working on stuff

I want to start the new stuffies sometime soon but decided I really needed to finish something first, and also maybe do a little bit on one of the three sweaters I have going.

I worked a lot this weekend on what I am calling the "Party Cannon" socks (The pattern is called Flamethrower, and the yarn colorway is Bonbons Pyramide, and I am a fan of MLP:FiM, so it was kind of an organic progression, and anyway, I like the idea of a party cannon that shoots confetti better than a flamethrower* anyway)

(*With the possible exception of a Weed Dragon, which isn't really a flame thrower as much as it is a small torch on a stick that you can use to burn off weeds. Except, much of the year here, that would not be allowed, because dry. But it would be so much better than chemicals! More final, plus no chemical exposure and no chemicals getting washed into the storm drains. And you can see right away that that grass growing in your sidewalk cracks is going away)

I'm up to the heel flap on the second sock and fear I may be playing a bit of "yarn chicken" with these. I THINK I will have enough but that ball is getting smaller pretty fast. I TRIED to match the socks by winding off a bit of the yarn when I started the second one (I kept it, it's somewhere, so I could use if for the toe if I had to). The sad thing is I got off-kilter somehow and the socks won't match, though it's maybe less noticeable on these than it is on some.

I'm also almost up to the point of dividing for the front and back shoulder sections of Raven, but I will have to put another row counter into use for that one (Okay, one reason I need to finish some stuff? Most of my row counters are in-use on other projects. And I can't just pop down to the yarn/quilt shop any more and get one BECAUSE THAT SHOP CLOSED. And Voldemart doesn't carry such things*, so I'd either need to mail order one, or wait until my next Sherman trip, or.....I suppose I could use a pencil and paper, which is what people did before row counters were common, but given how my house is a black hole for paper....)

(*Which tells me that the claim some make, "If Wal-Mart doesn't sell it, you don't need it" is an insidious lie. They also don't sell much in the way of books other than glurgy "inspirationals" and self-help books and the currently-popular Teen Dystopia novel. I suppose you could claim "For Some Values of 'Need'" but then we get onto a slippery slope of telling people what they should and should not have in their lives...)

What I really need to do is make a schedule and finish all the half-finished things on the needles, or, failing that, pull some things off and rip them back until such time as I find a more suitable pattern. Or just finish some things - like a hat I decided I didn't like that well - and save them for the next call for donation somewhere goes out. (If I don't like something because of the way the colors worked up, that doesn't mean there won't be someone who really likes it)

Starting stuff is fun. Finishing stuff is fun. It's the intermediate slog that gets tiresome, when it feels like that thing will never be finished.