rrrrrrrrrrrrrrip!

My knitting has been utter crap lately.

I hate it when the mojo leaves me, whether it be knitting, sewing, cooking, or whatever else I do. It's awful to hold raw materials in your hand and have them feel cold and unyielding. When a skein of yarn becomes just that, rather than an inspiration, I get bummed.

I think it was just the result of the changes afoot around here - Daughter staring Kindergarten and learning to navigate new waters, both children being sick twice already since school started, AJ having surgery, going to endless MD appointments, experiencing the change of season...I watched a documentary about stress a few weeks ago and it said stress can actually make you "stupid" by messing with the chemistry of your brain. It also ages you by breaking down the protective portion of your DNA. I'm paraphrasing, and badly, but the show made me feel a lot better about how I feel, and how I have felt for several years now.

So anyway, I've been doing a lot of ripping. I start stuff, knit a little, hate it, rip it. All around my house I'm finding balls of discarded yarn, all wiggly looking on the outside from being unraveled and rewound.

Luckily, over the last week or so, the knitting mojo has returned. Phew! (I always panic a little bit when it's gone, because wow, what would I do with all this yarn if I quit knitting? Crisis!)

I started this several weeks ago for myself...and wow, do adult sweaters take forever to knit or what? I am spoiled by all the wee small things I've been knitting for the past 5 years. It's obviously just a basic neck-down cardigan, and I will blog more fully about it when it is complete. 1 and 3/4 sleeves to go and I'll have a cozy new winter garment.

It's kind of been a frenzy of starting - here are some socks, also for me, just begun from some Joann "sensations" (say it with jazz hands!) sock yarn. Very soft, nice colors, mindless and enjoyable. Nice.

Last week, two mornings in a row of low 40s temps had Daughter digging through her outerwear bin searching for mittens. All she came up with were two ratty looking mitts my mom knit for her two years ago. They're stained and getting too small. I quickly cast on for some new ones over the weekend.

And finally, a finished piece of knitwear! Man, it felt good to knit something start-to-finish. These are LTK picky pants, on their way out the door as a gift.

The startitis continues, with a pile of yarns and patterns collecting on my dining room table. When the mojo returns, it comes roaring back!

May you knit more than you rip. Happy makin'!