FO: Year's End and Day's Beginnings

I've started the process of trying to wrangle my stash into a better form of organization.  I almost had a system in place about a year and a half ago, but I've been to two SSK's and several fiber festivals since then, and things are generally in a state of disarray.

I don't have any pictures of the process to share at the moment (imagine too much yarn spread across a laminate floor and you've pretty much got it).  I'll try to get some pics as I progress so I can share some more about the process.

The point of all of this is that as I was fluffing the stash, I ran across a gorgeous skein of handspun that a friend traded me for some project bags.   This is exactly why physically looking at your yarn now and again is so valuable.  I knew I had that skein, but when I actually saw it with my actual eyes (and more to the point, when I touched it with my actual hands) I fell instantly back in love.

I immediately abandoned the rest of the yarn and went to wind it up.  And maybe now I have a clearer understanding of why there's still yarn strewn all across my craft room, but that's neither here nor there.

I mean look at this yarn.  A jury of my peers would not convict.

This is a Merino/Bamboo 80/20 blend that I'd estimate at about a sport weight.  My friend reported 314 yards / 3.8 oz.  It is so soft and glorious, I was (and am!) entirely enchanted.

I knew I wanted a cowl, and I knew I wanted to use the entire skein.  I remembered a cowl pattern I used a couple of years ago to make a Christmas gift, so I went to look it up. 

This is Mira's Cowl by Baah Yarn - it's a series of knits and purls that makes a perfectly balanced and reversible cowl. 

As a project it was absolutely perfect. Quick, satisfying, simple enough to knit more or less on auto-pilot, but with yarn so delightful that it was a joy to slide through the hands.   A++ would go again.

The project name "year's end and day's beginnings" is a quote by Terri Guillemets.  I googled "quotes about fall" to find something evocative of the way I feel about this time of year. 

Project Notes

Pattern:  Mira's Cowl

Yarn: Fiber Artemis in the Grand Canyon colorway, spun by StardustSoul

Total Yardage: 314 yards

Needles: US 9 (5.5mm) 32" circulars

Started: September 1, 2019

Completed: September 7, 2019

Ravelry Project Page: here

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I have a feeling I've probably used that blog post title before - likely talking about spring and Passover.  Fall and Spring are my favorite seasons, and which one is the mostest favorite entirely depends on which one I'm in.

September has the same sense of anticipation of starting new things that the spring has.  Where in spring you have the fresh promise of a new growing season, summer around the corner, and the delight of being able to go outside without six layers on, in the fall there's football, the new school year, crisp weather as the heat starts to release it's grip, and a growing sense of settling in.   I love them both.

But today I love fall.  I particularly love September 1st when the new Fall Term starts in the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup.  Starting a new school year hasn't been a thing for me in years (in fact my youngest graduated high school last year, so it's really not a thing for me anymore) but I still enjoy the anticipation of The First Day of Term.

The House Cup is an online community and game that's hosted on Ravelry.  Students are sorted into houses (Gryffindor 4 Lyf), and compete by crafting for the House and Quidditch Cups.  It's a really good time, and has done wonders for my knitting and crocheting output.   There are three terms a year - Winter, Spring, and Fall - and Fall is by far my favorite.

Of course, along with all of that new-Term excitement comes new-Term cast ons!  I had a wicked case of startosis on September 1st and I've cast on four new projects in the last five days.

Two pairs of socks -  Hello Sunshine by Tracie Millar out of  Unwind Yarn Company Celebration Sock in the Goldenrod colorway for Morgan (left) and a pair of vanilla Yulemas socks out of Colour Redefined Smooth Sock in the String the Lights colorway (right).

I also cast on a cowl using some handspun that a dear friend traded me for some project bags a few years ago.  It's a delicious merino/bamboo blend and the colors are so gorgeous I keep stopping to admire it.  I'm using the Mira's Cowl pattern by Baah Yarn, and size 9 needles for a big, squishy cowl.

And then finally, I've cast on The Crown Wools by Casapinka.  I'm barely into it, so there's not much to see yet.  I'm using Miss Babs Yummy 2 Ply in the Giant Silk Moth set, and it is stunning.  I'm excited by this one!

