Mitts!

I finished the body of a pair of mitts I've been designing. They hath no name, but virtue aplenty and thus the skies with their bless'd rhythm doth in their courses dance as the sprites upon a summer's night smiling with joy upon the masses of humanity. They are one of my most favorite and secret designs at the moment and they are EPIC! they are made in one piece, though they look as though they were pieced together and made in pieces, they are not. They are made out of worsted weight and knit on US size 7 (or 8) and will be perfect for that special gift you just might need. So today's post is a bit of a shameless self-promotion, but it's an update and as such, deserves to be told. Besides, if I bemoaned my mental state (currently better then yesterday, but tired) and complained about the weather (gloomy, cloudy, and ominous) then you would ignore my words and pass by. Besides all of that, what would I write about today?

Slump...

Today is a blue funk day. It's one of those days where all you feel is pressure and your backbone gives out causing a slump to happen to you. This is my day today. I'm stressing over stupid stuff, clamming up, and the pressure is so high I feel depressed. It's just one of those days. I'm normally a happy-go-lucky person and as such I have passion for things fiber-y and non-fiber-y. But today is not one of those days. How to fix this? No clue. It just happens. It's as if one is on a roller coaster and going down the first hill, when BAM! Your day turns back up the next slope. So how am I dealing with this? Well, for one thing I'm writing this blog post (albeit a very down-in-the-mouth post) and working on my fiber stash re-boot. I have literally pulled all of my yarn and fiber (excluding my current WIPs and yarn for them) and piled it all into the massive mound of fiber-y goodness! It's almost a bit shameful to think how much I stashed where and when and why. Things from all corners of the room and things from all places. Yet with each skein there is a connection of some sort. Be it the acrylic worsted weight yarn that my grandmother gave me or the yarn bought with Stephen West from Steven Be's or the yarn I just picked up a week or so ago when I met Amy and Megan and Jeanette and Mandy and all sorts of friends at Yarnover. Whatever the yarn content, whatever the yarn color, weight, or yardage, it all has a story. Which, of course, makes one want to hold onto it all forever and that it WILL be perfect for something in the near future. (codeword for I'm probably not going to use it, but I could... meaning that I'm feeling hoarder-esque) But the reality is this: what do I enjoy doing with my sticks and string and will this yarn get me there? If the answer is no, then perhaps it should find a new home. If it is yes, but I can't at the moment, keep it and save it. I have stash that is specifically for designs and shawls and things like that, but I also have the fun stash for those spur-of-the-moment ideas and projects and gifts. I have stash that I honestly haven't touched for a year and will probably never use. It is this yarn that I wish to purge from my stash's life and move onto a more minimalistic stash (which is much more "stuff-driven" then it sounds.) that I LOVE and WILL use and will WANT to use. But be realistic here, do you think that I will actually get rid of some of this? Honestly, I will most likely get rid of a couple of things, but retain the stash. The other thing with stash diving is that you are touching all the things and they spur you to cast on something (Wow! I forgot I had this skein of random worsted weight! It is a hat. saves for later, which never actually comes...) So the thing with detoxing the stash and your life is to ignore the little voices. It will get better and life will still go on. However, don't get rid of the blanket's worth of yarn that you've had for three years waiting for the perfect project as it will come, trust me. I know these things! Now I'm going back to tackle this slump monster and vanquish all the gloom and pressure from my life! Cheers to you, my reader, and may your day simply be brighter and your life better and your needles bold!

Concept fail... lesson learned... life moves on...

Hello, everyone!!! Well, someone has been lax in blogging... hmm... So hello once more and let's just dive in today! Since my last post, I have done TONS of epic, fun, wild, crazy, mundane, interesting, boring, private, public, stressful, stressless, and AWESOME things! To recount them would take much too long and as such, let us gloss over the past and look to the future. My designing bug has KICKED in the door, SHOT all the other knitting projects, and is holding me HOSTAGE with the concepts, ideas, and fun of sketching and bringing that sketch into reality. I am working on 4 designs on the needles at the moment, with who knows how many on paper awaiting that fateful day when the sketch becomes reality and the reality becomes a pattern. It is truly a process of wonder, as my brain churns out a design onto paper, my hands wind the yarn into a cake or ball, my needles take over and a fabric forms in my hands. Not all things are a success story, but the key is to learn from the experiment and move on. Sometimes the experiment simply makes one try harder and sometimes it was simply an experiment in thought. But no matter the outcome, something comes from it. Take this example: I had had this sketch done for a long time. I picked it up, cast it on (after figuring out numbers, progression, shape, increase, etc.), and finished the first half. I was ecstatic and began the second half of the design. Think car hitting a brick wall at 60 miles an hour. It wasn't going to work. I knew it and could see it, but somehow my brain denied itself of the ability to accept the reality of this fact: It would not work. Wrestling with the beast, as I affectionately called it, for the next week, I finally accepted its fate as well as mine and ripped it out. I didn't give up, but rather like a stubborn mule, fought against the constraints of reality. I succumbed to the cold, hard fact and with my submission, I frogged the project. My friends who had seen the concept take shape implored me not to go that far and rip it out, but I, being the enlightened knitter who had listened to the shawl's final gasps and pleas for death, resolutely and without hesitation destroyed it. I still have the sketch and the concept, as well as the notes that I had written, but the shawl design is simply to be retired and rest. I have moved on past the whole experiment and learned from it to trust my gut. I knew once I started that second section that it would not work. I knew it. But I, being the optimist I am, stubbornly refused to believe that it just wouldn't work out in the end. I also learned from the ordeal, that while I should trust myself, I should also take a breather and look at anything before ripping the entirety out. So now I have a shawl concept that was attempted and failed to give the results, but I have learned from that little sketch to try. After all it is simply sticks and string and a bit of time mixed in, but at its focal point, knitting is changeable and as such, re-start-able. Will I attempt this concept again? Maybe, maybe not. But even if I don't, I still have the knowledge from the experience and now have that power in my hands to try something. Thanks for reading and I shall attempt to continue to write more frequently. May your needles stay sharp and your yarn be free from the curse of the tangle-zombies!