Sublimation

Where to start? (Please ignore Elvis the Rooster for the moment.)

Sometimes I don’t know if I’m fifty or five. I’ve been in an absolute funk for days because yarn I ordered to start my Geek-A-Long blanket seemed to have disappeared in transit. I placed the order at the end of December, knowing it might be a day or two into January before I got it. But you know when it finally showed up? Yesterday! January 6th!

It wasn’t like there weren’t other things to knit. I could have worked on finishing Gramps or the Travel Shawl or cast on something new. I have gorgeous yarn for a sweater for Paul. But those things just wouldn’t do. All I could bring myself to work on were double-knitting swatches while I waited until time to go to the mailbox again and be crushed by no yarn . . . again.

I was a little surprised at my own petulance. It makes me wonder what’s really at stake for me to be so caught up in the idea of a particular project that having to wait felt like torture. Sublimation, for sure. But that’s knitting, right?

The yarn:

I’ve never been so thrilled by black yarn. It doesn’t look like much, but the second color in every blanket square is black. No black . . . no blanket. 

Here’s the fun part:

I got the colors from The Loopy Ewe, and along with the Cascade I ordered, they sent all these other fun things—sheep calendar, fun Della Q project bag, a little magnifying ruler, a button, candy, and a free skein of Malabrigo(!!!!!). I’m apparently a “Loopy Groupie” now. Not sure what qualified me for that unless it’s the embarrassing amount of money I’ve spent there, but I’m not one to look a yarny gift horse in the mouth, ya know?

Of course, I started my square immediately, and I’m loving it. I realized late last night that I’d made two of what are apparently the most common double-knitting mistakes, a bar and a stitch knit in the wrong color. My first knitting task today will be to work on correcting these things. I don’t even mind since it will be practice for fixing this sort of mistake going forward. 

One of my knitting goals for 2016 is to finish a blanket, something I’ve never done. As soon as my pesky day job is out of the way, I’m on it! Woohoo!!

Sidenote: While waiting for the black yarn, we ushered in the new year with Elvis the Rooster, one of the best gifts EVER (pictured above), and playtime with friends. Happy 2016, dear knitters!