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.