State of the WiP Pile

Hey guys, remember the WiP Name and Shame post I wrote a month ago?  It's the one where I wrote this declaration:

I, Heather of Things I Make. Plus Rocks, do declare that I will finish at least 5 of these projects in the next month, and will not start anything else until they're done.  I will also finish all of these projects before the end of 2015.

BAM!

7 project finished!  SEVEN!!!
2 projects frogged (well, one frogged and a dishcloth thrown in the garbage because I screwed it up so badly it was that or stab repeatedly with my scissors)
Major progress made on my Henri sweater (the purple one on the right) and the fingerless mitts at the top!

You've seen some of the finished projects, like the Fuego in Flames toque, the SpringTastic socks, and the Helix set (my musician cousin won them, btw, and has apparently been bugging his wife for a pair for years).  I'll post about the other finished projects soon!

The grey sweater in the bottom right corner is still waiting on my KAL buddy to catch up - she's currently in the far northern arctic doing field work, so she's forgiven.  I'm not feeling the grey and white baby blanket right now, but I'm not ready to frog it right now either, so it's going into hibernation until I'm desperate for a baby gift.  The dark brown socks are waiting for fall when it's cooler out, and all of the ends in the year in temps scarf in the upper left corner scare the crap outta me, so it's a project for another day.

But hey, I'm pretty darn proud of myself.  Especially since I finished off 4 of them this past weekend (the last before my self-imposed deadline)!  We did a fishing trip to Haines, Alaska, and between 10 hours a driving and a lot of sitting in camp chairs in front of fires and on pretty rock beaches, I got a lot finished.  I'll post more on these another day, but here's some teaser pics!

Baby vest, finished on the way to Haines - just in time for a wander about the Million Dollar Falls along the way!

Sewing in ends above the treeline.

SO MANY ENDS!


Sewed in more ends (AAAAHHHH) and then added the buttons I bought at the Dalton City Yarn Store in Haines.

More end sewing, but this time with a glacier view from a pretty rock beach.

Of course, we had to run away from these guys at one point.

MOAR ENDS!  But miraculously, finished in time for a freshly caught salmon dinner, cooked over the campfire!

And because I obviously hadn't sewn in enough ends, I did some more.

After all of those ends (SO MANY ENDS OMG), I pulled out my Henri and started the bobble section of the sleeve.  I hate knitting bobbles and that was why I left the sweater alone for so long.

I think I'm on track to finish all of these projects by the end of the year, except maybe that baby blanket, and the scarf will obviously need a couple of days into 2016 - since I'll need to know the temperature on Dec 31 first.

I'm also not letting myself start another sweater until Henri is done.  Following my declaration was tough at times, especially that "not start anything new" part, but it was really good at pushing me to finish projects.  This last declaration, about finishing Henri, is particularly tough because I just received some gorgeous new yarn and I want to play with it so badly!  But I want to wear Henri even more, so it's easy to talk myself out of starting something new.

More on these finished projects soon!