Haul in a Linus...repeat

Last night I thought drinking a latte at 7pm was a good idea. Well you know, the Samurai goes out for drinks after work and then the Samurai falls asleep. I didn’t want that to happen hence the caffeine. I successfully stayed up until 11:30 and did lots of knitting. I was helped by the fact that I started watching The Lion in Winter without realizing it’s a 3 hour movie. I’d give it a B+. Excellent acting and dialogue. It could due to be an hour shorter though.

I Finished a Christmas gift, yeah that leaves one to go. And while motivation was with me, I cast on for a new sock. One can never have too many socks on the needles. The yarn is knitting Fever Indulgence With Aloe and I’m doing a simple rib pattern. So far I’m about 3” into it and it’s random stripes are really working for me. I have to say, now that I work full time and the majority of my knitting is done in public where I find the simpler the sock pattern the better. I’m not going to win any design contests but I will be able to talk and knit and not think about what my hands are doing.

SO yeah, latte. I don’t know if this is an age thing or what but lately if I have evening caffeine, not only does it keep me up, but it also wakes me up early. Well before the sun came up I was awake. I tried to sleep, I played with Isitt and Mac, I tossed and turned, and then I gave up. 5:15 on a Saturday morning and I’m up. I pulled on my toasty sweats and headed down to the garage. If I’m up I might as well be productive. Thinking I’d have a good 3 hours to myself, without prying eyes or judgment it seemed the perfect time to pull out the stash and at least get all the various sock yarns together. It’s not that The Boyfriend ever says anything about the stash, it’s our silent third partner but I feel his eyes on it and it makes me cringe. Best to deal with it when he’s not around.

Haul a bag or a box or a bin into the house. Haul in a Linus. Haul in a different bin. Haul in a Mac. Haul in a bag overloaded with yarn and haul in the same Linus. Can you see how this morning started?

Endeavors such as these never go the way one expects. I thought I could quickly sort through the sock stuff. Put away some recent sport and alpaca purchases (my yarn is sorted by weight except alpaca which is kept in a special separate bin in the house, almost like I expect the wool and alpaca to start fighting if left too close together). I sorted the sock yarn. Found the missing yarn, that had prompted me to reorganize, I couldn’t find a skein of sock yarn yesterday morning before work and it had been weighing on me. If you can’t find the yarn when you want it, then what’s the point of a stash? I also found 6 projects, ok more than 6 projects, but I found 6 hibernating projects that could be frogged. 4 of them were from 2008. One and a half socks, a design I had no desire to finish. A sweater I’d never photographed as it was a design in progress that fell short of the mark. The colorwork Devon Rex bag and mittens have been sitting for too long. The vest out of alpaca from a pattern written for a size 34 that I was adapting to a size 44 but hadn’t thought through enough before I began. The fuzzy angora cowl with hidden cables and lace. All of them were missteps in judgment that weren’t worth finishing. It makes me happy to frog and realize the errors of my ways, knowing that I’m a better knitter now than I was just a year ago when I cast on that angora cowl.

And the fruits of my labors? This massive pile of needles and stitch markers suddenly appeared from the flying yarn. I’m resolved to knit the 4 thumbs that are needed to finish the 2 pairs of fingerless mitts that were also hibernating. And it’s only 9 O’Clock!