No Bounds

My insanity knows no bounds. 

I have, as I do, started looking at my 2011 project list and have filled it to capacity and then some.  It will probably take me two years to do everything I want to do and it takes all of my considerable (or is that questionable) self-control not to start 2011 TO-DAY.  I want to start thinking about my new list NOW.  I did purchase some Rowan Drift yarn and some super-wash wool for 2011 projects just this past week.  Talk about getting ahead of the horse with my overfull cart.  The horse is thinking, “thank God it’s not me pushing that wagon!”  But “push” I must.

I am very close to finishing my 2010 project list.  Not everything will be done but the important stuff will be done!  Here is what I must finish for 2010:

• Bind 4 quilts, which I will do each of the next 4 Sundays
• Tie one more quilt and bind it, eep, I don’t know when
• Finish DH’s Sweater, back is done, front is 2/3rds done, then sleeves, 3 more weeks I think
• Prayer Shawl is at 92 rows, only 9,417 stitches left
• Dad’s socks, just need the foots and toes to be completed, yes, I said “foots”

I will have the Thanksgiving Holiday to work many things, God willing, like knitting miracles.

I have a list of odds and ends to take with me in the car on my Voodoo Lounge Tour of the Great South at Christmas.  This is the “Tour” I take every one to two years to visit with my friends and family that live back east, in the Alabama and Georgia area of the US.  The round trip is usually around 3,500 miles, I get to see everybody and give them their presents.

My odds and ends to take include a baby blanket for some friends of ours who are expecting their first, a couple of sock yarns I’d like to try in stockinette, of course and a headband that I am thinking of making for my next swap group swap. I have also added the few items that are not completed to the pile.  The baby blanket is kinda started already.  The yarn is something I didn’t think I’d like but it looks and feels great.  It is Stitch Nation Bamboo Ewe in Beach Glass. I’m going to put a crocheted edging on it like Havanaise on Ravelry.com:

(http://www.ravelry.com/projects/havanaise/baby-love-diagonal-baby-blanket)

I can’t decide if I want the edging in Eucalyptus or Mermaid. 

The 2011 List has categories.  I have become so much more sophisticated, lol.  My new categories are:

• Rowan Drift-I’ve picked 4 things I’d like to make from their book “Winter drift,” 3 for sure
• Knitting Machine-I have one of those knitting machines I bought several years ago and haven’t used yet, I have enough yarn set aside for 3 sweaters there, just to try it out
• Inventory Burn-selected projects each month to use up most of the yarn I’ve purchased
• Quilts-I still would like to make my sister a quilt and I’d like to make myself one too
• I have fabric for 5 men’s shirts that I would like to make for my DH, before summer
• Swap group items-5 headbands and maybe some scarves (I did just make my swapees sachets and mailed last week.  I worked each one using the Tunisian crochet technique)
• And Lastly (for now) there are 3 projects on my ravelry queue that I would like to make for myself.  I usually don’t make quilts or things for myself but 2011 is my year.

Does this sound like a lot?  You bet.  Just the way I like it.

Veteran's Day

Yesterday was Veterans Day in the US, Remembrance Day in CA and other names throughout the world.  I always try to remember to thank the veterans (and currently serving) that I know for their service to our country and our world.  I sent a few messages and had lunch with a friend of mine who was a para-trooper many years ago.  She and I had a nice time and I thought how hard it was for me to picture her in her army uniform, gun in hand, parachute pack on back.  But yet in her eyes I see that someone who can and does do what she thinks it right.

My DH also served during the Vietnam war.  He was honored at our daughter's school in the morning and our sons school in the afternoon.  he said the morning was very moving, a banner for each major branch of service (except Coast Guard, which in my mind should also have been included) and there seemed to be at least one man representing each as a veteran.  My DH got to represent the Air Force and he said they were all moved by the choir and the presentations. 

Veteran's Day commemorates the ending of the Great War, WWI.  The war to end all wars and which was so horrid that no one could imagine anything worse.  So much death and destruction.  No one would have believed that just 20 years later, it would indeed get much worse.  I still have a picture of a British solder, Henry Allingham, who lived to be 113 and who served in WWI. he died July 18, 2009. He was the last surviving founding member of the RAF, the last man to have witnessed the Battle of Jutland and the last surviving member of the Royal Naval Air Service.

Here's to you Henry. Peace be with you.

Another Time Another Place

Well, baseball is done for this year.  The boys of October are the SF Giants.  They really had a great series.  I am sad that my Rangers lost but in all honesty, it was just great to see them is the World Series!!!  They are really a great group of guys and their good sportsmanship was heart-warming to say the least.

I've been knitting like a mad-woman.  Here is my progress so far:

Back of the sweater is done:

Feels really soft and is definitely big enough.

Next is the socks, woohoo, finally on the downhill stretch there:

you can see where there is a slight anomaly on the left heal.  /sigh

The garter shawl is at 86 rows, I think that makes it about 1/3 done:

'scuse the unmade bed, lol.

Well, casting on the sweater front, adding rows to shawl and socks.  Added something I shouldn't have, a baby blanket.  Its a sideways, garter stitch in Bamboo Ewe's Beach Glass.  It is looking great and I have about 50 rows on it so far.  I'll drop some pictures next week. 

If you're reading this, let me know what your project list is so I can meddle in it.  Thanks, you're doing me a favor, it is lonely here with no one to discuss projects and yarn with.  My husband is tired of hearing about it.