It's that Time: Finish or Frog?

Every year around this time, I get the urge to purge...my knitting, if nothing else. I like the idea of starting a new year with a clean slate. If I can't do it in every area of life, I can at least do it with my WIPs.

A couple Januaries ago, I dedicated that month to finishing up a whole bunch of WIPs. At the time I had something insane like 17 WIPs, though, so it really was called for. Right now, I technically have four active WIPs, plus eight in "hibernation" mode. (Two of those can barely be considered hibernating, though, as they were either not actually cast on, just planned and never gotten to, or JUST cast on and then never worked.)

So, today I'm considering the fate of these projects. Three of my active WIPs will remain...the Buttoned Up cowl (which I will hopefully finish before the new year rings in), my MIL's white shawl of doom Haruni (which I'd planned to have finished first for Christmas, then for her early January birthday...she's been informed her birthday project will be late) and my Caldavos cardigan, which, for some unknown reason, I cast on right before I went into high gear on gift knitting.

One WIP, a pair of plain stockinette socks I started in some Opal Harry Potter yarn (Harry & Ron colorway)...they're going in the frog pond. I'm just not feeling them. I think the colorway is weird.

I keep trying to figure out what the different pattern sections represent. I mean, I get the blue & white is sky and clouds. OK. But the Orange and yellow and green? Quiddich field? Is the orange supposed to be Ron's red hair? I can't remember at which point in the movie sequence this yarn came out, so I can't figure out if the patterning is significant to a particular movie's plot. See, all these questions would just make these socks incredibly stressful to me if I wore them, so even though I'm through the heel turn on the first sock, I'm frogging. I have way too much beautiful sock yarn to waste my time knitting socks I don't like.

Moving on to the hibernating projects. Let's start with the oldest...

This is a Tube Shawl I started for myself back in May of 2007. The pattern is by Leigh Radford and is out of the book AlterKnits. I made the smaller scarf version that year for my mom out of some beautiful red Douceur et Soie mohair and silk, added beads to the edge and sewed a chiffon insert, as the pattern suggested. It was pretty. My mom had already moved to FL by the time she got it that year, though, so I doubt she's ever used it. This larger version I'm making with Ovation kid mohair and silk, and it it very pretty. The shawl takes three balls to make. I'm not even through the first. Even though I love the yarn and I think it would make a beautiful shawl, I don't love it enough to finish it. So, my compromise to myself is to knit through the remainder of this first ball and bind off, creating a lofty, soft and warm cowl. And! Changing it from a shawl to a cowl means it is actually about 70% finished! Score! :)

Next is a Traveling Woman shawl I started for my mom earlier this year. Again, being in FL, she doesn't need heavy wool things, so I started this out of some Misty Mountain Farms Highlight, a merino/tencel blend. The colorway, though...meh. Really not liking it at all, at least not for a Traveling Woman, which I think looks much better in a solid or semi-solid. I stuffed it in a drawer before I started my Christmas gift knitting, and I think then I knew I'd never finish it. Time to frog.

I have a pair of socks I was casting on for the girlie, and I think I cast on the first sock and got a couple toe rows done before I set it aside, working instead on other Socktoberfest socks. Since my Riff socks ended up fitting the girlie instead of me, I didn't feel quite the same drive to knit her another pair of socks. I like this yarn well enough, but since I've got a pair of mittens to make for her yet, I think I'll frog that little toe and put the yarn back in the stash.

I also have a Rowan Lima sweater that I queued up to begin knitting, and then I never got around to starting it. I can't even frog it since it wasn't yet on the needles! LOL So, I've deleted the project. To be knit another day!

Yeay!

That leaves three projects in hibernation. My Norwegian Rose socks, of which I still need to knit the second and will indeed do...some day; an afghan I started back in June 2008, that I'm pretty sure I won't have enough yarn to make as big as I would have liked, but I'll finish it at some point...it's a good pick up and work on project when I need something mindless; and lastly, an Olivia stuffed toy, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, I'm not so sure. I have to dig her out and see how far I really am on her. I may just frog her. Knitting tiny stuffed things? Fun. Larger ones? Not so much.

See? That knitterly housekeeping makes me feel so good! If only all other housekeeping could be as easy. ;)