I Got the Sickness

It's a metaphorical, yarn-based sickness. I seem to be finally almost over the actual, germ-based sickness I had for three freakin' weeks.

So, my new sickness: It involves a desire to knit everything in sight. Like startitis, this new sickness makes me want to cast on project after project. Unlike startits, I have no desire to abandon the old ones--I want to knit everything. All of them. All the projects.

I've been lax in the Ravelry department, and I haven't been photographing and posting here, so here's a more or less current WIPs list:

1. Slippery Socks. I'm partway through the first sock. This is a labor-intensive project, one that requires quiet and concentration. Hence I am moving slowly on it. But it is not forgotten! No, it has a place of honor on the horribly cluttered coffee table, just waiting for me to have a chunk of time to devote to it.

2. Abby's Afghan. No link, no pictures--I want it to be a surprise! This is hanging out half-finished. It has not been abandoned; it's an at-home project, because I don't want to carry three colors of yarn with me wherever I go. Waiting for some quality couch time--perhaps tonight, after I do a sink full of dishes.

3. Trekking socks. These are the ones I've been knitting at Second Work, hence the slow going. I'm done with one! The pattern is basic, with a 2x2 ribbed cuff and top of foot.

4. Primavera socks. Why yes, I am a sheep, why do you ask? I'm making these in KnitPicks Gloss, burgundy. Lovely, and so soft! I'm nearly done with the first cuff. It's a pretty, easy pattern, and if I could reliably count to 6 I wouldn't even need to carry the chart around with me!

5. Swiffer cover. I cast on for this on Friday night. I've done one 12-row section. Pulling out the yarn for this out of The Stash reminded me that I have all of the kitchen cotton in the world, and gave me a strong urge to knit dishcloths until I use it all up. Therefore I have been searching for nice dishcloth patterns. I've found more than a few... and I want to make all of them. Now.

6. Perfect Sweater, from Mason-Dixon Knitting. This is the project I have with me today. I'm nearly done with the waist shaping on the back, which is the first piece I'm making. I think I'll do a sleeve next.

7. Wavy Feathers Wimple. You know how I've been promising pictures of my finished wimple for a while? Well... um... I sort of frogged it. Completely. My reasons? One, I have a huge head. One point five, I should have followed my instincts and added 11 stitches to the round. Two, I realized after I was finished that I used US4 needles when I should have used US6s, as the pattern called for, and that just really wasn't acceptable. (See point one re. huge head.) The yarn has been skeined and washed (to relax and de-block it). After work today I plan to re-ball it and perhaps cast on again.

Actually, this isn't a complete list--it doesn't include the several projects that I have hibernating. Or all of the dishcloths I desperately want to cast on. Or the socks that I will cast on on March 1, as part of the Sock Knitters' Pentathlon I joined.

Yep. I'm one sick woman.

But to go back to the wimple for a moment, I realized something as I was picking out the cast off. When I learned to cook, I was taught that you should follow the recipe pretty much as written the first time you make it, and then mess with it if you want to after that. It's an excellent strategy for cooking. I realized that I had been thinking of knitting that way--I didn't mess with the wimple pattern on the first go because I was following the recipe for the first time. But I think that I'm going to have to abandon that mindset when it comes to knitting and learn to trust my instincts, especially when it comes to things that are supposed to go on, over, or around my enormous head. Because with the investment of time and energy involved in knitting, it just doesn't make sense to go against things that you know for a fact and blindly trust a pattern that was written by/for someone whose gauge is totally different from yours and whose head (or whatever) is a totally different size. Of course! It was a "Eureka!" moment that actually made me feel a little dumber, because it's taken me so damn long to realize. Oh, well. At least I catch on eventually!