A Little Yarn On The Side

Meet project 92: It's a much cuter hat that the picture might lead you to believe, but in the final scramble to get to 100, it's the projects and not the pictures that are getting the attention.  That I stayed up late on a Saturday night to finish it is open to interpretation.  I prefer to think of it as "showing extreme determination to reach goals," versus "pathetic and sad and well on the way to being a batty old lady."  So, 8 projects left and if I use up 9 more yards of fabric in the next 40 days I will have hit the new secondary goal of using up 100 yards of fabric for the year--which really won't make much of a dent on the fabric stash as I haven't been on a purchasing ban for fabric and have recently been lashing out with my poor little Visa so often at Joanns that my poor credit card can be heard whimpering in pain at the bottom of my purse.  BUT it will at least make me feel good to know that I might have used up more fabric this year ...

Bob:  This just in:  with 42 days left in the year, Ms. Sutton has finished project 91  and has made astounding progress on the next 6 cornucopias.   All 6 are ready for the hand-stitching to close the opening and add the decorative cord. Ron:  That's  quite a bit more progress than we've seen from Ms. Sutton lately.  What prompted the recent burst of productivity? Bob:  Obviously realizing that Ms. Sutton was slacking off a bit, her newly self-appointed coach woke her up at 4:30 this morning to get cracking on Finishing Friday. Ron:  Theo's hard work has certainly had the desired effect.  Can we expect the same tenacity tomorrow morning. Bob:  Hard to say, Ron.  Rather than expressing gratitude for his help, Ms. Sutton has threatened to lock Theo in the garage for the night tonight.  Coaching certainly is a thankless job. Ron:  How right you are, Bob.  Poor Theo had to nap all day to recover from ...

Ron:  Things are still holding steady with 90 finished objects and only 10 to go.  Bob:  Frankly, Ron, we really haven't seen much crafting happening here at Chateau Sutton-Goar.  It seems Ms. Sutton has been temporarily derailed by Christmas decorating. Ron:  Christmas???  It isn't even Thanksgiving yet.  What on earth could she be thinking? Bob:  When I asked, I received a very stern look and no reply.   Ron:  This puts an entirely new angle on things.  We were expecting output to slow down over the Christmas season, but if Ms. Sutton begins the holiday season a full week and a half before the day-after-Thanksgiving kick-off, what will this do to the 100-project challenge? Bob:  It's hard to say, Ron.  With "Finishing Friday" coming up tomorrow and two half-decorated Christmas tree, anything could happen...........

Bob:  It's an exciting moment here at Chateau Sutton-Goar today.  Late last night, project number 90 was completed leaving just 10 projects left to finish in 45 days. If Ms. Sutton can manage to finish a project every 4 and a half days, she'll make her target!  Ron:  A real breakthrough for Ms Sutton certainly.  though the fifth cornucopia was, in fact, the last one that was so very far along.  To finish the remaining 6, Ms. Sutton will have to spend some dedicated time in the sewing room, and her behavior yesterday leads me to wonder if her dedication isn't slipping just a bit.   Bob:  I think you may be right, Ron.  Ms. Sutton will have to stay focused, which is going to be a real struggle for the woman who managed to rack up over 35 WIPs at one time.  There was a bit of a "mohair incident" this weekend which makes one wonder if she is indeed slipping.  While the lace jacket will someday be a lovely project, to get sidetr...

Bob:  We're here at Chateau Sutton-Goar to bring you continuing coverage of the final push of the 2010 100-Project Challenge.  With 47 days and 13 projects left to go, it may be down to the wire here. Ron :  That's right, Bob.  As things stand, Ms. Sutton needs to average a finished object every three and a half days to get there. Bob:   And what would you say her chances are at this point? Ron:   I'd say better than 50-50 if she sticks to the hat regime.  It goes without saying that lace or cables would be a tragic mistake at this stage in the game. Bob:   Now wasn't there some expectation of Ms. Sutton finally tackling some advanced WIPs--such as Fleur--to make her goal? Ron:   There certainly was, Bob, and I can tell you that I've been surprised at Ms. Sutton's obstinacy in ignoring almost-finished-projects in pursuit of new ones.  A smarter game plan would have been to skip the two quilts and go straight to the Project Ti...

The GOOD news is, the hat with the 'manly" leaves is finished.  The bad news is notice anything about the top of the hat?  Like the color not matching the rest of the hat?  Yeah, I noticed that too.  The yarn is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, and since both skeins would have been ordered at the exact same time, I guess I assumed that they were the same dye lot.  Obviously not.  Oh don't get me wrong--this is November 12 and I'm counting it as a Finished Project no matter what--the truly desperate having no shame at all--but I will either be keeping the silly thing or finding a not-too-observant person who would like to give it a home no matter what it looks like.  The winter pillow covers took a bit of a detour.  I decided they would look better with beads which is, of course, a great way to REALLY slow down progress on them.  So is this: Thank heavens he picked the washable project to shed on.  I spent the day working on cornucopias...

 I'm guessing you might have noticed that the "days left" number is moving a lot more consistently than "projects left" is.  I keep hovering right around that need-a-project-every-three-days-to-make-it mark, but I'm not really getting projects done every 3 days.  The manly-leafy hat is getting close: but if I were a bright person I would have remembered that colorwork really slows me down because A) there's a chart involved, B) I am too lazy to put the yarn on bobbins to spend large amounts of time undoing big multi-colored yarn snarls, and C) I don't care much for colorwork, so I won't work on it with much dedication.  Thankfully, I have about 4 rows left then it's a stockinette free-for-all to the top. Of course, since the chart makes it a not-portable project, I have started a new tweed hat and will hopefully have the sense to only use one other color for the tweedy part, which should still make it an easy project as only one color is...