I have knitter’s angst, ennui, the blahs, whatever you want to call it. I feel at a loss without something to work on, but nothing I have appeals to me. It’s too hot to work on the Norwegian sweaters (or at least I use that excuse). I have started and abandoned several projects as either too boring, too ugly or too complicated. I guess I want something that is sort of mindless, but not boring. That doesn’t necessarily rule out complicated lace or Aran patterns if they are logical and can be memorized. The Pacific Northwest Shawl didn’t fall in that category – I had to keep the chart nearby and mark off each row with a highlighter as I went along.

The problem is that if I have the yarn I don’t have the pattern, but if I have the pattern, I don’t have the yarn. I do have enough cream Cascade 220 to do a cardigan that I’ve really been wanting to do. But when I pulled out the pattern (a Celtic cardigan) I discovered to my dismay that it is not charted and I just refuse to do anything that’s not charted. I’m contemplating Janet Szabo’s Son of Aran cardigan. It’s knitted top down and seems quite intriguing. There is some thinking involved, as she doesn’t give exact numbers and you have to gauge, measure and then knit to your measurements. But once the actual knitting begins it’s a nice, rich Aran with predictable twists and turns in the cableing.

What I really want to do is Alice Starmore’s Fulmar, but even using Knit Picks less expensive yarn, it will cost about $100 and I just can’t justify that expense right now, not after a trip to England and a husband who’s now retired. You know the old joke – twice as much husband and half as much money. But enough whining! We have plenty of money to meet our bills and I have sweaters started I could work on and a small stash that I can choose from. I need to accept that I just can’t run out and buy whatever I want whenever I want anymore. I need to learn patience and saving up for what I want. I think one other blogger said it well, though – “Instant gratification isn’t fast enough”. Kind of funny isn’t it, coming from someone who often does projects that take years instead of months? But when I want to start something, I have no patience at all.

I wasn’t going to post a picture today, but remembered that I promised a picture of all of Izzy’s things that I made for her:

That helps my mood a little bit, to realize that I’ve been pretty productive over the past year!

I think what I’ll do after church today is maybe tidy up my sewing room (what a mess – again!!), start winding my cream Cascade 220 and let it speak to me. Then I’ll peruse Alice Starmore’s Fisherman Knit book and see if something there also speaks to me and then will see if I can get gauge (always a challenge with Starmore patterns – man, does that woman knit TIGHT!). If that doesn’t work, I will seriously give the Son of Aran cardigan some consideration. No guage to “meet” on that one – you do a swatch with yarn and needles you like and then adapt the pattern to your gauge. That’s certainly intriguing. For anyone valiant enough to make it through this entire, whiney post, I will keep you informed!