Knit Frenzy!

I really want to wear this sweater. Will someone finish it for me?

I go through phases with my crafting, to the point where I've labeled the time between August and March "Knitting Season." Every year, without fail, I work on my projects like CRAZY until the weather warms up, and then I cast the needles and yarn aside for less hermit-y pursuits. Last year I was in the heady throes of a new relationship and barely knit at all, so when I picked it up - and rather voraciously, I might add - this July, I was surprised by how quickly I managed to finish the projects I took on. Between then and this very moment right now I have started and completed:

• three sweaters
• five slouchy berets: two lace, three cabled
• three afghans
• one corset belt

I knit one of those sweaters in a span of three days, and the first of the slouchy beret collection in just one frenzied evening. Our living room has taken on the rather charming look of your crafty grandmother's house, with multicolored afghans draped across the backs of our two couches. Pretty soon my yarn stash started taking over one corner of the living room, and I think Bryan was getting ready to find me a 12-step program for yarn addiction. At one point I decided I was going to knit my entire winter wardrobe, a notion hat went out the window the first time Old Navy had a $15 sweater sale.

Something funny happened on the way to my full-blown knitting addiction, and that thing was food. Before Weight Watchers, it was an obsession with hunting down delicious recipes, no matter what their calorie counts, and now it's become an obsession with trimming down those delicious recipes so I can still eat them and feel satisfied. The hands that spent so much time knitting have spent the last few weeks hunting down recipes and information on the internet, a task which leaves them unavailable for crafting. For shame!

When I abandoned my daily crafting habit, in addition to a gift scarf and several gift afghans, I also left behind a very cute hoodie. I started it all the way back in mid-August and at the time I was making it so quickly that I was completely convinced I'd have it finished by mid-September at the latest. I raced through the never-ending body and hood only to get tripped up on the sleeves. The sleeves! It's not that knitting a sleeve is particularly hard - in fact, the way I did it, the sleeve is already attached to the body of the sweater and I won't even have to sew any seams when I'm done - but I keep looking at the sweater and at the one partly finished sleeve and it DRIVES ME NUTS. I want to finish it because I want to wear it around and show it off, and I want it to be OUT of my knitting bag, but I can't seem to bring myself to do it.

The way I see it though, if I can blog every day in November, and I can stay "on plan" with Weight Watchers every day in November, then I can knit or crochet every day in November, too. That means I can finish that scarf and at least one of those afghans and that freaking hoodie in November, right?

Right.

Good thing we're having leftovers for dinner tonight.

I should probably go knit the rest of that sleeve now...