Thursday, April 12, 2007

WHAT IS THIS??

Aside from "My personal nightmare" or "Another bad joke"?? The only benefit to this, as I see it, is that there will be a lot of knitting today. Otherwise, I am just not seeing this as useful. Or positive. Or joyful. It's APRIL. I should be lolling on the deck with my coffee, watching the chickens scratch and dig and throwing sticks for the dog. I should not be coiled around my mug at the computer questioning God's intent and trying to warm my feet. I am beginning to sense madness setting in. Yes, madness. The white, the white, the endless white...The last pile has not melted yet, and here's more. When I am old, I am going to move south. On top of the just general "uggh" feeling that accompanies More White Hell lies my neurosis about driving in cold precipitation. Today I will wonder, worry, ponder and plan and 'decide' whether or not to go to work. I will question myself, beat myself up mercilessly for mental weakness if I don't go, and regret every second behind the wheel if I do. Then there's Mr. Wonderful at work, and Girl possibly going to class, because I do not have enough to obsess about all on my own. It's awesome to be me! YIPPEE! Although born and reared in New England, I feel in my bones I was destined to live far from the blinding freezer of the north. Not that I am prone to exageration or anything. By the way, I hate the heat also. I am a temperate houseplant requiring stable temps between 50 and 80 degrees F, with occasional rain and clouds, a couple of good thunderstorms a year for fun, but mostly sun and gentle breezes. Lower and I crumble, higher and I explode.
I almost bought a lighted palm tree yesterday at BJ's. I pondered if they'd really understand if I bought it Wednesday and returned it when the snow is gone. Would I get my $129.99 back? Could I assemble it, plug it in, crank up the pellet stove, drag out my bathing suit and the tequila and fruit juice and pretend?? For now, I am going to start Malea's Artyarns P-90 suck-up gift. I have not fully overcome the fully self-imposed torments and shame of the nameless jacket that took a year. But it's done and gone, and she seemed not displeased with it, which is a good thing. Yet another life lesson for the intrepid knitter - not everything is "Sure, no problem." I need reminders of that now and then. So much ego, so little time. Check this out - life as it should be. Yarn (Regal Silk, color number 123, for the P-90) on the swift attached to the official 'winding table' (don;t you love the sound of that??), sun streaming through the windows (this was yesterday, before the white death returned), Aahhhh. Almost. The other side of the room looks a little less complete. The Lady of Shallot hangs upon the wall, here she hangs by night and day, and she has heard a whisper say a curse is on her if she stay to look down on Procrastinate-a-lot. This is a slow bit here, while we wait for a warm day to take the saw outside and finish the trim, and wait for Mr. Wonderful and I to have inspiration at roughly the same moment, and be home when that moment strikes. Generally of late when the weather is warm enough I am distracted by other things, like knitting, or gone from home entirely for groceries, work and etc, and he's been "playing with wood" which is what happens when your wife orders the senseless slaughter of 47 trees.
The Rock Star - a few notes. Although the numbers did not add up properly in a couple of spots, and the charts had a couple of minor and catchable errors, the biggest issue here was a failure on the part of the knitter (that would be me, taking it on the chin) to adequately consider the role of row gauge when blythely bouncing around saying "Yeah, I can do that, no problem". I can, after all, do "anything", right? That one small fact kept my panties in a twist on this sucker for a YEAR. I think this takes the cake as longest project thus far...oh. No. Mr. Wonderfu's sweater takes that cake, which is sad since it's not at all complicated! Well, it gets some kind of cake any way. The yarn is Royal Bamboo by Plymouth - lovely really, but be cautious of rip and re-knits. It does not withstand abuse well, similar to most yarns in the bamboo group. The plies untwist and seperate and split all to pieces. Also I believe if I had used the "right" yarn things would have progressed properly.
I can feel it, the cold chill creeping from the sliding glass door across my legs. And I can see it, falling, falling, falling, forever falling...It's so time to go get more coffee adnw atcha nice movie filmed someplace sunny. I know. We're No Angels. And Malea's P-90. Yeah. Silk can fix anything!

2 comments:

Yarnhog said...

"I am a temperature houseplant..." Ha! I can relate. Fortunately for me, I live in San Diego. But in my younger years, I traveled a lot, and somehow managed to find myself living in Boston, DC, Philadelphia, Germany, and Russia. I LOVE snow...as long as I am inside, by a fire, with a hot drink, and I don't have to go out. Ever. If I do, well, let's just say I am not gracious about winter. Here's hoping the sun returns to your neck of the woods!

Persnickety Knitter said...

Well, it looks like Rockstar came out great. It must have been a great feeling to finally finish it.

I've got plenty of unfinished things that I started over a year ago -- remember Rogue? It's usually not because the project is difficult, it's because something about the project is annoying (yarn, in the Rogue case), or it's tedious and boring, or I've been distracted by something else new and exciting. Usually it's that last one for me.