1.  The last couple of days I've realized that a case of the blahs has had me in its grip for part of April and most of May.  I didn't get a lot done, I was grumpy and grouchy, and it was hard to get started on anything.  My energy level was lower than it's been in years too.  We had very hot weather, which always gives me the blahs; we had cooler than normal weather too.  At any rate, this weekend everything started looking normal and rosy, I had energy to burn, I got things done and I'm happier for it.

2.  My knitting UFOs and other UFFOs have not gotten as badly out of control as I feared - yet!  Now that the blahs are gone, I'm feeling a serious case of startitis coming on.  As was pointed out in KnitTalk, startitis can be defined as Hatikah , which is Hebrew for Hope.  That's how I'm viewing startitis this time around.  I even started and finished the knitting on W from Knitty in May!

3.  I'm an introvert and I need quiet and solitude to recharge my batteries.  I know this, and yet there are times when I want to be social and life gives me chances to do things and be with people and my social batteries get completely drained.  (Interestingly enough, at least to me, the last time I did the Myers-Briggs assessment, my scores had changed a bit.  I'm still INFJ, but my scores in most areas are very close.  Only 2 points separate Extrovert and Introvert, Thinking and Feeling, and Judging and Perceiving.  Sensing and Intuition, however, are very clear and separated by 16 points.)

4.  Joan came over today and we spent some time on the back porch, knitting and chatting.  She checked out the raised beds, and says I need to post photos because they've grown a lot since she last saw them perhaps a month ago.  Noted, and I will do that this week.

5.  Back to UFOs: if you'd asked, I would have said there were at least 40 of them and probably more.  I counted and there are actually fewer than 30!  If I can get really busy this week, I might be able to get 4 or 5 more off the list!  The knitting is done and only finishing remains on them; in fact, Kenobi just needs to have the sleeves set in!  That would be really good!

6.  We've had our first salads from the garden already, and our first zucchini (Roly Poly or Eight Ball variety).  This week I'll need to pick Romano (Italian) beans, and snow peas (again).  Tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers are setting fruit, and the corn is almost 3 feet tall.  I still want to plant pumpkins and gourds, and there's still time for that.  

7.  This crop of lettuce and chard will be finished this week.  I'm going to replant that raised bed with New Zealand spinach, lettuce, carrots, radishes and herbs.  We will need to buy lettuces at the Farmer's Market for a few weeks, but that's OK.

8.  Going through yarn in the attic was a surprise in several ways.  I found yarn that I'd forgotten about (even though it's on my 14 page spreadsheet) and found enough of several yarns to make sweaters that just rose to the top of my list.  In fact, I found enough of 21 different yarns to make 1 sweater (West Side Raglan from Oat Couture) which may make it my next mindless commute and open mic project.  It's the sort of thing I wear for work year round, with slacks or skirts, with or without a jacket.  And it would be a great use for some of the "interesting" yarn I bought with no clear plan in mind.  The pattern is long sleeved, but short sleeves or 3/4 sleeves would be easy to do as well.   And it would certainly showcase the "interesting" yarn.

9.  I also found enough of the specified yarn (!) for several patterns just earmarked.  Based on a couple of blog entries by Bonne Marie Burns of ChicKnits, I revisited several issues of Vogue Knitting, from about 2001 to 2004.  What a treasure trove!  Not only was the Shirley Paden sweater Bonne Marie did on my list (but the turtleneck and pullover aspects had me convinced it would never work), but now I know how to convert it into something I'll actually wear.  There are several other wonderful sweaters in the 2 issues I chose to work with for now, and I'll highlight those in the next few entries.

10.  Notice the wonderful clips holding W together?  They're little hair clips from the Dollar Tree, 24 for a buck (I think that's right, it might be 48).  Whatever!  It's a lot cheaper than the special ones sold in knitting stores and catalogs.  I'm finally learning to embrace my inner thriftyness!  (I'd like to take credit for this, but Ann of SheepShots found and blogged this several months ago.)

This unassuming pile of unblocked knitting is the beginning section of Dramatic Drape, a shawl pattern designed by Lily Chin and published in the wonderful Fall 2000 issue of Knitter's magazine.  This is, by far, my favorite issue ever of Knitter's; this is the 4th item knitted from that issue and there are several more on my list.

I started this project about April 5 and completed it (including blocking) April 28, however, this was at least my 3rd attempt to follow the incredibly easy pattern and count!  See the notepad?  That was how I finally managed to keep track of the increases -- and then it was easy.

