Confessions

So more for me than for you, I want to make the following admittances, and hopefully I'll get back to real blogging again soon.

1. I don't always get around to sitting down to blog because a typical entry takes at least an hour, and I don't always feel like I have that kind of time (pesky grad school thing getting in the way of my hobbies again) or because that's not how I'd like to spend that time (I could be spinning, or kitchener stitching the 300+ stitches on my blue cotton sweater, or cooking, or going to knitting group, or going to the gym (riiiight), or ...)

2. I learned to quilt in February and hardly knit at all during my introductory, 6-week course. I kind of wanted to blog about it, but it's not at all knitting, and this is (supposedly) a knitting blog. Am I ok with that? Does my readership (if I have one anymore) really care? Do I care if you care? Hmmm...

3. I haven't read blogs (even of people I know) in months. I feel a little guilty about this, but it sort of goes back to the time thing. If I started again, I know it could suck at least an hour a day.

4. I'm not good at writing short posts about one topic. I often think of things I want to blog about , and once I sit down to do it, I try to hit them all. If I could limit myself to one topic, maybe I could manage to do a little at a time and blog something instead of nothing for months at a time.

5. Or maybe I should just admit that I can't do it all (Surrender? Never!) and give up the blog. I'm not so good at that, either.

Well, now that I've gotten that off my chest, maybe I'll sit down Sunday morning and post something, huh?

New Socks and Boredom

Maybe it's that spring is coming and it's time for change, new beginnings, and a desire for new projects. Maybe it's a personal perception of not finishing anything and looking at a basket and couch covered in UFOs, many of which are darn close to completion. I don't know what the reason is, but I'm bored, bored, bored of my knitting.

That thing about feeling like I havne't finsihed anything is a complete myth. I have cute new socks! They're the April kit for theknitter.com's Sock of the Month Club and I did the pair in a week or so. I chose a different color than the kit has this time, but the pattern stitch is easy and very cute.

So what else have I got going on? I have the baby sweater for Emily Rose, coming home from Kazakhstan on Tuesday. It's in about the same state I last talked about there. I need to sew it together and put the ribbons in. I think this is going to be a bit tedious, but super cute when it's done, so I just need to suck it up (and, uh, find the ribbon I bought a while ago...). I've been able to put this off because it will be a shower present andthe shower's going to be a ways off so that the new family can have some down time and home time together before the friendly hordes descend to coo over the new cutie.

I've been working on a cable ribbed sweater for me and finally got through the body. I guess this one is in sleeve heck now. I need to estimate the number of stitches I want in the sleeves (so that they're not as tight as the body), calculate the increase rate, and knit away on my little needles, but I just haven't been motivated. Maybe it's because spring is coming and a camel/wool blend just doesn't do it for me right now (though the sweater isn't that thick and I oculd probably wear it a couple times before it really gets warm and stays warm). Poor, lonely sweater.

Next on the list is the purple sweater that needs a zipper. Zipper has arrived from ZipperStop in New York (look at all the pretty colors on the color card!) so that just needs to be sewn in. I know that Marta has a zipper to do, too... Should we have a zipper date at Borders?

We also have the red-and-black sweater that has been sitting on my couch untouched, for at least a year. Maybe I picked it up and did one row at some point... Perhaps intarsia-in-the-round was not such a clever idea after all. It's incredibly tedious and takes a lot of attention. I don't often sit down with the desire to concentrate hard enough to work on this project. I have about 30 more rounds until I'm doing fair isle all the way around. This may take another 30 years.

But wait, there's more! I have a cotton, wrap-around sweater that I started in Riverside last summer (there was a rant about the fancy cast-on) that, I think, requires grafting about 400 stitches. Then I just have to knit the little seed stitch belts and be done. Again, a project so close to finished, but so far... That one I could probalby pull out and finish off soon since it will be in season again, and if I just find some way to graft 400 stitches that doesn't lead to complete insanity, I'll be good. (Riiiiight...)

But don't forget the are-you-insane knit bike panniers from Vogue a summer or two ago. I did get those out again the other day, figured out where I was in the pattern, and put it down again. Guess those aren't going to be anytime soon, either (which is too bad, 'cause it's about farmer's market time and they'd be so cute and handy! Unless they stretch out or otherwise get caught in the chain. But I'm still optimistic! Or dumb! It's a fine line).

Also on the list is High Tide by Chris Blysma. This is my 6-strands-of-tencel project, alos in sleeve heck. I should just cast on and get 'em done. This has languished for two years now, and that's kind of lame.

I think that's pretty much the list. I did put one sleeve into Emily's sweater and do the ribbons on one side this evening (but it took the whole evening!), so photos of that soon and maybe this will jump-start a little progress. Here's hoping...

Hola from Mexico

I'm in Mexico City for a week on another field campaign to study air pollution -- certainly an appropriate place to study! I'll only be here for a week and the only knitting I brought was a sock. That's ok, though, because there's a lot more work time than knitting time, and at the end of the day I'm too tired to pay enough attention. So far things here are fine, instruments are running, and one day of food hasn't made me sick, so I'll keep a positive perspective.

I probably won't write again until I'm back on Tuesday, unless I somehow run across a yarn store (how do you say that in Spanish? I do have the yellow pages...) and have to talk about it.