A Little Yarn On The Side

If you are participating in the WIP-finishing contest, this post is not going to be helpful at all. The lovely Hibiscus for Hope pattern is now available. Ramona has designed the luscious sock pattern as a thank-you gift for those who sponsor her in a walk to raise money for breast cancer. To get a copy of the pattern, you can sponsor Ramona here . There's a place on the form where you can specify that you would like the pattern, and give her your email address so she can send you a copy. If this: doesn't make it tempting enough for you, consider According to the CDC, in 2004 (the most recent year numbers are available), 186,772 women and 1,815 men were diagnosed with breast cancer 40,954 women and 362 men died from breast cancer Supporting research to cure any type of cancer is one of the most heroic deeds humans are capable of achieving. Let's make it a thing of the past--not the future.

Recognize this? MS3 - started over a year ago. 13 rows to go, and this bad boy is done!!! And do you want to know the best part? WHEN IT'S DONE I GET TO ADD 1000 YARDS TO MY STASH-BUSTING TALLY!!!!! I knew somewhere in the universe was something that would finally motivate me to finish MS3. Turns out it took the Year of the Stash AND the WIP marathon to force me into it, but it's going to be done!!!!!!!

Aside from needing a button (which will have to wait until the spending ban is over), Sitcom Chic is DONE!!!!!! So, my 4th WIP in a row has been finished! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And even better, I haven't found any more WIPs lurking any where. That's a nice feeling Callisto seems to be enjoying the huge WIP pile, but I find it a little intimidating. Still, there's one less of them. YAY!!!!!!! So, how is everyone else doing?

So last night I was cleaning the sewing room--obviously not having yet learned that cleaning is never really a good thing--and I found yet another knitting bag, which was holding this: Besides a giant yarn snarl, I found this: an ABC sweater from Debbie Bliss's Nursery Knits that I started for a future niece or nephew who was ultimately miscarried and I put away because I didn't have the heart to work on it any longer. Enough time has passed--and the fact that I now have 8 healthy nieces and nephews plus 2 "honoraries"--to make this an acceptable project again. I also found two green baby sweater pieces, and my first thought was "Wonderful! It's almost done!" Then I noticed: Not parts of the same sweater. What possessed me to start & abandon 2 sweaters in the exact same yarn is anyone's guess. I just hope I wasn't making them for specific children, as the intended recipients would now be of school age & way too large for either of ...

As I am a bit young for Devo, I'm guessing most people aren't going to even remember that one, but I thought it was fun. Of course, I've been slogging through rows & rows of stockinette today, so my threshold for humor is really low right now. I did use up another 2 balls of yarn (73--YAY!), but I when I got to the point where I just couldn't continue, I decided to pull out the heavy artillery. This is just missing the neck ribbing, buttons, and snaps and it will be the fourth WIP in a row that I have finished. I was hoping to hold out a little longer before resorting to this, but I'm casting off the ribbing now and will add the buttons and snaps tomorrow. Maybe I'll force myself to alternate a few rows of stockinette for every few stitches I cast off. I respond REALLY well to bribery!

* Rows & rows of stockinette stitch may not actually be the best way to keep myself dedicated to existing WIPs. * Having a few hats or large-gauge scarves in progress so there would have been some quick-finish WIPs would have been a good idea. * Working on one project at a time and finishing it before moving on to the next project might actually be fun and I should really try it sometime. * If I know I'm likely to cheat on a resolution, it's best to line up witnesses. * Working on existing projects may not be as much fun as randomly casting on new projects whenever I feel like it, but I'm going to be REALLY well dressed this fall.

So far, Jennifer might be our front-runner in the WIP contest, having finished 5 so far. I think I'm going to be making two or three divisions--small projects versus large projects, and maybe a third for crochet. I want to make the contest fair enough to keep everyone motivated. So, no one get discouraged! We're all in this together and all projects will count! I have spent tonight undoing & redoing last night's work. Smart knitters double-check patterns quite often. Others of us choose to live on the edge and plow ahead blithely in spite of all previous experience with knitting disasters. Last night I noticed that one sleeve looked okay after being attached to the body but see those increases on this sleeve? Those are supposed to be on the underside of the sleeve, not the topside. Oops. So, after tinking several rows while swearing to the Knitting Gods that I would finally this time learn to start double checking, I tried again and everything is where it shou...