I think I need a good wipping, that’ll sort me out…

Didn’t get the Show and Tell post done again, did I? I am sorry. I just seem to be overwhelmed by a wave of cannot-be-bothered at the moment. I have been feeling extraordinarily tired and filled with lassitude. It was the very notion of getting the camera out that put me off yesterday – and that is not at all like me. Today I cannot stop sneezing, so I think we have the answer – I may be viral.

To tell the truth, I am also still very much at odds with myself and with the world. I have allowed somebody very unpleasant to  get me offside and I seem to be challenged by an uphill struggle to return to normal.  Really, I am best left to myself when in this frame of mind. I’d go away and read somebody else, if I were you – come back when I have returned to my normal cheery nobody-can-get-me-down self.

Right – assuming that everybody who needs to has left the room, and to avoid a lengthy discussion of just how bleak I am feeling, let us review some work:

The Flambé Shawl is completed, blocked, ends sewn in and waiting to be gifted to somebody who did something very kind and extremely generous for me.

It sits waiting on my desk, a timely and pleasant reminder that there are good people in this world and they they are not all sour, miserable, and unpleasant…

Oops, sorry.

I digress.

Ahem.

After completing the shawl, I returned to knitting my Senneh socks. These had been going so well previously and, indeed, when I picked them up on Monday this week, they carried on doing so. Then something went very pear-shaped yesterday. Maybe a reflection of my mood, after seeing a piece of prime hypocrisy on Twitter and allowing it to wind me up instead of shrugging it off for what it was… but when I realised that I had done far too many decreases, I could not face tinking back through the cabled section…. and I dropped the gusset decreases and tried to pick them up again with a  crochet hook. It all went Horribly Wrong – which serves me right for being a grumpy old cow (and plain idle, too)! Anyway, the sock is now on what should prove to be the final foot repeat of Chart B.

I am not planning to do the 2nd Senneh immediately, as I rather want to complete the Joshaqan socks first, and then return to the Senneh pair.

In terms of WIPS, that is it for this week. I have done no spinning since the last Open Studio day – and that is the sum extent of my knitting this week. I seem to be wading waist-deep in the metaphorical mud.

Much time has been spent on Ravelry, though! Working out my plans for the coming year and queueing patterns, sourcing yarns etcetera. My Berroco book of Norah Gaughan patterns (vol 7) arrived yesterday. It has inspired me with some spinning plans. I have no idea when those might come to fruition, however! I am planning a Rhodocrosite project first – some super-easy, soothing mindless knitting for those times when my nerves feel as jangled as they are at present.

Hmm, now there’s an idea. I should go unearth the yarn for it. Casting on for that project ought to cure me.

But NO. I must not! I must clear some UFOs and also get some promised test knitting done asap. I need to get this sock off the needles before I can cast on the test knits. Romi’s 1st Muse shawl is about ready to test knit too. It looks very pretty.

SpinningGill came round yesterday and while she was here she begged a ball of sock yarn from my stash for her holiday knitting project. I actually let go of a ball of Toddy that I have been hoarding for ages. Like seeing one of the kids leave home, it was… anyway, while we were in the stash box, I identified a pair of skeins for Kleio. I’m just starting to worry that I missed seeing the call for testers…

Here’s the plan for the next few days, and I really hope that I can stick to it and resist the lure of some simple stocking stitch:

  1. Complete 1st Senneh
  2. Finish 2nd Joshaqan
  3. Cast on mystery knit 1 and complete 1 of pair
  4. Cast on mystery knit 2 and complete 1 of pair
  5. Make some progress on my grey Hap shawl — this only to satisfy my requirement for a comfort knit, I should really finish the red swirly thing but I need to be realistic and make a workable plan and… I hate the red swirly thing at the moment, so I wouldn’t knit on it even if I planned to… if you see what I mean

That should work out something like – today/tomorrow to finish the Senneh,  then completing the Joshaqans by Friday bedtime. I shall allocate the weekend to the mystery knitting – it will be short and sweet. Hap Shawl on an open prescription, to be taken as indicated.

Nothing too ambitious there! Only Kleio to get in the way… should I get the call.

Oh, having missed Show and Tell, I really must at least flaunt this skein of recycled sari silk that Gill brought home from the County Show. Lovely, isn’t it?

What shall I do with it? Ideas please! Address them to Grumpy-Guts, The Windswept Isle, Orkney…

I shall do my best to  get some pretty photographs and do FO posts on both the Bridgewater and Flambé shawls on Friday. I may even finally get around to writing up Show day properly – no promises.

One Comment

  1. August 17, 2011
    Reply

    A jog on the beach with the dogs might blow those grumpy cobwebs away. People can be horrid, but thankfully there are many more who are lovely. Doesn’t make it any easier though.

    The shawl is beautiful. And as for the recycled sari yarn – I think you need to invent knitted jewellery. That skein really is lovely.

Leave a Reply to CaroleCancel reply