Knitting guesstimates
The main complaint I hear from non-knitters about why they don't want to knit an entire sweater is that it "takes too long". Every single time I show off an FO to a non-knitting friend, the first question out of their mouth is "how long did it take you to make that?!". My answer (uh, I dunno, about a week? a month?) never really satisfies them... If I go into details, explaining that I usually juggle several projects at once, they just seem confused.
However, it is crucial for me to be able to guesstimate how far along I am on a project. I cannot predict the time it will take, but I must calculate how much knitting I've completed and have much knitting I have ahead of me. I've got to see the light at the end of the tunnel!
So, here are my guesstimates:
I postulate that a sweater or cardigan is made up of 6 equally sized rectangles (or units).
1 sleeve= 1 unit
1 back or 1 front= 2 units
A cardigan is made up of:
2 sleeves= 2 units
2 half-fronts= 2 units
1 back= 2 units
2+2+2= 6!
So if you've knitted, say, the right front (1 unit) and the back (2 units) of a cardigan, you're half-way done! (3 out of 6 units).
At this point, you can check whether your half-completed cardie goes well with your summer wardrobe.
It does!
For socks, I assume that the foot is longer than the leg. The question is: how much longer? Not really twice as long.... I guesstimate that if the foot is 2 units long, then the leg is 3 units long. That's 5 units per sock, or 10 units total for a pair of socks. So if you're working toe-up socks and you've just turned the heel, you've done 2 out of 10 units, of 20% (or 1/5th).
Check out my Misocrafty heel. I was ready to abandon the short row heel because of the inevitability of holes, but various Spiders have raved about Misocrafty's tutorial. The title of the tutorial, "How to Knit a Short Row Heel or Toe Without Holes" does not lie. 
Labels: Agnes, guesstimate
