A Flurry of Finished Objects
I am not a completer, I am an innovator, a pioneer. I love new challenges, trying new things, learning a new technique. It’s being an Aries.
This does mean that I have a worrying collection of unfinished objects lurking in bags/boxes/cupboards all across my house. We’ve been clearing out our spare rooms and loft recently in preparation for the hoped for arrival of small people to share our home and this has lead to me having a tidy up of my knitting projects and stash. This, coupled with my new obsession with Ravelry has led me to face up to my problem. Having entered all my completed projects into Ravelry, and my stash I had to put in all those UFO’s and suddenly they were no longer lurking but were out there in the full glare of daylight…and there were lots…like more than 20…actually more like 30…..
The worst thing is that a good proportion, around 50%, were only unfinished because they hadn’t been sewn up. The knitting was all done they just needed the pieces to be fit together and I had a completed garment. So I have set about completing some of them. I tried to do this at the beginning of this year by listing them all here on my blog but they could hide away there too easily - I needed to have them shouting and waving at me….”Wendy, here we are, finish us!!!”
So in the past week I have completed (ie sewn up) these items -
Child’s Aran Cardigan
Age - 1 year; started Oct/Nov 2006
Pattern is from a Sirdar Booklet - Sirdar 299 Toddler Aran Knits
Yarn is Sirdar Snuggly Aran
Size is 5-6 years
I knit this last winter when I was making loads of things for my sale to raise money for Breakthrough and never got around to sewing it up. After a couple of evenings of CSI here it is, ready for either a Christmas present for one of the little people currently in my life or to wait for one of the little people soon to come into my life.
Orchid Sweater
Age - 2 1/2 years; started une 2005
Pattern - Orchid by Kim Hargreaves from Rowan 31
Yarn - Rowan Linen Drape colour 847 Splash
Size - S
This was part of my Linen Drape obsession in the summer of 2005. After getting Rowan 31 I fell in love with Linen Drape, bought up a ton of it on eBay, finished the Flame vest in Watermelon which I wear all the time. I knit this as I thought it would be a great wear for evenings on holiday but never got it completed for holiday 2005 (Tunisia) or 2006 (Turkey).
I’m pretty happy with it except that the sleeves are rather long, they are supposed to be long and come over the hand but they may be a little tooooo long. I do have to buy a backless bra ……
The stash still contains 14 balls of Watermelon and 1 of Splash!
Stripey Hat & Mittens
Sorry, don’t have a photo of both mittens completed but they are done (honest!)
Age - 1 year; started Winter 2006
Pattern - Patons PBN C 4847
Yarn - DK Acrylic
Size - Child
These were another item intended for my sale last year. My mum bought the DK Acrylic to knit a sweater for my nephew but it didn’t knit up correctly for the pattern she had so she donated it to me for my sale. I made a whole load of mittens and hats but these were never finished.
The Patons pattern leaflet is one I’ve had for years and is brilliant, it has gloves, fingerless gloves, mittens and hats in 4 sizes for toddler, child, woman and man. I’ve made so many gloves and mittens from this over the years in all the sizes. I’ve spent more than one Christmas Eve finishing up gloves as last minute presents from this pattern!
These are in the child size so could well end up being a Christmas present this year.
Little Girl’s Bolero Jacket
Age - 1 year; started Sept 2006
Pattern - Alpaca Bolero from Baby Style by Debbie Bliss
Yarn - Bab Softspun 4 ply in lavender
Size - 24-36 months
This was started last winter as a possible christmas present. Finished all the knitting then it stalled. This photo doesn’t do it justice the colour is a lovely shade of lilac.
I still have the following to be sewn up
- Baby striped cotton sweater (started summer 2006)
- Echo striped sweater from Rowan 38 (Feb 2006)
- Toddler duffel jacket from Debbie Bliss Baby Style (Jan 2006)
- Checked jacket in Sirdar Snowflake (umm, not sure - 1999??)
