Waiting

Well. This is it. This is the truly scary bit. The winners are announced and I will make them a bespoke gift. What will they want? Shall I be able to execute it satisfactorily? I am quite excited, really. It’s going to be interesting, to see what people want from me. Will they want to see me challenged to try something new? Or opt for something that they feel won’t demand too much of me? I am truly fascinated with this project. I think I’ll probably do it again in the future.

In Other News: I am having a perfectly splendid weekend. Very… cosy. We had Supper and Soap on Friday evening – leading me to be a day ahead all weekend. All day yesterday I thought it was Sunday and the penny did not truly drop until I listened to the Elbow concert on Radio 2 last night. I am so pleased that Elbow are doing so well. I have championed them for years, usually eliciting a response of “Elbow? Never heard of them.” I was a fan even prior to those kittens… and, wow, how many years ago was that? I was still working, I know that – because I can remember being in the office when I first saw the kittens… But, I digress.

I managed to complete one of Mr L’s boring socks while Elbow were on and I even cast on the second one – the Cascading Leaves Shawl having defeated me as bedroom knitting. Still feel like I am wading waist deep in mud with my knitting – far too many other calls on my time just now. Still wanting to clear more WIPs so that I can begin some planned projects with a clear conscience – and some sense of organisation.

Overall, the January FO list is very pleasing, with eight WIPs completed:

• Rivolo scarf FO 1/1/09
• Water Socks FO 4/1/09
• Mr plumbum’s desk mitts to sew up FO 7/1/09
• Earl Grey Socks FO 7/1/09
• BSJ FO 12/1/09
• Ingrid FO 18/1/09
• Rainbow Swallowtail Shawl FO 20/01/09
• Tea cosy FO 22/01/09

Plus three new January cast on projects completed:

• Zak’s Hat
• Zak’s Little Feet
• Mystery RAK project

That’s eleven Finished Objects, folks. ELEVEN! and that has made a huge difference to my workbasket.

One more sleeper resurrected and live on the needles again:

• Cashmere mitts LIVE 25/01/09

Two frogged objects cast on again and making progress:

• Pink Swallowtail LIVE 21/01/09
• Cascading Leaves Shawl LIVE 27/01/09

and two pairs of socks ticking along on the side:

• Not so Flashy socks (New)
• Thorfinn socks

February Plans

I’m not planning much for February – I really have a lot of stuff going on in other areas of my life and I need to be concentrating on those. That being so, I hope just to complete:

• Pink Swallowtail
• Cascading Leaves Shawl

and if things go very well, reach the point where I can cast on some Francie socks – which in my head means that I have to complete the outstanding WARNING! sock first.

The Not so Flashy socks will take care of themselves and I am minded to put Thorfinn back to sleep again for now.

I really want to make time for spinning and now that there’s been a bit of draught-proofing going on, it may be possible to sit in the sitting room with my wheel now and again.

This week

Craft Club on Monday (crochet), Doctor for Blood Tests on Tuesday (very overdue) plus some editing with SpinningGill, Spinning at J’s on Wednesday. Some webmastery to fit in at some point, appointment still to be established. Design commission to complete, now that I have seen the colour of the client’s’ cash. The latter is the most urgent.

Not much knitting progress to be expected this week then.

And my workroom still needs a good “bottoming”!

EDIT

I applied the scientific rational method of project sorting again. Purely as a reference point, here’s what Excel told me about my priorities at this point:

1	Pink Swallowtail
2	Cascading Leaves Shawl
3	Warning socks
4	Steve’s sweater
5	Cashmere mitts
6	Girasole Shawl
7	Rivulet cardigan for me
8	Not so Flashy Plain socks
9	Bayret
10	Puccini Hamsa scarf
11	Down among the dunes
12	Mingus Socks
13	Pomatomus socks
14	Tretta beaded hat
15	Francie Socks
16	Lyra
17	Bread and BeautyTeosinte socks
18	Koolhaas
19	Thorfinn socks
20	Pinecone Spiraluscious Mitts
21	Ghost Alpaca Gust
22	Frosted Ferns
23	Rivendell socks
23	Lead or Follow Scarf
24	Girasole Blanket

Instincts concur pretty much with rational analysis (for once) but I do note the downgrading of the cashmere mitts – which I had tended to prioritise as very much a “quick hit”