Whoosh!

I love deadlines. I love the sound they make as they go whooshing by. But I love them even more when they give me a goal, a big sign that says "this wedding shawl must be done by....the wedding. Duh." And a sick little part of me loves the challenge. Enter a baby blanket in the fair? Sure! Start said baby blanket 8 days before the fair? I might break a little sweat there. Be simultaneously working a fill-time job, going on 2 dates, having rugby practice and a super-secret project to design and then create (which generally involves more frogging than knitting) and have an upcoming nose surgery looming and finish the baby blanket?

Bring it on. Why don't you throw in a couple handspun challenges just to make things interesting? Let's begin the countdown to the fair like this:

1. Sweater in one color: I'm entering Coraline, a blue sweater I made last year but haven't really worn a bunch. It's Stephanie Japel's Simple Knitted Bodice.

2. Baby item- Blanket: Getting there. For some reason I thought knitting a giant washcloth would go much faster than this.

3. Knitted Lace- Any Item- Is the purple kidsilk haze shawl that I showed last post. I finished it Thursday night at drunken knitting night and am blocking it in the guest room. Pretty close to done.

4. Handspun- Novelty: Done. Very done. About 2 years done.

5. Handspun- llama or alpaca: I have a perfect specimen...I just need to find it. Hmmm....

6. Handspun- plied: I have a couple things that could probably work but I have some merino still on the wheel for this. If it comes down to the wire, I'll take something old.

Not State Fair related: Mystery knitting for a knitting publication that I can't show you until next march. But it's really fun- I promise! Due August 7 with pattern and charts done, would like to have finished by nose surgery July 27th.

And for the people who didn't make it to Zionsville yesterday for the spin-in....