What is it about knitting stripes that is so addicting? Socks that I knit with self-striping yarn fly off my needles, while non-striping socks will linger in unfinished limbo for years. This is my first sweater that has a regular striping pattern, and I'm finding myself feeling that self-striping sock deja vu all over again. Internally I'm chanting "one more stripe, one more stripe" as I knit. And I'm drawn to this project like a moth to flame--when I see it sitting on the table the project sings to me like a siren. I want to work on it in a way I haven't felt toward my knitting in quite some time. "Just one stripe, just one stripe" I tell myself when really I should be working on something else.
Why?
Yes, I love this yarn. This yarn is indie-dyed and much coveted by me. It's deliciously speckled Merino DK by Long Dog Yarns in the colorway Octopus Garden. This picture does not do it justice--imagine oceanic turquoise, with spots of periwinkle and deep ocean blues mixed with lavenders and lilacs. Oh, and a sprinkle of neon green here and there to mix things up. I have coveted this yarn for two whole years while I was on a strict no-yarn-purchases diet. It was one of the first things I bought when I fell off the wagon this year.
And yes, I love the interplay of the colors I chose for my stripes. I found the perfect periwinkle blue and lilac yarn in my stash for the stripe section. Not only are the colors perfect, but they were from my late grandmother's stash and that adds a level of sentimentality to incorporating them into the project.
But the real reason I find striping projects so dang addicting? I suspect that it is the internal progress marker of achieving another micro-goal every time I finish a stripe. Like getting a sticker for good behavior, I see that stripe and think, "look what I did!" And I can count the stripes and visually see that I'm making progress. And I feel myself knitting faster as I see that stripe count grow …
We'll see how fast this sweater finishes. This may be a new personal record for me. Are you as addicted to knitting projects with stripes as I am?
