Lists and Other Ideas

Since I have had two days of vacation this week, I have had time to catch up on other TIF-ers' blogs.  I have a list of fifteen or so I visit when time allows and yesterday, one set me to thinking.  Jane of Loopy Lou's Adventures into Handicrafts prepared a project to-do list for the month of November.  It made me revisit the times in my life when I scheduled at least one task each day, every day, for completion.  Incomplete tasks got carried over to the following day until they were done.  I was really productive when I did that, but I gave up the process after my son was raised and I had more free time (time to waste?)

Since work expands to fill the time, as the saying goes, I decided to make a stab at efficiency and compose a list of projects of my own to complete this month.  This is not a tough thing for me to do.  I have five sweaters that have been knitted but are still in pieces, waiting to be sewn up for wearing.  Two of them, both of Noro yarns, have been sitting in my knitting bag for two years and one, of a no-name rayon, for three years.  Two are cotton sweaters that I wanted to wear this past summer, but they never quite got pieced.  I also have a sweater that needs altering.  My Tulsa sister told me on Saturday that this was a "disgraceful" (her word) state of affairs.  These UFOs, of course, are in addition to the new projects I'd like to tackle: the TIF challenge piece, plus the two pairs of socks I want to knit for my husband for Christmas.

So, I spent yesterday morning sewing up one of the Noro sweaters I knit last Winter.  It is the lead photo in this post.  I have four more sweaters to go.  I also managed to rip out the cuffs and four inches of sleeve in the sweater that is too big and needs altering.  The live stitches of one sleeve are loaded onto a needle and ready to be re-knit to the proper length.

As to the TIF challenge piece, I also squeezed in a trip to Wal-Mart and bought the thimble and hand quilting thread.  I hope to devote a few hours on the weekend to practicing on the design I chose.  But tomorrow, I head back to work and that will limit my fiber time in a big way.   I think, though, that as long as I chip away at the projects, I may actually be able to have no UFOs by November 30th.   Thank you, Jane!