The yarn is long-discontinued, very well-aged stash, probably bought before 2000 at Straw Into Gold in Berkeley.  It's Crystal Palace "Martinique", made in Italy in 40 gram (1.4 oz) balls of approximately 110 yards.  It's a blend of 48% super kid mohair, 20% silk, 17% nylon, 8% linen and 7% viscose rayon.  It's as light as a feather, and should be perfect for San Francisco summers, cool evenings and layering over a sweater or jacket.

My version blocked out to about 80"  by 31"; the pattern measurements were 72" x 31".  The color is a mix of bright red, creamy white and a bit of sunflower yellow.  I didn't add the fringe as the pattern suggested (I'm so NOT a fringe person) but might change my mind.  It would add a bit of heft to the lower edge of the shawl.  And there's plenty of yarn left over: I had 1100 yards and used about 550.

I'll enlist Mr. Ken's assistance to get a decent photo - I'm not very good at the old "photo in the mirror" trick!

And Dez, I have Plantation Cotton in deep coral that I'd be willing to trade for handspun.  Plantation Cotton does come up on eBay fairly often, and if the colors and quantities are right, it eventually arrives in my mail box.

Now for the Sock WIPs:

  I resisted the lure of the Monkey sock for as long as possible, but am really enjoying this pattern.  It's  not intuitive for me yet, but I can knit it without making errors while listening to music and even conversing a bit.  The yarn may not show the pattern off as well as it might, but I like it.

Standard sock - 2 x 2 rib for 12 rows, 3 x 1 rib until it's 6 or 7 inches long...the yarn is lovely, and I'll post a better photo soon.   This sock did docent duty with me, and is now much longer.

For the record, this is peach with dashes of coral and slate blue.  It's in the early stages of sockdom, and I don't yet know if the leg will be anything other than ribbing of some sort.  We'll see.

At the bottom there are Wildfoote Jaywalkers (2nd sock started) and Ditto standard ribbed socks (2nd sock almost to the heel).  The rest were started in a couple of sock-starting-frenzies:  there are 2 Socks That Rock (Red River Canyon and something else), some Opal handpaint (yes, it's the same colorway I traded to Fillyjonk a couple of years ago - I've  now bought this colorway 3 times so I must wants socks from it), Crystal Palace Maizy in Indian Corn, Opal Rosehips (I don't remember the German name), eBay hand-dye from (I think) Twinkletoes in Coffee, and something else in red, purple, orange and pink stripes.

The special added bonus to this review?  Now I know where 2 of my precious 3 8" metal circular needles have been hiding!  (No, I don't know who makes them or anything; I bought them at an estate sale inside a Denise needle set.)

Gold Mohair                                                            

Fronts and backs done to armhole start; I want to convert to set-in sleeves.

Serape Sweater

Left half complete, right half just started              

Wonderful Wallaby                                                   

Debbie Bliss pullover    

One sleeve done, 1 half done.  The body will be the easy part.

Angelina    

I love the yarn,  I love the pattern, but it seems like miles of ribbing to knit before  the interesting lace parts!                                                        

There are also 4 sweaters that are in various stages of finishing:

Sensational Shirttail

Pieces all complete and accounted for (since cleaning the closet this week).   Now  to block and assemble, and learn to crochet in order to complete! 

Kenobi

Completely knitted, already blocked, shoulder seams and 1 side seam mattress stitched.  What am I waiting for? 

Cable Eights

This has been completed and blocked for 2 summers now.   See above.  I need to learn to crochet to complete assembly. 

Shapely  T

I'm not happy with the sleeves, but the tank portion is great.  Modify the sleeves and get on with it already! 

Whew!  Documenting this is exhausting!  While I'm thinking of it, this weekend I'm going to add these to my Ravelry WIPs list.  Might as well track them somewhere. 

It's been a good and productive week.  Of course I didn't do everything on my list, and I did do things that weren't on the original list.  I also realized that I need to sssssssllllllllooooooooowwwwwwww ddddddddoooooooowwwwwwwnnnnnnnn.  The world will not come to an end if I write a letter instead of an email or if we sit outside and do nothing except listen to quiet music and crickets until it's too cold and the mosquitos start buzzing around.   More on this as I think it through.

All this to herald the one measly Finished Object from October: a pair of socks that were started in June 2006.  They are wonderful and will be worn lots, mostly with jeans and clogs.

