Wednesday, March 6, 2013

The Keeper of Lost Causes

That's what I sometimes want to call myself when I look at some of my knitting projects.  Perhaps this could be a new knitting category?  WIPs, UFOs, KLCs?  I'm borrowing this title from a book I just read by Jussi Adler-Olsen:


                                                                             

This series about a Danish detective in charge of solving Cold Cases is somewhat similar to the Dragon Tattoo series by  Stieg Larsson.  A good read  but not quite the page turner that Larsson's Dragon Tattoo books afforded us.

What would I qualify as a Lost Cause?  How about WIP baby sweaters that are now too small for the intended recipient?  Projects involving yarn that has just run out and is no longer available or perhaps not available in the color you are working with.  More recently for me, a project involving a pair of Reykjavik mittens in which the first mitten is done and the yarn for the second has vanished.  Back in January I posted a picture of the first mitten with plans to get right on to knitting the second.  It was an easy knit and those little houses made it a fun project:


 

We were having company around this time, and I quickly ran around cleaning and tidying up the place, putting my projects away.  When I went to start the second mitten, the yarn was nowhere to be found.  I mean, I searched everywhere!  You know, all the special and secret yarn stash hiding places and even my clothing drawers!   Nothing.  The yarn is Brown Sheep and yes, I could have bought more, but I
just couldn't accept the fact that I was going to be buying more of this yarn when there were two perfectly good skeins of this yarn somewhere in this house!  After awhile I gave up, and went on to other projects.  I recently came across the first mitten and thought seriously of tossing it out so I wouldn't have to be reminded of the whole thing, but it has been sitting on my dresser because, yes, I am a Keeper of Lost Causes.

Hold on though, the yarn has shown up!  And where was it?  The weather has turned cooler here and I went to the big bin in which I keep my sweaters, rummaging around for one I haven't worn lately and what did I find?  Yes, there was the Brown Sheep yarn buried in with my sweaters!  How it got there, I don't know. Must have been picking up in my bedroom and put some sweaters away along with the yarn.  So now I am starting my second mitten and since we just had over a foot of snow up here at Lake Tahoe,  I think I will still have time to wear them since cold snowy weather has a tendency to hang around here until May.

                                                             
                                                                   


                                                                      

16 comments:

  1. I have SO many lost cause projects sitting around the house.

    Thanks for a good laugh (and congratulations on finding the missing balls of yarn -- I've temporarily lost yarn as well, and it always pops up right in front of me!).

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  2. Oh, those mittens looks great. I might have to make a pair.
    Have a great week :)

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  3. I am most definitely adopting that category!!!!! (and must try to find that book!) Love the mittens-----there is hope for lost causes! (Ravelry has rescued a few lost causes, too---some mighty generous knitters have shared some of their leftover odd balls so I could finish a few things in my 'older-than-dirt' category)

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  4. Glad the missing yarn finally turned up so you can have a mate for your mitten!!

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  5. jolly good story! I love a happy ending. :)

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  6. I love these mittens too. Great job! And a good story with happyend. Happy weekend!

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  7. I love your story. Those will be a fantastic pair of mittens.

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  8. I'm so glad you didn't toss the mitten, because I truly believe all things will turn up some day, that's probably why I end up keeping all kinds of lost-cause items.

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  9. I'm so glad that you ended up finding everything! Because those mittens are just too cute to not be finished! I may have to knit a pair of those myself, thanks for the inspiration!

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  10. From the above posts I can tell you are not alone in either lost causes or lost items....LOL. My luck I would have thrown the mitt away and as the garbage truck was driving away I'd remember exactly where I put the yarn. Still smiling over your post.

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  11. Oh my! To think you've lost all of that hard work. Glad you found it.

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  12. Thank goodness you found it! I hate losing things after cleaning, makes me want to stay messy, ha!

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  13. Yay for found yarn. I have been in that predicament too many times. Hope the 2nd mitt goes quick.

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  14. KLC! Love it -- glad you kept it around long enough to find the yarn -- crazy! I hate when that happens (the lost part). I had a quilt in progress (ok, it's still in progress) and I didn't keep all it's fabric together, I ended up using some of the border fabric for something else! When I discovered the error I had to go to the store and replace it right away. I didn't find the exact fabric/colors, but I found something similar!

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  15. Keeper of Lost Causes.... that would be a great meme! I love your story and have done similiar quick clean ups and have misplaced either patterns, needles or WIPs as you described. BTW, will you be participating in the 4Th Annual Knit/Crochet Blog Week? It is such fun, I hope to see you there!

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  16. Two beautiful projects. I love the yarn for the baby sweater. Take a look at these socks which remind me of the complexity of your mittens.

    http://www.tsocktsarina.com/blog/

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