Not too long ago, I bought some yarn. And some beads.
Kidsilk Haze is rapidly becoming one of my favourite yarns (that, plus Silk Garden, plus Koigu KPPPM, plus Calmer. Hi, I'm a yarn snob). It's airy and light, yet oh-so-warm during those frigid winter months. I'm using this yarn to knit Trinket (Rav link), a scarf that I've coveted ever since the pattern came out years and years ago.
I'm into the second ball of yarn now (there are 3), and the scarf is around 3 feet long. I think I want the main part of the scarf to be at least 5 or 6 feet long, and then there's the knitted ruffle where all the hundreds of beads are attached (600 or so? I hope I have enough beads. Maybe I should buy another tube just in case. Or use fewer beads. 600 seems like an awful lot to hang on the end of such a light scarf).
Anyway, it will probably be several months before this one gets finished (by this fall/winter though, definitely!). It's almost June, which means that it's probably about time to start thinking about Christmas presents. =)
My Pooling Colors scarf (Rav link) is one of my favourite knits ever. Not only is it knit out of beautiful yarn (Schaefer Anne) in my favourite rainbow colours, the construction is ever-so-clever in the way it takes advantage of the way the yarn is dyed.
I have to admit that every time I see some Anne in a LYS, I dig through it all looking for another "perfect" skein with which to make another one of these scarves. I haven't found one yet. I've seen a lot of pretty skeins online, but I know that a LOT of people had trouble with the pattern due to the yarn not being dyed quite right for the scarf to work so I wasn't about to take any chances. The other day I was exercising my new ball winder (yay!) and winding some sock yarn, including the skein of Socks That Rock (Count Cluckula -- I love the name, so silly!) that I bought in Toronto over Christmas. I put the yarn on the swift and realized something:
This is a stitched together and heavily edited and resized image of the yarn laid out. See how the colours stack on top of each other? This is just what you want for Pooling Colors. I'm a bit socked-out right now, so I figured I'd cast on for the scarf and see if I could make it work. A few false starts later, I managed to get it to pool!
There's a huge garter stitch selvedge at either side (I had to add 1 extra stitch at either side to make the pooling work) that I'm not a huge fan of, but it can't really be helped (unless I wanted to find another stitch pattern, of course. Which I don't. Because I'm very lazy). I think the colours in this skein are really interesting, it's not my standard "oooh, pretty rainbow!" but I think this pattern is guaranteed to show this yarn off well, versus socks which may or may not pool/flash (and I know STR has a tendency to do that).
Since the last photo was taken I've actually made significant progress with this, and it should be finished relatively soon. I am a little worried that the scarf won't be long enough, but it will have to be blocked out first.
One potential hot-button topic when it comes to discussing UFOs is the issue of "when does a WIP actually become a UFO?" Because, you know, the term "UFO" can have a slightly negative connotation to it, as though you had given up on the project, didn't have the willpower to finish it, let a technical issue halt your progress, got distracted by other things, are afflicted with a hopeless case of startitis, what-have-you. UFOs get stuffed into the bottoms of knitting bags, shoved into the backs of closets, are hidden away from prying eyes.
Whereas WIPs can be proudly displayed, photographed, blogged, and shown off in general. "Look at this fabulous thing I'm knitting! It will become the most beautiful thing in the universe!" WIPs are filled with possibility and promise, and are evidence of industry and productivity. Funny how a simple label can change one's perception, isn't it?
So Karen, I think when you look at your list, it looks like you have at least 4 WIPs and maybe only 2 or 3 UFOs. Doesn't that sound so much better? =)
As for myself, here's what I'm working on right now.
WIPs:
1) Modern Quilt Wrap. I have now knit up to square 18, 25% done! Hopefully I will continue to plug away at this one.
2) Main Street Fair Isle sweater for Mom. I think the main body is just about done, and I have to cast on for the second sleeve. The first sleeve may need to be reknit. I got sidetracked by the Modern Quilt Wrap, but need to get back to this one.
