Isn’t this beautiful? Dream in Colors gorgeous colors, and a bit of silver sparkle spun into the Smooshy yarn base to make it pop. This is their new yarn base called Starry. (And I knew that my hubby’s photo would turn out much better than my attempts.) We plan to have this up at The Loopy Ewe early next week. I know these would be beautiful as socks, but I think we’ll also see a lot of shawls and scarves and hats and gloves and mitts knit up in this, too. (Why hide it in your shoes?) I will confess to having cast on a cowl. FPS*. I am having a serious problem with casting on. In Wednesday’s post I referred to my newly-discovered (newly-admitted?) KADD. I don’t have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) but I definitely have KADD (Knitting Attention Deficit Disorder.) My number of WIP’s is ridiculous and it doesn’t seem to matter how many I have on my list – it just keeps growing. I do have a lot of single socks, but lately, the thing I keep casting on is scarves. One right after the other. I AM finishing some of them. I had to – they’re for Christmas gifts. But there are still too many mid-stream that get set aside for the next sparkly fun interesting exciting pattern or yarn that comes along and intrigues me momentarily. It really is fun to make scarves and mitts and hats out of “sock yarn”. And it’s a good way to keep motoring through my stash. (But I don’t think it counts as “using it up” when it sits there as a half-done WIP. sigh.) This weekend I’m spending some time organizing the stash. I hope I come out alive.
Today’s recipe is one that Elf Karen shared with us and then I made some changes to it. (I don’t change knitting patterns all too often, but I seem to change recipes when I make them.) It’s delicious and perfect for a cool winter evening.
Chicken and Mushroom Soup (or leftover turkey?)
6 cups water
2 quartered onions
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped celery leaves
5 chicken breasts
Cook the chicken breasts in the above mixture until tender. Remove the chicken and chop into bite-sized pieces. Strain the rest of the mixture and reserve the liquid.
2 cups diced celery
2 cups diced onions
1 lb. sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup butter
5 cups fresh white bread, cubed
Saute the onions, celery and mushrooms in butter until soft. (Do not brown.) Remove from pan and then add in the bread crumbs. (You may need to add more butter.) Stir until well coated and toasty and remove from heat.
2 tsp. sage
2 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. poultry seasoning
6 Tbl. chicken stock base
5 cups evaporated milk
3 Tbl. flour
Add sage, pepper, poultry seasoning, chicken stock base, and evaporated milk to a large pot. Stir to heat through. Whisk in flour as needed, to thicken slightly. Add reserved liquid from above, as well as the onion/celery mix and the chicken pieces. Heat through. Just before serving, add bread crumbs and parsley (if desired) to each bowl.
Before I close, here’s the question for you to answer for the November Blog Contest. I’ll randomly select one person from the comments section, next Friday. So you have a week to leave your comment/entry. I know that there are many of you who, like me, have KADD. I see your orders. I peek at your Ravelry projects pages, I read your comments on Wednesday’ blog. I just know these things. For me, the thing that seems to entice me to start something new is either 1) a new yarn that I am itching to try or 2) a new pattern that intrigues me. If you have KADD, what is it that gets you picking up another set of needles and beginning something new? (And if you don’t have KADD, just go ahead and admit it. That will get you an entry into the contest, too. Any tips on how to avoid KADD? Don’t say “discipline”….)
Sheri 2or3projectsgoingatonceseemsreasonable
12ormoredoesnot.Ohwell.
*FPS = For Pete’s Sake
I have a few projects on the needles. I don’t look at it as KADD, but as having a knitting project for each purpose. And easy project for when I want to knit, but do not want to pay too much attention to my project. A project for the car, when I am a passenger, a project for play, I have made many mini socks, toy rabbits, and I have a teddy bear that I slowly work on… just fun little ‘nothings’ that I like to do…
Oh, I know, it’s like food…I have meat and potato knitting, and fun side dish type projects and my dessert and junk food knitting… it all has a purpose.
