Product or Process?

I've been thinking about Product and Process knitting lately.

I'd like to consider myself a process knitter, that I knit for the process, for the joy of the knitting.

There is a certain thrill in every project. There is the planning, the Ravelry searching, the queue wrangling, the stash perusing and sometimes the yarn/needle buying. Then there is the cast on and the sometimes tenuous first row. There are sometimes measurements to take and mods to make.

It's all very exciting and fresh and new and fun and all wow!

Until it's not.

Invariably the project switches gears and gets a bit tedious. The cast on excitement is a fond memory. The thrill of the mod is finished and you are faced with several pattern repeats of tedium. It's not that the joy is gone, just the excitement wanes a bit while you slog through the not so exciting bits until you find yourself rounding to home and the oh so sweet bind off and finishing.

Case in point my current WIP, a heavily modified Valpuri knitted top down instead of bottom up. The prep for this mod was mindbogglingly enjoyable, thrilling even. It's not perfect but it's working and I am thrilled with this sweater's progress and I am proud of myself for working out the mods to make this first summer sweater of the season top down.

I've split the body from the arms. I just tried it on and so far so good! Squee! I estimate at least 3 to 4 more 16 row pattern repeats until I consider the bottom ribbing. Thankfully there is a bit of cabling to keep things interesting, but it's not the excitement of the yoke increases.

I'm at that point where the process gets a bit tedious. This is where my admitted selfishness kicks in, my desire for the Product keeps me moving forward.

Check out my Striped Toe Up Noro socks! Oh they are yummy. I love them! Thank you so much for the yarn Julie!!!!! They are fraternal and oh so happy! They had a few tedious spots but the color changes made for a fun knit.

I suppose I'm a bit of both a process and product knitter. I love knitting, but I also love a yummy FO.

In the meantime I'm going to work on my Upside Down Valpuri.