3) I just started a pair of socks for a Christmas present. Will blog about this later.
4) This is a fairly long-term project, I'm working on a mitred square afghan in Noro Silk Garden. I haven't blogged about this one yet, because I am a lazy bum and also maybe because I don't want to jinx myself somehow by writing about it. It's the biggest thing (read: most expensive) I've embarked on, so thinking about it too much gives me the heebie-jeebies in a strange way, clearly I have some latent (or actually rather obvious) $$$ issues lurking around (also now that I've got this cat who likes to vomit on things sometimes and use inappropriate things as scratching posts, I have this depressing thought that maybe I'll just knit it and then keep on a shelf in my closet where she can't get to it). Well, I guess it's out now, I should write more about it some time. =)
UFOs:
1) I started another Child's Placket Sweater in blue and orange, for a potential-baby-to-be-adopted-who-turned-out-eventually-to-be-a-four-year-old. Oops. I've knit the body but haven't started any sleeves yet, and since there IS no baby I haven't had any reason to continue with this one. Perhaps it will be frogged. But then I wouldn't know what to do with the yarn. It's not something that I necessarily want just hanging around in the stash, the colours are a bit too bright for me, but who knows, maybe it will come in handy someday.
I think that's all I've got on the needles right now, which doesn't seem too bad. Perhaps the next topic should be things-we've-got-in-the-queue, or things-we're-planning-to-knit-that-we-haven't-gotten-around-to-starting-yet, which would truly be quite embarrassing, at least in my case. =)
(Sorry for the lack of linkage, I'm way too exhausted for that right now....)
After reading Knitting Daily for the past little while, the whole discussion there about unfinished objects made me think about my own UFOs. I thought it might be a useful exercise for me to list them all out so I knew just what the heck I had going.
1) The Dollar and a Half Cardigan from the Spring 2007 Interweave. I think I started this one somewhere around July, and so far I've only knit the back. I need to get moving on this one. I believe the yarn I'm using is Telemark, from Knit Picks. I'm knitting them on my size 5 Lantern Moon rosewood circulars, which I just love.
2) Yet another multi-directional scarf. I'm using that Cherry Hill yarn that Adrienne sent me many, many moons ago on size 3 bamboo needles. I kinda wanted to make it for autumn, so I could have a transition scarf before the weather got cold enough for my Clapotis. But the weird weather was so warm up until last week that I didn't need a scarf, so I lost motivation for really working hard at it. And the all of a sudden it got cold, and I had to break out the Clapotis! Ha ha!
3) A lacy scarf/throw made out of Blue Sky Alpaca's organic cotton. I made one of these already for a friend, and have since decided that I wanted one too. I've almost finished one skein and will be moving to the second one soon.
4) Duh. How could I forget that crochet blanket. My current major project considering babies don't really wait for the gifter to finish. 'Nuff said on that one.
5) Remember those blue socks that I was knitting using magic loop and two at a time? Well, the cord on my needles wasn't quite long enough to do magic loop AND two socks comfortably, so I moved one of the socks to some dpns and have been working on that. Still haven't gotten to the heel yet. Really, I fail at this.
6) Remember that disastrous green sweater that was all messed up? Still haven't frogged it or fixed it.
7) Long ago, I started a shawl out of some Shimmer from Knit Picks in the Morning Mist colourway. This has been sitting for so long now that I'm thinking of frogging it. But even if I did, what would I do with the yarn? It's this lace weight, variagated stuff that doesn't really lend itself to much except a shawl. I think I just don't like working with lace weight, or relatively fine stuff, so I keep finding other things to do instead.
And that would be my list of UFOs. Just looking at it kinda makes me feel like I've been totally failing at keeping up with my knitting. Somehow, I need to really keep my motivation to finish rather than getting distracted by the newest, pretty object.