- Polly Pocket dress from Miss Bea’s Seaside (summer 2006)
- Snowflake Bunny sweater from Sirdar (winter 2004 …probably…)
and these to be completed
- Rose Dangle Crochet scarf from The Natural Dye Studio (June 2007)
- Nell from Rowan 28 (Aug 2005)
- Rose Bud Cardigan from Debbie Bliss Nursery Knits (Feb 2006)
- Chrissy sweater from Rowan 31 (July 2006)
- Friday Harbor Socks from Knitting on the Road (July 2007)
- Mad for Fairisle Socks by Tina Lorin (May 2007)
- Bayerische Sock by Eunny Jang (Jan 2007)
- Cherry Leaf Shawl from Victorian Lace Today - this only needs the edging and it’s done (July 2007)
- Miranda Pattern Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks - suffering from SSS! as I don’t like the fit, may frog (July 2007)
- Mad Weave socks from Sock Madness (April 2007)
- Binary Scarf by Christine Dumoulin from Knitty 2006 (Jan 2007)
- Everlasting Bagstopper by Amy R Singer from Knitty Summer 2007, ok for this I just need to find the right ribbon for the straps but haven’t been anywhere that sells ribbon. (July 2007)
- Snicket Sock by Sabine Riefler from Magknits Sept 2006 (March 2007)
as well as the “current’ projects which I am actively working on (I can’t work on just one as I get bored)
- Gryffindor Scarf for Jon from Charmed Knits (Sept 2007)
- Amigurumi Monkey from Super Happy Crochet Cute (Sept 2007)
- Child’s French Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks (Oct 2007)
- Cardigan for Arwen by Kate Gilbert (Sept 2007)
- Prickly Girl by Cristiana Brenna from Knitty Summer 2007 (Sept 2007)
- Weasley Sweater from Charmed Knits (Aug 2007)
So my aim by the end of the year is to get at least half of these finished - so please lend me your support!
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Tags: finished
October 16th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Orchid looks fab!
you’re very brave for listing all those UFO’s. Good luck!
October 16th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Oh my word Wendy! How many UFOs!?!! I get stressed when I have more than 3 on the go, so am willing you on to finish them. And look how lovely they are when you have got them finished? Orchid looks absolutely brilliant, it really suits you.
October 16th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Wow. Imagine the (almost) instant satisfaction of having a new jumper after a couple of hours sewing. Magic! You can do it…. I agree with Adele, Orchid looks amazing on you.
October 16th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
ok, lol, now i don’t feel so badly about all the wip’s/ftp’s lounging about the house…great job on getting so many finished up this week and good luck on the next bundle of them! wow! So …do you ever just frog sometimes when you don’t feel the love for the project anymore.
October 16th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Can I just say - speaking as Wendy’s long suffering slightly worse half - that she is indeed a very bad person. She has bags and bags of unfinished knitting projects.
Every week parcels arrive, and they are never for me. They invariably contain new balls of wool in various colours in order to start new projects or “because I just needed….”
You all feel sorry for me, don’t you (it’s okay, I know you don’t really)
October 16th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
OMG the Orchid and Bolero garments are absolutely beautiful. I’m sure they would have found ready sale if they were offered. The mittens set and the aran jumper are also beautiful. But I’m with you. I hate sewing my knitting and things will languish forever while I try to avoid the inevitable. You could be like Jean Miles and outsource the sewing side of really large projects! I believe she does this with blocking lace occasionally as well.
October 16th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
By the end of the year??! I’m willing you on!
And now I’m going to cast on a new project with no guilty feelings whatsoever and cite your shining example if dh moans.
I have no sympathy for you jonathan…
October 17th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
And I thought having 16 were too many earlier this year. But I do agree with you on the finishing. My problem was I’d have everything done but the sewing. It’s not necessarily something I look forward to doing. But congratulations on getting organized and trying to get it all done. I absolutely love your Orchid sweater. Looks like something I might have to add to queue.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:10 am
Wow, fabulous job - if only I was so industrious.
Don’t forget the third quidditch trivia’s out for HSKS 3. Go Gryffindor’s!!
October 18th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Doesn’t it feel good to finish something!! I’ve got tons of UFOs sitting around, too, because it is just so darn fun to start something new LOL! Once a couple of years ago, I picked a top 10 of UFOs that I wanted to finished and throughout the year finished almost all of them … need to do that again ….
October 18th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Feels good to finish something! A couple of years ago I made a list of the top 10 UFOs (yes, there were way more than that LOL!) and throughout the year I finished almost all of them … need to do that again soon ….