A Little Yarn On The Side

.....and I've decided NOT to pick a Project of the Month bag.  I have 19 projects left to finish and two months in which to finish them.  I think it's time for a little project selectivity, or in other words, HATS!!!!! Meet hat number 2:  which maybe wasn't the brightest hat to select since it takes THREE rounds of knitting to get each of those tweedy-looking rows, so this is not a true project for speed, but it is getting a lot of attention because I just love how it looks.  This is hat number 3, and also my new portable project.  It's going to be a stocking cap with a teal design of some sort--maybe leaves?  I am told by the resident expert on manly attire (aka Andy) that leaves are more manly than snowflakes.  Glad he feels that way, since he's out there raking some manly leaves right now......  :)

When things start to look desperate, it's time to go get an easy project, Ta-da!!!  The second set of fall towels has been trimmed.  Unfortunately, we only have 4 of these towels, so this is the end of my towel-decorating stash.  Still, it's project 80. And............ the hat is finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Cast on October 25 and finished October 29!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  HATS COULD SAVE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 62 days left in the year, 19 projects to go, and I have a book entirely filled with hat patterns.  It could be down to the wire..................................

That's how much yarn is LEFT in my stash. HOLY COW!  Er, I mean holy sheep!

There are 66 days left in the year, and I still need 21 finished projects.  And, in those 66 days are slightly time-consuming things called "the holiday season," which really kicks off right before Thanksgiving and ends either after New Year's Day or whenever people collapse from exhaustion--whichever comes first.  And during this time, I need to average a finished object every 3 days. WHAT WAS I THINKING?????????????????????????????????  I think, at this point, it's time for a little visit to the land of REALITY.  Not a long enough visit to accept that setting insane goals for one's hobby is completely idiotic and give up or anything, but I think it's time for a strategy session.  66 days left, and there are a few facts that even I cannot ignore: 1.  It's time to raid the Project Time Out Bin.  Half-finished projects are my friends right now. 2.  It's time to finish Fleur, even if it does mean unraveling some of the beaded band because it'...

I woke up feeling much better today, so of course it struck me as a Really Good Plan For The Day for Andy and I to go out in the rain to harvest the remainder of the tomatoes--both red and green.  This, of course, being what most normal people would do when getting over a cold......

*  Can a knitter finally have too many sweaters? *  Is it wrong to see a bright side in Global Warming?  Such as the need for more sweaters? *  Were legwarmers invented by a knitter who couldn't turn a heel? *  If I decorate a few walls with lace shawls, will it keep the house warmer? *  If I started wearing them for pajamas, would that double my need for sweaters? *  Is it more believable to blame the recent casting on of 3 new projects on the cold or the drugs? *  Should I hope for a speedy recovery or hold out for a couple more sick/knitting days?

So I've been sleeping a lot.  Admittedly, I'm probably really babying this cold, but as the last cold I had turned into a 6-week saga ending in a bad case of bronchitis and massive amounts of drugs, I'm a bit nervous about colds now.  I didn't actually know they could get that nasty.  So, I've been sleeping, reading, and knitting, so there is a finished scarf progress on a few WIPs, and then some new socks to thoroughly demonstrate my lack of attention span (as if anyone actually suspected I had one).  A bit of a bad picture, but this is a variation of the pattern I used for the Sunshine socks, called the oblique openwork pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.   I had intended to use a different pattern, but I thought it best not to get too creative while under the influence of Nyquil.  Over the weekend (before the cold hit) I finished two more mittens for the mitten garland, taking advantage of all my new decorative stitching options, and then...