Finishing some long awaited UFOs

I was kind of at loose ends last night. I was really happy that I finished quite a few hats over the weekend and even tried my hand at a tri-color beanie on Monday night, but last night I was kind of lost and frustrated. I didn't want to start a new project or work on the current projects I have going right now.  You see, I have what one of my fellow knitters calls Knitter ADD - I start projects that I find interesting and then quickly lose interest in them when the knitting gets too boring. So I was afraid if I started a new project I was going to get bored with it before I could finish it and would be consigned to the WIPs bag sitting in the corner, which is already overflowing with UFOs.

I know many of you also suffer from this terrible affliction and I'd like for you to join me in stopping this debilitating problem - repeat after me: I [state your name] will spend the remainder of this month as well as the month of October diving into that seemingly bottomless WIPs bag to finish all those long-awaited UFOs that I have put off for far too long!

Now doesn't that feel better?  You have committed yourself to getting those UFOs finished and who knows, that shawl you'd been meaning to finish may make a wonderful gift this holiday season for your mother-in-law or that one sock who still needs its match could be a nice gift for your husband who has been waiting patiently for you to finish for him!

I have many such projects myself and I made mention of two of them in a July post, Heat Wave?! Not So Much in the Puget Sound. In this post I had finished The Big Bag that had been sitting around for about six months waiting for the handles to be finished and sewn on as well as sew in the lining. I also mentioned Cecil the Sockless Monkey, who has been sitting around only half-done for over a year.  Last night I was feeling really sorry for poor Cecil because he'd been waiting for me to finish his head and arms for so long!  I pulled poor Cecil from the WIPs bag and I worked on him while watching Ringer [new show on the CW with Sarah Michelle Gellar].

The pattern is stockinette stitch all the way, which is probably why I got bored with him, but I have gotten as far as the decreasing for the head.  If you don't remember from that previous post, this is what he looked like before:

I have to stuff him some more before I start decreasing for the head and once I have, I will have another photo after his head is complete.

Another UFO that I will be finishing this month will be the Men's Crew Neck Pullover (Rav link) I started last year. It was going to be a Christmas gift, but because I ran out of time, I just stuffed it in my bag to finish at a later date.  Now, almost a whole year has gone by and the size is all wrong for the intended recipient and I'm not sure if I should frog it and start all over again in the right size, or finish it and just add it to my Etsy Shop for someone else to purchase for their little one!  This is how far I've gotten with it:

As you can see I'm just past the point of separating front and back for the armholes and almost to the shoulders and neck.  It would be a shame to frog it, but its too small for my four year old nephew - who will be turning five right before Christmas. Hmmm....decisions, decisions!  I may have to come back to this one because it is a lot of work completed to have to start all over again.

Then there is the Basketcase Jacket (Rav link) that hasn't gotten very far and could very well be frogged and the yarn used for something else:

Would love to hear from all of you who took the oath to finish up their UFOs this month and October!  Happy knitting!!!

Update: Finished body and head of Cecil:

Cecil is almost complete, he still needs his arms, face and tail!

Delving Into My WIP's Goodie Bag

Like many yarn-users out there (knitters, crocheters, etc), I have a work-in-progress (WIP) pile that has many a knitting/crochet project that I found myself starting but before even getting half-way through starting another one. And as of right now almost all of my unfinished projects are stuffed in my portable knitting bag – which has gotten so over-run that I can’t fit my current WIP in it. I don’t like lugging it around with all those projects reminding me that they need to be finished!

What does my WIP pile have in it? The bottom half of a knitted sock monkey, one blue sock I started 3 years ago, a crochet shrug that I’ve only got a portion of the collar done, half of the back panel of a men’s basketweave jacket, a front panel of a boy’s pullover sweater, and one completed slipper of a pair of felted slippers. I know it’s terrible that they are sitting around waiting to be finished. Of course I had every intention of completing them when I started, but I have this little problem, and maybe some of you can relate. I get bored easily and when I come across a pattern that is more interesting I immediately want to try it out leaving the unfinished project to be added to the growing pile of WIP’s. In my defense though the main reason why I haven’t delved back into any of these projects is that they weren’t being made for anyone in particular they were patterns that I found interesting and I wanted to try out, well except the Men’s Basketcase Jacket by Tara Jon Manning published in Men in Knits – that was my November NaKniSweMo (knit a sweater in a month) project - which obviously I didn’t finish.

NaKniSweMo Project: Men's Basketcase Jacket

I haven’t a clue as to how best to deal with these unfinished projects, without getting bored with them all over again and end up starting something else. I have requests from 2010 that I haven’t even started yet, a reusable market bag, 2 hat and scarf sets, a pair of striped socks, and 3 pair of felted slippers, not to mention the projects I’ve committed myself to just in the last two weeks: 2 baby layette sets, another hat and scarf set, a crochet cloche, and a diagonal scarf like the one I’m already working on.

Wakefield Diagonal Scarf by Melissa LaBarre
materials used: Cascade Yarns Cherub Collection DK
in brown, size 3 needles

Should I finish the old WIP’s or start the 2010 requests? As you can see I need help staying on track, can anyone give me some advice or have any solutions to this dilemma? I’d like to hear from some of you on how you stay on task without getting distracted with more interesting patterns and designs.