UFOs: The Christmas Time Bomb

Well I don’t know about you, but I’ve done it again. It’s six days (SIX DAYS?!) until Christmas and I have two very unfinished UnFinished Objects.

I do it every year, and not always with knitting. I want to make something special for people I care about. Something that they won’t find in the shops or see someone else wearing ever. Giving isn’t about the price tag of the present, it’s about the thought process behind it and the time and effort put in.

Unfortunately, when I couple this with a bad habit of always wanting to go the extra mile, it always ends badly. Okay, well not badly, but hurriedly.

UFO #1 The Cowl

This is an new, as yet unnamed, cowl that I designed for my Mum. (Don’t read this blog post Mum!!) It’s knitted in the round so I can have a continuous Celtic knot going all the way around the wearer’s neck.

Can you spot the Celtic knot? No? That’s because it’s barely there yet. I’ve basically only done the bottom quarter and have literally just hit the first crossing of cables.

Oh dear.

To make matters worse, as you can kind of see in the picture below, the King Cole Panache I’m knitting it in is very hairy. I’m hoping it will turn out as a lovely snuggly cowl. But right now, I’m just getting angry at the yarn’s inability to stick together.

Definitely don’t read this Mum; it’s going to turn out beautifully for you, honest. I’m just dreading when I get to the bobbles…

UFO #2 The Jumper

This should have been easy. That’s what I told myself when I promised it. It’s a very simple jumper with minimal shaping, knitted in moss stitch throughout.

Oh my word it is boring.

I’d never actually knitted anything in moss stitch before so I thought it might make a nice change, but there is just SO MUCH of it!

The whole point of the jumper is I’m knitting it for a tall and thin boy and have designed it to fit him properly (I hope!). But it just goes on and on (and on and ooon – thanks Journey) because he’s so much taller than me it’s going to be a lot longer than any jumper I’ve ever knitted for myself before.

On the plus side, the little bobbles that the moss stitch makes do look very pretty. But I am many hours and well over 100 rows in now. The trouble is, tall people invariably have long arms too and I haven’t even finished the back yet. Let alone started the front.

Help!

At this point I’m tempted to make it into a v-neck just to remove some stitches. I’m about halfway up the armhole shaping on the back and am absolutely bossing it.

Seriously, it’s reached the stage where if I stop thinking about it I automatically start knitting in moss. (Which has caused me a bit of unpicking on the cowl, let me tell you.)

Will I get the finished on time?

Of course I will. I’ve been a student too recently ago not to doubt it. The question is whether I’ll be sitting up all night for several nights glued to my needles, just to see a smile on Christmas day.

The things we do for people we care about, eh?

Needless to say, I probably won’t be writing another long blog post until after the above have safely become FOs. So wish me luck and Happy Christmas to you all!

Emily