Finishitis

I know many knitters would envy me, because though I struggle with startitis, I also suffer from finishitis. My brain decides, independent of any input from my conscious thought, how long it should take me to do something, and once I pass that point, I get antsy about finishing. I partly blame Ravelry, which shows me exactly how many projects I have at once, and gives me the infinite pleasure of marking stuff "done." Since I am addicted to lists and the checking of things off lists, I am a very motivated finisher.

I really am a process knitter. I enjoy the act of knitting far more than the finished product. I use finish stuff because I made it, but I would almost rather make it than use it (which is, I suppose, why I end up giving so much stuff away). However, as much as I enjoy the process of knitting...I also enjoy the process of finishing.

So, to that end, I have been in a finish-it-up mode after my recent bout of startitis. I am nearly done with so many things that it is driving me kind of crazy. I finished the handwarmers for the SO to go with the hat (and I even managed to make them kind of match a little bit - at least, each member of the pair contains the same colors, if not in the same order). He has expressed some ambivalence toward having a scarf, so I'm not sure whether I will knit the scarf or not. I may have to evaluate the amount of yarn I have left before making a final decision. I have two entire balls and four partial ones.

I've almost finished the scarf for me. The yarn balls remaining are very shrunken. And, after a few hours spent untangling the yarn, I am almost done with the Tilli Thomas bag. I put it aside for a while because I had wound the two yarns together into a center-pull ball, which seemed like a great idea at the time...but one of my yarns is a silky ribbon yarn and after the center of the ball had been displaced, it wouldn't hold the shape. The whole ball just kind of fell apart. I tried to keep going anyway, but eventually it tangled so badly I had to stop, find the ends, untangle the whole mess and wind the two yarns back up into separate non-center-pull balls. I have, however, discovered that I can stuff the balls in the bag itself, close the drawstring, and just pull my yarn out through the hole, so now it is all beautifully self-contained. It worked out smashingly and served as my exercise bike knitting this evening. I am so close to done I can taste it.

That will bring me down to four active projects - the Caribbean (why did no one tell me I had been spelling that totally wrong??) socks, the orchid mitts that would not die, the just enough ruffles scarf, and the moonlight sonata shawl that has been neglected for months. I am hoping that after accomplishing the Whispering Pines shawl, Moonlight Sonata will be a piece of cake.