In over my head

So...it's only the third day of the new year, and I'm thinking I might be in a bit of a pickle. To say the least.

I've got the first socks underway - two thirds of the way down the leg of sock #1. The plan is one repeat (12 rows) or the equivalent (i.e. heel flap/turn) every night. That should get me done by the end of the month, easy, not including knitting on my commute. Sweater #1 (Himself's Christmas present) has sleeves and a back. Front is started, and again - one repeat a night (also 12 rows. Synergy I haz it) should get it done in a couple of weeks. It's a bit of a cheat since it was 75% done before 2011, but it's got cabling on every right side row and 130 stitches. It totally counts.

So everything is going swimmingly until I take stock of the first Really. Huge. Project. That would be number 6 on the Eleven in Twenty Eleven list: the River Run pullover. This is a gorgeous men's sweater - stranded colorwork in nine different natural shades of Shetland wool. Un-freaking-believable. The largest size requires approximately 3400 yds of heavy fingering weight yarn. The grist is 1727 ypp, meaning I'd need 1.97 lbs of yarn. I've been wanting to make this for a long time, but I don't have 2 lbs of Shetland wool in nine shades lying around. What I do have is 2 lbs of white Falkland wool sitting in my lair, and a metric fuckton of dye. So here's my evening schedule for the rest of this month:

1. Knit one repeat/equivalent on socks
2. Knit one repeat on sweater
3. Spin white Falkland until my fingers fall off the bone or I end up face down in a pile of roving, drooling and snoring softly.

At the end of the month, I'll start plying my little brains out, and hope for the best with the dye pots. The original is done in black, white, three shades of grey and four shades of brown. Black, white and grey are all good - I might shift the browns to blues just for mine/the recipient's aesthetic pleasure.

The real pisser of it all is that I've got a deadline for this project: it needs to be done by early March. Seeing as it took me six months to spin my last specific sweater project, I'm not feeling too optimistic. On the other hand, there will only be one plying stage (2-ply vs. 4-ply cabled yarn). I will spin woolen, with a high ratio, in order to bang out as much yardage as possible.  The last time I spun Falkland, I did a pound in approximately 6 days (plying and all). It was a bit thicker, more DK weight then sport/fingering, and I certainly wasn't doing anything else, so I think I could get the yarn spun by the end of January. Right?

Right?

*crickets*

Hmmmm...I'd better get sampling then.

Reporting from the front lines

In the interests of reminding myself that progress is being made, here's the updated status of the Autumn List:

1. Finish, test edit, photograph and publish three winter accessory patterns. One pattern in 90% done (except for reknitting of one of the pair with a different size needle - oops!). The other two are one is in the mental design stage, but I have the yarn to knit them both - I just need to get cracking. Hat done, mitts done (for the umpteenth time), mittens still on mental drawing board.

2. Knit the girls each a sweater out of the fiber they dyed. Done, and done!

3. Knit Himself a sweater for Christmas. Swatching, swatching, swatching.

4. Knit a birthday gift for Nana. Done, and even in the mail, to be blogged post-touchdown in ME.

5. Dye and spin the fiber for Nana's Christmas present (requested after she saw mine over the holiday), then knit it. 23/9 - fiber now dyed, rinsed and drying.

6. Spin yarn for sweater for next March.

7. Maybe knit Pas de Valse for me out of some gorgeous alpaca (same as the yarn I used for the Veil of Isis, only fawn colored), or start on the Vine Yoke Cardigan (since I spent all that damn time spinning the yarn for it). I've played with dyeing the alpaca, and I think I've settled on a color (#3).

8. Knit myself an alpaca balaclava/head wrap/scarf thingie for cycling this winter. I'm going to be doing quite a bit of riding over the next ten months, to get ready for my insane venture next summer, and I seem to recall that it gets pretty fucking cold out there in December, not to mention January. Still at the bottom of the priority list.

Things are moving along, slowly but surely. And my kids are getting really good at a) entertaining themselves and b) learning Disney movies by heart.

An autumn plan

I mentioned in my last post that I had a crazy list of projects for the next few months. In the spirit of making myself accountable to someone (or something in this case), I'm going to list out my goals for the next little while in the hopes that having it written down will mean that at least some of it actually gets done. Heh. Maybe...

1. Finish, test edit, photograph and publish three winter accessory patterns. One pattern in 90% done (except for reknitting of one of the pair with a different size needle - oops!). The other two are in the mental design stage, but I have the yarn to knit them both - I just need to get cracking.

2. Knit the girls each a sweater out of the fiber they dyed.

3. Knit Himself a sweater for Christmas.

4. Knit a birthday gift for Nana.

5. Dye and spin the fiber for Nana's Christmas present (requested after she saw mine over the holiday), then knit it.

6. Spin yarn for sweater for next March.

7. Maybe knit Pas de Valse for me out of some gorgeous alpaca (same as the yarn I used for the Veil of Isis, only fawn colored), or start on the Vine Yoke Cardigan (since I spent all that damn time spinning the yarn for it).

8. Knit myself an alpaca balaclava/head wrap/scarf thingie for cycling this winter. I'm going to be doing quite a bit of riding over the next ten months, to get ready for my insane venture next summer, and I seem to recall that it gets pretty fucking cold out there in December, not to mention January.

If I had to prioritize, I'd say #1 first, then #4, then starting #5, then starting #3, then #6. #7 is going to happen this fall if I have any spare time - like if I quit working entirely, and #8 can fit in around the others. Maybe that will be my train knitting. Sigh...goodbye socks, goodbye shawls, hello garments and gifties.

The dreaded C word

That would be "Countdown" of course. Given the topsy turvey nature of the economy these days (and the fact that our retirement accounts have a -28% rate of return for the year - ugh!), we're toning down Christmas this year, family-wide (except for the kiddos of course - hell hath no fury like a 3 year old without her Disney Princess TM stuff). However, handmade gifts seem to be kosher, so my load hasn't toned down at all. It's time to take stock and decide whether I need to start panicking now, or if I can hold off for a couple of weeks before flying into a frenzy.

The cast of family characters who might potentially receive handmade gifts if they keep their noses out of trouble:

TX: Ironman, Devil and Boo
The Massholes: Nana, Grandpa, Uncle J and Auntie Walrus
The DC contingent: Bro and Auntie J
Those VT hippies: Mermaid and Koala

Okay...thats eleven people. Hmmmm...lets dig around back here in the stash cupboard and see what I've got.

One, two, three, number four is on the needles, number 5 is barely on the needles, six needs finishing, seven is a knitter and, as such, can knit her own present. Ooooo, and that thing I finished knitting almost two years ago and never put together can go there, so...

...I only need to come up with three brand-new completed gifties in the next five weeks. That's not too bad. Although if I give Boo that, Devil is going to want one too. And Boo needs a Tomten as well (thank Bob those are fast to knit!). Plus finishing number four is going to be a slog. Hmmmm...

Since I love the strikethrough, let's take another look at the list:

TX: Ironman, Devil and Boo
The Massholes: Nana, Grandpa, Uncle J and Auntie Walrus
The DC contingent: Bro and Auntie J
Those VT hippies: Mermaid and Koala

So, four definitely finished, four in various stages of doneness, and three as yet un-cast-on (or identified in some cases). I think it's fair to say that panic can be postponed until at least after Turkey Day.

I also think it's fair to say that my grand plans for gifties for WHMU(WHSKAL) will have to be put on hold. But hey, I think the gifts will still go over well in, oh let's say, March. You ladies won't turn down yarn, right? Stupid question.