Now, I already had four things on needle or hook when term started, so that brings my current WIP count up to 8.  (In my defense, three of those are long-term blanket projects.   On second thought, that might be a lousy defense.) 

In any case, I'm starting to feel a little twitchy, so I think I'll concentrate on getting the cowl back off the needles quickly.

February: A Story Told in Numbers and Pictures

Four:  The number of WIPs I had on the needles on February 1st.

Three:  The number of projects I illegally cast on in February.

Two:  The number of projects I finished during February is for Finishing.

One: The number of projects I frogged.

Four:  The number of WIPs I had on the needles on March 1st.

Bad at Playing My Own Game, or FO: ain't I a woman?

Once of the key tenets of this whole February is for Finishing lark is "do not cast anything new on during the month of February." 

The point of the entire business is to double down on the work basket, and clear it out.  Casting on new projects is the opposite of help. 

This year I seem to be breaking all bonds with tradition, and flying the face of the rules that I made up.

That's how we do it here at chez woolly.

February is Black History Month (in addition to being dedicated to finishing), and Google's daily doodle on February 1st honored one of my personal heroes, a woman who was a bad-ass extraordinaire, Sojourner Truth.

I happened to have a skein of DK weight MCN in stash from Birch Hollow Fibers, in the colorway "Sojourner."

#noregrets, I cast it on.  The timing was perfect, and I really wanted something soft, beautiful, and meaningful on my needles.  (Not that having more Christmas socks isn't meaningful, but it's totally not the same thing.)

The whole business knit up in just a few days (I knit over half of it yesterday, in fact) and I couldn't be more pleased.   I cast on the Twixtmas Cowl by Louise Tilbrook, and the texture is just perfect for the variegation.  It did this cool striping thing that I'm really charmed by.

So charmed, in fact, that I immediately popped it on, as soon as I wove in the ends, even though it doesn't even remotely match my shirt.

I love the selfie filters on my camera phone.

Project Notes

Project Name: ain't I a woman?

Pattern:  Twixtmas Cowl by Louise Tilbrook

Yarn: Birch Hollow Fibers DK MCN, "Sojourner" colorway

Total Yardage: 226 yards (almost the full skein - I only have a smidge left)

Needles: US 9 (5.5mm)

Started: February 1, 2019

Completed: February 9, 2019

Ravelry Project Page: here

Glad I got that out of my system. Back to my February is for Finishing list, now, eh?

Yeah, about that...

Mid-Winter Industry: Three New Finished Projects

January was a productive month here at chez woolly, with not one, nor two, but three projects finished.

Side note - I'm not even going to begin to try to do a 2018 round up post.  My apologies to you, as it has some pretty epic moments, like this one, and also this.   But if you're interested, my 2018 projects are grouped together in my Ravelry notebook here.

But anyway, back to January.   Two of the three projects I'm going to share were part of my New Year's Day cast on.  Long time friends of the show will remember that every January 1, my two besties and I gather together to talk, plan, set intentions for our coming year, and to cast on some fresh new projects.

Finished Object #1

This is the Carbeth Cardigan.  Those familiar with the pattern may be asking why a woman who lives in Tennessee needs a bulky weight cardigan.  To which I say:  Shut up.  I do what I want.  Seriously though, that very question kept me from knitting this sweater for a long time.  Until a very smart lady pointed out that as a cardigan it would make a lovely jacket or coat.   That was all the justification I needed, and I was off to the races.

Project Notes

Pattern:  Carbeth Cardigan

Yarn: Wool of the Andes Superwash Bulky "Chocolate" colorway

Total Yardage: 875 yards

Needles: 5.5 mm and 6.5 mm

Started: January 1, 2019

Completed: January 28, 2019

Ravelry Project Page: here

The only modification I made was to knit it significantly longer than the pattern called for.  I added 4" and because it's superwash, blocking added another 2".   It's perfect, and I couldn't be happier.  I even found the perfect buttons in the button box!

Finished Object #2

Having wrapped up my 2018 Christmas socks on December 27th, I found myself strangely bereft of sock knitting.   I set about rectifying that on New Year's Day as well.   Rhiannon bought me a skein of Valkyrie Fibers Matte Sock in her Eowyn colorway for Mother's Day a few years ago, because she is a good girl and loves her mother. 

I knit the heels and toes with a 10g mini (which was almost but not quite exactly enough.  I had some extreme two-fisted yarn chicken going at one point.)

I was alternating the mini and the blue stripe from the main color to finish up the last few rounds.  That's all I had left of the mini and the bit of wound off blue that I had left over from starting the second sock.  It was close but I made it work.

End result:  I love them!

Project Notes

Project Name:  like a morning of pale spring

Pattern:  my basic socks and the Fish Lips Kiss heel

Yarn: Valkyrie Fibers Matte Sock, "Eowyn" colorway, Yarn Baby mini from Row One Yarns for heels and toes

Total Yardage: 336 yards

Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Hiya Hiya 32" circulars, magic loop

Started: January 1, 2019

Completed: January 25, 2019

Ravelry Project Page: here

Finished Object #3

And finally, with both of those projects finished, I cast on and knit a quick baby sweater, as you do.  A dear friend of mine's wife is expecting a little girl, and I'm not one to let the opportunity to foist woolens off on the unsuspecting and wee go unanswered.

It's a simple little top-down raglan cardigan, with just enough little detail to make it fun.  Easy-peasy, lemon-squeazy.

I did have a brief moment of panic and frustration when I went to block it and it started bleeding pink.  This is Knit Picks Swish, in their limited edition speckle line, and frankly, I expect better of Knit Picks.   I rinsed it several times and noticed how much the ()@@!^ thing was growing.  It's superwash, that's normal.  It's fine.  (No I didn't wash my gauge swatch, don't be ridiculous.  I didn't even knit a gauge swatch.  It's a baby sweater.  Yes, I know that means this is entirely on me.  Don't make me say shut up twice in the same blog post. I knit it in 3 days.  It's fine, we're all fine here.)

Anyway, I marched downstairs, threw the thing into a lingerie bag and washed it in the washing machine with woolite and a whack of vinegar.  Then I put it in the dryer on low. 

It seems fine? (Actually fine, not dog in a burning room fine).  No dye was apparent on the lingerie bag, and it looks right as rain now. 

Project Notes

Project Name:  let her sleep for when she wakes she will move mountains

Pattern: Peanut Warmer by Taiga Hilliard Designs

Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted Speckle "Andromeda Speckle" colorway

Total Yardage: 194 yards

Needles: 4.5 mm and 5.0 mm 

Started: January 27, 2019

Completed: January 30, 2019

Ravelry Project Page: here

All this industry is at least partially related to why I have such a short February is for Finishing list!

For those of you playing the home game this represents 1403 yards knit so far in 2019.   In 2018 I hit 18,607.  I'm telling myself my goal for 2019 is 10K, same as always, but secretly in my heart of hearts I'm shooting for 20K.  Because I'm ridiculous.

February is for Finishing, 2019 edition

If there's one thing that's been consistent in this highly inconsistent blog of mine, it's the annual project round up for February is for Finishing.

That's right, February is happening to us, whether we're ready for it or not, and that means it's time to dust off the WIPs and set about making a plan to finish.

When I started doing this back in 2006, the need was dire, and the list was long.  My most egregious case of rampant WIP-itis was exposed in 2011 when I brought a whopping 25 works in progress to the party.

Since then my relationship with my crafting has changed rather dramatically.  I - get this, this is crazy - finish things that I start.  Moreover, I don't start things if I don't want to finish them.  To cap it all off, I frog things immediately if I thought I wanted to finish them and then I find out I was wrong.  Who have I become?

While I still maintain that there is no moral high-ground to be won through project monogamy, I seem to have narrowed my focus somewhat in the last few years. 

It's weird, and I don't know what it means, other than: I'm getting a lot done, I like what I'm knitting, and February is for Finishing doesn't hold the same utility for me that it used to.

All that said, I like the annual airing of the WIP-pile, so let's get on with it, shall we?

Here's this year's list, in order from oldest to newest.  (Links go to the relevant Ravelry project page.)

1.   Hogwarts Studies Blanket, cast on May 16, 2016.   As I said in last year's project round up, I'm not too fussed about when this friend gets finished.  I'm using up bits and bobs of fingering weight, and turning in each individual square for points in the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup.  I'm either going for 12x18 squares, or 12x24 if I decide I want more blanket than that when I get there.  Right now I'm closing in on 100 squares completed, without repeating any yarns.

