general grumpiness

I am feeling quite uninspired.

I have several projects on the needles that I intend to enjoy at some point but not one of them is calling to me now (if you happened to read my previous post you might think you are experiencing deja vu right about now). I just hopped up to Wal-Mart and bought three extra sets of cheap 2mm dpns so I can cast on some more plain socks. And I am doing so as we speak: I have started on the Leftovers sock that will have cream cuffs, toes and heels and Opal Chameleon legs and feet. My new needles are purple and they have cheered me up a wee bit. Started with a long-tail cast on, left the tail too long, and when I went to snip it I snipped the wrong tail and separated the sock from the yarn. That did not cheer me up at all.

Last week I had a hankering for alpaca. Here in Southern Ontario we had dire warnings of a major snowstorm and, in that spirit, I bundled myself up in all my woolly hand knits to walk the kiddies home from school. But the snowstorm missed us, as they usually do, and my Nature Spun scarf made my chin itch. So I decided that the only thing to do would be to order some alpaca from Elann, just enough to make myself a hat and scarf in case we do actually get a storm one of these days. When I got to Elann, there was this great shawl that I just could not resist. It calls for seven balls of alpaca, and I had intended to order three or four for my hat and scarf. And eleven balls just is not within my budget right now, so I resisted in the extreme and ordered nothing. And today I am wearing a cheap fleece scarf because I am not in the mood to endure an itchy chin.

I don't know what to knit.

Please chat amongst yourselves while I try to work through this.

I have approximately eight hundred projects on the needles -- well, it must be at least six anyway -- and not one of them is The Perfect Project for this afternoon. I hate that. I don't feel like working on the sari silk scarf because I have an aversion to drop stitches today. I am annoyed with both of my socks-of-the-month having fought with one of them most of yesterday afternoon. I don't feel like working on anything in the round. I might be able to tolerate the Faroese shawl but it's just not exactly right, too much counting and fiddling with increases. There are probably a couple of works in process that I can't even remember but I am quite confident that they're not right either.

I don't want to start anything else but I fear I must. So I sit mentally digging through my rather uninspiring stash trying to hit on inspiration for The Perfect Project. Something flat, not garter stitch simple but not too complicated either. Sounds like a scarf, doesn't it? Or a simple shawl. If I had a whole heap of yarn I would start an afghan...actually, I do have a heap of rather icky RH that I could play with. It's no good for anything else. But then I probably shouldn't start a huge project just to get me through one Sunday afternoon.

This is getting me nowhere. Am off to look through scarf patterns.

Three things I don't get

1. The purpose of fingerless gloves and wristwarmers. My fingers are usually the coldest part of my hand. I do not see any point in superheating my wrists while letting my fingers turn black.

2. So-called "new scarf patterns" that read, "Cast on 20 stitches, knit every row until you run out of yarn, cast off." That is not a pattern. For a knitter that is barely more than a metabolic process.

3. People who search for a whole new pattern for something that is nothing but an abbreviated version of an existing pattern, like toeless pedicure socks or gloves with partial fingers. Perhaps I could publish, and maybe even copyright, the following All-Purpose Pattern: Knit as much as you need and then cast off.

I am planning to knit something one of these days...

I've spent quite a bit of time over the last couple of weeks gazing sadly at my knitting and my books and wondering why I don't have time to enjoy either. In case you're thinking, very charitably, "Of course she doesn't have time to knit - she's getting ready for Christmas!", well, thank you, but I haven't accomplished much in that department either. I fear I'm spending the better part of my days joining the family dog in staring blankly at the walls, because I can't really put my finger on anything else I've accomplished. Except laundry. I have been keeping up with laundry. Go me.

The new Creative Knitting arrived last week and I was ecstatic to find a pattern for a yoke sweater of the type I had intended to knit last year and for which I already have the yarn. I was planning to do a Zimmermann and wing it, but when fate offers me the opportunity to be a blind follower, how can I possibly say no? So I've managed to crank out maybe an inch and a half of ribbing. It will be excellent mindless knitting until I reach the stranded part, at which point it will probably sit around in limbo for a year.

I have also resumed work on the Garish Socks of a few months back and am making very slow progress on the Faroese shawl.

I did not do any knitting at the gymnastics meet after all as I was too busy having panic attacks. The DD did pretty well, coming 7th in a field of 17 and earning a personal best all-around score.