Conquering the WIPS

Last Friday as I was coming down with a nasty cold, I had the overwhelming desire to go through my knitting WIPs and decide what I could conquer. I know getting sick doesn't equate with conquering lists of things to do, but for some reason this kind of list helped me through my somewhat miserable weekend and yes, with the exception of going food shopping, I spent my entire weekend in my sweats on the couch knitting. Get rid of the nasty cold and it equals a perfect weekend!

I wrote a post back in June where I last talked about my big list of WIPS. You can read it here and this was a shot of my Ravelry In Progress page at the time.

I am proud to say that #1, #2 and #3 on this list moved to the FO section sometime between June and September. #7, TTL Mystery Sock 2012 was frogged.

As of Friday my In Progress Page looksed like this:

At a quick glance you can see that there have been some new projects (three to be exact) started while 10 of the original WIPS are still on the list.

After some pondering and pulling projects out of their sleepy hidey holes, I decided upon three projects in the current list to focus my sick energy on over the weekend. My Glazed Carrot Mod Podge sweater was not on that list. My purpose was to focus on older projects.

So what projects made the cut?

#1 - Some Cloudy Day legwarmers
I remember buying the yarn for this project with my sister when she still lived in Myrtle Beach. I remember rushing home and we both casted on for these legwarmers at the same time. I even bought double pointed needles so I could start them. I remember I had finished one leg warmer in less than a week. I remember casting on for the second leg and getting it almost to the finish line. I remember putting it aside, but I can't remember why.

This project made the cut for this past weekends list simply because I was thhhhhiiiiiissssss close to having it finished.

I will tell you now that as of Saturday afternoon this project became an FO. I will also tell you that even though I was really close to completing the project, it wasn't without knitting drama.

Let's just say I knitted 14 pattern rows and then when I started the cuff, realized I had 61 stitches instead of 60. After analyzing my knitting, I noticed where the extra stitch came from and that was 15 rows back. I'm pointing to the little bugger right here:

The mistake happened the last time I worked on these babies. It must of been fate for me to have made that mistake way back then because after I frogged back to the mistake on Saturday, I relooked at my pattern notes to compare the number of pattern repeats between #1 and #2 that I needed to complete before the cuff, and realized that I only needed to knit 7 rows and not the 14 that I originally did before I noticed the mistake. I am so glad I realized this mistake, because I guarantee I wouldn't of noticed it until after I bound off and snipped the yarn. Then I would of been in knitting tears.

I'll do a follow-up post soon showing the completed project with all the project details I like to include.

#2 - Mystik Spiral Socks
While this isn't one of the "older" WIPs, it was one that I felt needed my attention if it was ever going to be finished. If you remember, I started, and could of had these socks finished, while I was on my European Backpacking Adventure this summer, but on my last day abroad, I realized I missed 11 rows on sock number two, after I had already bound off and snipped the yarn. This post shows you what the pair looked like when I discovered the issue.

To fix the problem, I needed to decide if I was going to just remove the cuff, add the 11 rows and call it finished or if I was going to frog the sock from the cuff all the way down to the ankle and add the 11 rows where they belonged in the pattern.

This is what I decided:

After I frogged down to the ankle, found where I was in the pattern, I added the 11 rows that were missing and put the project aside for another day. My goal was to decide what I wanted to do with the sock and take action towards getting it closer to the FO list. Goal accomplished.

#3 - Back Bay wrap
As you can see above I started this wrap in November of 2011. Eeek! When I last worked on it, and I can't remember when that was it's been that long, probably when I first started the dang thing, I had completed two pattern repeats. That's 20 rows per repeat, so a total of 40 rows plus the setup rounds had been done. By Saturday evening, I had added another 20 or so rows:

I worked on it again all day Sunday and Monday (because I was home sick) and as of right now it looks like this:

I'd say that's some good progress. We have a total of six 20 row pattern repeats done. I believe that the pattern calls for a total of 20 pattern repeats, so I am not close to being done, but definitely heading towards it.

After putting my Glazed Carrot Mod Podge sweater aside for the weekend, I did end my Monday evening with completing sleeve #1. I plan on casting on for #2 this week, but don't anticipate completing the sweater by months end.

I think I kind of liked splitting my attention between a few different projects this past weekend. I really want to get a few more WIPs off the above list by the end of the year.

So, as I look toward my long four day weekend thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday, my goals are to finish the Mystik Spiral Socks and the second sleeve of the sweater. After that, we'll see where we go.

Unfinished Knits of Years Past

I used to be an avid knitter back in 2007 and 2008. Then in 2009 I was laid off from my job of 10.5 years and my knitting mojo was replaced with stress and anxiety of being unemployed, trying to find a new job in a terrible economic time and living off off my teeny tiny unemployment check for an entire year.

Things turned around for me in 2010. I finally found an awesome job, unfortunately for my health and mind, it was working the overnight shift. My life (mind, body and spirit) did not return to the state it was in my pre-unemployment days. I struggled for a year and a half to live a "normal life." Everything in my life suffered. I couldn't even bring myself to get excited about much of anything during that time.

