UFO's: Not Just For Intergalactic Space Travel Anymore



Annie's never ending Potato Chip scarf. I
don't recommend making one of these with baby
yarn. Takes FOREVER! This one is now done.

 When you clean up a huge mess like a yarn stash (or a mobile home surrounded by mountains of unknown materials...I've had to do both), you never know what you might find. In the case of the mobile home, you might simply encounter things that prompt you to contact Hazmat or animal control. But in the case of the yarn stash, you might come across things long unaccounted for--and much missed--like knitting needles or tiny stitch holders you thought were lost forever. You might find a missing hank of yarn that was intended to complete the yardage needed to someday create the perfect sweater. And you might find some of those perfect sweaters in unfinished states. These projects are good examples of "UFO's."

UFO's are not the traditional unidentified flying objects (well, I guess they could be if they were cabled cardigans thrown across the room in frustration...). To knitters, UFO stands for UnFinished Object. Most of us do not have one UFO. We have many, many, many UFO's.

Take my stash mess, for example. I found much-needed needles, to my relief, in many sizes and styles as I cleaned. I found my share of missing skeins of yarn that I didn't even know were missing until I cleaned. And, of course, I found several UFO's.

Mostly, the UFO's were mistakes. I had a legwarmer that would fit around my thigh, but was meant for Amy Rose when she was 1. I muttered to myself that at least I had only made one. I had a single Mary Jane bootie that I remember struggling through when I didn't know how to read a pattern very well. I must have stopped in frustration.  I had a poncho that I had tried as an experiment--even before the booties--a pattern out of a Debbie Macomber book. It was my first try at reading a pattern and I didn't understand about weaving in ends. Consequently, each time I added another color (it was a free form, change-colors-whenever-you-want- poncho), I tied in the new yarns and cut them short, leaving little nubs of shredded yarn sticking out all over the place.

Not even a child can get
a leg in these



Dorm Booties, from Rhodes. The closest pattern I have found
is here: http://www.tropicalyarns.com/index.cfm?PID=22&ProdID=307

















Then there was the category of "what the heck is this and who does it belong to?" These items included a pair of unmatched "Dorm Booties," so-named according to the pattern that was with them. It was from a store called "Rhodes," which, upon some research, turns out was a local department store that distributed patterns for the Red Cross during WWII. These were not from one of those patterns. But were interesting nevertheless. They were typed on what was typical "onion skin" type paper with a manual typewriter. The ink is now nearly invisible after all these years, but I am trying to decipher it.

I think the booties were from my grandmother's things. It would be shocking to think she would not finish a pair, so I concluded that my mother must have been the single-booty culprit. My grandmother was always complaining that my mom didn't finish what she started. And there was another cabled sock that was so tightly knit that it would fit no one's ankle. Also likely mom's.

Next on the growing list of projects to toss or complete were a couple of unfinished projects of my own. There was a tank top that had too-narrow shoulder straps that I had intended to frog months before, some scarves meant to be gifts and an uncompleted sock design. I wanted a tornado of Harry Potter lightning bolts and worked on this pattern as I knitted up the leg of a sock in inexpensive yarn. I have since figured it out. I will be frogging this sock, too, and working it up properly.

Harry Potter lightning socks, coming soon

This was all very frustrating since cleaning out your stuff also makes you feel anxious and empowered to start whipping out some huge project. But, alas, I feel I must put on the brakes. I have decided to complete what I can, gifts first, then work out the faded writing on my grandma/mom's mysterious pattern for adult booties. Finally, I will complete that Harry Potter design, hopefully in time for Halloween.

Turns out that riding UFO's is not really that fun. The trip usually winds up taking longer than you think. And that idea that they travel faster than the speed of light? That's a myth.