When you are looking at yarn does it ever speak to you? Have you ever heard your knitting needles, or crochet hook, or paint brushes or whatever your crafting tool is - whimper because it wants to be used? Well don't worry, you are not going crazy, I certainly hear those voices as well.
My different crafting tools all have different voices. My knitting needles whimper softly when they want to be used, they aren't jealous of their sister needles, when one set is in use the others are quietly content. My floor loom is a bitcher, she has been complaining for a couple of weeks now about being naked, she wants to be dressed. I'm starting to wonder if I dress her will she shut up or will she then complain that she's lonely and wants to be woven. My bicycles shriek in unison "Ride Me, RIDE ME!". The table loom is going for the silent, Catholic guilt (very effective). When you throw in two dachshunds and an ornery kitty I have a rather noisy house and I haven't even talked about the yarn (I want to be a scarf, I"m a sweater if you would just knit me, I'm a shawl, no wait, I'm a scarf, no wait...).
Fortunately I have discovered a way to quiet the voices without medication, except for the bikes, they only shut up when ridden. The solution is simple, start a project, doesn't matter if it's knitting or weaving, just starting and continuing to work on a project quiets the voices. If you stop work on a project you soon have another voice added to the cacophony so be sure and work the project to completion. So, let me tell you about the project keeping the peace in my house...
One of my coworkers is pregnant and due in mid-May. I wanted to make something for her and have given up on blankets, they take too long to knit so I settled on a baby sweater. Of course a baby born in May in Southern California doesn't need a sweater so I'm making a bigger size for use in the winter. I decided to use Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket pattern. This pattern was first published in 1968 in Elizabeth's Opinionated Knitter column and is still the top sweater pattern on Ravelry. It's a one piece pattern that folds into a sweater like a puzzles with only two small shoulder seams to be sewn. It's an easy pattern, but it's also easy to lose your place in it - I know this because I usually lose my place at least once. My only gripe with the pattern is the price, I personally think it ridiculous that they charge around $10 for the pattern - for goodness sake, the pattern is 46 years old! - but I got around that by borrowing the pattern from a friend.
The basics of the are to cast on a number of stitches, decrease for a while then increase for a bit, make a flap, pick up stitches, increase a little more and you are done. For a busy working person it takes about two weeks which includes frogging back a couple rows when I lost my place. Here is the almost finished product lying flat:
And here it is folded:
I need to finish the bind off, sew the shoulder seams and sew on button and it will be ready to, before my co worker goes on maternity leave. Yeah!
Do your tools talk to you? What are you working on to keep them quiet?