Another Grovelling Post to the Knitting Gods

Blast it, I still haven't got the knitting mojo back. Nothing appeals to me, and if something does, I don't have the yarn for it. Boo. So I haven't been knitting a thing, and it's starting to get to me. I want to do something simple, but everything bores me. The new Knitty was somewhat inspirational, but, as usual, I don't have appropriate yarn for anything.

I really want to knit Pauline, but I don't have any suitable yarn. It's really meant for Malabrigo, which I was planning to pick up on a yarn store excursion today. However, the fates and the weather conspired against me, so it will not be until next weekend at least that I get a suitable yarn for it. I have a single-ply aran weight, but it is bright orange and destined for a hat for Christopher (little brother). The idea of me in a bright orange bonnet is laughable at best. I'm hoping to do it in a teal or steel blue, as was suggested to me by a group of my contemporaries, who are much better at choosing color and gauging fashion than I am. The fact that I'm itching to knit this does give me an excuse to splurge on a nice yarn, though. Malabrigo is really popular, but it ain't cheap, at $11 a skein. I've never seen it in real life, and I really want to see if it's all it's cracked up to be. The pattern, of course, is super cute and impeccably written, as can be expected of this designer. Really, you should go check her out: Kristen Hanley Cardozo. She blogs at Knitting Kninja. I knew her from elsewhere on the internet before I realized she was a knit designer, so it was a bit of a shock when I realized this same person that I was seeing was actually the designer of Maude Louise, one of my favorite cardigan patterns. (Please excuse the wonky sentence structure; I don't care to give out the name of the forum, for her privacy and mine, even though it's fairly well-known.) So yeah, if you're reading this (looks out to internet, sees no one, hears crickets), check her patterns out. They're perfectly and meticulously written, and always pretty.

My main headache these days is trying to find out what to do with some Bare Sheep Yarn Company Abby I have. It's merino worsted, as far as I know, but the colors are giving me trouble. See on the right? The colors aren't blended into one another in any way, and the transition is stark. I think if they were more subtly blended, I wouldn't be writing this paragraph. I'm thinking about doing a scarf, since that's a place where you can wear a bit of a "statement piece," but I haven't found the right pattern yet. It's a balancing act, because these colors can easily go horribly wrong. I'm thinking about doing a So-Called Scarf with it, but I'm not sold. Argh!

School is eating up a good chunk of my time, too. I've got no problem with knitting in public, but I prefer to have the resources there in case I run into trouble.

In the lit department, I've finished The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. (Spoilers ahead) It was worlds better than Agnes Grey, with lots of action and much more sympathetic characters. It was still a little too religious for me, but really, I expect that from Anne. I was shocked, shocked, I tell you, when Helen went back to Arthur. Of course, it was framed as Christian duty, but I would have let that no good bastard rot in hell. Of course, to have the happy ending, he needed to die. So I suppose this was Anne's way of doing it while preserving the character of Helen. Helen was already a bad wife, so she couldn't be a bad Christian, too. If Mr. Huntingdon had died suddenly, or had she not gone back to him, she would have never forgiven herself, I think, and as such, she would have never married Gilbert. So, it did work out for the best. The ending was of the same happy sort I expect from these books, so I walked away satisfied.

So yeah. Knit's going badly, lit's going well, and, well, you can't get away from the bullshit anymore. I'm beseeching the Divine Woolly One to give me my mojo back. Maybe I should burn some baby alpaca as a sumptuous offering. This sucks.