Let's pause right here for a moment, and appreciate the fact that once again, this is the only repeat contestant, and everything else on last year's list has been finished.

See?  I don't know who I am anymore.

2.  Weekender Blanket, started May 20, 2018.  This is another modular blanket that I'm in no especial hurry to finish.  I'm crocheting it with a yarn-pack from the Attic24 shop at Wool Warehouse.  This is the Cottage Pack.

3. Throughstone Cardigan, cast on January 1, 2019.  I'm knitting my first steeked, colorwork yoke cardigan.  So far I'm done one sleeve and maybe 3" of the body.  I decided to do the sleeve first in case my gauge swatch was a liar (spoiler alert:  my gauge swatch was a liar).  I'm knitting this as my Transfiguration OWL for the House Cup, so it's 'due' on March 31st.  I better hustle.

4. making spirits bright, cast on January 27, 2019.   I am following the lovely Amy Florence's lead, and making a bid for 25 pairs of holiday socks to wear in December.  My own personal sockvent, as it were.  I curently have 5 pair, knit at a rate of one per holiday season in the past five years.   As I would like to achieve my holiday sock plan before I'm 65, I decided to step up production a bit.

And.... and that's it.   That's all I've got, folks.  Four works in progress.

Well.  Four and a half.

I do what I want, Thor.

Scattershot Approach: Wherein I Knit All the Things

I spent yesterday watching the first four Harry Potter movies and knitting and crocheting all the things.  I think I laid hands on everything I've got on the needles or hooks yesterday. 

The upside of this approach is that I didn't get bored, and I could swap out what I was working based on whether or not I needed my eyes for any given scene. In fact, I may or may not have just listened to most of Chamber of Secrets... I can't crochet without looking, the way I can with knitting stockinette.

The downside, of course, is that I didn't make nearly as much progress on any one thing as I would have if I'd focused. 

On the other hand, while some of the things I've been working on do have deadlines, they are all arbitrary, game-based deadlines.   The shawl pictured above, for example, is my Order Mission in the House Cup.  It needs to be done by November 18th, or I don't get my internet points. 

I'm also working on a Boxy sweater for my OWL.  Deadline on this one is the end of November.  (I'm farther along than this picture shows.  Imagine it just like this, only more so.)   So far, even with my scattershot approach, I'm in no particular danger of missing either deadline.

I seriously considered watching more Harry Potter today, but I ended up deciding that my body wasn't ready for the emotional roller coaster of movies 5, 6, 7, and 7.5.   Maybe next weekend.

Who knows, maybe by next weekend I will have actually finished something.  Though that might require me to hold onto it for more than ten minutes at any given time.

So maybe don't hold hold your breath.

More on Planning: What Do You Plan?

Last week my besties and I tackled the question "why do you plan" (in the "using planners" sense).  This week the question is "what do you plan?"

What are the actual things you want planners/planning and journals for and to keep up with?

It seems like such an obvious thing - what do you plan?  Uh, my life?  But of course that's way too broad.  "My life" doesn't tell me if I just need a weekly calendar and I'm good, or if a bullet journal system would make more sense, or if I want or need to track habits, or if I'm keeping up with my knitting differently than I am my work projects, or...

Anyway, "my life," while technically accurate, is a completely useless answer to the question of what I want to plan.

So let's dig into more detail.  In no particular order, I either do plan, or want to plan:

Work projects.  I work in Organizational Development for a 4.5K employee company.  I'm the project owner for things like succession planning and annual performance reviews.  I'm working with a team of 3-5 people, and we're all across the country.   This means that we need a way to easily keep aligned with our progress, and to not lose sight of the details.   We're using Trello for project tracking, and it's working very nicely.

