The half-life of scarves

I have a pretty scarf in the making. It seems like it's taking longer and longer, but it's just because I'm not doing enough at a time. This scarf is definitely visualizable as a scarf. It's 7" wide and nearly 2' long. My younger one, who just turned 2, wants to wrap it around her neck all the time just to test it out (I don't take the needle out and it scares me when she won't let go; I'm afraid she'll pull the needle out and I'll lose a row or two.

To recap, I started knitting on December 12th, the day after my 26th birthday, as a whim because I liked the yarn and wanted something to do with my time. For some reason, it stuck; maybe because I can put it down when I'm bored and pick it up when I'm really bored. :D

I get to see my knitting IRL friend Anna tomorrow; the day after that, she's getting married. I don't know how long it will be until I see her again, since she and her fiance aren't sure where they're going to live after they graduate. He had a possibility of Oregon or something, which would be a LOT closer than Florida or Alabama.

After this, I want to start the Irish Hiking Scarf for Joseph in hunter green or dark green. I'm thinking about buying Caron Simply Soft in Pine or Sage instead of using my Red Heart Super Saver in Hunter Green. Worries: that I won't have a long enough scarf with the 315 yards of Caron as opposed to the 360 yards of Red Heart. OTOH, when I try to use the Red Heart, it doesn't stretch into place like I'm used to acrylic doing.

After that, I don't know if I want to stick to scarves. I want to make a sweaterdress for Sophia, but it takes so long that I don't know if I can before she outgrows it, now that I've started on the matching scarf first. I'm looking at gloves sort of longingly, but frankly that's out of my reach for now. Maybe in 6 months.

Progress

I've actually been working, a lot, on this scarf. I'm up past the second row of flowers and it's a good 12-13 inches long. As I work, I'm constantly thinking about my next few projects, though; I feel as though I should have finished this a few days ago. Of course I couldn't, I've had too many other things to do. Saturday night I had to frog back an entire inch as I had picked up 2 extra stitches right at the edge in one row, but I was back to where I had been by Sunday afternoon. Seriously, I wish I was a LOT faster; I want to go ahead to the next thing and have this DONE already! When I'm not daydreaming about the next project (and sometimes when I am), I try holding the yarn slightly differently. I've had a bit of soreness in my right arm and pinky/ring finger, so most of my attention goes toward a way of holding it that will prevent soreness.

Knitting: Casting on for the first time

Sunday I was struck by a whim to get something from the fabric section of Walmart and actually accomplish something with my unemployment. So I picked up a couple balls of yarn, a set of knitting needles, and a fifty cent pattern book. I taught myself to cast on that night, and in the next few days, I've accomplished something amazing-a 7"x7" swatch of pretty fabric (it's got a color pattern built in, so there's a couple stripes of pink, then a stripe of rosebuds, then more pink, etc). I'm calling it a scarf at this point, because I don't want it to be simply a practice square or a dishtowel or whatever. Both of my daughters are claiming it :D.

Where You Begin

So I've been looking at all these blogs and posts on forums about creative people, and I have to wonder, "how do they do it"? Not just how they do the specific craft, because that part is easy enough to search for tutorials on, or to ask questions about, or to just pick some supplies up and start messing around. What I want to know, really, is how they can keep their focus on one project long enough, even just a several-hour-long project, to see the thing through to completion.

For me, if I can't finish something in 15-20 minutes, or have a reasonable partial goal ahead of me, I walk away. Sometimes I run.