17 WIPS. Ouch!

For some odd (ha! Odd, get it?) reason I use the number 17 a lot. “Dude, quit jumping on the couch. I’ve already told you like 17 times to quit”…or “It took me 17 hours to check out at Walmart the other day” (which is actually being generous I think…) And so it is with my knitting projects. I am always saying “I have like 17 projects on my needles” and this got me thinking. How many projects do I really have in progress. I decided to be brave and make a detailed list. It will give others reading this blog (as if…) a smug feeling of “At least I am not as crazy as that 17 Knitting Projects Lady.”

So here we go:
1. Swing top for Miss Maam. Waiting on more yarn to finish. Love it. Shades of Summer by Elena Nodel in Fibrenatura Links and Red Heart Tiki yarn.
2. Swing top for Miss Sassy. I just cast it on so I could be all “See, I am making you one too, since the mock up, which was for you, didn’t count. Same pattern. I was also sort of joneing to get this new yarn on the needles. Glad I did. It’s really soft and purty. Using Knit Picks Comfy as the main yarn and Trendsetter Flora as the carry along.
3. Random hat to play with stitches. I always like having a hat on the needles. Why not??  I love my circles. I am doing a basic hat and adding in different stitch patterns for texture as I go along. I am using Rowan Cashsoft 4 ply, doubled. One strand light grey and one strand light blue.
4. Camo rug. This is a stash buster for my boys room. I put four strands of worsted weight acrylic together and am knitting it on size 15 Addi Turbos. I have one stand of Caron One Pound, one stand of some kind of Woolease, one strand of Bernat Soft and Cozy (vintage woo!) and one strand of Caron Simply Soft in black. This sucker is huge and in a bag right now because it made me yawn. Are you yawing now?? Y-A-W-N. Once I feel guilty enough about not getting it done, I’ll pull it out and work on it a bit again!!
5. Garter Yoke Cardi. I got this bulky acrylic in a beautiful color and had to cast on this gorgeous cardigan. But the yarn isn’t very pleasant to knit with. I have enough of it that I will see the project through, but for now, it’s in hibernation.
6. February Lady Sweater. Wellll….I got the done all the way to one sleeve, finished the one sleeve and put it up. Then I forgot if I added stitches under the arm or not, and was all freaked out about trying to figure it out. I just figured it out a couple nights ago, and am now itching to pick it back up! I did it with I Love This Yarn in a pretty blue. I know, it’s acrylic, but it’s a nice color and a good price to practice my very first adult size garment.
7. Speaking of adult garments. My husband’s sweater. Bang head on desk. GRRR. So I am knitting this gorgeous top down sweater. Basic pattern, but gorgeous wool/alpaca yarn (Berroco Ultra Alpaca) that I hand dyed myself to be “Mossy Oak.” I was knitting along and just about to put the sleeves stitches on hold, when the unthinkable happened. My KP interchangeable cord snapped. The whole sweater was in jeopardy. I very quickly and with much stress, threaded all the live stitches onto a length of yarn, cursing Knit Picks the whole time. I was a little bit mad. Just a little (yeah..) Then I noticed I screwed up the increase on one of the sleeves. Noticeably. The increase is a stitch over from where it should be and it looks really wonky. Now I have to wait until I am a. really calm b. not too calm c. have an hour without a child that will crawl on me, so I can go and fix this mistake without ripping back all the rows I so painstakingly knit. Yeah it’s just stockinete, but for a big dude sweater, stockinette IS painstaking.
8. The garish rainbow blanket. Ripple pattern in knit. Easy peasy. Looking at the colors as I knit it. Not so much. This is a labor of love for a little girl who thought the colors looked GREAT together. I pick it up every now and again. Picking it up is a “guilt buster..” Had a bad Mommy day? Great go pick up clown barf blanket and you can remind yourself that this is love. Real love. The Mommy Kind.
9. Camo glow in the dark blanket monstrosity. Another kid blanket. But with Camo and glow in the dark yarn. Weird combo but the boy loves it. Just garter all the way. Whoop-do-doo!!
10. Liesl cardigan. I just cast this one on and am on my third start. Apparently you can’t watch an intense movie and keep your stitch count right. Who knew? No biggie. The yarn is fantastic and I am still loving the pattern. Challenging, but not scary!
11. Tunisian Crochet (is awesome) throw. I am just knitting a big old strip, tying off, doing another one and single crocheting together. Wow. That makes it sound like I can actually crochet. Don’t be fooled. My granny squares look like…..shit. I can’t think of anything witty to say about the disaster all my attempts have been.
12. The Novelty Throw. Oh my gawd. I took these fuzzy, crazy yarns, put four strands together and had a little cartoon knit session with my size 50 needles. Wow. Too funny. I have technically bound this off BUT I am picking up stitches on the edges and doing some detailing with smaller needles. This is free form knitting I guess. It’s fun, I do know that!
13. Another swing top. And this is technically off the needles too, but I still have to weave in the ends and then do a crochet edge to help with the stretchiness. It’s awesome! I used King Tut by Knitting Fever and the carry along was some weird yarn by Target called Funky Fringe.
14. Baby boy cardigan. I love the patterns by Diane Soucy, and so I had to cast one on with a bulky green yarn that arrived a bit ago via Karma Yarn Swap. I knit the collar and got around almost to the sleeves and got a bit bored. It’s in my basket waiting to be fondled again. We’ll see.
15. Crossing over from cross stitch? What to do with all that thread? Knit it. I am doing more free form knitting ala log cabin style. I hold three strands together, in all different colors and just play with the knitting. It’s kind of funky and cool. Not really a project, but it’s “on the needles” so I am counting it nonetheless.
16. Tshirt yarn rug. Yeah, whatever. It’s hard to knit with this shiz and at one point I ended up with this basket looking thing because I guess I wasn’t increasing enough. So then I tried….
17. To replicate the tshirt yarn project, I started crocheting a circle thing to be a cat bad. Figured if I repeated my mistake, I would end up with something with walls. Nope. Just ruffles. Crochet freakin sucks. Or I just suck at it. I prefer to think it’s the art of crochet and not me. I feel better about myself that way

And seriously, those are all I can remember right at the moment. I am pretty sure that is all I have “on the needles..” And. Holy. Crap. Look at the number. Maybe my love of 17 isn’t some random thing. Maybe I subconsciously use this number in every other area of my life because of it’s connection to my love of all things yarny and good. Hmmm…

And we won’t talk about how many yarns are pulled out right now for “Things I Want to Make, (errrr…Start…) soon!

And now, I have like 17 minutes until I have to do something else. Knit? Maybe.