Actual Project Plan

Weekly and Daily Focus.   In my ideal world, I'd spend about 30 minutes every Monday morning, and then at least 15 minutes every other day getting my shit together for the coming week or the day ahead.   What are my major priorities this week?  What do I need to focus on today?  When am I meant to be on that conference call?  When does the current Quidditch Match in the House Cup end?  I have a digital calendar (well, two, actually.  I have a Google calendar that I rarely look at or bother with, and then my Outlook calendar that runs my work-life).  Anyway, every morning I'll look over my calendar and write my appointments into my planner.  It's completely redundant, and probably unnecessary, but that whole "writing it down makes it real" thing?  I think it genuinely improves the odds of me showing up where I'm supposed to be.  Once my appointments are recorded, I'll take a stab at generating my to-do list.  (At least that's the ideal.  The reality is, I'll start and then get interrupted five times, and then I'll finish filling the list in with at 2:30 in the afternoon with what I've done.  It's an imperfect system.)

Rough Outline of a Weekly Plan

My Knitting.   Come on, you knew that was coming.  I do a little of my knitting planning in Ravelry itself (Ravelry is amazing and has changed my knitting life.)  I do use the "Queue" feature to map out projects that I'd like to start in the nearish future.  I generally don't add something to the queue unless I already have the yarn and I really mean it about casting it on.   And then I end up moving things back out of the queue when mood or whimsy moves me.

But let's break this down a little farther, because there are lots of different aspects of my crafting life that I plan around.

• What do I want to knit (or crochet, or weave, or sew) next, soon, coming up, etc.?
• The Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup -- how will I fit what I want to knit into the Cup's prompts?  How am I going to actually bust out 1000 or more points in a Term?  (I feel good about it this Term, people.  I'm focused.)   
• Yarn.  Yarn, you guys.  What do I want to make with the yarn I already have?  What do I want to make that I don't have yarn for?  (Shockingly, with as big as my stash is, occasionally I don't have the right thing in stock.)   I did a whole post on shopping for fiber festivals and how to plan for that back in 2015. 
• Gifts.  I like to knit.  I have friends and family who either love to receive hand-knits or who were foolish enough to pretend to love it in order to spare my feelings, and now we're trapped in this charade for eternity.

I wasn't kidding about liking stickers.

So those are (some) of the things I plan.  You'll no doubt have noticed an utter lack of mention of things like grocery shopping or housekeeping.   That should probably tell you where my priorities lie.  Carl and I do sit down and menu plan every week, but other than that we have just have some routines that bump along.  The whole thing needs more attention but, whatever, I'm busy knitting socks.

I do not have a perfect system.  I have an imperfect hodge-podge of systems, and I'm constantly looking to reinvent or tweak what I'm doing.   Part of the reason for these blog posts is to verbally process what I'm doing now (or what I want to be doing now) with an eye towards making decisions about how to proceed in 2019. 

Now, if you were to asking me about tracking (as opposed to planning)... well that would be a whole different blog post.

I Take A Lot of Pictures of Socks Next to Salsa

Somehow I managed to spend over three days without a pair of socks on the needles.   Mind you, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this (if by "reasonable" you mean "I was making decisions on what to knit based on how many invisible internet points I could get" ... and I do) but even so... it felt weird.

Don't worry though, I'm back in the game with some very festive holiday socks.

Not that holiday.  The other one.

I seem to take a lot of pictures of socks next to salsa.  One might draw some (likely accurate) conclusions from this.   Anyway, this is Must Stash Yarn's "Jack is Back," in their Merino/Nylon base.  I don't think they have any in stock right now, but there are some other great colorways available.

This was one of those very rare instances where I saw the yarn, I bought the yarn, I cast on the yarn.  Sort of a vidi, emi, kniti* situation.  Usually there's a year(s) long gap between steps 2 and 3.  Not this time, baby, it's October and I need me some spoopy socks.

I've named the project "I smell children," and I love how it is knitting up.

In other news, I've added a whack of new squares to my Hogwarts Studies Blanket (this is what I was doing instead of knitting a sock earlier this week).   For the second Quidditch Match of the term, our prompt was to knit or crochet something to protect from the cold.  I did ten tiny new squares and made the bold statement that they were one engorgio charm away from being big enough to cuddle up under.   (If none of that made any sense to you, the important takeaway is that I added squares to the sock yarn blanket.)

I'm closing in on 35% complete, if I keep to my original 12x18 plan.  I might do 12x24 instead, but I don't have to decide until I get there.   I'm getting tired of explaining every February how this both does and does not count as a WIP, so I'm going to try to accelerate my pace somewhat.   It might still be on the list for February 2019, but if so, there will be a lot more of it there.