I was very blessed to have received a new position within my current place of employment in July of 2011. While it took awhile for my life to feel normal again, I did manage to find the enjoyment in partaking in some of my favorite past-times again. Albeit, I haven't resumed my hobbies with the passion I had a few years ago, but I do get excited looking through knitting or quilting books these days. My heart is there again and I can not wait to work on my projects.

So one of my goals for this year is to finish at least (3) unfinished knitting projects. I decided to go through my Ravelry queue to see what I have going on in my knitting life. I did not include and items that I am going to frog and I already know there is a project on my needles that I started last year in November that never made it into my project page. So I have a total of 11 projects on the needles and here are the 10 I have Ravelry projects created for them in the order I casted-on for them:

1. 16 Zipped Jacket - I started this sweater as a Christmas present for a friend. I have the body front and back done. I have 1 sleeve almost to completion. I know I stopped this project when I became worried about my gauge being off for the sleeve. I was debating frogging the sleeve and starting over or keep going and hope it wasn't too long for the recipient.

2. Bella's Mittens - I have only 1 mitten almost done. What you see in the picture below is exactly how it looks today. The mittens themselves are super fast to knit, but I got hung up on knitting that thumb. I hate picking up stitches and I believe my intention was to knit the other mitten and then do the thumbs last.

3. Sock Yarn Blanket - This is an on-going project that will take me years to finish, but it still belongs in the UFO category. I still work on it from time to time and I love that a few of my fellow knitting buddies resupply me with their own sock yarn scraps for me to add to the blanket. It truly is a friendship blanket.

4. Texturized Tweed Coat - Believe it or not, but this sweater jacket is almost done. I picked this knit back up in 2011 with the intention, and renewed vigor, to get it done, especially since it was going to be my Rhinebeck sweater in November. Where I got stuck with this knit is on the collar part of the jacket. The instructions in the book are really confusing so I turned to the designers website where she listed more clear instructions. The problem for me is that even the newer instructions aren't clear to me and I started the collar, but put it to the side when I felt the collar wasn't turning out the way it was suppose to be.

5. Chinook Shawl - I actually was having a lot of fun knitting this shawl. I believe I have only 1 or 2 more colors to work into it. I do not know why I stopped working on it.

6. Vagabond Fingerless Mitts - First I must say I LOVE these mitts. This was my third foray into stranded knitting and my dear friend designed these awesome mitts. Sso while I wasn't excited about attempting stranded knitting again, these mitts were calling my name. What you see in the picture is exactly where I left them. Again I have 1 mitt almost finished except for the thumb. Picking up stitches for thumbs seem to be an issue for me.

7. Bacon Socks (Vanilla Toe-up pattern) - I bought this yarn at Rhinebeck one year after seeing a friend of mine knit the yarn up in her own sock. I love that it looks like bacon and couldn't wait to knit up a pair of socks with it. I have only knit 1 sock and have actually bound it off twice. The first time was way too tight and the second time I went up a needle size and it was still kinda tight. This yarn does not have much stretch in it. I think I got discouraged and put the sock to the side.  

8. Effortless Cardigan - The only thing left to finish on this cardigan are the sleeves and one of the front bands. I knew I wanted to knit the sleeves on double pointed needles (not all that great at magic loop method) and needed to order them. It also bothers me a bit that the skeins are drastically different in color tones.

9. Some Cloudy Day Leg Warmers -  When I visited my sister in Myrtle Beach last July, I splurged on the Sublime yarn to make these leg warmers. My sister and I started knitting them together and while she has finished hers, I have 1 completely done and am only a few inches away from finishing the second. Should be real easy to finish.

10. TTL Mystery Sock 2012 - I participated in the TTL Mystery Sock in 2010 and loved the socks when I was complete. I started this sock when the KAL started in 2012 (even though I didn't note the start date below), but of course I got sidetracked and didn't finish with the group. I of course now know what the completed sock looks like and I think it is truly beautiful. I have completed the first sock down the start of the heel flap and haven't gone any further. I hesitate to finish the sock for a couple of reasons. One of them being I am not sure the sock is totally me and these socks take some effort to knit. I do not want to finish them and never wear them. So I have gone back and forth a few times in my head thinking of whether or not I want to frog them.

11. Back Bay - This is another pattern from TTL and I loved it when I first saw it. I had the perfect yarn in my stash and couldn't wait to cast on for it last November, especially when I learned that a couple of my fellow Rhinebecker's were knitting them at the same time. I think I only have about 3-5 inches complete and what I think slowed me down on it is that you have to carefully follow the chart, which includes cables. It's not a complicated pattern at all. It just that it's not something I can knit with any distractions (i.e., tv, music, having a conversation, etc.). I do intend on finishing this knit though because it will be perfect to wrap myself up in during the winter months.

I don't know if this is a complete list of unfinished knits, but it is one that I will be working through this year. I'll be posting updates on my progress with them through the year, in addition to any knew items I may knit. However, before I can tackle these UFO's, I must finish the items I am currently knitting as Christmas 2012 presents. Since Christmas has passed, I will share with you all what I made on my next knitting update post.

Until then tell me what crafty projects you are currently working on right now? Any knitting UFO's from year's past you want to move to the FO list?