We've been married now for 8 and a half years and even though he doesn't walk me to the car each night that I work (can you blame him for not wanting to wake 2 sleeping kids?) I still think of him when we're apart. I wonder what he's doing and if he's thinking of me. I wonder if he'll like what I made him for dinner or if he's having a good day at work.
When I first started knitting I had very similar feelings. I thought about my knitting all the time and wondered if it was thinking of me, too. I couldn't go a single day without knitting and not having my knitting with me was enough to make my eyes mist up a bit. I'd be working and thinking about what I'd be knitting right at that second if I could and thinking about all the progress that could be made if I were knitting and not working on month-end reports or filing lien releases from subcontractors.
While I still enjoy knitting I'd be lying if I said that I still LOVE my knitting. I want to. I really do. I look at it and wonder where the joy has gone and when I lost it. Mom has the joy. Where's my joy?! Knitting isn't sparkly and new anymore. I do it because it seems odd not to knit. My hands don't seem right when there aren't knitting needles in them, but at the same time I look at it and feel kind of "meh" about it.
I think I need a marriage retreat for my knitting and me. You know the kind. You go away, just you and your loved one and attend sessions and have candlelit dinners and go for long walks holding hands and leave feeling like newlyweds again. Yeah, I need one. I want to feel attached to my knitting again and not just because it feels odd not to have it but because I love it. I want to fall in love with my knitting again!
As a first step I decided to take good pictures of my projects again. I'd been settling for phone pictures but no more! I got out the camera, put in freshly charged batteries, and laid out my projects. Secondly, it's time to start knitblogging again. I've neglected my blog for far too long and it's time that that changed!
Blog, meet my knitting!
Here we have the ever elusive Clapotis. This Clapotis is one that I'm making for myself from some yarn that Mom purchased for my birthday last year while we were visiting San Diego. The yarn is a-ma-zing.
The best thing about this yarn is the drape and shine on it. Oh, and the colors are to die for. And don't forget how incredible it feels. Okay, so there's a lot of things to mention about the yarn. What keeps me from working on it is... I don't know. I'm almost half way through the yarn and it seems to take forever because I'm doing it on size 5 needles.
Okay, so here are some Sweet Plain Jane socks for Mom. She picked out the yarn, Trekking, to match her new Dansko clogs. The thing is that I'm kind of over Trekking at this point. I usually love watching the colors change but there's none of that going on here unless you count going from red to black to red to black and back to red. This is truly a labor of love.
Hello, Hourlgass sweater! As you can see I've worked the body and started on a sleeve. Love love love the yarn (KnitPicks Comfy) and I think the sweater will look great on me but I'm afraid of 2 things. 1.) I'm afraid that though I made the sweater length as written, it might be too short 2.) I'm afraid of working on the sleeves and joining them to the sweater/yoke because I have no idea how that's going to work out and so therefore am not working on any part of this sweater.
Last but not least, (but we'll see because I'm questioning it), Branching Out. This is one of those patterns that I've wanted to make forever but haven't done because of no good reason other than I've been nervous about trying lace. There's something about lace charts that freak me out. I can totally make sense of cable charts because you can see where they're going but lace is a mystery to me. I cast on once for this pattern and pulled it out because it was using Kidsilk Haze and I was ready to pull out my hair, too. I cast on for it a second time I didn't like the yarn and conveniently Ailish happened to get a hold of the project and take care of the problem for me because she ripped out the whole thing. Now I'm using the leftover yarn from Owen's sweater and I have no more yarn excuses. Darn it!
So there you have it. There are my works in progress and there are all my excuses and thoughts on them. It feels really good to get all that out! Okay, so now I need to hire a cheering section and a babysitter and get to work!
