The weekend is dead. Long live the weekend.

Quite a productive weekend for us. Saturday dawned, cranky and pissy. We had a birthday party to attend, and the parents of the birthday boy were having as bad a day as we were, and the child and parents were about 45-60 minutes late for their own party. However, once everyone got there, they sucked it up, got to grilling and playing and bouncing, and everyone, including my cranky self and my cranky ass family, had a grand time. Then we all went home and had a nap and pancakes for dinner, and really, how could we stay pissy after that?
This morning the DH woke up all ready to clean. It's a good thing, too - it's been two weeks since the cleaning lady came last, and since we aren't terribly efficient, we'd clean bits throughout the week, so the house was never clean all at one time. Today, though, the DH got a wild hair, and gave me new carpet.



Not really, but he spot cleaned and rented a steam cleaner and sucked tons of dirt, mud, dog accidents, kid food spills, etc. I do not exaggerate when I say that the carpet had at least 20 large dark stains this morning. (He even managed to get out the spot where Bug stepped on a blackberry in the middle of the carpet.)
I can't even begin to tell you how much better everything else looks just to have the carpet clean again.

This weekend I also finished the rest of my appliqué homework.



I worked on my end-of-year goal. Haiku, DONE!



I think the little pearly heart-shaped buttons make it special, and I hope they draw the viewer's attention away from the wonky sleeve seaming. What a weird construction - I don't think I'd do another side to side sweater with a one-piece body. I didn't like sewing the sleeves in. BUT! Done it is, and since the little girl it was intended for has long since outgrown it, it will go to one of the Bug's little girlfriends, if it fits her.

Speaking of the Bug, he's growing up. Dammit.

Is it too early to be nesting?

So I've been thinking. And cleaning. Those two things are things I generally prefer NOT to do in great quantities, but hey. I've been thinking a lot about what to clean next, what to pack up, what we can do without for a few months, etc. And I've also been looking at my blog. Specifically, at that list of WIPs over on the sidebar there. The other day, I was randomly thinking about some strange conglomeration of things, when I remembered one of the members of my blogroll likes to start the year fresh, with respect to projects. (I can't remember if it's Jared or Dave Daniels, or both.) The idea is to finish up what's on the needles and rip what isn't finished, IIRC. When I first read that a year or two ago, I believe my reaction was somewhere along the lines of "that's nucking futs." This year, though, the idea is growing on me. I mean REALLY. Look at that list.
Votive sleeves: I have 2 1/2 left, and I want to finish them for Christmas. Assuming I can still find the wire, that should be eminently doable.
Monkey socks: I have the better part of one done.
Gust: still in the early stages
Lace: I still have doubts about this one - it's a secret project and I don't love it. I'd be avoiding it simply because I don't want to face the inevitability that it needs ripping.
Charade socks: one down, one to go
Slippin' Slidin' Socks: not on the list. Early on, could probably rip without much anguish if I needed to. I think I have, maybe, an inch of cuff done.
Garden lattice socks: need to rip back half of the one finished sock, so if I ripped the whole thing I prolly wouldn't cry.
Faina: I struggled with the charts. I still love the pattern, and I'm much better at reading charts (and lace, for that matter) now. Maybe it's time to let Faina out again.
Sonnet: Going to rip it. No question.
Haiku: needs to have the sleeves and buttons sewn. C'mon, yo, leaving it like that is almost sinful. Finish that dude.

What I have is, at most, two lacy scarves, six socks, 2.5 tiny candle holders, and finishing up a baby sweater. In the writing of this post, I've already decided the secret lace needs to go. (I have this feeling that there are other things, but if they've been UFOs so long that I can't remember them, they're getting ripped.) I also have the better part of four months. Really, that should be doable.
Even if I throw in Linden, I still think it's doable. It starts to get a little dicey when I think of knitting lace shawls for my aunts for Christmas, but I was still batting that idea around and I hadn't settled on it yet. I obviously am not going to finish my summer knitting goals, but hey, at least I got a little mojo back. I think I might be talking myself into this idea of finishing up the year's (and last year's) projects before moving on into '09. Do I sound like an annoying go-getter? Do we hate me yet?