the slog continues

I am overdue for a post but am, as usual, drowning in a swamp of unfinished projects. I still find myself reluctant to use the usual acronym for unfinished objects for fear that I will come up on Roswell-type Googles. I do have my hang-ups.

Anyway.

For the sake of something to say, I present forthwith my list of current projects.

1. The second purple lacy sock. I started the heel flap at the dentist's office this morning while my kids were getting poked and scraped. No one, but no one, admired my beautiful knitting. Sigh.

2. The ripply crochet blanket for charity. This one started out to be a baby blanket but it turned out to be too big. Fortuitously at the charity group meeting this month they announced that a local hospital was in need of larger blankets for their dialysis unit. I'm not using a pattern so I'm just crocheting until it assumes a sort-of normalish blankety shape. I think it's nearing completion.

3. and 4. In the wings: the lacy scarf and shawl. I haven't worked on them for a while but they're still on the radar.

Oh! News! I got my sock of the month from Red Bird Knits this week. It's a mosaic pattern using Jo Sharp DK tweed. I can't wait to get going on it. But I will wait. Yes, I will.

a tale of 16 stitches

I have finished the sock I started on Friday afternoon immediately after I vowed not to start a sock. I would like to make the following Note To Self:

Dear Self,

Should the occasion ever arise that you (Self) are finishing the second of the lacy purple socks -- please note that I make no assumptions with regard to the likelihood of this event -- you are to graft 16 toe stitches. No, not 8, not 12, not some combination thereof as in the pair that preceded this one. 16. No more, no less.

Thanking you in advance,
Self

The 16 stitches thing was kind of an accident. It was one of those fortuitous accidents, actually, that make you go, "Hmm, maybe I should just leave it this way and see how it looks." Because in this case I think it looks pretty good. I have rather squarish toes and have never liked the look of a toe with only 8 stitches kitchenered. 12 is a little better and that's what I was aiming for this time, but apparently my left brain had gone out for walkies. In any case I'm happy with the shape of the toe.

I will aim to post a picture when I've finished the other one (she promised, a trifle optimistically).

two things

1. Disregard my last post. I started a sock. There should be a restraint system on my sock yarn bin to prevent this sort of thing. Perhaps I should have to insert a completed project to make the next one come out.

2. Never try to knit on a windy day with a playful German shepherd at your feet. When your pattern blows away she will try to help you chase the pages, and dodging her can be perilous if you happen to have yarn tangled around your ankles. I am pleased to report that only one page actually blew off our property and I was able to covertly retrieve it from the neighbour's yard.

gimme socks

Do you know how much it is killing me not to have a sock on the needles? I simply cannot live without a sock to whine about. It's so boring, it will never be done, I messed up the toe again -- these are the things that make me who I am.

I am still working on the lacy scarf (and I messed up this morning, thank you very much, and decided to leave it as my One Error To Appease The Gods or however the belief goes) and crocheting the ripply baby blanket out of disgusting RH Super Saver. I have made a vow to continue with these projects until such time as my next SOTM lands in my mailbox. That will probably be a couple of weeks yet, which might give me time to finish one of these items. Well, you'd think, wouldn't you?

I ask you.

Is this little darling not as good a reason as any to abandon my attempt at project fidelity?



I had finished a couple of things and frogged another, so I was perfectly entitled to cast on something new as a reward for my patience and dedication. Right? Right.

Let me tell you how the scarf kit came to be in my possession. I attended the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters' Fair on Saturday, dragging my entire family along as usual. If you are thinking that I have an unusually patient and indulgent husband, it is possible that you might be correct. In fact, I have reason to suspect that I'm going to get Victorian Lace Today for my birthday, though I tried to keep a discreet distance when he stopped at the booth. It's a biggish book and didn't fit behind his back very well.

Anyway, back to the scarf. There were about a million door prizes given away throughout the day, and naturally I didn't win any. I don't call myself The Unluckiest Person On Earth for nothing, you know. But among one of the very long lists of names was an old friend of mine whom I hadn't seen in years. I sent the husband out to the door prize place to hunt her down. And because she is a Very Nice Person Who Doesn't Knit Lace, she gave me her door prize! It absolutely made my day because I was really trying to be frugal but hated to leave practically empty-handed. THANK YOU, NESS!

Details about the lovely scarf: the yarn is 80% Polwarth wool and 20% silk, and it is quite possibly the softest stuff on earth. The pattern is called Along Came A Spider. And it was donated by Rovings, who are probably very nice people too though I don't know for sure.

And also in the running for the title of softest stuff on earth is this alpaca from Green Acres Alpaca Farm. These two hanks set me back a mere twenty bucks and were the only thing I bought. Honest.



And that, my friends, is how I managed to emerge with some nice stuff for very little money, and also how I came to fall off the Finishing wagon. Oh well, it had to happen.

Embracing the almighty frog

I am pleased to announce that I have disposed of one more unfinished object by way of frog. It was a sweater. It would have been a lovely sweater and would probably have been fun to knit. The trouble is that it was for myself, and the truth of the matter is that I do not like to wear sweaters. I made myself a gorgeous aran job that has only been worn once or twice. This is probably a large part of the reason the unfinished sweater has been floating in UFO limbo for a year or two. All in all, I am happier to have this stash infusion than I would have been with the sweater.

As for the felted bag, I have decided to use it without pockets until such time as I make a decision on attaching them. One more project out of limbo.

Next I have to finish a shawl or four.

Life in the realm of the Unfinished

My original title for this entry was "Life in UFO Land" but it struck me that some mighty odd Googlers might confuse this spot with Roswell. I'm not that desperate for readers.

I have finished and felted the Constant Companion. Now it needs its pockets sewn on. I had thought how clever I was making eight hundred (approx) pockets. I'd have room for EVERYTHING! with eight hundred (approx) pockets! I failed to consider who was going to have to sew those boogers to the bag. And how that person would approach said task, and with what tools. Yarn with a big needle, sewing thread with a sewing needle? Sewing thread seems too flimsy but experimentation has demonstrated that big needles are somewhat reluctant to puncture the felted fabric. I am, for the moment, stymied, and the bag is going back into the UFO heap until inspiration strikes.

I feel totally oogy today so I'm going to work on something simple, probably the crocheted afghan.

Project GITHOOH...

(also known as Project Get It The Hell Out Of Here) continues.

The highly imperfect socks are gone and off to laundry land, and now I am chugging along on the long-neglected My Constant Companion. That could be considered a misnomer considering that I haven't really spent much time in close contact with the thing, or it could be very appropriate given that it has been on my needles since the paleolithic era. Or at least sometime last year. (My husband and I recently had a discussion about who in our family is most prone to hyperbole. I didn't even place. Scary, huh?) I have finished the main body and am about to embark on the icord edging.

After MCC is done, I will resume work on the Flowing River shawl. Then I will resurrect another UFO, probably the yoke sweater that is taking up half of the WIP bin.

I will not cast anything on for myself until those items are OOH (out of here). Charity projects are permitted.