I know from past experience that, if I don’t finish a project before I leave for a trip longer than two weeks, when I get back I’ll find I’ve forgotten what I was doing and why I was so enchanted with the pattern in the first place. With such a trip coming up soon, I’ve decided that I won’t start any new knitting projects until I finish everything on the needles.

This could be quite a challenge as it is, with my knitting time shrinking as the race to the work deadline eats up all my spare time.

So what is there to finish?

The Tassle Scarf, which is nearly done thanks to some unexpected sitting-in-the-audience knitting last night.

Amethyst (the top-down raglan). I’ve put the arm stitches onto a holding thread and started the decreases to the waist.

Dad’s Birthday Socks. Which I have to start again.

Why start again? Well, as I’ve knit them a memory has been slowly floating to the surface. A memory of showing the yarn to Dad, and Dad going ‘yurk!’. I’m not sure if this memory is correct. Maybe it was a different yarn. But the more I knit the more I was sure this yarn isn’t right for Dad. I kept knitting, thinking that I’d overdye the yarn. But that would be a shame, and I don’t think it would be enough to make them more Dad-like.

So I’ve selected some grey Patonyle. I’m going to use a simple stitch pattern to make the knitting more interesting without making it too time-consuming. And I’ll finish the socks I’ve started… some time. I’ll use them to check the fit for Dad, and tell him they’re not the ones he’s getting, then eventually find another home for them.