*Made up Latin for "I saw, I bought, I knit."

FO: and all at once summer collapsed into fall

I finished up a pair of socks yesterday.  I knit these pretty much everywhere I went for about two weeks - during lunch breaks, on conference calls, on the couch after work, in the car (when I wasn't driving - don't freak out).  If I was sitting down and near these socks, odds are I was working on them.

I've been experimenting with my basic sock recipe lately.  Something (stress) has tightened my gauge back up.  This summer I frogged the better part of a sock knit on my standard US 1.5/2.5 mm needles and a 64 stitch CO.  I felt sorry for myself and my fat ankles for about ten minutes until it occurred to me to check my gauge.  I was clocking 9 sts/inch, and no dang wonder 64 stitches was too small.

Anyway, rather than go up a needle size, since I like a sock to have a firm fabric (I mean, not kevlar-firm, just regular sock firm) I decided to add a few stitches to see what would happen.   And then I thought, let's get really crazy and get a new heel up in here.  Yeah, I know when you experiment you should only change one variable at a time, but I do what I want.

So, 68 stitches cast on and a Fish Lips Kiss Heel later, and I have a perfect fitting sock.  Four perfect fitting socks, actually, since this is the second time I've tried this recipe.

I know, I know, how have I knit so many pairs of socks but I'm just now getting around to the FLK heel?  I have two reasons, neither of which, in retrospect, were really worth the delay.

1) The pattern is a million pages long and has you trace your foot onto cardboard.  That sounded like a lot of commitment.  (I solved for this by knitting top down and skipping to the good parts.  The foot model is actually probably really helpful for a toe-up sock--I'm not casting aspersions, I just never got around to it.)

2) My previous short-row heel experiences had all been disappointing.  The didn't fit and they looked like butt.   This one fits, and it looks fine, so go figure.   Now, I will grant you my previous short-row heels were knit back in, what, 2011?  I'm a better knitter now, so that's probably a factor.  But this pattern is also pretty darned cool, so props to the designer.

Anyway, I'm a convert.  It won't be the last new heel I ever try, and it probably won't be my forever-default heel, but for right now, I'm digging it.

Seriously, these things are so comfortable.  I'm still wearing them.

The name of the project, "and all at once summer collapsed into fall" is a quote from Oscar Wilde.  I'm working on making my project names more interesting.  More interesting than "Autumn colored socks, #16" would have been anyway.

Project Notes

Pattern:  Regular old socks + Fish Lips Kiss Heel

Yarn: ONline Supersocke 4-fach City Color, colorway "1486" (it was an excellent vintage)

Total Yardage: 354 yards

Needles: US 1.5/2.5 mm 32" Knitters Pride circulars, magic loop

Started: September 14, 2018

Completed: September 28, 2018

Ravelry Project Page: here

Ruminations on Planning

My dear friend recently started a blog post series on planning.   This is not an unboxing/which-system-is-best/here's-my-weekly-spread kind of series, though I wouldn't be surprised if she got to that later.

No, this first blog post of hers is an introspective piece that asks the question:

Why is it that some of us spend lots of money, time, and energy on the act of planning, on planning for planning, and on planners themselves?  

 And then she said "tag, you're it!" so here I am to take a stab at answering the same question.

Currently using a Panda Planner, though I'm apt to shift at a moment's notice.  I'm ever changing, like the moon.

I have a number of answers, and here they are in no particular order.

