Countdown update

I made it. 

I managed to get 20 items over to Sally's house for jurying for the guild sale.  Jurying started at 9:30 -- I dropped the stuff off at 9:30 am. 

Last Sunday I finished knitting the baby sweater.  During the week I wove in all the loose ends, and wow, there were a lot of them.  Desperate to make it interesting, I changed the yarns and colours several time.  See, you pay a price for art.  Then I stitched up the only two seams needed -- it's truly an amazing pattern.  You make a baby/toddler sweater by knitting one huge piece.  You fold it up, sew up two seams and you have a sweater.  Go to this link and see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka The Yarn Harlot -- write about her first experience making on.  Great photos too. 
Sweater done.  Item number 18. 

Check.

On Tuesday, on the way into the city, I brought the lace hat along and knit that up.  Wow, that went fast.  By the end of the day, the ride home, I was binding it off and looking around for something else to distract me for the rest of the ride. 

Lace hat done.  Item number 19. 

Check.

The rest of the week was a bust because of late meetings and other obligations -- like life. So I kept staring at the bag that contained one 1/2 mitten --sans thumb, and the nearly complete cuff of the second mitten.  The pattern is the Vancouver Specials, but knit on size 3mm needles, with fingering weight hand spun.  I cast on 44 stitches.  So there's way more knitting on this one than on the 5mm one with 24 stitches. 

I was just about to admit defeat of my own self imposed deadline, and even thought about going into my "completed knitting items box" to find something else to put into the sale, when I had a burst of refusal.

So on Friday am, I was knitting the second 1/2 mitten on the car/bus/train into town -- and trying to figure out how I would get the rest done. Thanks (?) to an over abundancy of traffic and other delays, I was binding off by the time I reached my Main Street Science World stop, and tucked it into my bag thinking that things were looking good. 

I knit the thumbs on both mittens in an interlude between my 11am meeting and my 2pm meeting.  And no, I didn't rush the end of the 11am meeting just so I could have more knitting time.  How could you think that?

Inspired by the fact that these items were 90% done, I wove in the loose ends during a break in my 2 - 4:30pm meeting. 

1/2 mitts done.  Item number 20. 

Check.

DONE.  Big high five. 

No one else in the room cared -- or even knew what I was celebrating.

Came home and washed the mittens.  You really have to do that, especially with hand spun yarn.  Any thing I knit looks so much better after a good wash and blocking.  So that is another thing you have to build into your "completion plan".  Anyway, got it done.  They looked great.  Put the labels on them and got them into the box.  In my enthusiasm to get this all done, I didn't take ANY pictures.  So I will take some at the sale so you will know I am not making all of this up.

Really, how could and why would anyone make any of this stuff up?