Monday, July 31, 2006

Invasion of the Super UFO's

My craft room has been invaded by UFO's. They hide in boxes and LYS bags all over the room. I try to run and hide from them...but I can hear them from inside the closet. A little rustle of plastic bag....a little clink of knitting needles....and a voice like Golem...."Juliiiiiiiiiiiiii.....come finnnnnnish usssssss.''

I'm trying! I'm trying! lol. Since June I have been working on a long list of unfinished craft projects. Some are 8 years old...eeeeek!!

Today I bit the bullet, and pulled out the Mother-Of-All-My-UFO's: the dreaded cable vest project.



I started this sweater for my MIL last October and knitted on it for what seemed an eternity. I got the two front panels done, and started the back panel.....but then I just got tired of working on it. With a 2 year old it was hard to find the time to spend on it. It was the never ending project....and took copious knitting notes to stay on track with the pattern repeats. It's not a difficult pattern, just tedious with all the repeats and boring to work on. But I do enjoy cables and twists -- learning how to do those was the fun part of the project! :)

But, THANK GOD for my obsession with pattern notes. I picked up the bag today.....looked at the notes and I know right where I left off on the back cable repeats. So....I am going to FINISH this sweater!!

The pattern is from a Bernat sweater book from the 80's, and my MIL loved it when she saw the book. The first two panels came out perfectly gauge and size-wise....so hopefully, it is a good fit for her once I get it all knitted and assembled. **Crossing fingers...knock on bamboo knitting needles**

I'm also working on finishing the pal for a sock I knitted some time ago.



I'm using KnitPicks Sock Memories in Flower Power......and you can tell it's been sitting around as an orphan sock for a few months, as KnitPicks has discontinued this colorway. LOL. I was disappointed that they don't offer it anymore, as it's such a happy retro mix of red, orange, green and yellow...I just LOVE it! But at least I'll get a nice pair of socks out of it!

My self-imposed yarn and project diet while I finish up all my un-finished craft/knitting&crochet projects is proving to NOT be an easy endeavor. I have seen so many pairs of socks, cute pillows, purses and other projects that I'd rather be working on....but NO NEW PROJECTS until I get all the in-progress stuff done! At least ONE of my UFO projects is a sock so I won't go completely into withdrawal. :)

And thank God for swaps.....yarn I receive from swap pals is the only new yarn I'm allowing myself to have until my list is all done. I can't knit with any of it, but I do visit my new yarn frequently. "Oh Koigu, Trekking and Wildfoote, I do hope to be using you to make such nice pairs of socks very soon....'' LOL.

And maybe this will get me into the habit of working on only one or two projects at one time instead of starting so many and not finishing all of them.

My UFO project will be continuing on into August.....I hope I can scratch more off my list at the end of August!

When I get this sweater done, I'm going to be doing the happy dance most definitely!!!!

TTFN!!