Well:  I’ve been seriously winnowing out the UFO pile in preparation for the Games of Summer.  I’ve had to revise my rule a bit, and I think I’ve got a goal now.

Original rule:  Finish all current UFO’s by the end of the Summer Games.

OK — perhaps you’ve already figured this out, but this is sheer lunacy.

After taking a good look at the calendar, here’s what I’ve got to work with.  Basically, it’s 7 weeks, or 49 days, until the end of the Summer Games.  And I’ve got about 19 works in progress.  To disposition all of these within that timeframe would mean an average of one UFO every 3 days.

Plus, there’s a 9-day period in there when my DH will be gone, and I consider that Vacation Time for Me.  There will be some knitting going on during that time, of course – but it’s really meant to be fun time.  So there will also be some beading, maybe some sewing, some reading, potentially even some closet-cleaning.  But I’m not going to force myself to spend my vacation working on UFO’s.  Even former Midwesterners have their limits.

BTW, notice I said I will be "dispositioning" those UFO’s, not necessarily "finishing".  I have a sneaking suspicion that more than one or two of these lingering projects are going to go bye-bye.  That’s part of what the whole deadline thing is supposed to help with, after all.

Anyway, what with one thing and another — I suppose it could be possible to do one every 3 days, but I’m not going to bank on it.  I am a professional, but I’m not sure I’m quite that dedicated.

Therefore, my new goal is to make it a decathlon!!

New rule:  Finish Disposition 10 UFO’s by the end of the Summer Games.

And anything over 10 will officially be considered gravy.

Here’s my UFOlympics 2008 list:

1. Bear mittens:  one left to finish, of the five I originally set out to do; then it’s time to take ‘em to the zoo.
2. Bunny slippers:  slippers have been successfully felted; make ears, felt, attach, and add eyes and tails.
3. Glam rock vest:  top-down vest in a really funky fur & eyelash yarn of somewhat questionable taste.  It’s looking like something Elton John might wear.  Need to decide what to do with it.  (OK, the action item here is probably more like, rip it out and give the yarn away, but I haven’t quite gotten there yet.  Give me time.)
4. Anny Blatt "Jonelle" tank:  shorten armholes by removing a few rows from the top.
5. Rowan bulky vest:  another top-down vest, though in much better taste; need to finish knitting and attaching the trim, install a zipper, maybe add a hood.
6. Silk sari / felted wool bag:  bag is mostly knitted; need to figure out how to finish out the top; add handles, pockets, hardware, lining?
7. Wrap cardigan:  finish out the sleeves and seed st trim.
8. Cabled bag:  fish or cut bait; act accordingly.
9. Modular vest:  fish or cut bait; act accordingly.
10. V neck raglan:  decide whether it fits, or needs to be ripped out AGAIN; act accordingly.
11. Ribbed pullover:  add I-cord reinforcement around neckline.

So now we’re at one item about every 4-5 days (not counting the vacation time).

Yeah, OK, I know there’s 11 items on there.  I’m really hoping for some gravy.

Whoops, yeah, there’s one more I almost forgot:  item 0, which is a brioche st hat for a class/shop sample, and which probably needs to be the first priority.  Fortunately, it too is about, oh, 60-70% complete.

Well, 12 items in 49 days works out to one every 4 days, with one day off for good behavior.  We engineers like nice round numbers, after all.  Of course, if I take out that vacation time, now we’re back to decimals, and a repeating decimal at that:  one UFO every 3.333333333 days.

Well, I said anything over 10 would be gravy – so, 10 items in 40 days it is.  A stretch goal, to be sure, but seems doable.

I’m not sure if I’ll be attacking these in the given order, although on the surface, it seems like having an ordered list will probably help me out a lot.  None of this "hmm, what should I work on next?  Maybe I’ll just look through this magazine first.  Oh, that’s adorable, do I have yarn for that?  * rummage through entire stash*  Oh, hey, what a bummer, nothing in the stash is the right gauge / in the right quantity / in the right fiber / in the right color.  Maybe I can just run over to the shop real quick and see if they have anything suitable…" and another afternoon shot to hell with no actual knitting accomplished.

Oh, and I do now have an idea for a suitable gold medal if I make it.  In one of the new Anny Blatt books (numero 203) there’s this fabulous sweater "Lucia"…  sparkly Muguet, fuzzy angora, shiny Victoria, a few lustrous pearl beads…  who needs gold?