I did find that my KADD increases significantly when I have a trip or a special event… because then I find that there is that “must have” item that I want to wear.
Hey, if no one is getting hurt, then KADD shouldn’t really matter… I won’t tell! 😉
KADD – it’s boredom for me – I see a pattern or yarn and think ‘oh, this will be fun’…. and off I go.
I’m an equal opportunity addict…I’ll jump into a new project for just about any reason – yarn, patterns, the direction the wind is blowing, hormone levels, ANYTHING! My saving grace from KADD is that I do get intermittent episodes of finishitis followed by blockitis so things do finally arrive at a wearable or giftable state. Need an example? I blocked 3 lace shawls yesterday…one had been sitting waiting to be blocked since, um, February? Such a triumph has fueled a sudden urge to start several new lace projects…despite the fact that I have at least 10 current WIPs. I fit right in with the Loopy Gang 😀
Enjoy the turkey et al! YUM!!!
Add me to the list of those with KADD. It seems like I have it more under control at some times more than others, but there are times when startitis in the worst way!! When I get a beautiful new sock yarn, sometimes I can’t help but start a new pair, no matter how many are already OTN!! And then of course when the new Knitters or IK arrive at my house (like the IK did today), I search the stash for yarn for the patterns that are calling my name!!
It’s the yarn everytime! I just have to see what the color looks like knitted up, and how it feels while I’m knitting, and the drape of the knitted fabric, and…
I just stay out of the yarn shop until I am ready to start a new project, or at least until I am totally sucked in by my knitting friends who have something new and I just HAVE TO HAVE IT!!!!!!!!!
My KADD is more of frequent yarn buying than frequent casting on. I usually limit myself to one of each type of project. Right now, I have a shawl, a pair of socks, a pair of wristwarmers, and a blanket on the needles. I won’t cast on for another pair of socks until this one is finished, and so forth, but I might cast on for a dishcloth or scarf. If only yarn purchases were so easily controlled….
I totally have KADD, I saw some pretty yarn and pattern the other day and had to have all, stopped all my other projects just so I could make it. It turned out beautifully but now I don’t want to knit any of my old projects but keep moving forward with new ones, ugh.
I also have a yarn buying problem that never gets quenched because its a lot of wishful thinking and then mass buyings, d’oh, I wish I had more to spend on sock yarn for me and accessories. Maybe someday.
Yes, I DO have KADD! I have ALL the signs! When entering a LYS I have to feel each new yarn. Then, I’ll spend hours looking through all the new patterns. My biggest weaknesses are baby patterns. I just can’t resist. I guess I think every new baby should have something that was knitted with love especially for them! Or, at least that is how I rationalize my disorder.
I seem to develop KADD when I’m nearing the end of a project but don’t want to weave in the ends or seam. So, I move on to a new project!
I have KADD and I’m not ashamed (well, maybe a little). We have 5-6 LYS within 1 hr of my house. I go and see all the pretty yarn and amazing patterns and the nice ladies there convince me that I can make this pattern “in no time.” Little do they know that it will be half done on the needles this time next year and I will have moved on. Or it will still be in the stash bin. I’m a slow knitter so it takes me a while anyway. Then I just can’t seem to enjoy finishing off the ends and/or sewing up the seams. Maybe that’s why I like socks, few ends and no side seams. Is there help out there, somewhere………..?
I don’t really have knitting ADD, but I definitely get very excited about new yarns / patterns. However, I make myself finish one thing that’s on the needles first, before I start something new. I figure it’s perfectly ok to have a sock- , lace-, sweater- and TV-knitting each on the needles at any given time 🙂
I sometimes have bouts of KADD, it comes and goes. I keep my yarn away from my WIP area, and I just got involved in a car accident, so I;m running through my WIPs pretty quickly now (can’t walk to get more yarn, so I’m stuck with what’s beside my chair), which isn’t so bad, I’m finishing the family’s Not-so-Noro striped scarves at the actual start of winter! Usually they would sit for a long time, I might find them at the bottom of a tote bag when I’m doing my closet clearout after the cold season.
