I have to admit, I’ve been kind of stuck lately. I haven’t had a lot of motivation and haven’t been knitting much - or wanted to. I know it will pass, it always does, but it’s incredibly frustrating! I haven’t got a thought in my head that really fires me up any. I know I could find a pattern to go to work on. The problem there is that as soon as I do have an idea, that project will get completely ignored and that always makes me feel bad.
Maybe I’m looking at it wrong. I use the pattern project to goose me out of my slump and then, maybe I should just frog it, being mindful and thankful to be out of my rut. No guilt, right? Just using the necessary tools to get me from where I am to where I want to go.
The red shawl is a go - I think. I have to tink back a couple of rows (what the hell is so hard about counting to 12, I ask you!?!?) to fix a mis-aligned chevron. What the heck - this is going to be cheerful and warm and, mistakes caused by inattention aside, relatively simple.
I also started a pair of infant socks last night that are a scaled down version of spiral tube socks. They’re coming along just fine and are cute as hell and nearly mindless to work. I have even - finally - gotten the hang of purling the first stitch on a DPN - something that tortured me for quite a while. I can’t even remember why I found it so difficult; I don’t seem to have any problem with it now.
And I keep staring at the cream, lace-weight alpaca. For some odd reason, my knitting pixie seems to think I should be doing something with this. He may be right, but I haven’t an idea in my silly head - which does nothing to relieve the feeling that I should be making something with this yarn. Anyone have any ideas on how to wake up a lazy muse?
Oh and I discovered something Monday. I was trying to work on the shawl while watching Guys and Dolls. And you know? Music makes it really hard to keep track of repeats. You’re counting your stitches, but the music has repeats and patterns of its own that overlay your attempts and can foul you up very easily, at least vocal music does, at least for me. I’ll have to try this with classical music and see if I run into the same phenomenon.
In the meantime I’ll keep on keepin’ on, as they say.
Happy plugging!
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If you find a way to beat the slump you’ll have to let us know. :) I’ve been dealing with one of those myself lately, and I too have a nice fat little ball of lace weight wool just begging to be turned into something glorious.
You know….buying new yarn usually gets me out of a slump (actually, buying a LOT of new yarn, but I digress.) Not that I’m advocating breaking the bank, but perhaps a small, judicious purchase to get the juices flowing again? Or….how about stacking every knitting magazine & book you own by your chair & just start browsing. You just might find something for that laceweight alpaca. :) Or, knowing you, a particular knit stitch or combination thereof to create your own special “something.”
Happy un-slumping!
Erin - I will certainly pass on whatever breaks me out of the slump. Sorry to hear that you’re similarly afflicted. Must be something going around?
Bron - Oh, wouldn’t that be nice? But there won’t be any purchases for a while. Going through all the books and magazines isn’t a bad idea though - Maybe I’ll have a go at that :)
Robbyn, I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate the information you share on your blog. I’m working on a cabled top & realized that I missed a cable on each repeat of the row I just completed. Your “fixing a miscrossed cable” tutorial saved me from ripping an entire round’s worth of knitting.
While I’m used to unknitting, it’s a big deal this time around because I’m a) a pretty slow knitter & b) especially slow in textured knitting with the all damned knits, purls, k in the back loops & cables.
Thanks very much from long time reader but infrequent commenter.
Samina - Thanks so much for telling me; I’m delighted it was useful to you!
