Time for a Finish-a-thon

As I may have mentioned a few times, I knit a lot of things at once. Well... what actually happens is that I'm easily distracted. I get the urge to start something new, and then I toss aside current projects and conveniently forget about them. When I actually look at all of my unfinished knitting, it's a little overwhelming. I liked all of these things well enough to start them, and I'd like to have them all finished, but the thought of actually doing the work to finish them is scary.

But as I said, I want them to be finished, so I'm going to try to make some progress. Here are some of my more pressing projects.

1 - My sister's birthday present (more details after I actually gift it)
2 - My mom's Christmas present (again, details later)
3 - Glynis socks (I have one finished, just need to make the second)

And here are some of them that I'd like to finish, but I'm in less of a hurry.

4 - Random Lavender Baby Blanket - I started this one because the pattern is really pretty, but I don't actually have a specific baby in mind to receive it.
5 - Rugged Vest - I'm kinda sad about this one. It's coming out too small for Greg, and I really need to just rip the whole thing out and start over.
6 - Ripple Sweater Vest - This is a crochet project that fell victim to my new knitting obsession. But it's still a really cute vest.
7 - Flirty Skirt - Another fit issue. This was coming out too small, so I ripped it out and restarted it a while ago. It's too "spring-y" to wear anytime soon, but I'd like to finish it before next summer.

So, now for the finish-a-thon rules:
I can work on any of the above listed projects.
I cannot start new projects. (Lone exception: If I have an uncontrollable urge to start something new, I'll make an ornament from the Knit Picks Kit.)

I shall continue with this effort until I get totally sick of it. I can't promise that I'll finish them all, but any progress is a good thing.

Itty Bitty Knitting

My Knit Picks ornament kit is here! Yay! For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, here's a link:

Tidings of Joy Holiday Ornament Kit

So the moment I got home with my kit, I sat down to knit this:

Isn't it adorable? It's a little scarf!

I shall now proceed to set aside all of my current knitting projects (and non-knitting projects), while I happily knit some cute, little, instantly gratifying holiday ornaments! (Socks? Homework? Accordion Effect? What are you talking about?)

Accordion Effect

Ah, yes. The dreaded accordion effect. To those of you who aren't racing fans (or don't have husbands who are racing fans) I shall explain. The accordion effect usually happens when a race car driver suddenly slows down more than the driver behind him or her was expecting. This results in even more sudden braking, cars bunching up, and shredded carbon fiber. All because of one foot that landed heavily on a brake pedal.

My life has been experiencing this lately. The culprit was a single work project. I won't bore you with the details of it, but it did require some major investments of evenings and weekends on my part. As a result, I fell a little bit behind on everything in my life, and felt pretty drained. Since I was feeling drained, all I wanted to do was make myself happy, so I dedicated a whole bunch more time to knitting pretty things. So I fell even further behind with the not-so-fun things like school assignments, online training for work, housework, etc. Then before I had the chance to motivate myself to do some of those not-so-fun things, I got sick. It started as just a head cold, but it has managed to drag out into a great big pain in the tookus.

So now that I've basically recovered from the cold, I have a huge, accordion-shaped pile of stuff to do that I'm just not excited about doing. Wish me luck!

Blocking Red Hot Mountain

As promised, I have pictures of the stole! Here it is before blocking. You can still see the pattern, but the edging is completely hidden because the sides curl in. It's about 13 inches wide and 57 inches long.

And here it is blocking. Now you can really see what the pattern looks like, including the edging. With it all stretched out on my blocking board its about 22 inches wide and 63 inches long. That's smaller than the pattern (26" x 72"), but it just wouldn't stretch any further. I'm still satisfied with the size though.

Now I just have wait patiently for it to dry before I can really see the final result.

Off the Needles

I haven't posted in a while, because I've been really busy with work, and I just wanted to spend my precious little free time knitting. But now I've got big news - I officially knit the last of my 54,450 stitches for my lace stole last night. I still need to block it, but it already looks gorgeous. And it's feels really great too. It's so soft, light, and warm.

I'm planning to block it tonight. I promise there will be pictures.

Yarn Harvest

I'm continuing to make progress on my stole, but I'm about to reach a bump in the road. I've almost used up the sleeves from my recycled cashmere sweater. When I bought the sweater from Goodwill, it wasn't necessarily an unattractive sweater. It was a red, 100% cashmere, long-sleeved turtleneck with a subtle cable pattern. It was a little bit too big for me, and I wanted the yarn more than I wanted the sweater, so it was destined to be recycled. But I decided to use up the sleeves first, so that if I didn't need the rest of it for yarn, then I could take it in a bit and I'd have a red, 100% cashmere, sleeveless turtleneck with a subtle cable pattern that actually fit me. Plus I'd have my lace stole.

Just a few days ago, I realized that there was no way that the sleeves alone would be enough yarn. Well actually, I've suspected that for while, but I just recently admitted that to myself. So yesterday I frogged the turtleneck, washed the yarn, and hung it up to dry. It will take a few days to dry, so I might run out of what I have before then. Hopefully I won't have too much downtime.

Then I have to decide what I'll do with the rest of the sweater. I probably won't try to salvage it as a garment now that the turtleneck is gone. I could unravel the rest of it, but I won't want to knit anything else with it. No matter how gorgeous the yarn is, after 54,450 stitches you would be tired of it too! I could make some throw pillows with the leftover pieces (good idea SJ!) or maybe I'll stash bust the yarn and watch people fight over it. That could be rather amusing...

Lace Stole Update

Well, it's been a few weeks since I posted about the deadline for my lace stole. I'm past the halfway point (yay!) but it's been just a little neglected lately. I was making really good progress for a while, and I was more than a week ahead of schedule. But then I realized that I was almost done with my vest, so I set the stole aside to concentrate on the vest. You would think that after I finished my vest, I'd go back to the stole, right? Wrong. Finishing a project is the ultimate excuse to start a new project. So I cast on another project. No details here, it's another gift.

Then I noticed that the buffer in my stole schedule was totally gone. I wasn't behind schedule yet, but I needed to go back to knitting at least 9 rows per day if I was going to finish in time to wear it to Wicked this fall. So I'm knitting the stole again. And I'm remembering how much I love the stole. And I'm determined to finish it in time!