Crisis Time

I pretty much decided to throw in the towel on SOS last night, in spite of Daniele’s nice comments. I just was in a terrible funk, and couldn’t imagine another six weeks of nothing but knitting like a maniac and seeing myself always behind. (Not that I have any hard feelings whatsoever toward the leader. She’s very nice, and she happens to be in a situation that allows her to knit more than I do. Plus she knits realllly fast!) So I was sulking and crabbing and feeling like everything was totally pointless, and I ought to just give all my knitting stuff to Goodwill and move to, oh, Alaska or someplace. Which would really be stupid, because I think I would need knitted objects there if anywhere.

But today is looking a little better. I’ll keep going, but I have to do the other things I want to do. Like play my violin, for instance. It hasn’t been out of its case for 10 days, which is ridiculous. And I really need to do some work in the yard, once it cools off a bit, and I’m feeling the stirrings of a basement-cleaning attack, a clothes-sorting attack, and a wallpaper-stripping attack.

Now that I think about it, maybe I should just stick with the socks…

Tenth Pair Done!

Woo hoo! Ten pairs done, but I’m still behind on the leaderboard of SOS. Oh, well. Everybody’s lives have ups and downs, and I’m sure there will be times when I’m knitting when the leader(s) aren’t, and vice versa. In the immortal words of Yogi Berra, it ain’t over ’til it’s over!

So this is pair #8:

These are Marigold Socks, a free pattern on Ravelry. The originals were done in yellow, but I’ve always loved orange marigolds, so the pattern was perfect for this yarn. The whole time I was knitting them I was thirsty for Orange Crush. I’m so glad I can get it where I live now. Do you know, when I lived one county north, Orange Crush could not be found for love nor money. Go figure. Anyway, nothing tastes so orangey. Starkist orange soda, blech!!

Back to socks. This is pair #9:

This pattern is WendyKnits’ Double Eyelet Rib, one of my favorite patterns (though I do my own toe and heel in my own…idiom?) I bought this yarn online, thinking it was another yarn that I loved but had lost the label for. Turned out to be completely different, but I love this too. It’s Opal Rainforest; one of the “bird” colors. These socks go to Missy, so I have an excuse to buy more of this yarn. And I’ll make them plain because I love the color and variegation so much.

On to pair #10:

These are Supersocke Cotton Beach yarn that I bought on clearance from Simply Socks. I’ve made two pairs now, and I really like how they turned out. The colors were much prettier than I expected. These are going to Missy, too.

I’ve been through another book: “The Age of Innocence.” Great book, terrible narrator. I hate that. And they did a hideous job of editing it. Right in the middle of a tense scene, the narrator says, “Oh, let’s retake that,” and reads the paragraph again!! Talk about being jolted! She had an awful, grating voice too, so I plan to leave a negative review for that particular book on Audible.com.

I’m listening to “Sense and Sensibility” right now, because I love Jane Austen, and that narrator is fantastic. She has the amazing ability to change her voice so completely for each character. That makes listening so enjoyable. She happens to be the actress who played Mrs. Elton in “Emma” (the one with Gwyneth Paltrow) so her acting experience apparently is a great asset in narrating books. Her name is Juliet Stevenson, and I plan to search for more books narrated by her.

I feel as if I’ve done nothing but knit socks for years. It’s like being down the rabbit hole! I miss spinning! I miss my needlepoint! I miss reading the newspaper! Seriously, to keep up, I have to knit every free moment. I’m trying to remember why I’m doing this…The prize of more sock yarn? Hmmm…

The other time-sucker is Plurk. It’s so much fun, though. You have your own friends whose plurks you follow, and the back-and-forth gets hilarious. I’m in a little circle of knitters that includes Wendy from WendyKnits, and she’s a riot. I also covet her cat, Lucy, and would be Lucy’s stalker if I lived closer to her. Don’t tell my cat. Or Wendy. She’ll de-friend me.

Missy bought the Rugrat a wading pool today, so as soon as Papaw is done cutting the grass, we’ll fill it. The water should be warm enough tomorrow afternoon for her to play in it. I need to dig out the pictures of Missy in her wading pool at that age. No, I’m not sniffling. Shut up.