The grand WIP tour

If you glance at my sidebar to the left, you might notice that I have quite a few WIP's going on. And that list isn't even completely accurate, as a few projects haven't even been added yet. Before Brian moved in, I had free reign of the apartment. Projects were stored all over the house - on chairs, in closets, and at least 3 behind the pillows on the bed. Now they're relegated to just a few spots, and in lieu of more substantial content, I'm going to show them to you! (Bonus: if you stick around until the end of the tour, you'll get a peek at my progress on the USMP - on my body!) The main area for unfinished projects is this plastic bin, which sits atop 3 other bins that contain my stash: These projects are the ones that I'm least likely to pick up and work on; sad but true. Let's see... the yellow bit poking out of the black bag on the left is my Tina shawl, still unblocked. The blue sweater is a Rogue that I started over a year ago; body complete, sleeves nowhere to be found. Above that is a bit of Lady Eleanor (which I WILL get back to and finish, once I get some other things out of the way). Bottom right corner is Butterfly, and the green/gray is the striped Cascade 220 raglan that I've mentioned - almost done with the yoke. The projects that I work on more often live in the cabinet under my TV stand. This is also where my camera lives: Here's the back of Brocade, the New England socks, and the Northern Lights mittens (remember those? Yikes.) Sometimes you'll find a small project stuffed in the drawer of the same TV stand: That's the new Regia sock I mentioned, as well as a bunch of random needles that I might need soon and didn't want to return to the knitting bag. And power adapters. And xbox games. And the flash for my camera. And that's it! Except for whatever I'm currently working on, which lives behind my pillow - with two cats, nothing is safe. Nothing. So, the Union Square Market Pullover. I hesitated in starting this project - I remember that a lot of people had trouble with it, in terms of gauge and fit, and I didn't want to waste my time on a doomed pattern. I don't know why I went ahead with it anyway. The call of fine, drapey alpaca must have been to much to resist. Jessica commented today, reminding me of the problems she had using the same Frog Tree alpaca. I freaked out and decided to try the thing on: Don't mind all the curling, just notice that right now, it fits. Not too much ease, but it's not pulling and puckering terribly (which could have happened with my too-tight gauge). I'm going to keep a close watch on it as I go and hope that it doesn't stretch out. Ooh, one last thing: I don't know how many of you are Food Network junkies, or, more specifically, Good Eats/Alton Brown fans, but. Alton Brown can do no wrong by me, and this recipe for French Toast is SOOOO good! It has an extra step or two, but totally worth it. Try it out this weekend if you have a little time.