Good gracious.

Don't you hate it when you get into The Zone and then, just as suddenly... you're not?

It's definitely been like that here at Chez Mads. When i get in stressful/heavily scheduled times, or when I'm really churning away at something, things are much better. Recently, though, I've hit some stupid mental snags that have left me sitting at home thinking, "Geez, shouldn't I be knitting SOMETHING tonight???"

Mystery Stole

The Mystery Stole was going really well. I was pretty much on pace with the new clues, so that was exciting and kept me motivated to keep plugging away at every spare moment. Hell, my bus ride is usually only 7 minutes long, and I was bringing the stole along so I could get in two good rows during that short time. Plus I had some choir rehearsals, and the knitting was perfect for breaks -- get some stuff done, get people oohing and ahhing over it ("Oh... it's nothing..."), have an activity that keeps you from getting super chatty and tiring your voice out (this was especially important with a group where we rehearsed for 10 hours over one weekend... owww...).

Then Clue 5 came up. For those of you who haven't followed the Mystery Stole, it was a lovely lacy thing which at that point had had a sort of "cat's paw" pattern for a good hundred rows or something. Very abruptly, we were to switch over from a standard rectangular stole to... a wing. It's not as weird as it sounds; in fact, once the designer had shown off a schematic, I thought that it would work out great.

Unfortunately, I'm using Lacey Lamb, aka World's Most Teensiest Yarn Evarr. Therefore, I need to add a repeat of the cat's paw section, which means 100 more rows of what is basically a three-row repeat. Pretty easy, but more importantly it will take me off the pace. that has been a HUGE motivating factor for me. Needless to say, I have now given it a breather.

Adding to that is the fact that so many people like the wing idea that the designer is now coming up with a two-wing pattern. So, as stated above, I was ready to do the asymmetrical stole as written, but the idea of the double winged stole appeals to me a lot, so I haven't yet decided whether I will go back on my plan and do the symmetrical Mystery Stole thing followed by the symmetrical wings.

Le sigh.

Mermaid's Hair

I finally just bit the bullet and bought a new copy of the pattern at Sow's Ear. of course, three days after that, my mom found the old copy while cleaning out her house. Of course.

I've been trying to pound out some more of that, but the allover samness of the pattern (and the comparative roughness of the wool -- at least compared to Lacey Lamb et. al.) isn't really reeling me in. But... again, plugging away.

Sidewinders

My friend's mom is going in for a little surgery that may or may not turn out to be rather traumatic. I've been itching to try the Sidewinder pattern, so I thought I'd knit her some socks. No idea what colors she likes -- she's a bit conservative in her dress -- but I mused for a while and came up with a gorgeous semi-solid blue and purple skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot.

This mom is a knitter as well, and while I was hanging out with her and her offspring last weekend, we stopped by my favorite yarn store in her neck of the woods. She was oohing and ahhing over everything, and as we meandered back towards the sock yarn I asked her, very casually, what colors she liked. "Oh, I like, all sorts... gold, blue, pink, you name it," she said. I was feeling pretty good about my selection until she finished by noting that "the only color I really DON'T care for is purple. I don't know why; I just can't stand any sort of purple."

Drat.

Better buy more sock yarn!

At any rate, I picked up a lovely soft green trekking with hints of pink here and there (Leems, I think you've used this in a baby sweater before...?). I'm about 14 rows into the Sidewinder, and I'm very interested to see how it turns out. It's pretty good so far.

The mom is going in for her surgery tomorrow, and god knows I have no idea when the socks will be done. We share a shoe size...

At any rate, please think good thoughts for her. (Okay, and for the success of my knitting, too, whether or not it makes it up to her eventually :P)

Other projects

DUDE I AM NOT ALLOWED TO START ANYTHING ELSE OKAY???

Teardrop Scarf from the most recent Knitscene was earmarked for a leftover skein of red Lacey Lamb, but I ended up giving that to TChemGrrl for our exciting Infernal Design project (designing knitting inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy and other medieval literature). Lemur had clued me in that Borealis was selling some great yarn with great yardage, and I was so tickled when I saw it -- Jojoland Harmony, with yardage comparable to Lacey Lamb but with soft, GORGEOUS Noroesque color changes. LOVE IT.

I was doing really well on the whole "yarn diet, no new laceweight, no new blue/green yarn" thing. Until the last two weekends :P

Side note for locals or those passing through:

Sow's Ear, under new management, has made some really exciting changes. They've added food from the Willy st. Co-op (y0m), expanded the store through the back wall -- a small change, given that they had the back room, but what flow! -- and OH MY LORD, the have Fleece Artist/Handmaiden. Ohhhhhhh. Thank heavens the Sea Silk skeins only have 440 yards, or I would be very poor indeed. My pal Froggy and I basically stood there for a good 15 minutes straight just so we could hold it and stroke it and love it while chatting. Also of note: Claudia Handpainted, especially in softer shades and some gorgeous tone-on-tone colorways. Heavens, how lovely!