Knitting Along

All of my holiday knitting projects are jogging right along these days. Sure I feel like one of those little old ladies who brings her knitting every where, but it's all in the name of gift giving, so I'm ok with that. My size zero needle mitts are almost half way done after having ripped it totally out because I didn't like the faux cabling pattern. I ended up rewriting the pattern myself to shorten it, adjust for the smaller needles and add real cables. I wasn't sure how it would turn out since I'm neither an experienced knitter nor a pattern maker (other than the doll, but that was much simpler that thumb gussets and wrist increases) but so far so good. If it turns out I'll post the pattern here, just in case anyone else is crazy enough to knit with toothpick sized needles (really, they are just like toothpicks!)
The only problem I'm having is with Evie's sweater. Because I HATE the yarn. It's all my mom's fault (I love you mom!) You see, before I visited her this summer I was totally content to knit with crappy yarn. I never bought yarn from yarn stores finding it overwhelmingly expensive. The yarn I made my felted slippers with was moderately nicer but it was such a long slog I don't think I noticed. But then she gave be a huge bag of really nice yarn from a project she had started and then decided she didn't want to do. And light dawned. It is so much nicer to knit with. So much nicer. It's faster and smoother and just plain better feeling on the hands. I really think that if I'd been knitting with good yarn all along, my knitting hiatus would never have happened. I'm a yarn-a-holic now. Or at least I'm becoming one. I can, so far, go into a yarn shop and not buy yarn just because (unlike fabric, which I just buy because I might need it and then I'd never find it again so I might as well get it now) but if I want to knit something, to the yarn shop I will go.

But. Before I made this discovery I'd gotten 3/4 of this darn sweater done for Evie, too much to rip out and start again, although I'd probably have it done pretty quickly if I did, too close to just give up. Too boring of a yarn to really want to finish it. I'm dragging with it. Knitting a row here, a row there, trying my best to finish. But uggg. I'd rather be knitting with something smooth and soft and lovely. The only thing that's driving me to actually finish is the promise of starting some other new project without the icky (it's not really icky, but compared to the good stuff it is) yarn.

Now I'm excited about new yarn. Darn it. I'll never get that stupid thing done.

Have you ever had a project like that?