My plans for Finish-it February

In the maker community, Finish-it-February is kind of a big deal. In February, the holiday season is long gone, New Year's Resolutions are a distant memory, and you've had time to realise that it really is a new year. (This is also the reason why Michael Tolliver rallied for Valentine's Day's resolutions in Tales of the City. By mid-February, you should already have some idea of what the year's about, and can react accordingly.) In February, the year has officially launched, and to commemorate this, the craft community has collectively agreed that it is a good time to round up all the works in progress one has accumulated during the previous year, and finally knit them to completion. 

I've actually never participated in Finish-it-Feb before. I don't know why. Maybe my pile of WIPs has looked insurmountable, and I haven't even wanted to try. But this year I find that most of my of my WIPs are SO NEARLY DONE that really, what is my excuse? I should just bite the bullet and get to it. So for the past few months I've been thinking that yes, the time has come, or it will have when January is over. With this in mind, I haven't even cast on any time-consuming, long, complicated, challenging projects, and that alone is quite revolutionary. 

Here's what I have in my knitting basket:

1) Project: The Joanie boatneck sweater by PoisonGrrls. 

Stage of completion: One sleeve nearly done, the other sleeve started, otherwise ready. 

Confession time: I still haven't finished watching Mad Men. I started it last June when I was house and dog sitting at my mum's, and my in-laws were visiting from Australia and spending every moment with their daughter. My Dear Wife watched Mad Men years ago, and could not be bothered to re-watch it quite yet. This meant that I have to watch it without her, and that always takes me a lot longer, since I can only turn it on when she's not around. I've watched the first five seasons, and I do enjoy the show, although I actually think that literally any female character in it is approximately 100000 times more interesting than any of the guys. I imagine Marvelous Mrs Maisel came to be because Amy Sherman-Palladino watched Mad Men and was like, "Yeah, I love the costumes and the depiction of the era, but why are these guys the protagonists here? Shouldn't we spend more time on telling the ladies' stories since they are the actual interesting bits?" Oh well. 

This jumper is of course inspired by a jumper worn by Joan, and I love it, and I love Joan. I copied the colourway from the original PoisonGrrls pattern, which I very rarely do, but what can I say, it was simply too good. And I already have the absolute best 60s earrings to wear with it. Like with most top-down jumpers, I followed the instructions for the yoke, and then went absolutely rogue and made edits to get the fit just right. I love top-down jumpers for this reason. Altogether, this pattern is very lovely and smart, and I would definitely knit it again in another colourway. This has been my typical style with PoisonGrrl pattens; I have no less than THREE Rizzo blouses.

(Also, if the knitting looks somewhat uneven, it's because I knit the jumper already once before, but it was too big for my liking, so I had to frog the whole thing and start again with curly yarn.)

2) Project: The Thunder Road bolero by PoisonGrrls. 

Stage of completion: One sleeve nearly done, another missing. 

What's with me and abandoning PoisonGrrls pattern during the first sleeve? I HARDLY EVER GET STRANDED ON THE SLEEVE ISLAND. But I actually have an excuse for this one. I started knitting it in April-May 2022, roughly two months before my wedding, which took place in my wife's home country. I wanted to finish it before I set out to Straya, but then I found the perfect, dreamy dress; a black silk gown from the 50s with beautiful white embroidery on the front. The only thing I was missing was a white bolero. So I had to put this PoisonGrrls bolero on hold and knit the wedding bolero. And so, the blue bolero has been on hold ever since. There's nothing wrong with it, and I love the cornflower blue yarn SO MUCH I actually wish I had bought more of it. But I'm really not looking forward to picking this one up again, because I've forgotten how many stitches I picked up for the sleeve, and I don't think I wrote down very detailed notes. Classic me. 

3) Project: 1940s fair-isle vest. 

Stage of completion: Upper back missing, rib on the neckline and sleeves missing.

I genuinely can't remember why I put this one down. Maybe because it was annoying to carry the different balls of yarn around? Anyway, I cast this on in August-September 2024, so it's not even that old, and I loooooove it. I'm using an authentic 1940s pattern that I just made a teensy bit wider around the chest area by adding one more pattern repeat. I love the colours, I love the fair-isle, and it is fun to knit, too. It's a crime that this is not finished yet. Maybe I should do this one first, actually.  

This vest is unofficially called my "Captain Hastings vest." Two of my biggest 1930s style icons are Miss Lemon and Captain Hastings from Agatha Christie's Poirot (with David Suchet!), and I had Hastings in mind when I cast on this project. It's not a direct copy of anything that he wears, but it has the same vibe (although I'm very aware that pretty much every British gentleman of his class, age and upbringing had the same vibe). 

Well, clearly writing this and looking at these knits worked, because I am actually very excited to finish them, to the extent that I've been up half the night thinking about future knitting. A couple of days ago my wife told me that she'd slept very badly because of stress, and I was like, honey, what were you stressed about? Her answer: "I was thinking about tonight's dinner!" It was no special night nor a special dinner. And now here I am, awake late at night, contemplating my knits.

What about you? How many WIPs do you have? Are you planning to do Finish-it-Feb?