There's just no wind in the sails

I’ve hit the knitting doldrums, I think. I just haven’t been feeling the love for any project I’ve picked up lately.

I was making a pretty little lace scarf, but decided it was too slow moving and the colors didn’t please me and then I started arguing with myself about whether or not the wool was “too scratchy for somebody’s delicate little neck area” (it is, straight off the cone…once washed, though, it’s beautifully soft, which I know full well because a) I tested a swatch and b) I’ve used this same yarn before with excellent results), and then I started an inner war about what knitted on border to use (because I am all about the knitted on borders lately) and then I got disgusted and set it aside because no, seriously, it was too slow moving. An inch a day? GAH. Where’s the gratification in that?!

Then I cast on a small “make it up as you go along” baby blanket and, now that I’m within spitting distance of the beginning of the end (half a pattern repeat left, then a knitted on border), I look at it and kind of go…{shrug}. It’s cute, sure. But it doesn’t fill my heart with smug satisfaction about my own cleverness song. To finish it would require the iron will of a Finisher, and, uh, well…OH LOOK, A SQUIRREL!!!!

Sigh.

I’ve been wandering through my stash like a mindless zombie. Wool? Nah, too hot. Silk? Nah, too nice, the pattern has to be perfect and I got nothing right now. Alpaca! Mmm, welllllllll…maybe later. FINE. Be that way! Cotton! Plain white cotton! Soft, practical, makes great coasters, towels, washcloths, HEY! You’ve got that cute little circular pattern you got all fiddly with, with the provisional cast-on so you could seamlessly graft the…hey, where are you going? This would be fun, right? COME BACK HERE, ooooooh no you dinnit just turn your back on me…!

I think I want a new drug hobby.

Oh, not for good. Please. I’ve had these fits before. Other things, they come…they go. A small latch hook rug or a few sets of taper candles later (dip…lift…pause (drip,drip,drip)…dip… lift…pause (drip,drip,drip)…dip…lift…hand-dipped taper candles are not exactly the most thrilling thing in the universe to make) and I’m ready to get back to some nice, safe knitting.

Which I’m pretty good at, which also tends to help with the allure. Nothing kills your love of a hobby like the end result being “oooooh, it’s a rug, you say? I thought it was a horribly disfigured, very large basket…”

Of course, I have no idea what I want to put into the void left by my sudden “meh” attitude toward knitting. I don’t want to spend any money, for one thing; and for another, it has to be something I can do in small fits. My available time is extremely tight, and highly interrupted right now.

I don’t think I’ve gone five minutes without somebody bursting in on me on week. Curse you, summer vacation!!

(It’s the bursting that bugs me. They don’t “walk into” a room, they skid into it, usually yelling urgently, and then it’s something like, “MOMMY! I SAW A BUG!!” which, you know, hel-LO, we live in Bug Central, get used to the concept of seeing bugs…)

(And then, after the Big Announcement is made and my suggestion [if any] given…they just stand there. Right in my Personal Space. Breathing their kid breath [not as bad as cat breath, but close] into my air and staring at either me, or whatever is on my computer screen. GAH! Go do something! Something else! GAH!!!!)