Stress knits: None of the knits.

I think my knitting is starting to stress me out.

After casting on all the things in order to deal with stress last week, I'm now left with all those WIPs huddling accusatorily on a corner of the bedspread. (Okay, maybe "corner" is an understatement.) They make me feel guilty and irresponsible. I'm fairly sure I need to finish one or two of them before I can start feeling good about myself again.

I've been working diligently on the Hanami stole first, because it has the nearest and hardest deadline. I found a free printable calendar site, and printed out April and May, working out a schedule and daily quotas to stick to. I am, of course, fairly behind schedule. But at least I'm finally out of the interminable, unmemorizable basketweave section.

While I was knitting the basketweave of the first half, I had been longingly looking forward to the second half: stockinette with occasional eyelets that grew thicker and denser as the stole progressed. Now that I'm working on it, though, I find myself deathly bored. I'm even beginning to develop an aversion to the endless purling, and I've never understood other people's dislike for purling.

I don't think it's the Hanami pattern that's causing this. I think I just want the project to be over so that there's one less thing weighing on me.

I've learned my lesson: five active WIPs is too much. The stress of responsibility for them all turns the pleasure of a hobby into the drudgery of obligation.