I tend to lose WIPs more than ignore them…
I find I cast on a LOT more things that never get to the WIP stage. I end up frogging them before they decide what they want to be. I ‘just start knitting’ a lot…
this time of year it’s “oh crap, Christmas is in 1 month and i haven’t started half my gifts!” then i immediately cast on 6 projects that i have no hope of finishing before Christmas.
but usually KADD results from the perfect alignment of pattern and yarn–“this is the single best pattern ever written in the history of mankind. and if God had to pick a yarn to knit this pattern in, he would pick this exact yarn that the store just got in and is only available in limited quantities, so i’ll buy eleventy jillion skeins! must. knit. now!”
It’s a “what do I feel like knitting today” thing. That way you are never bored and always productive! Things get done when it’s their time.
I might have to call it cast-on-itis – I tend to have a nice collection of projects going, but it’s mainly because some are better for certain times, moods, etc. 🙂 I would like to think they all get done in a reasonable amount of time – other than the occasional thing that should probly be frogged anyways or my blankets that are always laying around in the works. . . .
Pretty yarn entices me. New patterns entice me. A new yarn that goes with a new pattern, or one that I’ve been dreaming about….well, I’m a goner. Lacey shawls…my greatest weakness. But that’s just now. Previously it was new sock patterns. I’m very fickle. 😉 I don’t always cast on right away, so I have fewer WIPs than I otherwise would, but I still have more than I’d like. And when I finish something, I’m so excited I might treat myself to a new something, but then…it’s hard to stop at just one. So I never do get ahead. But I have lots of lovely knitting happening!
Usually, it’s a pattern, but sometime the yarn grab me and says, “knit me now!!” More recently though, something clicked in the designer part of my brain and i must knit the results. or attempt to…
So far I don’t KADD, I only allow myself to have one item of a type started at a time, ie one sock, one shawl, one hat so to start another shawl I have to finish the current one BUT I haven’t been knitting that long so who knows what the future will bring. I must admit it is hard not to cast one each new yarn I purchase.
I currently have 24 projects in varying stages of completion (only 4 of them are currently WIPs, the others are snoozing). I begin new projects for a variety of reasons. Sometimes I get too excited by the prospect of a new project/pattern to wait. Sometimes I get stuck while knitting a project because I need to learn a new technique or use a technique that I don’t particularly relish (*ahem* kitchener). Sometimes the knitting part is all done, but the project sits in the hibernating pile because I dread the finishing process – weaving in ends, seaming, sewing on buttons, etc. My new year’s resolutions will probably have to include something about finishing what I start!
Okay, I admit it, I have KADD.I have always called it CADD (Color Attention Deficit Disorder) because it spills over into my quilting as well. The worst department is socks. OMG I cannot stop!! First broken rule was no more buying sock needles as I would just fill them up. Next broken rule was no more buying zippered pouches…well I didn’t buy more sock holding pouches, but started cramming 2 projects in each bag. I have rarely put my work in progress up on Ravelry because it is embarrassing and the process would take time away from knitting. Just completed my 116th pair of socks since I learned how to make them 3 years ago. I am fighting the urge to fill those needles since there are 11 other pairs to finish…and 3 scarves, 1 sweater and 1 hat. That is everything, really it is 🙂
I go through KADD phases…but right now I have so many projects in mind and no time to knit! Frustrating! So nothing is getting cast on. I am working on some socks and a shawl, both for gifts. Luckily, my KADD is part of a matched set with my GTKOMN-INTFSE…get this knitting off my needles, I need them for something else!
Stress. Every time the going gets tough in the rest of my life, all I want is some distracting new project. Even if all my current projects are engaging and made with super-happy-fun yarn, a bad day at work makes me slug out the ball-winder.
