A Finished Object... and some that may be

Yes, you read that right. I have an honest-to-goodness FO to share. It's sort of a big deal for me, since I'm not really much on "finishing".... although I'm a heck of a starter.

I give you, my 2008 scarf for the Red Scarf Project (insert "ta da" trumpet sound here)

It's a simple little pattern I found on the Jimmy Beans Wool website. It's just called Month 5. As the site suggests, it looks much more difficult than it is. Just four pattern rows repeated over 26 stitches... it flies by.

So, now that my charity knitting is done and on its way to warm some college student this winter, what else am I doing? Well, perhaps it's time for a "Walk through the WIPs" (note that this is a long post with lots of pictures from here on out... but if you want to feel better about your own backlog of projects, by all means carry on)

Bear in mind as we go through these that they are the "current" works in progress. There is another batch of things in progress stuffed in closets and tote bags that will probably never get finished. These are the lucky few that have a shot.

If you recall, I made one Sidewinder sock with the "Knitters Without Borders" STR, and I really didn't care for it all that much, so I frogged it. (I don't need to tell you that I'm liking it more, now that it's gone, right?). Anyway... I started the Cedar Creek Sock from BMFA, and it's going ok so far.

This kind of non-descript, oatmeal-y thing is the beginning of the back of Bianca's Jacket from IK, which I started a while back. I got to the underarm bind-off in the back and decided I needed to rethink the length, wondered whether I needed to think about some short rows for the front, how that would work with the patterned yoke and whether I had enough yarn to do all this. Don't count on seeing progress on this one any time soon.

"My So-Called Scarf" in Malabrigo "Autumn Forest". The colors are stunning, and this picture in no way does them justice. An easy knit, but not something that's exciting me these days.

Mystic Meadows shawl. No excuse for this one. It's about 80% done. It's not difficult. It's even fingering weight yarn. No excuse.

This is an older member of the WIP family. It's the Phyllo Yoked Pullover sweater from Knitting Nature. Gorgeous discontinued yarn (again, crappy picture, sorry) from Art Yarns called Fable. I was happily knitting along on this, planning a comfy oversized weekend sweater when I happened to bring it along to my daughter's orthodontist appointment. All of the women in the office were complimenting it, and when the doctor came in (he's about 5 foot 3, with all of the "short man" issues that implies) he said, "Wow, who's that for, that's enormous!" Needless to say, it took some of the fun out of this little project for me.

Recognize this? It's the Mystery Stole 3 KAL, which was eventually revealed to be the Swan Lake stole. I was really loving it at the beginning -- black alpaca lace, iridescent green beads.... and then it turned out that it was asymmetrical, and the second half of the stole turns into a swan's wing. It's beautiful, but I knew that it wasn't something I would wear. So, I decided to knit a second half identical to the first and graft them together (or maybe use the panel that the designer included for that purpose). But alas, it takes almost nothing to derail my concentration, and this became another WIP.

I'm not sure why I even bothered to include this picture, except to tell you about the project. It's His (Birthday) Scarf, and it's knit in baby alpaca. Amazingly soft, and a really nice, tailored, guy kind of look to it. You can't see the pattern here, but it's a pretty woven/moss stitch kind of thing.

Now, with all this in progress, do I have any business looking at yarn? Of course not. But here you go. When I picked up the Cotton-Ease for the amigurumi at Michael's (not my usual yarn store), I happened to see this self-patterning yarn from Red Heart (not my usual yarn company). I actually learned to knit on Red Heart many, many years ago (back when they sold it in little 1 oz skeins, which I could afford with my allowance), and so I have a wee soft spot for it. There was a swatch of this knit up, and it's very cute -- a much more intricate patterning than you usually see with the self-patterning yarns. And it's Wool! So, perhaps one of my girls has a new pair of socks on the way. (It will come as no surprise to you that, in the time since I started writing this post, I've cast on socks with this yarn.... and they are so-o-o cute!)

So there you have it. I have no business whatsoever starting anything new...ever (well, not for a very long time). Except.... my sister called to tell me that she's pregnant!! And you know what that means....