finished!
The Little Pea has a book about a baby deer who is lost in the woods. He makes friends with a baby raccoon, who is trying to climb over a log. As the little raccoon struggles over the log, he chants to himself, "I can do it! I can doooooo it!"
We are chanting "I can doooo it!" a lot at our house lately. For one, the Little Pea is two years old now. There are a lot of things she is learning to doooo by herself (including climbing over logs). And our long trip in the car recently led me to pick up some long-abandoned UFO's to see if I couldn't make myself doooo it and finish them on the long ride. The trend has continued, and I'm picking up one hibernating project after the next lately, then putting them down all happy and finished.
I finished a baby blanket (pictured above), which didn't hibernate too long, but had been put away when I ran out of yarn just short of the finish line. Happily enough, I found the skein I needed at a little yarn store in Vermont while we were visiting there.
This week (on another car trip) I finished the Copper Scarf that I'd started exactly one year ago, intending to wear it in the fall, and then somehow losing interest just about the time cool weather arrived. It looks great, and I can't wait til the temperature drops enough to show it off. It's made from Manos Silk Blend and feels like heaven.
And then there's the Minimalist Cardigan. My problem child. After more than 4 years, I was so close. Just a tiny bit of knitting left to go... and I have run out of yarn. AAARGH! Of course. And this is no variegated, multi-colored, kettle-dyed, funky schlunky yarn where dye lots don't matter - it's Rowan Cashsoft DK, knit in moss stitch, so neat and regular and incredibly unforgiving... and the last section I have to knit is the front panels, from the armpit to the shoulder. Just where a color shift would be most obvious.
Clearly, I need to just suck it up, order a couple of skeins and hope for the best. There's no chance in hell that the same dye lot is out there someplace, 4 years later. Is there...? I think I better go trawling on Ravelry. Maybe I'll get lucky!
I am being so good. There are a handful of seductive new projects and yarns in my cabinet, just singing my name like little sirens... and I am doing my best to ignore them while I finish up these UFO's. I think once that Minimalist Cardi is done I should get some sort of prize for ending a 4-year hiatus. What's your longest-left UFO that you actually finished?
Wow, you should definitely treat yourself to a prize once you finish the Minimalist Cardi. I don't have that old ufos (yet).
ReplyDeleteWell, I haven't finished it yet, but I recently started adding new rows to a scarf I had originally started in June 2007. That may not seem so long ago, but I only took up knitting in 2006, so that's nearly as long as possible for me.
ReplyDeleteLook on ebay too.
ReplyDeletecould you share details of that baby blanket? Looks simple to knit and very cute. I have three pregnant friends at the moment.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work with the UFO's!
I echo Karen, great baby blanket, can you share the details?
ReplyDeleteKaren, it's Elizabeth Zimmerman's pattern, from Knitting Workshop.
ReplyDeleteI started a colorblock cardi about ten years ago that's about 1/3 done. It's out of an entirely unsuitable yarn, if I ever expect to wear it, so I put it in a bag and have acted like it doesn't exist since. In fact, I don't think I've ever confessed to anyone else... not even on my own blog! It's officially a UFO, but I think of it or as a URO (un-ripped object). And one of these days, I'll get around to ripping it. Promise.
ReplyDeleteToni, ripping is even harder than finishing a long-malingering UFO! Good luck - you will definitely earn a prize for that one!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reply. I thought I had seen that pattern before, but I didn't remember where. Now I need to find my copy of EZ's Knitting workshop. Did you use a self-striping yarn of some sort?
ReplyDelete