It’s my ravelry friends! I always see the projects they favorite or queue and then I catch the bug! The last thing I need are more projects in the queue, but there you go. Great projects and yarn are contagious.
for me, it’s pretty equal between new yarn and cool pattern that entices me to start a new project. which is why I have 5 – 6 projects otn at all times.
When I get bored with a project, if it’s not moving fast enough and it is something that I have to knit for someone else or I have lost the zip the colours first gave me. Or if it is a project that I just have to make NOW.
I never used to have knitting ADD, but since I arrived in Lesotho (tiny country in Southern Africa where I now work) I have been going nuts starting new projects. What has been drawing me in are blog posts about cool new patterns. Yarn’s not the issue–at this point most of my stash is in transit and unavailable. Right now, I see a new knit and think, “oooh, that would be so pretty in XX yarn” and cast on. It’s out of control!
I have KADD so badly, especially right now. I have so many projects going I won’t even admit it to myself. Sometimes I just see a project and have to cast on for it right then, or I am at the yarn store, working on my sweater and everyone is knitting socks and I have to go home and cast on socks, even though it is the middle of the night. I think one thing that helps, is setting some reasonable goals once it starts to get out of hand. Once a project is nearing completion, it starts to feel better about finishing and once you are done, thats a great feeling. So great, it may even carry on to get you to start finishing another project. I usually try to finish 2-3 projects at a time to cut back on my projects and I won’t cast on to any new ones when I have too many that I am willing to allow myself to count. Every day I have to work on one of them – and I have to finish a specific goal to move forward….
As a reward for finishing a bunch of projects…. then I am allowed to cast on for something new.
Christmas has been great for my KADD (which I proudly suffer from), I just need to keep an eye on the calendar to make sure I will have enough time! I typically have at least 3 going – you never know what you are going to want to knit!
I’ve tamed the KADD, though a few times a year I succumb. I’m only human. And a rapacious knitter!
Yes, I too have KADD. for me it is the call of the new, soft, squishy yarn on the shelf of my LYS. I just have to knit it up to see what it can become. Then, before I can get very far I hear the call again. As a result I have so many WIPS. As of yet I still have not found a way to drown out the calls of yarn but I am still searching. LOL
My KADD is defenitely a new pattern. I look at a book or magazine and I just can’t keep from casting on a new project.
I have KADD and it’s almost always an interesting pattern that makes me cast on!!
I am also suffering from KADD right now. (Okay…most of the time, but especially this time of year.) It is usually a pattern that inspires me to start something new. I have a backlog of only a few hundred (or maybe a few thousand) patterns that I plan to knit someday…I enjoy finding yarn to match up to a pattern. I think I must find about 50 patterns that I plan to knit for every one pattern that I actually finish!
I have mild KADD at the moment. I have more stash than completed projects. NOt saying much since I am only been knitting a year. But the yarn pile grew BEFORE I learned how to knit. I have finished socks but the other simple projects are the ones not getting done. The scarves will be the death of me with the boringness. I know good tv knitting……..but I don’t watch tv that much. *sigh* Guess I need a little variety in my pattern to make me finish it. That and a deadline to get the knitted item to someone outside my immediate family are the only things that make me finish on time. 🙂
How to stop this – ummm……no clue when you find out let me know.
And PRETTY new yarn! Must add to wishlist…..
Hi -I definitely have KADD- I start projects and then start more. I love to learn new things all the time. I guess I’m more a process knitter. Start something, learn it, master it, get bored, move on to something new.
I DO go back to finish things up: I have set myself a goal. For every new thing I’ve started this year, I finish an old project. I have about 25 WIPS, but so far I’m even. Finished things and new things.
I keep having to stop and make baby sweaters- 2 out of 5 so far. And now it’s Christmas!
Yeah, KADD. Definitely …………..-oo, sparkly yarn – Oooo, new shawl pattern! :0)
Happy Holidays and Knitting everyone.
It’s a new pattern that gets my needles clicking!
