Fiber-a-long

Yesterday the sockday club got together for a fabulous brunch hosted by Sam and her fabulous wife Lisa, and we began make fibery plans for 2009, following a Fiber-A-Long path laid out by Debbie (who is blogless).

First, according to Debbie, we all had to take the Fiber-A-Long Pledge:

I promise to support my fellow sockday fiberists. I will support them in all things fiberly, and probably non-fiberly, too. That support includes, but is not limited to, stash enhancement, stash reduction if absolutely necessary, sympathy when frogging is the only answer, encouragement when new and maybe outside the comfort zone projects are tackled, an anti-intervention if our families feel that a fiber intervention is in order, support in completing a fiberly goal…or giving it up…whichever we want at the time, and willingness to make the sick day call to work as someone’s mother in order to give you a mental health day to knit.

That was the easy part - then there was homework!

We had five questions to cover - as with real homework, I didn't to a great job of being fully prepared. So since I didn't have written answers at the brunch, I'll share them here:

1. Do you have any project or skill regrets from 2008?

I wish one or more of my attempts at competitive knitting had gone better. I especially wish I'd made it past Round Two in Sock Madness.

2. Do you have any patterns that you have found to be addicting? Please bring the patterns to show if possible.

I think we all know the answer to this one - the Wavy Gravy Hat! So far I've finished three, and cast on a fourth. Thanks to Debbie's destashing I have another ball of Kureyon - so do I cast on another hat, or see if there's anything else this yarn wants to be?

3. Do you have any WIPs that you are motivated to finish up? Any that you would rather just frog, but would feel better if we do the frogging for you? If so, bring it along!

I'm trying to finish all my WIPs. I want to finish my Year of the Rat socks by the Chinese New Year, so that's my first deadline. I'd also really, really like to finish my Kauni cardigan, and have the satisfaction of wearing something I made. I think I still have the remains of a mystery shawl to frog, and sooner or later I'll have to suck it up and either frog the Lana Grossa cardigan or wear a corset.

4. Did Christmas this year bring up any ideas for projects for 2009?

No ideas from Christmas, or at least none that I'm going to indulge. I think Kerry's basket of hats idea was pretty cool, but I really shouldn't go that route for my huge family. I have some ideas from the post-Christmas math conference, though - I can't wait to start on a hexaflexagon!

5. Name two or three projects that you would like to have periodic encouragement to complete this year.

I really need to start and finish my wedding shawl. Some cheering along in Sock Madness 3 would be nice, too. And if everyone make sure I don't get a chance to see and be distracted by any new yarns or new projects, that would be really helpful.

So far, I'm still making good progress on the finishing-things binge. This is the latest, a Calorimetry headband. It's hard to photograph when it's not on a person, but it's also hard to take pictures of oneself wearing a headband.

My Calorimetry is made with Patons Shetland Chunky, and I cast on just 90 stitches. It's a slight bit small, but it's stretchy enough that I think it will be ok. This one is a gift for my mail carrier, so now I just have to figure out how to get it to her. Once I'm starting projects on a whim again, I may have to make one for me.

And last, here's the promised picture of the buttons for my Versatility scarf. Mine came from Jo-Ann's, but I've seen this collection at Wal-Mart before. I'm really glad I chose to do the removable buttons, because I think it makes the scarf more comfortable, and I use fewer buttons this way. Since I bought all they had and still didn't have enough to run the length of the scarf, that's really helpful.

So now I'm starting to run out of quickie projects to finish. I think the dogs' sweaters are next - we're expecting a run of below-zero days soon. That's definitely motivation to knit.