It seems I knitted a lot - and I did - but nothing was finished.  This is what happens when you are not monogamous with the knitting.  I have a back, right front and most of the left front done on Sensational Shirttail.  One sleeve is complete on the Debby Bliss Ribbed Sweater.  One Jaywalker sock is done, one Ditto sock is done.

There are 2 sweaters and a top that are knitted and need to be sewn up.  There's a tote to be felted and a rolled brim hat just waiting for an empty washing machine and some time.  

And just for the record, I hate going off Daylight Savings Time.   I like being on BART when the sun rises, and dislike being on BART when the sun sets.  Soon, it will be dark before I leave the office.  San Francisco is far enough north that it's dark before  4:30 in December.  I may change my BART evening arrival station; the one closest to home is used as a  hangout by a number of unsavory types in the evening, and why court a problem?  They're never out in the dark mornings!

I left the office before 11 this morning, and telecommuted the rest of the day.  I'm planning a large multi-year project and need to concentrate. The rest of the folks in my wing are in the final stages of testing a new product, and they are noisy!  Lots of talking over the tops of cubicles and calling someone to "look at this" and such.  I just shut down the laptop and it's 8 pm.  Oh well.  I worked 3 hours longer at home (and much more productively) than I would have in the office.

Sometime before the end of the weekend I have newly started projects, a finished pair of Waving Lace socks, progress on Sensational Shirttail, and a sit 'n' knit session on my patio to show you.  That post will be worth waiting for!

About the middle of June I realized that there were a number of UFOs just waiting to be completed, and I challenged myself to complete them in June.   I’m late with the update, but obviously didn’t cheat so it would look better.  Here’s the list of UFOs:

Multicolore

Kenobi

Cable Eights

Wire and stone bracelets

Scarves

Socks

Did I blow all these out and find more UFOs to complete? 

No, not too surprisingly, I didn’t finish all these UFOs.  I did make progress, although not as much as I’d hoped. 

Of the 8 knitted wire and stone or bead bracelets, 5 are finished and ready to wear.  Unfortunately, at least 2 of them will go to folks with even smaller wrists than mine - that would be the pearl and peach glass bracelets.  The apple green glass just fits me, and the emerald green and ruby reds are perfect.

I'd love to make more of these!  I do think I'll use more beads and make the finished bracelets a bit longer. 

One ShapeIt scarf, knit in peach ribbon, is done.  It's not as drape-y as I'd hoped, and apparently the yarn is impossible to "kill" because I tried!  Still, it's a great color and I'm going to love it this winter.

Thanks to Joan, I have a booklet on beginning crochet, and can start working the single crochet on all the edges of Cable Eights. 

Multicolore and Kenobi are no further along.  It seems I need a block of uninterrupted time – just a couple of hours would be a good start – to make progress on these. 

Did I crash and burn and blithely start new projects?

No again.  I did start a new commute-on-BART project when I finished knitting the green Shapely T.  Also, some yarn was purchased for a new project, and one skein of yarn was purchased just “to try”. 

Progress was made on 2 socks that are not only close to completion, but that will each complete a pair.  Progress was also made on the Entrelac tote – it’s not quite mindless knitting because there are so many parts and colors, but the knitting itself is fairly simple and it can be done while talking and TV watching.

And perhaps that’s the lesson to be learned here:  Finishing a sweater, especially doing mattress stitch, is not something I can multitask.  It requires attention to detail, no distractions, and space to spread out without help from cats.  In short, I have to lock myself alone in a room for at least an hour at a time.  

I’ve decided to continue the UFO Challenge through the summer, because I’m learning more about how to “work” with my knitting and my time.

So I pulled out a sock, which just happened to be the 2^nd sock in the Waving Lace pattern from Interweave Knits around 3 years ago.  I love this pattern, but it has given me nothing but trouble since day 1.  It took me forever to think the pattern was memorized – all the way through the first sock, and 2 repeats into the second – and then proved me wrong when I had to rip out the second sock 3 times.  It became a frustrating and humbling experience.

Anyway, when I pulled it out, I realized that the copy of the charts for the lace was apparently in my big knitting bag, because it certainly wasn’t in the Ziploc bag in my briefcase. 

Drat! 

I decided to be brave, tempt fate, and do the last 6 rows of the leg from memory.

It worked!  I did it!

