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?

February - Stash Update

So it seems to me that January has come and gone in a blink of an eye. It had been a very busy month for me. Not only in the crafting department, but also in my personal life.

I spent every weekend of this past month going over to my old apartment to pack things up and throw things out. It's amazing just how much stuff I moved into that apartment from my old apartment in the city and how much more I accumulated over the past six years. Needless to say I got through it all. It was very liberating to just throw things out. I had a girlfriend helping me for a couple of the first weekends and I think she was amazed and proud of me for just pitching stuff. The last few weeks Manny came over and helped with the big stuff. While I was sick this whole past weekend, he and I managed to clean out the apartment and get items moved into a modest storage unit and the stuff I can't live without into our apartment. As of this past Monday, I returned the keys, got my deposit and said goodbye to that place. It feels totally awesome to be away from that unhealthy environment.

So now that I have been living in a better place, my mind is also in a better place when it comes to working on my crafts. I spent one Sunday afternoon in January taking another sewing class. This one was expanding upon the actual quilting I learned from the intro seven week class I took in the Fall. This four hour class focused on quilting using the Walking Foot. I learned a few tips and tricks that will come in handy when I work on my quilts. I also took a 2 week evening Binding class in January. I felt the overview we got in the seven week class was not enough. So in this 4 hour class, I learned quite a bit more about different types of binding and created some Bias Binding. Pretty cool stuff.

There has also been some productive knitting happening around here too. As ya'll know I finished a pair of socks. Woo Hoo to FO January!!! I was real good in that I immediately casted on for another pair of socks. I also made great progress on my Effortless Cardigan, which I started at the end of December. At the end of January it looked like this:

The body is completely done. I finished the bottom ribbing up this past Monday while I was home sick. As you can see in the photo, there was a big contrast in the two skeins of yarn. At first I was a bit taken back by it and was surprised that the two skeins were so drastically different. I know that with hand dyed yarns, no two skeins are alike, but at least with what I have worked with in the past, there hasn't been such a dramatic difference.

I currently have half of the second skein left and know I will need to go into the third skein. I have no idea if that skein is like either of these two or if it is totally different. Since I don't know, my plan is to use the rest of the second skein to do the collar and front bands. Hopefully I have enough to do that and then can do both arms in the third skein. It will be interesting to see when it's all done, which hopefully will be by the end of February.

It's the beginning of February, so it's time to give out my Stash Down update for January. Here is what my chart looks like:

Month	Yards of Yarn In Stash	Monthly Δ Yards	Monthly Δ %	Total Δ Yards	Total Δ %
1-Jan-12	33,611	0	0.0%	0	0.0%
1-Feb-12	32,771	(840)	-2.6%	(840)	-2.6%

My stash has gone down 840 yards and it's all in my cardigan. Even though I started two other projects in January with stash, I won't count that yardage in the minus column until I have used the skein up. I think it will just be easier on me when figuring out the numbers. I am happy and this is a good start for me.