Let's Take A Ramble

I have made a decision. This thing is way too confining. How, now? (to quote Nietzsche). Well, firstly, knitting is more to me than just making a pattern and knitting it up, or knitting someone else's pattern and loving when it comes out just like in the picture. Color me simple, but I still love that feeling.

Anyway, the mild announcement is an expansion in written matter.

Lately, I have been exceptionally bored. It's quite annoying, to say the least. I've been knitting quite a bit; I even finished a pair of my first (completed) socks here on ravelry. I've been working on That Other Pair as well, but I'm not completely enthused. The first one came out a bit short in the foot (teach me to be overeager in getting to the toe, eh?), so the second one will have the toe starting a bit later.

Still working on the Santa Cruz hat... and getting a bit bored with it, I must say. It's not the pattern, it's me. I love the color, the texture that's coming out. It's very nice.

I finished the knucks I started ages ago for my dad. I'll take pictures once I give them to him on his b-day. They're tucked away until then. I can't wait to give them to him! Alright, yes, it's sunny, it's warm, and he probably won't need them for a good 4 months, but I must say that I am very proud of them and I think he'll really get a lot of use out of them.

I just finished a book called The Knitting Circle, by Ann Hood. It was all right, a good book, but not, in my opinion, an excellent one. But I would recommend it to knitters, especially. It tends to focus on the therapy aspect of knitting that so many knitters (me included) love.

I'm reading The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs and it's, again, okay but not excellent. It's more about personal relationships and the problems that arise therein than knitting, which seems to be just a bit more than a background for the plot, but not an integral piece.

I am beginning to want more yarn. Yes, I have quite a bit. No, it's nothing like any other knitter's stash I know of, by which I mean it's actually relatively small. I have plans for most of it, except for some sage green lace-weight that I love, but have no idea what to do with. I want to make a rectangular shawl, but I have no idea where or what to start... After looking at some of Jared Flood's designs, etc, I have determined that I want something complicated, textured, and true knitted lace - meaning the pattern formation takes place on the right and wrong sides and not just the right side.

But I really want some fiber that's exotic, inspiring, something that I can design from. Seriously, I need to get into a position where I can actually get yarn before I start dreaming about it! Alas, the funds are dried up at the moment.

It's looking more spring/summer-like outside. I am wanting some cotton cardigans, scarves, hats, mitts, that sort of thing. Back we go to the yarn craving. I really dislike, though, the fact that the hand-knit things I wear most often (this scarf and these mitts) are more fall-winter items. I want something lighter that I can wear in the spring and summer months.

But enough of that; spring's too nice for me to feel down!