Is this Roswell? Sure are a lot of UFOs around here

I used to worry about my UFOs. Some people stash yarn ... I seem to stash UFOs... But now that I'm the ripe old age of 59 (as of yesterday), I've decided to look at the situation in a different way (I've actually been looking at it from different perspectives - read 'rationalizing' - for a long time.) The truth is, I just like to start projects more than I care about finishing them. There you have it. I love the new-project-excitement, the planning, the swatching, the pattern comparisons. I think I've mentioned this before...

So, anyway, above is a picture of Mina's Vest. (Mina is my oldest grand-daughter, usually referred to as "The Bean", and is going to turn nine years old next month.) It is being knit from Ram Wools' Cameo Cotton in color #10, which is actually a beautiful light aqua. My picture doesn't begin to do it justice. I am making-up the pattern, but borrowed the shell motif and the seed-stitch cable panel from Alice Starmore's Cape Cod in "Fishermen's Sweaters". I love that sweater! Couldn't quite see trying to knit one for myself - Ms. Starmore's sizes don't go that large, and the sweater already has 85 bazilion stitches in it to begin with, so trying to make it larger would really (totally) be daunting. The resulting compromise (my love of the pattern vs. my need to knit something more within my feeble abilities and attention span) is Mina's Vest. And, yes, I will need to finish it within the next 6 to 9 months or Mina will have outgrown it. But grand-daughter number two, Leslie Elaine ("Pookie") gives me at least two years in the unhappy event that I procrastinate beyond nine months or so.

It was 100 degrees yesterday and we are still living without our air-conditioning. Today's high is only predicted to be 95 - a cooling trend! Now that I learned (via The Yarn Harlot) that Lee Ann's surgery went very well, I can share that I've actually been very comfortable without air conditioning - just closing up the house in the mornings when the outside temp begins to rise, and using fans strategically placed throughout the house.

Remember the heel on Vineyard Stripey that I fouled up? Well, it got ripped and re-knit and I am now about a third of the way down the foot. Plain stockinette...Idiot-proof knitting. (Or so I hope.) ;-)