The Pledge

O.K., I said I'd do it, so here it is:

FIVE THINGS I WILL FINISH IN 2009

1. The bleeping sweater coat! Thanks to Ravelry, I may have found enough of the 20 year old yarn to finish the sucker. If not, I've thought of a few ways I can rob Peter to pay Paul, so to speak; it should be enough. There isn't really all that much left to do on it, but the lack of yarn and the bulkiness of the front pieces meant I had to put it on the back burner for a while.
2. Linda's table cloth. I've talked about this before, as well. (I'll put the links in later.) I've almost finished one corner, which means that most of the design decisions have been made, so it should go faster from here on.
3. Samantha's space quilt. Really feel bad about this one; it was supposed to be for her 1st birthday, and she turns 8 this month and it's still not done. cringe This will involve some re-work, as it is no longer big enough, but mostly I just have to figure out when and where I can work on it, without rubbing off all the chalk lines for the hand-quilting. (You can see why it didn't get done, perhaps....)
4. Samantha's Disney Princess quilt. I've had all the Princess squares crosstitched for more than 4 years, and have not yet put the thing together. I think I even have all the fabric, including the batting, and this one will be machine-quilted, so there really is no excuse.
5. I've been a little stuck on what I should do for item 5. I owe my step-great-neice a pair of leg warmers from last Christmas which will only take about 3 hours to finish, if I can just get the darn yarn to stop bleeding OR find a good source of superwash DK weight yarn in a good, primary red that looks the same as Knitpick's Bare, so it will blend with the other colors. However, I since that one is not yet quite a year overdue, I think I'll go with the black beaded purse I started for Kate, lo these many years ago, when I was making period purses for the sewing circle. I don't know why it is taking so long; I used the same smocking technique on the sleeves for Sarah's wedding dress, and those went quite quickly. I guess it's because I'm smocking and beading at the same time; maybe if I separate the two steps it will go faster? Hard to say; in any case, since that is nearly 8 years overdue, I think that will have to take slot #5.

So that's it; these are the things that I want most to finish this year. I will be working on these while I am also working on the following:

• scarf and hat for a friend's daughter's school's auction (I know; she really should be some sort of professional donation-gatherer. Her talents are wasted on the homefront!)
• grocery bags for my daughter's school's auction. Already have the organic cotton, just have to decide which pattern to use
• belated Christmas presents
• -scarf for my brother; need the yarn
• -socks for my mom, and three friends; have the yarn, and have even started two of the pairs
• -slippers for my sister and brother-in-law; have the yarn
• -Barbie's holiday dress; didn't get finished, due to the Great Christmas Flu, but should be able to finish it in the next day or so
• 6 freakin' corsets for sale
• Mini-Muppet sweater for Samantha's American Girl doll Samantha
• a camp shirt for the Hubster (fortunately, his birthday is a few months after Christmas, so things that don't get done for Christmas just slop over)

This does not include socks remaining from last year's Sock Madness, nor those I'll get for this year's round, though I'm really hoping both my designs get into the contest this year.


And just so I don't get totally discouraged, things I've finished since my last update post: two tea cozies (neither came out nearly as cute as I wanted them to, due to proportion issues; will post a pic of the Cheshire Cat soon); camp shirt for my brother-in-law (of which, once again, I did not take a picture; I blame the Great Christmas Flu); two more sleepshirts (one for my daughter and one for me); and a knitted version of the ruffled scarf (I tried a free pattern, and didn't like how it was coming out, so I made up my own).

So that's where the Queue stands, as of January 1. Pretty daunting! Wish me luck!