(Self) Control Issues

Because I hate photo-less posts, here's a photo of "my" tree by the Potomac, that I took in October:

The homestretch is on. The original goal for this year was to have "under 50" UFOs by the end of the year. After great contemplation (and a case of the Must Do Something!!s over the weekend), I realized that I'm never actually doing to do anything else on my Sekrit Projikt (socks). I learned some cool stuff, managed to reinvent the wheel (i-cord! I can make i-cord!), and have, at the end of it all, nice thick socks for shuffling around the house. There's nothing special or cool or unique about them, though, other than I had fun figuring out how to make them - so, I declare them DONE, and, if I stop here, totally machine-washable. So, they're Off The List.

As is SotS-III. The lovely yellow cotton yarn and brilliant beads I had for it... just don't work with the theme. I have much better yarn now (and a really cool idea involving the words "intarsia" and "lace"... we'll see), so I'll start that again next year. (Meanwhile, my lovely yellow will stay in reserve, just in case it'd work great for SotS-IV.) So, it's Off The List.

Plus, yesterday, I showed you those finished socks.

What does all this mean? you ask.

Well, basically, that I'm back to 59 UFOs all of a sudden. I've started 44 things this year, and, one way or another, I've finished 45 things this year. (And eleven of those finished things have been from previous years, too.) I'm just one finished project shy of where I started the year, at 58 UFOs, which is ten down from the year's high of 68. Yep, that's right - but I've actually been finishing projects. I'm pretty sure that the Rabbits of Doom will be finished this week, since I'm sending most of them out THIS WEEK, and people would rather get a nice, squooshy little rabbit than a bunch of tangled yarn and stuffing. And the Ninja Mittens gallop apace - all the fingers are now intact, and I'm just knitting around in graduallly decreasing circles. I don't have the itch to start anything new (looking at the giant bag of Rabbits has pretty much killed that!), and I've got my Forget-Me-Not shawl along with me, just in case I get bored with the Ninja Mitts.

In fact, it's really time to (sigh) delve into the Sixth Circle of Hell, otherwise known as my vastly overcrowded stash room, and go through *all* the projects. It's time to figure out what I'm actually going to finish - and if I'm not going to finish it, get rid of it. And if I'm not going to get rid of it, to finish it. For example: My friends I & M eloped a while back, and I had this cool idea for a sampler for them. It's just NOT working... so I think I'll break down and ask which sampler she'd actually like, and if it's doable, do that instead. ("Doable" = NOT a TW; my pleasantly insane friend K does those as samplers for folks. She also has the fortitude to work on just one project at a time.) After looking at the list, there are 8 projects that are within the "reasonable to finish this year" time-frame (NOT all eight, mind you - but eight that could be done in three weeks). There are also some that... while I love the patterns... will just NEVER happen. These include: (cross stitch) - Tiffany Wisteria Window (1) , Welcome Friends, "Unicorn" ("Night Watch")- not on 32ct black linen, anyway!!, "Angel of Christmas", "Mysterious Spirit Woman", Stoney Creek Chivalry Sampler, and.... and looking through my other crafts, I think I actually *will* finish the rest. But, once I find them (and if they don't cry too loudly at me to be saved), these six are probably going to go away. (I am particularly succeptable to the pitiful cries of projects yearning to be finished, so maybe not.) Until they are actually disposed of, however, they will NOT go off the list.

Sneak Peek at Monday's entry:


...tiny earless rabbits...