I almost titled this post “Where have all the needles gone?” but decided that, since I ragged on The Queen for all of her UFO’s, it was probably time to get my own house in order.  I spent about an hour yesterday straightening up, filing patterns that I’ve been printing out willy-nilly and just kind of chucking in the knitting basket, and ripping out UFO’s that were never destined to become FO’s.  There were only a few, but I got great pleasure from ripping them out and banishing those projects forever.  This brought me down to a total of 7 current “works in progress”, a much nicer term than UFO!  Currently on the needles (or holders, in some cases, as the needles are in other projects or currently residing at other people’s houses!):

Socks - clockwise from the top:  Trekking pastel “plain vanilla” socks for MINIAnnie, Monkey socks in my own hand-dyed “Tequila Sunrise”, Uptown Boots Socks from the newest Interweave book Favorite Socks in Lang Jawoll (the yarn with the baby in the middle!), Lace Wing socks in Fixation.  (I just realized that I’ve been ignoring these since June  - they are at exactly the same point of progress as they were in this picture!)

Monkey sock close-up.  These are so gorgeous I truly can’t stand it.  And Tequila Monkey is such  a fun name!

Llama shawl - still at the exact same place as the last time I posted about it in October.  In the picture it looks big - in truth it’s about 4″ tall.  I’ve just not been feeling this one, so it sits.

ArtFibers sweater.  This one was a beautiful plan that has just not come to fruition.  I picked out the yarn on our trip (almost a year ago!) to San Francisco.  The kind people at ArtFibers concocted a custom pattern (yes, Kim, FOR ME!), but there were some facts I just did not consider at the time.  The most important one is that, while a rolled hem can be a cute thing, a rolled hem in a thick and thin yarn is anything but cute.  It’s bulgy (is that a word?), lumpy, and thick.  It also rolls about 1/2 an inch and makes the sweater too short.  I should have listened to Cindy, who told me that I wouldn’t be happy with the length, but, they measured me!  It should fit!  Yet when I try it on, it’s just too short.  I am short-waisted, and it is STILL too short.  It’s done up to the shoulders, just lacking sleeves, but I am seriouly contemplating ripping it out and starting from scratch.  It’s beautiful yarn, and it deserves to be worn, and I just know I won’t wear it the way it is.  So it sits, in the basket, waiting for my full attention.

The item currently getting my full attention is this, my Lorna’s Laces bulky sweater.  The colorway is Tuscany, in case you needed to know that.  This is the yarn that The Queen picked out for me, when she called and said, “Warren has his bulky LL on sale 30% off - do you want enough for a sweater?”  Not only did I say yes, I left it to her discretion to pick a color.  This is not a colorway I would have ever picked for myself, being a pink, purple, and green girl, but I absolutely LOVE it, especially since I’ve started knitting it up.  I have been waiting to find the perfect pattern, and a few weeks ago, I picked up some Sheep 2 yarn from Sheep Shop, and this pattern - the Seamless Raglan.  I started the sweater, and found that my gorgeous yarn turned into camouflage when knitted up, and I quickly decided that would not do.  But I loved the pattern, so LL to the rescue!  It’s knitting up quickly - I’m up to the armholes and am working on the sleeves, and will join them to the body when they’re done.  This is my first raglan - hope I can figure it out.  The goal is to get it done before winter is over.  And before you laugh - this is NC - it’s going to be in the 60’s all week - winter may well already be over.  At least I tried.

This sock picture is serving dual purposes - it’s showing you the 2nd and 3rd pairs of socks for February.  Huh?  I made a pair of socks for Grandma out of KP’s Sock Memories in Geranium.  The picture was apparently deleted before it could be downloaded.  With the leftovers, I made a pair for Bugga, who is shown modeling the socks with her lovely Dora band-aid.  I have decided, in the interest of sanity and non-sock knitting, that I will reduce my goal of 3 pairs of socks per month to 2.  I put enough pressure on myself in the rest of my life - why do it to my relaxation?

OK - now I have bared both my soul and my knitting basket.  It really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, though 7 projects is a little more than I like to deal with!

Oh - and 56 DAYS UNTIL SEA SOCKS!  YIPPEE!

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