Indecision

The more alternatives, the more difficult the choice.
- Abbe D'Allaniva

I had big plans to make 2009 a year of knitting by whim - whatever, whenever, just meandering my way through the stash. You know, rather than imposing rules on myself. Knitting is a hobby, after all. But it's not going as well as I would have hoped. I did finish one of the Artichoke Socks, and I'm happy to report that it went quite well. But when does Koigu go wrong? And then I spent almost all of a day off trying to decide what to knit next. I pulled out all sorts of yarn, and made the sort of crafty mess that one can when one's husband is away. I contemplated this Lopi. Two shades of pink, bought for a steal a number of years ago. Felted clogs? Or should I buy 12 more skeins of yarn to make Veronik Avery's Ski Jacket? If I were just trying to reduce the stash, and if I paid close attention to the state of my three-year-old felted clogs, the choice would be clear. But my lack of direction is enormously distressing to me. I need . . . something.

NaKniSweMoDo? It's seriously calling my name, although I might consider that my Dale baby sweater (2 yr old size) has more stitches than many adult sweaters and might count. I'm still pondering . . .

In the meantime, to help me ponder, I dug deep in the stash and pulled out a random worsted weight wool that I bought on Ebay back when I was in college and didn't know any better. It's a nice lavender color, and I think there's about one pound? But I really can't remember much. So, perhaps 1000 yards? If it is that, it should be enough for the Cable-Down Raglan. Just in case, I cast on. Although I'm not usually a fan of the top-down one-piece raglan, in this case it's working. My gauge is a little looser than the pattern, but knitting a size down it fits well at the sleeve division. And now I'm going to go knit as fast as I can to see if I run out of yarn. I'm not the only one who does this, am I?

The Truth Comes Out

Life is like eating artichokes,
you have to go through so much to get so little.
- Thomas A. Dorgan

I hate twisted stitches. There. I said it. So sue me.

I had all sorts of good intentions for my one scheduled/planned knitting of 2009 - the Personal Sock of the Month Club. And then I pulled out the bag with this lovely jeweled green Koigu that I had earmarked for the Snicket pattern. Which is a lot of twisted stitches on a purl background.

After forcing the interns and anyone else who happened to be on call last night to look, we all agreed that the right side of the project was not nearly so attractive as the wrong side. So I set about on my Ravelry queue looking for a stockinette based sock pattern.

Maybe it's the green, but I just had to start the Artichoke Socks. And they got twice as far in half the time. No twisted stitches here!