• I love office supplies.  I love papers, and journals, and pens, and stickers, and washi tape, and post-its.  They fill me with glee.  The way to my heart is through stationary, pure and simple.  Well, stationary or yarn, but that's a different blog post.
• I am incredibly privileged in that I have disposable income that I can spend on planning supplies.  But I'd use a 70 cent spiral bound notebook and a number 2 pencil if I had to.
• When I was a kid I had a full-on sticker collection.  When I discovered that adults could have stickers too (stickers that are nominally functional even) I about plotzed.
• I am a really visual person.  Seeing something makes it real for me.  I get some mileage out of virtual tools like Trello's kanban board (especially since I am working with a virtual team), but I vastly prefer old-school paper planning.
• As visual as I am, I am even more kinesthetic.  The physical act of writing something down does something in my brain.  I enjoy the sensation of pencil or pen on paper (and let me tell you how much I do not enjoy it when the pen or the paper isn't right.  Makes me picky like whoa.)   Not only that, but writing things down triggers them into my memory.    When I was in school, I could recall a piece of information by remembering where in my notes I wrote it.  Bottom quarter of the left-hand page...got it!
• I thrive on to-do lists.  Sometimes they are more like "to-done" lists, because I am not ashamed to write something down and cross it off after I've already done it, but in principle, I work better off of lists.
• It alleviates my stress, and helps me to think more clearly to see the plan written down.  To know what the steps are, and to have it off-loaded out of my brain and onto paper makes a huge difference in how productive I am.  Brains are processors, not hard-drives...so writing things down frees up my RAM.

So basically, the TL;DR answer is:  I like it and it helps.  Digital planners are much less useful for me (though as noted above, digital project management tools have their time and place).  

Did I mention I really dig stickers?

VH1's "Where Are They Now?" 2018 February is for Finishing Edition

Last year I started a new tradition (you can tell it's a tradition, cuz now I'm doing it for the second time - that's totally how tradition works) of checking in to share where I am with the projects that were on my "February is for Finishing" list. 

So let's do that!   This past February I had seven projects on my list.  Six "real" projects, and one "doesn't count" project that I keep counting.

1.  Let's start with Schrodinger's Blanket (until you open the box it is in a constant state of either being a WIP or not being a WIP... geddit?).  It's official name is my Hogwarts Studies Blanket, and I'm really not much farther than I was in February.  We're in it for the long haul with this guy.



I think I might have added one or maybe two more squares since this was taken, but this is pretty much where we're at.

2. Frisson.  June 23, 2017 - February 10, 2018.   This was one of my February is for Finishing victories.   I love this thing - I knit it out of Miss Babs Keira, which is a heavy fingering (almost sport weight) yarn.  I wore the heck out of it last winter, but apparently didn't ever take any modeled shots.



3. Caramel.  August 2, 2017 - August 7, 2018.  This baby only saw action during "break months" in the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup.    Turns out if you only work on a sweater one month out of every four, it takes a minute to get done.  It was August in Tennessee when I finished this beauty, so most of my attempts at a modeled shot were sweaty and disappointing (rather like some of my early attempts at dating, actually).

4. ROYGBV.  August 5, 2017 - March 28, 2017.   I successfully made toe-up knee-high socks, using a the Double Gusset on Bottom Toe Up Sock by Carrie Ramirez as a start, and then just winging it on the calf increases.  I love them, and I used up all but a tiny smidge of the yarn.

 

5. Charms OWL: Torquata.  January 1, 2018 - March 25, 2018.  This is another shawl (wrap? stole?) that I wear all the time.  I have a cute tank top that goes with it perfectly, and it makes for the perfect summer outfit when you want a cover-up for over air-conditioned buildings.



6. Big Magic.  January 1, 2018 - February 18, 2018.   Hey! Another February Finishing victory!  These socks were a test knit of the Non-Euclidean heel for a designer friend of mine (I met her at SSK, and I think she's swell).  The heel is clever and comfortable.  A++ would knit again. In fact, I did.



7. Dappled Sunlight.  January 21, 2018 - March 7, 2018.   Another really wearable piece.  This was a lot of fun to knit, and I really like the Cloudborn Fibers Highland Fingering.  It's toothy without being unbearably scratchy.   It's a wool's wool, ya know?




So there you have it.   The scrap yarn blanket is the same as it ever was (more or less) but everything else from last February's list is done like dinner.

Which begs the question... does February is for Finishing still make sense for me?   I currently have two blankets in progress, a sweater, a shawl, and a pair of socks.  The socks and the shawl are both on track to be done within a week or two, and the sweater is this Term's OWL.   I don't really have UFOs anymore.

Am I cured?

(Immediately looks around for lightening to strike).

February is for Finishing Project List 2018

It's February, and here at chez woolly February means Finishing.   We've been trotting out our works in progress, cataloging them, and either frogging, flinging, or finishing them during this fine alliterative month since 2006.   You'll pleased to know that nothing on this year's project list first made an appearance on that initial offering. 

