Knitting and Procrastination

I went to bed around 4am. The combination of Flexeril, melatonin, and the cold virus that I have acquired made it impossible to get up when my alarm went off at 1:30pm. I did manage to become cognizant to my reality somewhere around 2:15 thanks to dogs wanting to go outside and the repeating of the snooze alarm every 9 minutes.

Feeling miserable due to the cold, I phoned my boss and told him I didn't think he wanted me to come over and share this krud with him. I reset the alarm clock for 4:30 and went back to bed. The dogs, still outside mucking about and a knock at my door shortly after 3:00 had me back out of bed. My daughter had rescued my shipment of yarn from the UPS driver who was being barked at by stupid K9s.

UPS, FedEx, and the USPS are all familiar with our dogs. So are the people who train the Pilot Dogs. It is really embarrassing that they bring the assistive animals by here in order to train them to ignore idiotic quadrupeds. But hey, I suppose our dumb-assed dogs are providing a valuable public service by behaving like morons. It is so irritating to me because my dogs know better. I can call to the German Shepherd and she will immediately come away from the fence. Mocha, my inherited from my daughter Welsh Springer, is too stupid to care about knowing better.

The knitted wrap that my sister bought me for Christmas was the inspiration for the most recent yarn delivery. It is a beautiful rayon chenille knit from fingering weight yarn. I ordered similar weights of blue rayon and tan cotton chenille and am going to knit up a couple of wraps to give as gifts this year. I also bought a beautiful boucle navy/moss ombre wool yarn with the thought that I may just knit that guy a sweater.

Last week, I received the shipment of yarns from which I plan to knit my sweater wardrobe for this next year. Before I dove into them, I decided to go ahead and break out the yarn from the sweater that I had wanted to make for myself last year but never got around to doing. I started knitting on it in the wee hours of this morning.

Concurrent projects also include a crocheted throw for my son-in-law in bulky black chenille. He has been wanting one for a couple of years now, and I decided I would go ahead and make him one since my daughter has decided to keep him after all. And, I'm working on a decor throw in bulky novelty yarns for the boyfriend for the apartment - charcoal and cream horizontal stripes. It is a mindless piece done it garter stitch. The yarn tells the story in that piece, not the stitch.

I have also decided to venture into lace knitting at last. I purchased three volumes of Christine Duchrow's collected patterns a few years ago. Recent posts on the knitting forum inspired me to take the plunge. I ordered 3 types of lace weight yarn and a pattern for three scarfs. I bought a plain white merino yarn, the same merino yarn dyed in shades of denim blues and white, and two hanks of an absolutely stunning iris ombre baby alpaca. Being me, I had to search out some Miyuki Delica beads to knit into the patterns. Hopefully, those will arrive tomorrow. The latest batch of spinning fibers should be delivered tomorrow as well. I am awaiting a sampling of soy yarn and bamboo yarn to arrive from Canada. I have been searching for an outlet for reasonably priced, good quality soy and bamboo yarns for some time. I hope I have found it.

My project for next weekend is to add another industrial shelving unit to my studio and get back to work as a "maker." With Bob going out of the yarn business and my acquisition of 60+ pounds of wool, it has been virtually impossible to get around in my studio due to lack of appropriate storage. That amount of yarn (over 80 pounds including the weight of the cones) requires quite a bit of storage room. At around $300 for that much yarn, I could not pass it up. My yarn closet is over-flowing at this point. We will not speak of my fabric closet, either.

Knitting is an avocation well-suited to procrastination. It results in a harvest from those otherwise idle hours. To see something grow and come to fruition from your pointy sticks and string is a marvelous thing.