My Life in Stitches: Finish Something

My knitting group has been having a WIP war. It’s not really a war. More like a friendly competition. The goal is to finish as many WIPs (works in progress) as you can. It was designed to organize and motivate. And you WIP war can be whatever you wanted.

My WIP war was to be waged against all the unsown ends so I could wear what I actually finished. I hate weaving in the ends. Things did not go the way I planned. I’ve ended up finishing more writing projects that knitting. But I felt frustrated about not finishing anything. So decided that I would finish the two most time-consuming projects on my needled: two sweaters.

The finishing work wasn’t hard. I needed to finish the sleeve on one and a pocket on the other. But for some reason I couldn’t motivate myself to work on them. That’s what it really boils down to, motivation. But I got a few boosts. First, fall is coming and I would like to wear theses sweaters when the weather changes. Two, there is a very specific event I want to wear one of them to. Third, I needed a mindless project to work on during my first Saturday knitting group. So the sweaters came out of hibernation.

As I picked up where I left off, I realized that my reasoning for putting them in hibernation weren’t legitimate. The pocket took less than an hour to finish. The sleeve took longer (I have long arms) but it was only 30 stitches in the round. I had made finishing them this big undertaking but it wasn’t.

The both turned out well. I still have to block one, but I can get away with a steam block. Now all I have to do is sew in the ends...sigh.

My Life in Stitches: Hey There, Cutie!

So I am now down to two projects. Yay, me! I finished the caplet I was working on, and yes, I am going to have to give it away or rip it out and make something else. I'm coming into the home stretch with my Solaris sweater and I'm frogging the baby blanket I was working on to start over with acrylic yarn (better for babies than wool). I've also been a good girl and started a swatch of the next sweater that I'm making.

All is well in knitting life except...

Okay, you know how you finish a project and you start thinking about what your going to knit next?And then after that, you decide to go browsing on Raverly. You know, you're just looking. Then, you spot something that catches your eye and your like, "Hey there, cutie!"And then you realize that you already have the yarn in your stash for the cutie you found and the next thing you know, you're reaching for your needles to cast on. Yes, I know it's all very If-You-Give-A-Mouse-A-Cookie-ish but I found myself browsing Raverly and falling in love. Here are some cuties that have found their way into my heart and my Favorites.

Three Almonds Scarf I have a Miss Babs Yowsa Whatta Skein that wants to be this.

Brick Remember the baby blanket I'm frogging? Well, tht freed up some lovely Shephard's Wool, enough to make Brick.

Juliana  I love the way this wraps. That's heaven for a chilly girl like me.

And last but not least: 

Downton Abbey Mystery KAL Okay, so I don't know what it is yet, but I love Downton Abbey. Lorne's Laces is offering an exclusive colorway called Christmas at Downton. If Santa doesn't bring it (l'm looking at you Brian Haynes), then I'll get it after Christmas. 

What new cutie projects have caught your eye lately?

My Life in Stitches: One Project or Two? Maybe Four?

The knitting part of my blog has been a little slow, but I can't say the same for my knitting life. I have four, count them, four, WIPs going right now. I have only four because I just finished a pair of fingerless gloves from my daughter's birthday. Marinating on my needles right now are a baby blanket, a sweater, a caplet and my Color Affection/Affliction. For those of you who follow this blog know that I am so anti-multiple projects. I may have two, normally a more challenging one for home and one easy social/Bible study project, but four is a bit excessive for me. And the why I feel right now has convinced me that I never need to work on four projects at a time again.

So here are my top four reasons (one for each WIP) why I shouldn't work on more than one project at a time:

1. I feel like I have knitting ADHD. I have enough decisions to make in life than to be worried about which project I'm going to work on at what time. Too much to think about.
2. Akin to #1, I don't need five patterns in my head. Yes, I have them on my computer, but sometimes I'm not near my computer (not often, but sometimes). I feel like I have bits and pieces of each pattern floating around in my head.
3. I don't know where the ham I am on any of these projects. I need a scorecard to keep track of what row or repeat I'm on. I waste precious knitting time trying to figure out where I left off or trying to end at a memorable point. 
4. All of these are taking the slow boat to China route of completion. Because my knitting time is divided over five projects, I can only make a little process at a time. For a person who likes to have FO (finished objects) and not WIPs, that's frustrating.

Those are my reasons and I'm sticking to them. My only hope now is that the caplet should be done soon. Like within 24 hours. Of course, I have another sweater I've be dying to cast on waiting in the wings. 

NaNoWriMo 2012, I'm in!

Another November, another 50,000 words.

Okay, it's not as mundane as I make it sound. It's actually a big deal for me. I have done several NaNoWriMo's (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011) and I finished all but 2009 (not sure what happened there). I have had so much fun praticipating. It's definitely a great challenge for writers. And of course, I'm not ready.

You would think that this event took me by surprise by how unprepared I am. The one of rules of NaNoWriMo is that I can't have any previous words written in the novel. That means none of my WIPs, and I have many, qualify. Which means I have to come up with a whole new idea to write.

I originally told my husband that I was going to write a dragon story that I've had floating in my head for a month, but realized the time might be better used writing another installation in my reality TV series. Brilliant, right? Unfortunately, I will be starting tomorrow with nothing more than two incomplete character sketches and a very thin idea of the main plot line. Not enough for my comfort.

But I realized something. NaNoWriMo is all about the fun. It's all about ditching the inner editor who loves to have character sketches, outlines and plot all laid out. It's about writing with abandon and discovering the story as you go. That's what I've done in past years and that's what I plan to do this year.

So root me on, friends. Check the counter to the right to see how I'm doing. To those who see me every week: if you see me walking around muttering to myself, I'm probably working out my story in my head.

Let the adventure begin!

My Life in Stitches: Get Off My Needles!

I have a sad confession to make. I have four projects on my needles right now. Not happy about that. I need to finish some of them, mainly my Mini-Mania scarf. I really loved this project when I started, but now, I just want it to be over. Hopefully by the time I post this entry, it will be finished.

Not only do I have all these project on my needles, a few have been “in progress” for a while. Here are my current WIPs:

Mini-Mania-cast on March 23, 2012 (soooo over this)

Monkey Socks-cast on March 22, 2012

Josephine Shawl- cast on March 31, 2012 (in its defense, this is my current mindless

Bible study project, which means I normally only work on it on Wednesdays and for the hour that Bible study lasts)

Spectra Shawl-casted on June 5, 2012 (a part of my birthday knitting and sadly it probably will be done before the others)

Phoenix Wingspan

Despite my multiple projects, I managed to finish a few projects. I finished my Wingspan. I am so pleased with this project. This yarn just didn’t know what it wanted to be as one of the ladies in my knitting group says. But when I introduced it to the Wingspan pattern, they seemed made for each other. I had originally named this shawl Red Rising, but one day when I was working on it, my DH commented that it looked like a phoenix rising. I promptly changed the name to Phoenix.

Pei Cowl

I also finished a Pei Cowl by Michele Wang. This was the first project in my birth-month knitting. This pattern went so fast! Once I finished past the lace rows, I zoomed through the rest. I made this with my Yarn Love Elizabeth Bennett. Lovely yarn to work with. I’m thinking about buying some more.

As for my unfinished projects, I wonder if I devoted a few hours a week to them, maybe they’ll grow up to be what they were destined to be.