Point of fact, much like last year, this year's list is comprised of almost entirely new projects.  The only exception (the repeat offender, if you will) is my UFO sock blanket, and I'm only listing that out of a sense of completeness.  It doesn't properly count, but it's not done, so there you go.

In any case, here's this year's list, in order from oldest to newest.  (Links go to my Ravelry project page.)

1.  Hogwarts Studies Blanket, cast on May 16, 2016.  This friend has no specific end date in mind.  I'm knitting each square to turn in to the Hogwarts Knit and Crochet House Cup (hence "Hogwarts Studies blanket").  I'm about 20% done, based on a 12x18 square lap blanket, but I reserve the right to keep going when I get there if that doesn't feel big enough.   In terms of my over all projects-on-the-go numbers, I'm thinking of each square as a mini-project.  If there are no live stitches in this sucker, it doesn't count.  (Yes, that is a rationalization. No, I don't care.  My WIP-pile, my rules.)

2. Frisson, cast on June 23, 2017.   This is an assymetrical shawl, similar to the Hitchhiker.  I started it for the Colors of Fall knitalong (a KAL that is honored more in the breach than in the observance in these parts.  I'm better at casting on for this KAL than I am at finishing it in a timely manner).  I'm most of the way done, and plan to finish it this February.

3.  Caramel, cast on August 2, 2017.   I was inspired to make this sweater by my good friend Cris.  It's a top-down raglan, designed by Isabell Kraemer, knit out of Miss Babs Yowz on US 6 needles.  I'm mostly working on it during break months.  Note to self:  If you are active in the House Cup, any sweater not knit for points is likely to be neglected.  It looks a bit like a great lump right now, as I haven't quite split for the sleeves. I think it's going to be lovely, if I'd just get on with it.

4. ROYGBV, cast on August 5, 2017.  I'm winging the pattern on these toe-up socks.  My intention is to knit a full rainbow for each sock, which means I'm moving into high-calf/knee high territory.  Happily, toe-up means "try it on as you go" so I can add stitches here and there as I need to.  Maybe I should write down what I'm doing so the second sock is something like the first... hmm..  The yarn is Wandering Wool North Country Sock in the aptly named "Rainbow" colorway.

5. Charms OWL: Torquata, cast on January 1, 2018.   I've had Torquata in my queue or a couple of years -- in fact I bought the kit for it at SSK in 2016 (it's Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply).  I'm knitting it as my Charms OWL for the House Cup, so it's due by March 31.  I don't anticipate finishing it in February, but it's going to get a chunk of my attention for sure, so that I'm on track to finish in March.

6. Big Magic, cast on January 1, 2018.   This Desert Vista Dyeworks yarn was inspired by the book cover for Elizabeth Gilbert's "Big Magic."  I'm knitting these socks with the intention of fostering and nurturing my creativity.   They are also a test knit for a friend who's invented a very cool new way to knit a heel.  I'm looking forward to finishing these.  (Also check out that Erin Lane bag -- I love a good project to project bag match, and this one is so good it's almost spooky).

7.  Dappled Sunlight, cast on January 21, 2018.  This will be my Order Mission for the House Cup (Order Missions are 6-8 weeks of anticipated work), so like Torquata, I'll be working on this in February, but won't necessarily finish it.  I'm not fussed one way or the other, so long as it's done by mid-March in time to get my points.   I'm knitting it out of Cloudborn Fibers Highland Fingering.  It's a Craftsy exclusive yarn, and I pretty much love it.  It's very smooshy, and lovely.

So there you have it!  Seven things (six if you don't count the one that doesn't count).  One I've targeted to finish for sure (Frisson), and the rest we'll just see.  I anticipate finishing Big Magic too, and who knows, maybe I'll get Dappled Sunlight done early. 

I mentioned a few posts ago that my knitting has changed enough that February is for Finishing is very different for me now than it used to be.  It's been a while since I've frogged an abandoned project, for example.   That said, I still think it's useful to take stock and see where I am once in a while, and February is just as good a time for that as any.

What are your plans for this February?  Have any big finishing in mind?