September Already?

Hey Flan, Wherever the summer went I do not know. I sort of remember a work induced haze of screaming children and angry parents. Thankfully, all the "little darlings" are back in school and work is back to the regular chaos and insanity and not the extra strength version.

We dodged the bullet on Hurricane Gustav and are now watching for Ike. Who knew that so many people could discuss the potential doom and gloom for so long? My co-workers and customers alike had one topic of discussion and all the focus on what "the storm" could do was very freaky to those of us who had never experienced one. My preparations largely centered on having enough wine in the house. I was told not to buy anything that had to be refrigerated, so I bought red instead of white. Then I decided that might not be enough and bought some gin as well. Our part of the Gulf Coast was fine and in our little section we didn't even lose power. Fingers crossed we are lucky enough again.

We celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary by going to the Georgia Aquarium and looking at all the fishes. Apparently, fishes are romantic. Seeing as I am generally terrified by all things aquatic, I felt that inviting The MIL along would be a fine idea. She had a great time and the fishes are rather impressive.

Naturally, I knit on the way up, the way back, and a little whilst we were there. Delightfully, The MIL asked if I would like to go to a yarn store and I got a little trip to Knitch. There was some beautiful yarn that I got to make a little something for my future niece and a lovely time was had.

Sadly, my knitting mojo seems to be sputtering. I picked up stitches along a neckline and, when I had over 100 too many, decided it would be fine. 450 stitches at 1x1 ribbing and an inch and a quarter later it's not fine. That one's on time out.

I got some knitpicks Crayon and made all the bits of a pullover and then lost interest in making up, so that's on time out too.

I'm working on a project for the future niece, but it's worsted wt on size 6s. Very slow going. Bribe myself to work on it.

Started the Cables & Os from "No Sheep for You" for The Mommy's Christmas present. Started a sleeve as a swatch. Found out that the guage I have is 1/2 an inch too small. Time out again.

In sheer desperation, I started the February Lady Sweater for me and had to rip back and start again. So far, looking ok, but now I'm paranoid and overly cautious.

I have had to delegate the laundry basket for all of the items on time out. There were too many when just lying around the house. Today, I am going to try and organize a bit. Hope everything is going well.

New Year New Yarn

Hey Flan,

I hope you're having a good New Year's so far.

With the New Year came new yarn. One of The Brother's friend and his wife are having another baby and The Mommy asked me to make a baby blanket. I had just received the notice from WEBS that they just happened to be having their sale and there just happened to be some beautiful DB cotton angora and some also delightful Rowan Cashsoft DK on crazy crazy sale. I had been planning on using my beloved Rowan Calmer, however for the price of one blanket's worth of Calmer I could get both of the above.

The box of yarn arrived yesterday and I'm so very happy. I think I'm going to use this pattern from Rowan for the DB. However, instead of making 20 separate squares and then sew them all together I'm going to just knit it in one piece.

I am beyond ready to cast on and get started. However, with the New Year has also come new resolutions- well really just a dusting off of former ones. I have one project that has been slogging along on the needles for a very long time and if I focus I could actually get it done- shocking. If I don't then I have a feeling it will get shoved to the black hole of the knitting basket never to be heard from again.

So, for now at least, I am holding my own yarn hostage. There will be no casting on for the beautiful baby blanket until the current WIP gets finished. Years ago this is the only way I worked. I worked on one and only one project at a time. It worked for awhile but quickly went by the wayside the more obsessed I became with knitting. Startitis is making my hands itch to begin and we'll see how long my resolve lasts.

Hope you have a good weekend.

28.57%

Hey Flan,

So I knit and I knit and I knit on MS3. I started at 0 and made it to row 82. Seeing as how I have to get to 287, 82 doesn't seem that bad, now does it? Except for the whole starting at the small point of the triangle and every other row makes it bigger and therefore takes longer. By my extremely fuzzy math, that means that I'm currently 28.57% completed with the 2nd half. 3 weeks and 205 rows to go. Aw Lawd.

I had been happily going along on The Super Secret Project when I discovered that one of the sections had 14 stitches. It should have had 18. All the others had 18, just like they were supposed to. I ripped back a repeat and found 2 more stitches, so maybe if I rip back another repeat I'll find another 2. The problem is that I'm having problems reading the knitting, so it's hard to figure out where the mistakes happened and exactly how far back I should rip.

I decided it was time for some serious project focus. I'm going to work on one (1) sweater per month and no other sweater is going to be worked on during that time. I am also allowed to have one (1) more portable project. The MS3 is exempt. I went so far as to put all other WIPs in the top of the closet until it's their month. I was taking some serious control.

Serious control lasted until I was getting all the projects ready to be put away. There was some DB Alpaca Silk that needed to be added to the stash. It had been loitering around the WIPS for long enough. The problem is that I absolutely love DB Alpaca Silk and I couldn't just put it in the drawer. I might have looked through Scarf Style and may have found something that's just perfect. Also, this morning I might have cast on instead of having breakfast. Monogamy is good with marriage, but I think it might be overrated so far as the knitting goes.

The Queue

Hey Flan,

Way to rock the socks! They seriously look so much better when you do them. PLUS, you have an invite from the awesome Shelly to go dye. How lucky are you??

Last night, while watching yet another informative show on my beloved PBS I was knitting away when it hit me. Summer knitting is incredibly deceptive. Summer seems really long and like you should have lots of time to get all those projects done before the hustle and bustle of the Fall.

After reading your last post I realized why there is a hustle and bustle of Fall- Summer is really freakin' hot. Really, really, REALLY freakin' hot and the humidity and heat combine to render people immobile. Less movement= less knitting.

HOWEVER, there is LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of projects to work on. Darn time lines. So far, I am feeling pressure from the following:

1. Babies are due. No, thank goodness, not from me, but other people are expecting and for knitters that means get busy. I found a Jo Sharp pattern I like and then did some math to make it fit. That baby blanket is about 1/3 done and I started it less than a week ago. That baby isn't due until January and the party will probably be in November, but I'm trying to capitalize on the new project enthusiasm and keep working.

2. There's a fun event coming up in about a month and I thought I might knit something for that. Good in theory. Reality is that it means I actually have to KNIT something for an event that has a deadline. I started once and got about half way through before I decided the whole thing is awful and must be frogged.

3. There's another fun event in the early fall. Gracie and I (ok, in the spirit of full disclosure, I came up with this truly crazy idea and then convinced her to join in the insanity) are thinking about doing a combo LACE project. We are freakin' nuts. Lace is nice and light, so good summer knitting- but freakin' insane nonetheless.

4. All my other current WIPs -2 sweaters, 1 pair of socks, 1 scarf and something else I'm repressing- seem to be demanding attention as well (though stuffing them in individual sacks so that they can't mount a rebellion seems to make them a little quieter).

So... The question of the day is: how to decide what to work on?? Do you go by deadlines? By project size and portability? Do you slog through wool sweaters while sitting under fans and air conditioners so that you can have something done? Do you just cast on everything in sight because that doesn't take much space on your lap? How do you decide what gets first billing in the line-up? Do some projects jump the queue and get to the front or do they have to wait their turn?

The Hubby has caught the cold I had last week so tonight instead of Knit Night I'll be home with him. Maybe all the WIPs and I will sit down and have a chat.