The estimation game

OK friends I have come up with a crazy game to play with myself to hopefully help me get some of those WIPs off the needs. Here is my plan: I am going to estimate how many days of knitting it will take to finish each of my WIPs. I will try to pick something that is a bit challenging but (hopefully) reasonable. For each WIP that I finish within the allotted amount of time I can spend $15 on yarn. That is a potential of $165 I would allow myself to splurge!

The rules:

1) I must knit some each day. If I don't knit one day one of my projects will still have to take a strike.

2) Each day will be allocated to one project. If I knit on more than one project I will have to choose which one takes the day.

3) Any new cast-ons (with the one exception I will explain later) will not count. If I waste days playing with new projects I may have to give up getting some new yarn.

4) Finished means completely finished. As in off the needles, blocked, seamed, buttons applied, etc. Ready to be worn/used.

5) No money can be spent on yarn, needles, notions, ect. until this challenge is over, i.e. all the days have been used up.

My predictions:

1) First spinning attempt. I bought a drop spindle and some Targhee wool at sock summit last August and started spinning away. I actually got to the point where my spinning was pretty even but then I got distracted with school and didn't pick it up for 11 months. Now I am at it again and am getting somewhat even results... For a first attempt I'm pretty happy. Anyway, about 1 oz. of the 3.8 oz braid was used in my thrummed mittens. The rest is on it's way to becoming yarn. According to my Knit Picks yarn scale (so wonderful to have!) I have 0.78 oz left. I'm going to be a little generous with this one and give myself 5 days to finish since I'm so new to spinning. I think two days for spinning, two days for plying, and one day for washing, drying and skeining.



2) Op Art. I have four stripes left on this blanket. That sounds pretty manageable, until I think about how each stripe contains both more rows that the stripe before and more stitches per row. I'm going to push myself and give myself 20 days here. right now it's taking me about 35 minutes to do one row. I'm guessing I have 60 hours left on this puppy so I'm going to have to give it 3 hours each of it's days. This is going to be my biggest challenge.



3) Hope for Change socks. My oldest WIP to date. I love the way this pattern looks, it's just not my favorite to knit. One sock is complete the other sock is about 2/3 up my instep (knit from toe up). I'm only giving myself 3 days to finish these babies. One day to get past the heel, two days for the leg and cuff.



4) Mojo socks. These are so close to being done I can taste it. I have 45 rows left. These get one day.



5) Yeah for Fall (Green Gable sweater). This went so quickly when I was working on it. I knit the whole body in about a week. I'm going to give it one more week. 3 days to finish the sleeves, 3 days to finish the yoke and hood, and 1 day for blocking.



5) Birthday socks (Air Raid socks). The first sock is finished. The second sock has one repeat of 6 done on the leg (knit from the top down). The first sock went very fast. There is no real reason these have taken so long other than they are my "purse" project and I haven't had to wait very often (knock on wood). I will give these 5 days.



6) Selbu Mittens. One mitten is half done. These take complete attention because I have to follow the colorwork chart carefully. With school starting on the 30th complete attention is going to be hard to give. I'm going to be a bit lax with these and give them 14 days since full devotion will be hard to muster.



7) Baby Surprise Jacket. This will go quickly once I turn my attention to it, I have just been focusing on other things recently. I am giving this 3 days.



8) Victorian Scarf. Lace, like colorwork takes a lot of attention. Also, this project is pretty huge. I have 3 repeats of 42 done, plus the center panel, which is skinny but looooooong. I am going to give this project 18 days. That is 3 repeats a day for 14 days then 3 days for the center panel and 1 for blocking.



9) Pomatomous Socks. These are fun to knit but all of the twisted stitches are slow going for me. I am 1/3 through the leg (knit top down) on the first sock. I'm going to say 10 days for these socks.



10) Test Knit - Bashful. I can't show you a picture of this one, but I'm test knitting a hat for Marly Bird aka Yarnthing on Ravelry. The hat is slouchy and DK weight but I can't tell you anything about it until the pattern is released. So far all I have knit is the ribbing. I'm giving it 2 days since it's a hat and hats are smallish quickish projects.

11) Test Knit - Whirligig bolero. This is a test knit for Stephanie Japel to help her up-size a pattern that was originally only in baby/toddler sizes. She is going to re-release it with bigger child and adult sizes. I'm testing one of the child sizes. It will either go to one of my cousins' kids or to charity, but when the pattern is release I will have the adult sizes muahahaha. I haven't actually gotten the pattern yet or my assigned size (supposed to come out today) but it has to be done within 3 weeks so I'm going to give myself 21 days.

That is 108 days to finish all my projects. That means on November 25 I will be done with this little adventure. That gives me one month to do any Christmas knitting I need... More than enough right...