Yarn nightmares

Last night I had a nightmare about yarn. For real. Ya think I might knit too much?

In the dream I was going to knit up this mill bag of Debbie Bliss Cashmere Cotton that has been marinating in the stash for about a year. I reality, I often think of this yarn and what I will knit with it. It's DK weight, red, and has about 1030 yards. Sometimes I take it out and pet it seeking inspiration. Well, last night I had a dream about that yarn.

In the dream I go into the stash to get the bag and start knitting some perfect sweater. When I take it out, I think "What in hell was I thinking?" I pull out a ball, and find that it is pink and really made out of a combination the material those plastic bath puffs come from along with iridescent Easter basket grass.

In the dream I take it out and think to myself that I don't remember the yarn looking this way, but I do remember loving the yarn. With this rationalization firm in my mind, I decide that it's perfect for my sweater and start knitting.

How many knitting projects have we done that turn out that way? You know the ones, where we delude ourselves for days, weeks, or months that the project will turn out despite it looking like complete shite.

FO: Not tellin ya

I've resorted to a classic maritime morale enhancer lately: flogging. Basically I've been torturing myself to get things done that I should do. That I should have done. And that I normally would have no problem doing. My techniques are not violent, but they've been cruel. I've been denying myself the right to knit things I like and doing fun things like blogging. It's probably not the best way of dealing with this, but I don't feel like I'd do anything productive if I didn't stick to a regimen every day.

Looking around, I have been doing quite a bit. I've make quite a bit of progress on that lousy hateful paper. I've started the dying yarn for the festival that's in a month. I'm keeping the house clean and the husband fed. I even knit an entire pair of socks in the last week. Can't show you those yet, they're a gift.

But I've been in a funk and am not really enjoying what I'm doing. It's a sort of bored restless funk. Ugh.

International Knit Like a Ninja Day

Will be November 16.

I've had enough of these scurvy pirates and their silly talk! On 16 November, all the Knitting Ninjas will unite and send our enemies to Davy Jones's locker!

Why is it so hard this time around?

I was just over at the Yarn Harlot's blog reading about receiving the copy of her new book and about how scary and weird a job being a writer is. Her post made me think about my current situation and writing.

My current situation is procrastination. I am here at this computer reading and writing blogs when I should be at the other computer writing the final project of my master's degree. It's a 25 page paper on a topic having to do with Jewish communal services. In truth, I've been trying to get going on it since July. But I can't. I just can't get going on it. It's not that I have none of it done. I just can't sit down and do any significant part of it at one time. It makes me disappointed in myself.

I was a writer of one kind or another for years. I've written several books; one was almost 400 pages long. You won't find any of then at Amazon because they were the sort of book companies use for internal work. But I've written lots and can sympathize with writing being a scary and weird job. (Sometime I'll tell you about video taping a machine at 3am that threw ice cream bars at people .)

Once upon a time, I'd get a 20 page assignment and have it out in three days. I'd put away my fear for three days and research and write 20 pages in less than a work week. Not now. No. Now I sit here trembling before the words on the screen not able to finish it because I'm afraid to turn it in.

I don't get it. But I'm going back in for another fight.

Semi Finished Object

There are so many things I've meant to put on here lately. The travel induced summer lull in blogging has left a backlog of stuff.

First of all, you'll be glad to know that Hanna was a wimp. She put down about 6" of rain and we had some strong winds, but nothing bad happened. I heard that a few roads were impassible for a short while during the storm, but everything was back to normal today. Even the Rock Creek was not too high this morning when I went for a run over on the trail.

Remember Ravelymipcs? I did my Stained Glass bag for that and felted it the other day. I'm pretty happy with it. I wish I'd had one more skein of yarn, because I rain out of some colors near the end. Some of the small panels on the bottom of the back have color repeats nearby. But they're on the bottom.
It's kinda fuzzy. I'll need to shave it. And it needs some leather straps. But it's done.

In non-knitting news, I've gotten into some more technological things lately. With my new found freedom from school, I've taken up playing on the computer more. I joined facebook while my sisters were in town. They asked me to, and now I can more easily keep in touch with them and some of my friends, too. I even found some people from my cohort at Spertus. Also, E bought the new Spore game today and I started playing it. It's pretty cool, and sure to take away knitting time for the next few days.

Hurricane

It's nice here now. Sunny, even. But as you can see from this map by the National Weather Service it looks like tropical storm Hanna's gonna blow through here tomorrow afternoon. Maryland is apparently on two types of warnings. The eastern part of the state is on a tropical storm warning. More inland areas are on a flash flood warning. We're right on the border between the two areas. So we're going to get hit with a grand storm (and based on my experience here in Maryland, that means that the power will go out for days). Oh, the excitement.

You'll be proud to hear this. With Gustav recently gone, Hanna about to hit, and Ike and Josephine close behind, our government has swung into action. The entire PHS has been put on alert to be ready to go to any disaster. They don't want a repeat of what happened in New Orleans with the slow response. So the Amazing E may have to fly off at any time to help save the day. I doubt he'll be wearing this when he goes, but you should see him in the whole gettup. He looks amazing.

Re-in-donkulous

I realize it as well as anyone who has been reading here this summer. I've been writing re-in-donkulous posts about serious things. Blame it on the travel and finishing graduate studies. I've been flying back and forth between DC and Chicago all summer, and think I spend about a third of my summer in transit. Actually, I spent the majority of August in Chicago. Some people even saw me there. And now I'm done. My classes are done. All I have left is my master's project, and that is partially done. Say it with me. HOORAY!

Now that I can stop, look around, think, and kvetch, I want to write seriously about some re-in-donkulous things.

For one, my knitting. I've been knitting a lot this summer. A real lot. I mean, flying-twice-a-week-all-summer amounts of knitting. Do you know what I got done? Almost nothing. I have two pairs of socks and two berets. But I also have at least four single socks and a completely-knitted-but-not-felted felted stained glass bag. Summer of socks is nearly finished, and I only have two comeplete pairs. Re-in-donkulous!

You know what else? Flying is re-in-donkulous now. The planes are full, the airfares are sky high, and you have to pay for your bags to be checked. Oy. Plus you gotta be there an hour and a half before the flight. Oy. At least it gives time for knitting.

Re-in-donkulously cool alert! I got an iPhone. Actually, E made me get it. The first coolest part is that the purchase of the iPhone represented the first sizable payment to myself from Rock Creek Yarn. Secondly, it's just cool. It's a good phone and I can do all sorts of interesting things like make my grocery list on it. I even found a free knitting application.

Latly, hurricanes are re-in-donkulous. For real. Gustav went through the Gulf Coast, and the PHS got called up. E was not one of those called up this time. (That's a major thing his branch of the service does, going to hurricanes.) However, this weekend we'll get another chance. Hanna is on her way up here. So, woo hoo! My first hurricane.