Synchronknitcity

Two of the things I love about knit blogs are how it seems that so many people seem to be either doing the same thing I am thinking about or are introducing me to something I want to do. It must be the equivalent of the collective knitting subconscious at work.

Case in point: earlier this week I resolved to spend some time catching up on my blog reading (and commenting) when I came across this post at januaryone where she writes about the Central Park Hoodie ("CPH") from the Fall 2006 issue of Knitscene. As soon as I saw it, I knew that this was a sweater that I wanted to make - immediately. Barely 10 minutes later, I was reading an e-mail from my Secret Pal, Kirby, where she mentioned the same sweater (twilight zone music). Somehow this sweater fell under my knitting pattern radar when I first saw this issue, because I didn't buy it! What's a girl to do? The next day I contacted my favorite LYS to see if they had it. Nope. Yesterday, I went to another shop, and they not only had the issue, but it was half price (score!). The helpful shop owner also directed me to their collection of Tahki Donegal Tweed. Naturally I fell in love with the only color (#818, a dusky pink) that they only have 4 hanks of (I need 7). Being an instant-gratification kind of gal, I drove 30 miles to another store (incidentally having a 20% off sale on all inventory), where, yes, they carried the Donegal Tweed, but not in the color I want. Big sigh. I chalked it up to knitting karma and decided that I really could use stash yarn and save myself $77. I did score something special for my secret pal. They had a small selection of Cascade 220 (for Ariann) but more on that later. Wasn't I disciplined? OK, part of it was the shop owner. I asked her if they had any StitchKeepers, describing them exactly, because I was sure I had seen them on a previous visit. (they are very handy). She said "Oh yes" and proceeded to show me these Clover sweaters. When I told her that I was looking for something different, and described them again, in detail, she said "Well, why can't you use these". I explained that I wanted this specific product as a gift and she repeated "These would work just as well". I don't know about you, but that kind of response didn't make me feel like supporting her business.

As soon as I got home, I got down to work and started knitting CPH and haven't stopped. So far, I've finished about 12 inches of the back, most of which was done while watching "Kiss, Kiss, Bang Bang" this morning (very funny movie by the way).

The yarn is stash, a two-ply no-label merino cashmere blend I bought for the Tweedy Aran Cardigan (which didn't work). I've also swatched this yarn for the Must Have Cardigan (see sidebar for sources). Seems like 3 is the charm. I'm sure the Donegal Tweed would produce crisper cables, but this sure is soft, and I am using stash, which is a good thing.

In the meantime, I've been pecking away at the Here and There Cables. It's lovely yarn, and the pattern is pretty, but it seems that I am not making any progress even though I'm just ending the second skein. I think I'm in the Black Hole of Knitting, hence the burning desire to start something new.

I've also been carrying this sock around in my purse, hoping to catch a few minutes to knit on my newly shortened lunch break (tired of being "spoken to" for being 6 to 8 minutes late on a regular basis, I traded my one hour lunch for coming in to work later):

A foolish thing really. Just because you bury your working needle in the skein doesn't mean that it isn't vulnerable to breaking:

Good thing I have two sets! I should have been using my StitchKeepers!

About that late thing. If I could make my own hours, I would love to work 9 to 5. Whatever happened to those days? Now, lunch is "off the clock" and even though we are entitled to two 15 minute breaks, hardly anyone takes them. I have had difficulty waking my entire life. Partly because I like to stay up late. I think 11:30 or 12 is perfectly reasonable. When I am an old woman I am going to stay up until 1 am every night and wake at 9. So there.

Here's a riddle: What is the opposite of "good"?

I'm sure you guessed "evil" but the answer is "better". As in: "Gee, this Ella Rae yarn would be really good for Ariann, but I might find something better somewhere else". Yeah. Guilty. I finally bought the pattern on Tuesday and am itching to start. At first I was going to use Cascade 220, but none of the 3 shops I visited yesterday had any colors I like. I was in Craft Mania in Auburn where I saw a nice selection of Ella Rae. (Craft Mania is a local craft store that carries a number of "high end" yarns). I even found two colors I liked but succumbed to that "better" mentality and passed it by. Good thing they have a store nearby in South Portland. Too bad they don't have those same colors.

Do you see a pattern developing here? Must be yarn goddess telling me to finish something and stop obsessing about the next thing.

Speaking of the next thing. I decided to scratch Klaralund altogether and knit Butterfly instead. I only had to buy 2 more skeins of the Kureyon (and the book). As much as I like Klaralund, I don't think it will be a sweater that I wear very often and I'm trying really hard to stop knitting things just for the process. So far I haven't started it yet. Any bets on how long I'll be able to hold out? Factor this in: I'm visiting my mom next weekend and have to make another sweater for her dog to replace the too-tiny one I knit for Christmas. The last one took 2 days.

In order to be able to knit "guilt free" for the rest of the day, I attended to some things of my "don't want to do" list, which included cleaning out the science experiments in the fridge. Why have I been keeping a jar of capers with only 8 or 9 capers in it? How long have they been there? I don't even remember the last time I used them. The same with anchovy paste - two tubes. I haven't made Caesar salad for ages. Euuw. We won't even talk about the take-out containers of brown rice and the leftover pesto. The Christmas tree is still up (it's artificial) and my clean clothes are still in the laundry hamper, but at least I have a clean fridge.

Now I can knit.

PS: Now that my secret pal knows who I am, I have edited this post to conceal the items that I will be sending to her. Text in red did not appear in the original post.