I don’t want to “fix” this KADD! I don’t need a 12 step program OR intervention…I’m HAPPY!
(Speaks into megaphone, riding around neighborhood , body through sunroof) GET OFF RAVELRY!!!!! GET OFF NOW!!! RAVELRY MAKES YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN MAKE EVERTHING!!!! GET OFF!!!
Sorry, no KADD here. I do not like to have more than one project going at a time. I think it has to do with my work, where I will have scads of projects going all at once. I like my knitting simple. On the other hand, my stash of patterns and yarn is totally out of control.
Ruth
When I have a projected that has been bad I put it in time out. Then I cast on something new that is well behaved, unlike the first project. Once I have forgiven the original project I attempt to complete it. If it misbehaves again, it goes in time out in a drawer where I can not even see it, think about it or yell at it. With time it may be worked on again. It depends on how bad it was!
Well, it can be either or. Either a new pattern or a new yarn. But it is more often than not, a new pattern (with a new yarn!!!)! I have 3 yarn packs waiting to go right now plus a scarf to finish, one of a pair of socks on the needle, a blanket, a scarf, and a hat (with 1.5 more to go!). And that is jsut in my current pile! I also have the Einstein jacket whenever I can figure out where I left off and another sweater for me….plus a few more sock pairs in progress!
Yes, my name is Danielle and I have KADD….
Ummm… a road trip!! Whenever I am embarking on a trip somewhere, I feel a sense of new beginning and the need to pick the perfect project for the occasion. That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.
Mind you, judging by the size of my stash and pattern collection — and the number of WIPs I have in progress– just about anything can bring on KADD!
Both new beutiful yarn and a fascinating pattern gets me started on a new project. Lately it has been new patterns I wanted to try. Sometimes I ripp the project I started after I tried the pattern, if the pattern is too time consuming or otherwise difficult for me to finish. And I don’t have a recommendation how to avoid starting new things.
I have KADD, my name is Weronica and I live in Sweden.
Oh, boy, these people with nine or ten KADD’s have nothing on me:)
Try twenty or more!
Sometimes its the yarn, but more often its my endless curiosity.
Like, “I wonder if…this yarn with part of this pattern and this technique from this other project would…”
When I reach my threshold, I have a “Finish Three WIP’s Time”.
That is I pick three WIP’s that are close to being done and just focus on them. It helps if I move other projects out of my line of sight, so they don’t distract me;)
My KADD is most severly affected by the way a yarn feels. Since my closest LYS is an hour away, I find that I most frequently get drawn to new patterns or a flash of inspiration on how to use something from the stash.
What causes KADD for me, *Ravelry, yarn, new pattern, undisciplined yarn shopping* repeat * *
Elise
I don’t think that I have KADD. Of course, I could just be in denial. I only have 2 things on the needles currently, the second sock of a pair and the second strip of a 10 strip cabled afghan. I started the socks because the afghan was taking too darn long. Hmm. . . maybe I do have KADD.
I’ve have moved beyond the guilt!
I had a mild form of KADD before Ravelry came along and since it came along, it’s out of control!! I’m constantly inspired by patterns I see on Ravelry. Since I get easily bored with what I am working on and I’m easily distracted by the next new thing or KAL, I tend to cast on for new projects often without finishing others. And having a large stash feeds my KADD because I feel better knowing I have several projects going. I also like options so that enables KADD. I like having a few socks going, at least one lace project I can work on when I have quiet time, and bigger gauge projects that move faster, as well as easy, straightforward knitting that can be worked on in a dark movie theater. Then gift knitting has a way of butting in line or the queue and wants to be knit! I don’t have all of my WIPS/UFOs listed on my Ravelry yet either!
My husband has cured my KADD. I have to knit down my stash before any new yarn comes in the house. I have about another 6 months probably, to put that noticeable dent into all this yarn. I will be posting all these lovely resulting finished objects to Ravelry.