Slogging Central

SLOG - v. 1. To progress with a slow, heavy pace against resistance; to plod  2. To work diligently for long hours

I've begun to think of "slogging" as a knitting term even though it applies to whatever you are working on.   As I work my way through a list of household projects, as well as my current knitting projects, the definition above feels like the story of my life.  Even though I am slowly checking items off the spring cleaning list (Isn't it worth making a list just to get that little bit of joy from crossing items off?) as well as seeing some progress on my husband's Klaus sweater, I don't feel like I am getting anywhere.

As far as the cleaning goes, progressing "against resistance" says it all.  It doesn't matter how long I've been doing this parenting/stay-at-home mom thing (I prefer to be known as "the household C.E.O."), I can't get used to the fact that as I clean out closets and do the deep cleaning, dishes keep appearing in the sink and laundry keeps piling up . . .  huh, imagine that!  I just have to remind myself of what my friend Angie once jokingly said when I was lamenting about never feeling caught up, "When you're caught up, you're dead!"  It's so true, isn't it?  I have a coffee mug to go with the sentiment:

My favorite mug. It's faded.

Here is the same logo
on a fridge magnet
so you can see it better.

In the knitting arena, the feeling of a lack of progress is due partly to the fact that my current so-called "portable" project is in slogging mode just like my husband's sweater.  You may remember that I couldn't resist casting on for an Antonia Shawl, as I rationalized it would be my portable project, conveniently ignoring the hat I already have on the needles.   I thought it would be an easy project to knit during breaks from the Klaus sweater, but it is not turning out that way.  For instance, I had practically all day Saturday to work on it, as Angie and I were knitting in the Mt. Shasta ski lodge, ahem, I meant, doing our parental duties taking our kids out for a day of snowboarding.  But it seemed like I had to rip out a row for every two that I was able to knit.  My biggest error was actually not a knitting error, it was when I foolishly stated out loud that the pattern was somewhat self-correcting as I could see if I was in the right place in the knitting pattern.  It was only moments later when I realized I hadn't made an error in the middle of a row, I had just skipped an entire row of the lace pattern.  That was when I had to undo 2 rows of about 200 sts each.

It will be worth it though.  I made some progress after all, and it's turning out as beautifully as I hoped:

The good news is my husband is off on a fishing trip today, and I'm going to use that as an excuse to play hooky from the spring cleaning for at least part of the day.  So I hope to show you some progress on both projects tomorrow.  He has chosen a second mushroom-dyed yarn as the contrast color for the stripes on the sleeves of his Klaus, so I'm off to wind more of my hand-dyed yarn and to get some knitting in.