Proof positive that I am demented

I have never enjoyed my Yahoo groups as much as I am enjoying them today. As anyone who belongs to a Yahoo list knows very well, Yahoo is sending out multiple copies of each message. Some of them are coming ten times, twenty times, repeated in one digest or over several. Some of these messages are banal comments on the problem such as "Messages are being repeated. There must be a problem." And then we receive sixteen copies of this scintillating observation.

It is cracking me up. I am compulsively opening digest after digest to see which strangely familiar message will reappear this time.

I should probably stop giggling and get back to knitting.

But alas, I cannot, because I am paralyzed by indecision. Having resolved my spat with PayPal, I have received three gorgeous shawl patterns from Goddess Knits. I had planned to use the Cherry Tree Hill merino I bought, oh, probably a year ago and wound up last summer. It has been sitting wound into a ball (gasp! shudder!) in a plastic bin in my bedroom for way too long. But it's a dramatic colourway and I'm not sure which pattern would suit it. Possibly none of them.

Yes, I do know the answer: Swatch, grasshopper. Allow the yarn to speak. It will tell you which pattern it prefers.

Easier said than done. Maybe I'll just let the yarn babble away to itself and get back to work on my Socks in Progress.

No longer thwarted.

Seems I'm not the only one having trouble ordering from Goddess Knits. There's a message up on their front page that gives alternate payment instructions for those of us who have been timing out. Funny how I always leap to the conclusion that it must be just me. Paranoia rocks. The shawls are so beautiful that I had trouble narrowing my purchase down to two. So I ordered three: Butterfly Wings, Flowing River, and Summer Into Fall.

I have finished another crocheted bear blanket. I will refrain from posting a picture as it looks pretty much like the last one, only smaller. I also finished another baby hoodie but in my latest Random Act of Stupidity neglected to make a buttonhole. I don't feel inspired to cut one so am left trying to come up with a creative closing system.

Spent a little time with the My Constant Companion bag and came to the conclusion that seventeen inches of plain knitting can get a tad tedious. I keep reading and rereading the instructions for the slots and icord finishing and am so far utterly befuddled, so I guess I'll just have to deal with it when I get there. Maybe it will make more sense as I do it.

I like to think I'm working my way through the WIPs, but I'm probably delusional as well as paranoid. Perhaps I'm on my way to a full-fledged Syndrome. Maybe they'll name it after me.

thwarted.

If there's one thing that makes me nuts, it's trying to part with my money and having the vendor refuse to accept it. I just love the shawl patterns at Goddess Knits and am trying to order a couple of them. Paypal is not allowing me to complete the transaction.

Deep calming breaths.

Perhaps Paypal is having a spasm. I will try again tomorrow. If I still can't unload this money, I will contact the company. I understand it's a new website and it might be buggy.

Meanwhile, you want to see some seriously fraternal socks? Take a gander.



I knit the one on the left first. If you care to strain your eyes a bit, you might observe that instead of a wide orange stripe in the gusset section there is a narrow rusty stripe. I assume this is a dyeing quirk. I have to admit that I'm kind of a fan of dyeing quirks, and so I decided to let it be and make no effort to make the other sock match. And the 8-year-old recipient couldn't be happier. She thinks they're way cool. I just wish I had knit them a half-inch longer because she's sure to outgrow them over the summer.

I am bored.

Everything I'm working on right now is boring me silly.

I have socks for Taylor, socks for Sydney, socks for myself. A to-be-felted bag. Numerous shawls with numerous errors waiting to be corrected. A sweater with a fair isle yoke. A scarf. A baby blanket. A thread crochet centrepiece/runner thingie. And I don't want to bother with any of it.

I did manage to make a semi-decent charity donation this month.



Where's Waldo time: there are two crocheted baby sweaters, a knit hoodie, two crocheted blankets, and two knit scarves.

Perhaps it is time to take a break from Knitting For Others and start something that I find exciting in hopes of getting my mojo back. But even that idea bores me.

You know what I need? Yarn. I need to buy yarn. Yes, that would most certainly restore my mojo. Must buy yarn. Now off to find me a rich husband who can afford to keep me in yarn.

No point to this, really.

I have somewhere in the little card in my camera a picture of my completed charity donation. As I am too lazy to get up and find the camera, I present for no reason whatsoever a picture of my daughter doing the gym thing. I am not sure about the legalities of posting a professional shot and will probably get sued, executed and/or banished to a cold place without knitting supplies, but in an effort to avoid such a fate I will quickly give credit to Cam McNish of McNish's Action Photography.

To relate all this to knitting, I observe that if the coach responsible for the lovely moment pictured ever finds out how much I'm stressing over her baby gift, she will probably declare me psychotic and banish me from the gym. I have so far started and scrapped a bunting bag, crocheted a blanket, knit a hoodie, given the blanket and the hoodie to charity because I wasn't happy with the yarn, then almost finished a second hoodie (same pattern, different yarn, different bottom edge), and started the same blankie again in a different yarn. My current issue is that the latest hoodie might look a little too girlie for a baby of as-yet indeterminate sex. No issues yet with the second blankie, but give me a minute or two.

Lesson learned: any yarn with the word "value" on the label should be ruled out as gift material.