Can't Wait for the Challenge!

I have to say that I am not doing such a bad on my seamless hybrid sweater from Knitting Without Tears. I'm working on it sporadically so I don't feel like I'm overwhelmed by it, but I'm definitely happy with what I've produced so far. I'm just hungry for a challenge.

I'll say that, to date, this is the most time-intensive project I've decided to work on. I've done more complicated projects with color work, but this project is an adult-sized sweater and it's been a challenge for me to just knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit...

As excited to begin this sweater as I was, I'm very eager to get to the part where I attach the two sleeves and the body and get to my decreases for the yoke. Time, however, is moving very slowly. I'm only about 2/3 done with the first sleeve and perhaps about that far with knitting the body. In the back of my mind I keep thinking, "you've heard of second sock syndrome, are you going to come down with second sleeve syndrome?"

In more complicated projects in the past, the love of the project came from the knitting, but also the challenge of cabling, switching colors, shaping, or seaming. In this project, I'm going to have no seaming (I can live without seaming!) and I chose not to incorporate anything in the way of cabling or colors because I wanted it to be a fast knit. What's happened is it's become a very slow knit because it's been sort of boring lately. The start of the sleeve was great (shaping every fifth row), but now it's just straight knitting from here on up. I actually think more complicated pieces have taken me less time.

I've decided to adopt a Harry Potter Book 7 philosophy. I don't know if you're a Harry Potter fan, but in Book 7 there are several chapters in the middle where Harry, Ron, and Hermione are in a tent in the woods. They are long, slow chapters. I felt like it took forever for me to read them. But in the end, the book as a whole ended up great. As a reader, I "earned" the ending of that book.

With this sweater, I need to adopt that philosophy. I need to remember that although there are parts of the sweater that are long and slow, the end product is the final reward for making it through the lull. I can't wait for the challenge of attaching the sleeves, knitting the yoke and creating the neck, but I've got to be patient or else the end won't have felt so well-earned.

So for now it'll be knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit. When I get bored, I'll start the other sleeve (increases) or do a small, complex project. In the end, I'll have earned the exciting finish.