Just imagine it

I think I might be insane.

I know, I've heard that phrase that makes the rounds, asserting that insanity is defined as expecting the outcome of a series events to change despite having made no changes to that series of events. Like taking two cookies from one jar, and then taking two cookies from a different jar, and expecting to have 10, and when 2 + 2 does not yield 10, trying it again by taking two cookies from one jar, and two cookies from the other.

I don't think I'm that sort of insane - there's no repeating pattern in what I am about to share with you. Maybe that means I'm not really insane, but something else. Delusional? Irrational? Just plain old dim?

I haven't had tons of knitting time - you know, working - but the stitches are getting put into a couple of things around here. I've got a whole sleeve and a good chunk of the second sleeve on the latest sister sweater (Sun Prairie) - I even blocked the complete sleeve over the weekend and had grand plans to take a picture of my progress for documentation here, but despite the recent good weather (still no freezing or snow - pleasenojinxpleasenojinxpleasenojinx), my schedule is still my schedule and nice natural light is hard to find by the time I get home. Maybe I'll be able to fix that come Friday.

But, I'm putting time in towards a sweater for keeping warm because I still feel sort of cold a lot of the time - except it won't help me keep warm because it's not going to be mine. So it was a bad solution to my problem to begin with. I could sort of see that it wasn't right, but I plunged ahead anyway.

Maybe because I wasn't sure what my next sweater should be? I mean, yeah, I've already got Oblique on the go, but I still haven't taken apart that one bad sleeve, and it's still full of holes that are totally supposed to be there, and that still strikes me as an inappropriate course of action. So I launched into the sister sweater while mentally flailing around wondering what I wanted next.

I settled somewhat quickly on a work-wear-friendly cardigan that I won't bother putting buttons on, because finding buttons is always a serious, serious challenge for me - it requires a trip to the button store, which I, um, never seem to manage to do. There are two sister knits sitting in finishing limbo because they only need flipping buttons, and they've been in that limbo for over a year now. Clearly, buttons are not my strong suit. Besides, I like leaving cardigan layers open anyway. I think it might even be on trend right now. (Never ever quote me on what may or may not be on trend. I don't have a great track record with having a good handle on this sort of information.)

I did some serious pattern browsing on Rav, and came up with some options. I've been coveting Atelier for ages now, and I even have a couple of batches of madelinetosh pashmina that would be absolutely perfect, if only I could decide which colour I want to have this sweater in. I think the problem might be that I sort of want both. Also, I'm a tiny bit concerned that the sweater won't be the polished work-friendly piece I'm aiming for. Don't get me wrong - I will totally wear it to work when I get around to making it. But I had in mind a sort of long, lean piece. So I browsed, and browsed, and eventually stumbled upon Runcorn, and Ephemera, and I think I will be adding those to my collection soonish, but again I'm having difficulty matching the patterns with yarns in my collection. I have a pretty nice collection of DK weight yarns on hand, so I'm looking to move some of those into the wearable pile, and notice that neither of these patterns is written for DK - Runcorn is worsted, Ephemera is fingering. The listed gauges for both are 20 sts to 4", though, and I think that will work fine for a DK yarn - Runcorn would have a looser (but not lacy) fabric than written, and Ephemera would be, well, less ephemeral. I also think I'd work up Runcorn in just a single colour, and let the texture be the star - in which case, would a tonal handpainted yarn be a good thing, or a distraction? My version of Ephemera would also lack the embellishing crocheted flowers, and again I'm wondering if a tonal handpainted yarn would be a good match. Would the colour variation pool and flash and bug me? Or would it lend some interest to an otherwise simple fabric?

In the meantime, I'm still kind of cold, I keep putting my time into a project that won't help me at all with the coldness because it won't be mine, I've started winding up some yarn for another sister sweater, I keep browsing - which eats into the knitting time too - and not making any decisions at all, but I'm sure that I need to knit a solution to being a bit cold.

So which is it? Delusional? Irrational? Or just plain dim?

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