Here in the South we're doing our usual spring/autumn deal where we deal with two months' (or three, or four) of high daily temps and very low night temps. Last night there was a freeze warning. Today it is pushing eighty degrees F/26 C. These shifts leave me feeling like my head's going to explode, and is to the point I'm actually going to see a doc over it. (I've been on a doctor strike since I found out I'd been on Synthroid for a year when I didn't need it, due to bad lab technology. All my hair fell out and I felt like crap for a year, because of the lab. Bah.)
Bitch, moan, whine, complain. Anyway.
I've been sort of eh on the knitting lately, though the weather probably explains it. The only knitting I've done in the last few days is the gauge swatch for the Roulette Sock.
The Sock Roulette was a great idea. (Yes, Amy Lane, I admit it. Okay?) I don't know how many times I've seen participating people write "I wouldn't have chosen this yarn/pattern, but I like it". And that's exactly what I said to the husbeast last night while knitting up the swatch. (It's looking good for gauge; might start the sock tomorrow.) Love the yarn. Never would have chosen that shade of lavender. We should start letting other people choose more of our projects; I suspect unbiased opinions work better.
I did finish up the spinning, or at least the current spinning. (I'm sure something else to spin will turn up. Especially with payday next week. Ha.)
In total, with the other skein, 360 yards of orangey goodness. I think it's plenty for some plain old socks with a couple-four inches of twisted ribbing on the legs. The color alternately reminds me of clownfish and children's aspirin (orange flavored, of course) that I took as a kid. I'm thinking of this as my next Zen project. (With all the stress lately, I'm looking to have a Zen project going from now on, until the Goob is, what, thirty-five or so. Will the stress ease up then? No. Don't tell me. I don't want the answer.)
I think I've finally figured out what I want to do with the glorious wool that Bells sent me a year ago. But before I touch that, I want to practice on another clump of wool, so I'll be ordering that (and dyeing it) next week. And then... more spinning! (Carbon fiber? Never heard of it. What is this carbon fiber you speak of? Ya nichevo ne znayu.)
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There was really nothing else for it today, but to set up an ad hoc photo shoot with my new gear.
There was good sunlight coming in my office window, and, one thing and another, I wound up with a hybrid; half new gear, and half the old, half-assed method of taking photos.
Then I hauled out some knitting and took some photos. Appropriately, I took pictures of the first thing I ever knit in stranded color, and the one I'm currently working on.
Before you decide you hate my ever-living guts for the stranded color skill, remember; I'd been knitting extreme lace and solid-colored clothing for ten years before casting on the Chainmail Sweater (the orange, pink, purple, and blue).
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So, basically, my mojo is gone and I've got no idea where it went, how to recover it, and right now at my level of headache, I'm not sure I give a fuck. I probably will later. You know, like at Christmas when I've got nothing to give anyone as gifts. (I'm considering, cautiously, small knits like scarves, in non-feltable materials, for my brother's family. I've lost my mind.) For now I'm leafing through my knitting books, going 'oh, that's nice' and waiting for the fire to hit.
For now, I've got a kid who is pretending to 'do research' and 'play librarian'.
(In the last day she has discovered she can 'build puzzles'. Something else for payday next week. May all the gods bless my in-laws, who keep this kid supplied in educational and 'old fashioned' toys, or she'd have driven me insane. They'd already gotten her several puzzles.)
And Sekhmet says "I don't care how much catnip you give me, you're not getting me in that photo box to take low-light closeups of my whiskers."
Obviously I had the camera set wrong for that photo. Maybe if I got her in the light box...
11 comments:
I know what you mean.
First the puppy got his feet caught in the sock yarn and my friend were wondering why I was unraveling it instead of just buying new. It took me a whole day to ball it.
Now I haven't knitted in over a week. What is up?
Pam
I really think it's the weather. Either it's beautiful and you want to go outside and loaf, or it's making people's sinuses explode.
Last year at this time I went to my doc and he said every appointment he'd had that day had been weather-related misery.
I recommend taking a knitting hiatus. I've been crocheting for a week or two, and my knitting is just barely starting to look appealing again. It was time for a knitting break.
I am right there with you on that headache... I have suffered horribly with headaches that no-one can diagnose since I moved down here to SC. Please let me know if they are able to tell you anything that makes any difference at all!! And, knowing that headache, the one that makes you feel like it might be reasonable to drill a hole in your head in the way of the ancient Greek physicians to let the bad things out, I hope you feel much better!! And your mojo will come back when your brain stops trying to escape... :-)
I am Jennifer, btw.
My older kid's sinuses are threatening to explode all over the couch... he woke up this morning (on the couch) with his sunglasses on and a wad of tissue hanging out his nose... when I was done laughing, I told him to go to bed!
And I know where my knitting mojo is--it's been pushed out of the living room! I can't go in there without getting swarmed, and I'm tired of being at the computer!
I'm a novice in the fiber arts and have no idea what stranded-color knitting is supposed to look like, so... that looks pretty damn cool!
The carpet beetles got at your knitting mojo? Make some ribbon flowers. Dye some wool. Lie down and meditate. the mojo wil regenerate when the time is right. Embroider a dishtowel maybe.
Having just recovered from a long bout of lost knitting mojo, my sympathies!
Put your feet up, put the knitting in the time-out corner, and ignore it until you find it calling out to you again.
I know what you mean about the weather playing merry hell with your sinuses - I hope your doctor can sort something out.
Go do something else, spin, dye, make stuff and don't think about the knitting and suddenly it will look a whole lot more appealing.
We're having the same thing. Heavy frost in the morning and warm afternoons. My head is killing me. Warm compresses help but who can walk around with a rag on their face all day? Not a good idea at the mental health center where I work.
Love the Dreamsicle sock yarn. It looks yummy.
Knitting mojo is like writing mojo--fickle. If I've got one, the other's off windsurfing in Cancun. If I try to hold onto them both, my head explodes. Have a lie-down with a cool cloth on your forehead and let the little librarian get on with her research. She's the coolest kid. I'm a huge fan.
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