whole thing feel like work. I was trying to fix a perceived problem and really only made it unpleasant.

A few nights ago I finally had enough. I was, at that point, still pushing through to finish the second clue, and I was starting to hate what I was doing. After all the effort it took to learn how to do increase-3’s, make 1’s, and cabled twists I did not want to give up on it. Coincidentally, another Mystery Knit-A-Long I signed up for was starting. That one was the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit-A-Long (RCYC MKAL). I set aside the NNK MKAL project, and cast on for this new one.

While all of this was going on, we had some cold spells, and I had been thinking about knitting myself a pair of gloves. Came across a great pattern, Maize, on Tin Can Knits. After completing 15 or so rows of the RCYC MKAL, I set that one aside and cast on for the mittens.

Over the next couple days I worked a few rows of the NNK MKAL, a few on the RCYC MKAL and, of course, the mittens. What a difference! I felt I was progressing in the projects, but they weren’t becoming tedious. I completed one mitten this morning, and will be casting on for the second later tonight.