My memory finally worked, the leg is now finished, and I started the heel on the ride home!  I’m not going to promise that these socks will be removed from the UFO list in July, but that’s a possibility.  (Now that the pattern is finally memorized, it’s time to use it in something else so it becomes imprinted on my brain. Perhaps gloves, a hat, a cardigan sweater knit in the round and steeked might do?  Maybe another pair of socks?)

  That's 3 hats and 3 pairs of mittens.  Also in the box will be 2 sweaters: a lovely Ralph  Lauren sweater bought for Mr. Ken and never worn and a lovely sweater I bought on sale, ignoring the fact that I look awful in light blue.  They're wool and I'm sure someone will appreciate them more than we do.

Inspired by Erica and others, I present photos of other knitting, nothing completely ready to wear: 

Multicolore

Kenobi

Cable Eights

Wire and stone or bead bracelets

What do all these things have in common? 

They’re finished, completely knitted, ready to be assembled.  Not yet stick-a-fork-in-it done, because they aren’t yet usable.  Some of it is pretty obvious.

Multicolore needs sewn-in sleeves, sewn side seams, buttons sewn on, and ribbon to cover the steek edges sewn in.  Maybe 4 hours work, although much of it needs to be uninterrupted by cats, as mattress stitch on black isn’t really my friend.

Kenobi needs all its seams sewn and a collar knitted.

Cable Eights has been waiting for 2 years for me to learn single crochet so I can crochet around the pieces as directed before sewing the seams.

I don’t even remember when I finished knitting the wire and stone bracelets – probably 3 or 4 years ago.  They need magnetic clasps, which have been stored with them for as long as the knitting has been done.

There are also assorted scarves and such just need ends woven in and perhaps blocking or steaming.

I’d love to be wearing / using / giving away all these items, and it wouldn’t take that long to get most of them done, complete, finished.  So – a challenge to myself: finish all these items in June.  I have 18 days, evenings really, and the only really difficult task may be learning single crochet.  Do you think I can do it?

Second, there are a lot of UFOs around!  There are UFOs so unfinished one might even call them UFFOs (Unfinished Forgotten Objects).  That was the case Saturday morning when I started looking through a basket that's been sitting in the corner for ages.  

Here's the first UFFO from the basket:

  It's a quilt block, the first (and so far, only) one I've ever made.  Please ignore the uneven seams, mis-shapen pieces and all other errors.  I know they're there, and it's OK.  

This is a rather ambitious block for a novice quilter, but I liked it enough that I bought a quilting magazine because it this pattern on the cover!  I decided then and there that this would be my first pieced quilt.

(I forget what my particular "learning style" is called, but I learn best by jumping into something and learning as I go when that's possible.   Obviously, when I learned to fly airplanes that wasn't practical or safe, but when I learned to sew, I modified the neckline and added trim to my first-ever-made-by-me dress.  Usually this learning style results in my enjoying whatever it is I'm learning, and I tend to learn faster because I'm producing what I want sooner.)

I needed something to soothe me at the time: Mr. Ken and I had decided to join forces and live together if we could find a house we were willing to share.  We found our home, and then it took forever (almost 5 months) to close - long boring story for another day - and I decided to make a quilt for the guest room.  This is how far I got before life stepped in!

Here's a close up:

   I love the little floral prints, and even though my pieces are somewhat mis-shapen the corners meet nicely.  I have no idea if these are from a series of fabrics for quilts, but I know that they're all 100% cotton, and they've all been washed and dried by me, in preparation for cutting.

I found the cutting of pieces to be a bit tedious, so I only cut pieces for the first 4 blocks.  These are the fabric choices for the next blocks:

  All the blocks have some shade of green in them, and that's the color scheme I'm still planning for the room in which this will someday be used.

Each completed block is about 18" square; I wanted to make the quilt 5 squares wide and 5 squares tall, which would fit either a queen or king bed, depending on the borders and bits between the squares (sashing?).   Here are some additional fabrics that will be combined variously to make the other 21 blocks:

There's no due date for this, and we haven't won the lottery yet so we won't be adding a 2nd story and 3 more bedrooms to the house any time soon, but I would like to get this quilt top pieced and backed so I can find someone who'll quilt it for me.  Soon.

Why?

Because, just as with my knitting, I have my next two three projects planned!  (There's the applique quilt my Granny started and I've promised to finish, and the Double Wedding Ring quilt using many of the yellow prints above, and the Cathedral Windows quilt with a black background and Amish jewel-toned windows.)

Knitting updates tomorrow!