I finally inventoried my WIPs last night. not as bad as some. ;)

1. HP scarf for DH. I’m on stripe 13, I think. pattern says 19, but we might decide to add more.

2. SW “Thing”. I joined the Thing-along at the beginning of the year. I started, and hadn’t touched it in forever. decided not to start something new and took it with me as my bus knitting this week - making nice progress now.

3. mini-skull tote. my first foray into intarsia & felting. except the intarsia isn’t going so well (too many yarns!) so it hasn’t been touched in a while.

4. cat bed from SnB. the base is done, I just need to work on the edge thing.

5. baby cardigan. it’s in pieces. need to redo one of the button bands (too big) and add the collar and sew it all up. and add the buttons. before Eli outgrows it.

6. legwarmers. I got stuck at the calf increase area. I’m sort of making it up as I go along. too much thought, so I paused.

7. tank top for my niece. the tank top itself is finished. need to figure out how to add a crochet border and add it, and also add a ruffle to the bottom. not too difficult. just need motivation to do it.

8. charity project #2 - a 2nd mother bear bear. I’m attempting it in the round this time. I have a leg and a half.

9. charity project #3 - a bunting for Bundles of Love - a local ‘baby’ charity. I think I’m past buttonhole 1 of 4.

I think that’s it. I’ve decided that the only new projects I can start prior to finishing these items are Samus (just ordered the yarn, and haven’t made a sweater for myself yet. and I need some for work), socks (plenty of sock yarn, and I’m taking a class this month), and snowflakes (potential holiday decor/gifts. and super quick to make). after I finish something above, then I can cast on for holiday gifts (I still need to make a list of who’s getting what)

oh, and a non-knit WIP that’s knitting related - a needle roll for my dpns. it needs the top and bottom edges seamed. really that’s it. but my sewing table keeps getting buried and it gets neglected

last night I finished the main part of the the tank top. I really like the 3 needle bind off. (wish I’d know about it for the nephew cardigan). I also played a bit and crocheting finally clicked. now I just need to figure out how to do more than a chain. and how to do the crochet edge. so yeah, the tank top needs the crochet edge applied to the top and the ruffle added to the bottom. and then it’ll be done. (I would have worked on that last night, but I had a killer headache from this stupid cold I managed to catch. somehow I managed to figure out the crochet chain with the headache. didn’t want to do any damage to the top though.)

so now my mind says that that project is finished (even though it’s really not). and I want to start something new. but I know I have too many WIPs and unless it’s one of the sweaters I want for myself, I’m not starting anything new (excepting socks, when I finally get around to taking the class next month). so I decided to resurrect the Thing. that I started way back at the beginning of the year (or was it last year?) when I joined the Thing-a-long. so that’s my new bus project. except I didn’t start working on it on the morning commute. but I will tonight.

after a bit of procrastinating, I finally started my “Thing” (aka the sweater sampler from J. Fee’s book). After digging thru the box o’ misc. yarn received from ebay, I decided to use a bright pink yarn (it feels like acrylic) as my main yarn, with a light brown yarn (that is also unidentified at this point). It’s a very ebay project - the needles I’m using (Boye 16″ Size 8) were also won off ebay. The book (2nd ed. spiral bound), alas, was not won on ebay, but bought from overstock.com.

Like many others, I was unable to make the ends meet, and cast on 80 sts. I’m not a big fan of purling (I still haven’t sorted out my tension issues - maybe by the end of this…), so the garter beginning annoyed me a bit but actually looks ok. Stockinette was a breeze. I’m a few rows into the 1×1 ribbing section, and I have a few wonky stitches from not paying attention to my tension, so some of the knits are kind of loose. Hopefully that’ll get sorted by the end. I’d blame it on tinking (I accidently knit 2 in a row somewhere on the 2nd half), but it’s in the beginning of the round as well…

Day 1 Progress pic: