UFO's

In the knitting world, a UFO stands for an Un Finished Object, the project that has sat neglected in your knitting basket while other projects were conceived, executed, and long since given away. I have two UFO's that hover. One of mine is a pair of beaded hand warmers. The first mitt is entirely knit and simply requires a three-needled bind off; its match has the beads threaded on the yarn and probably would only entail a night or two of Olympic watching to complete. But they have sat at the bottom of the wooden crate next to the television sofa for, I would guess, two years.

The other UFO is an alpaca broken rib scarf. That beautiful yarn started out as a lacy shawl, unraveled to begin a scarf pattern called" The Road," and now has finally settle into becoming this, which I hurriedly picked up Friday morning and threw into my knitting bag to mindlessly knit as we made a late afternoon trip to Harrisburg. At the end of my school week, I needed to "veg," not concentrate. I needed knitting therapy, not a creative challenge. It is actually quite lovely, and it really deserves to be finished this winter.

As I sat in church today, I thought about all the other UFO's of my life--a letter to a friend which is long, long past due, a couple of sympathy cards, a get well card, a telephone call, a prayer shawl...things I really need to attend to, things sitting in a box of "good intentions" that show others that I care, turning my gaze outward during this season when my baser nature desires hibernation.