Unfinished

It turns out that I learned something important in adulthood. The last several years I had stuck pretty solidly to the rule of only doing one project at a time - particularly with knitting. Start something, see it through, get it done, start something else.

Well in the winter of 2020-2021, I threw that out the window. Thought I'd try a little throwback to my teen years, I suppose. It did not go well.

So now I'm in the heart of the crafting season, we've just recently finished our move, and I have unfinished projects up the wazoo! Here's a little taste of all the would-be's that I have to finish before I'm allowed to start anything new:

1. The Green - I'm making this slouchy summer sweater with a cotton-alpaca yarn from Knit Picks called "Kindred" that I bought on sale and which I absolutely adore. What I don't adore is that I failed to make this slouchy at all - not being certain about my yarn quantities and being on the cusp of the suggested ease, I chose the smaller of two sizes and did not choose wisely. I appear to have a relatively form-fitting sweater on my hands. Except that I don't, because I put it down in June or July and never picked it up again 'til now. 1 1/2 sleeves to go (and that 1/2 that I did get done mostly happened this week). Plus, I'll likely need to tink the bottom hem and knit it a little longer because it really did come out a bit on the short side. We'll see how much yarn I have left to extend it with.

2. Sleeveless Taiga - this was going to be my take on the sweater vest. I'd lose the short sleeves in the pattern and make this to replace my much-loved puffy vest (the zipper finally went out or my bust got too big... either way it was 10 years old and it was time). I even fancied knitting up an interior lining with the bulky alpaca I bought for a failed nalbinding project a couple years ago (the texture was just off...). Trouble is, when I finished the vest my sleeveless look turned out to be more like snug little caps. What had I done wrong? Back to the drawing board... I have the zipper, I have the finished vest, I have the alpaca yarn if I ever do want to knit a liner for it... but I have GOT to do SOMETHING about those sleeves! Back to the drawing board... hopefully I can find a way to manipulate it that doesn't mean I have to undo the whole thing. Otherwise, it will be 2 points for Jack, who thought I wouldn't like this sweater when finished.

3. Roam Free Mittens - this is a pattern I'm designing that's inspired by the rams head symbol for official Icelandic sheep products. It's turned out very cute. Trouble is, I only made one mitten - and didn't even make the thumb! I've got everything I need to finish my pair, plus to make a pair for Jack with larger needles and bulkier yarn so that I can offer the pattern in different sizes. Yet there it sits...

4. Jack's Sweater, round 2 - The first one didn't go over very well. Too snug. Too dense. So we thought we'd try something different. I've got a lovely fisherman's sweater pattern called Stonecutter that I purchased and made for myself back in 2013. We decided to try and make the sweater for him. I gauged it and got going. But a couple dozen rows in, I wasn't liking the result - too dense (again) and the definition wasn't what I wanted. So I stopped. Also, it was using the same size needles as The Green, so that posed some issues as well. Anyway, this one needs to get a bit of a reassessment. Perhaps to be frogged and started over on a different size needle. TBD.

5. Artisan Dress - I bought the fabric and pattern for this when it caught my eye one day at JoAnn's. I cut out all the pieces, started sewing, got to the collar interfacing and froze. I don't do interfacing. It's plastic and stupid. But I learned recently, through watching Bernadette Banner's videos, about horsehair tailor's canvas. So I bought some and waited and put the dress on hold. And that was right before the fire season/detail/new job/moving craziness started. Needless to say, I never even cut out the horsehair fabric yet, let alone hand-sewed the pad stitching to connect it to the fabric (what a hot melty iron does for regular plastic interfacing). 

And this is to say nothing of the projects not yet started which have been on my list for some time: painting a label for our friend's new cider; making more envelopes out of calendars; making a rag rug (ok, this one JUST got on my radar and I already started the work for it... so yeah, I cheated a little bit...). I've also got yarn to knit more socks, a shirt, and other goodies. Not to mention I've got tons of other fabric (I packed at least 5 boxes full to bursting with fabric during our move) that would love to get used in SOMETHING!

So this year, 2022, I'm going to go back to what previous experience already taught me and finish what I started, rather than having half a dozen pies in the oven at the same time. Starting with that darn "summer sweater"! :P

Until next time!