Focus. 
Discipline.  Reason.

Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat is less than two weeks away and
Stitches West is only 2 weeks after Madrona.  
It is time to take stock. 

It is possible that I will not be able to complete
everything I had hoped to have done in time for these events (actually, there
isn’t a snowball’s chance in you-know-where that I will complete everything I
had hoped to for these events).   So, I
have to take a clear hard look at my projects and make some tough choices – and
then apologize profusely to the ones that are simply not far enough along to
make the cut and throw myself into the ones that are reasonably near
completion.

It is all very logical and should not be too difficult (once
I get past denial, I am not without good sense in these matters).  It is not as if I were going to jettison
these slow-blooming projects entirely, of course.  I will just have to set them aside for a
couple of weeks.  But I won’t get to
bring them to the knitting conferences (well, I could bring them in a bag, but
I won’t be wearing them!).  So, it is
kind of heart-wrenching.  Letting go of a
vision – no matter how trivial – makes me sigh deeply and wonder what went
wrong. 

Of course, nothing really went wrong – it is just that whole
“only 24 hours in the day” thing.  And
the fact that designing and knitting takes a lot longer than knitting from a
pattern.   All very simple, logical,
reasonable.  And yet it gets me every
time!

But all drama aside, I am making the tough choices:

Forbidden Summer Sweater: 
all the knitting is done –just the sewing-up, weaving-ends-in,
blocking.  It makes the cut.  Bonus: it should be the right weight to wear
during classes and in the swelter of the yarn markets.

Magical Bulky Yellow Fairy Tale Cropped Sweater:  working up quickly (the magic being in the “bulky”
and the “cropped”) and I am working it straight from the printed page (i.e. no
fiddling about with design).  It makes
the cut.

Bella Bells Cape:  hmmmm.  Probably ¾ done.  But I still have to figure out the shaping on
the shoulders. And I can’t do that until I finish the 2^nd
gusset.  And the coordinating gauntlets
are not quite done. Questionable.  Set
aside.

Sonja’s Pelty Stole: 
Sonja is accompanying us to Stitches West to have fun – she would
really, really like to have her stole to wear there amongst all the knitters
(she is not an active knitter herself) and she has been patiently awaiting this
piece (having not had it for 2 other occasions where she would have liked to
wear it).  Guilt tips the scale (and
blows logic out of the water).  I have to
at least try…It makes the cut.

Short-Row Tapestry Stole: 
this piece is free-form and a total joy to work on, but I have no idea how
far along I am (it is that
free-form!).   It will be stunning when
it is done.  But when will it be
done?  Who knows…?  I will set it aside until I complete the
other pieces.  And if (metaphorically) I finish my “vegetables,” I can have “dessert!”

So, that is the state of things.  Time to focus!