I am, above all else, a creature of habits and seasons. I pass through my various phases, much like the gibbous moon, and to every thing there is a time allotted.
The current time is allotted for a walloping case of startitis.
You see, my knitting mojo tends to wane around the late summer as the weather grows unbearably hot and I find myself in a constant state of travel. (Why the travel is always happening, I’m not sure. But it usually does. Weird.) As the weather cools and summer gives way to fall, so does my inertia, and I begin plotting and planning my construction of cold weather clothes, and gifts, and general other awesome nest-lining type things. The problem is, I have the self-control of a rabid ferret, and that careful plotting and planning tends to devolve rather quickly into this:
My sincerest apologies to Allie Brosh for my blatant theft and poor homage. But sometimes, there just ain't no other way to say it.
Making this impetus extra-fun to deal with is the fact that Monday morning, I woke up with a weird twinge in my collarbone, that rapidly devolved into a tearing, excruciating, level 9 pain that spread from the left side of my neck, out to my shoulder, and down my back. As you might guess, that didn’t make knitting too attractive or easy to accomplish. Even now, four days later, the pain (while lessened) remains, and I can only get in a row or two before my shoulder is screaming for a cease-fire. I have, however, gotten a lot of reading done. Sigh.
Before The Crick That Must Not Be Named was born, I had the following projects all on the needles:
- a pair of fingerless gloves for my Nanny Jo (since finished)
- a hat to match the cashmere cowl I finished this spring (also finished) with fingerless gloves to follow (not cast on yet)
- The Chickadee (knitting all done, some finishing, needs a bit more work)
- The Weasley Commission Sweater (back is done, front is cast on with about 2″ knit)
- A black lace stole
Since The Pain, I have done the following:
- Dug the yarn for the Avatar hat I promised Miguel out of hiding
- Cast on for a sweater-hoodie out of ripped yarn from an old hibernating project
- Queued and shopped potential yarns for all the sweaters in the Little Red book (you thought I forgot about that rash promise, didn’t you?)
- Queued and allocated yarn for next year’s Self-Imposed Sock Club (more on that in a minute)
- Bought a metric crap-ton of sewing patterns on sale from McCall/Vogue
- Started sketching designs for the sweater-hoodie Mr. Boyfriend wants
So yeah. Eff you, Pain. You will not stop my plotting! NEVER! Even if I cannot knit, I will look at websites for knitting and yarn for knitting and patterns for knitting and reorganize my stash! HAH!
I’ve begun speaking to the locked-up muscles in my shoulder. This does not bode well.
Anyway, as you might have noticed, a lot of the stuff I’m working on and planning for are, well, mine. Totally. Things that have me flying pattern-less, or modifying and adapting existing patterns for my own devious ends. It’s sort of neat. I’m hoping that I can force myself to keep good notes and actually write some of these down. The fingerless gloves for my Nanny Jo turned out really cute, and are a really simple colorwork pattern. The hat and glove set I’m making feature the same lace pattern on my cowl, but adapted for the different gauge and garments, and I’d love to offer it up for free to other cowl knitters. I had a mental breakthrough with Miguel’s hat (DOUBLE KNITTING IN THE ROUND, DUH!) that I think will make everything perfect. I just need to cast it on and test my theory. And The Boyfriend Sweater…
Oh, The Boyfriend Sweater.
Mr. Boyfriend is very specific. He is a man of simple, but detailed tastes, and creating a sweater he’ll love is going to be quite a feat. I found a great pattern that I think I can use as a jumping -off point, and I’ve got some concrete ideas on how to incorporate the design elements he’s asked for. But I’m rather back to the drawing board on yarn. Sigh.
But on the flip side, I’m also trying to balance all this heavy mental lifting with some more structured and regimented knitting time. I’ve planned out a batting order for the Little Red sweaters, and have a good idea of the yarns I want to use for them. And while I completely bailed on this year’s Self-Imposed Sock Club back in August, I’m ready to give it another go next year (and am hoping to finish one more pair from the 2011 club next month). I’m sure my nerdtacular Ravelry games will end up factoring in again, and some unexpected stuff will certainly crop up along the way, but I’m excited to get cracking on all my new plans.
Anyway, my shoulder hurts and I’m out of things to update. I’ve also got a real itch to get back to my plotting.
And if you want to see the real brilliance behind my picture, check out Hyperbole and a Half (link).
