(mis)adventures of spindlerose

Stuck. Or maybe finally unstuck.

Sometimes the muse leaves. Sometimes, my knitting and spinning mojo vanishes for months at a time. During those times, the blog goes silent, the demons of doubt lurk in my head, and I wonder why I keep sending money to Typepad.

Writers block (or knitters block or whatever block) happens to all creative people at times. As a writer, I've always felt like I'm in a perpetual state of block with glimpses of inspriation. When that inspriation strikes, I write well. I love the joy when the words flow effortlessly and my inner perfectionist editor is briefly silent. I just wish it happened more often.

The first 10 days of NaBloPoMo has reminded me that I need to write more. I need to practice this craft just like I practice knitting, spinning, and cooking. As Laurie said the other day, this (daily blogging) is getting harder and harder. Will it get easier with more daily practice?

I added the picture to spruce up the blank wall of text. And because it reminds me that inspriation is everywhere if I open my eyes. The first time I saw the Chihuli installation in the lobby of the Bellagio, I had to pull out my pocket camera (my iPhone), take a picture, and share it because the colors and textures stunned me. Looking at the picture again brings back clarity I felt when I framed, snapped, and cropped the picture nearly 4 years ago.

To be honest, I've been stuck creatively for the past few years. Three moves in 30 months would do that to anyone. It hurts because creating and making is central to my sense of self, so I lose part of myself when I'm not actively creating. Work has been challenging. Most of my daily brain has been dedicated to doing my job. There hasn't been enough juice left at the end of the day to knit a simple sock or scarf. Writing, designing, or even planning something challenging has been beyond me. It's been even longer since I've felt truly inspired to write. 

I do sometimes write when I'm stuck on an airplane. In rushing from here to there in a metal tube, I relish the unplugged silence that helps me plug in to my own voice. I have a few drafts of essays meant for the blog lurking on my computer, my iPad and in my notebooks that flowed into that silence. By the time I land and life pushes back in, I forget that I had a great idea for a post. I haven't reviewed or considered publishing on any of those, but maybe I should. I do have to write 18 more posts this month.

I don't have a good answer for getting through creative blocks. Open your eyes to inspiration. Get enough sleep. Keep practicing whatever it is that you do. Eventually, something good will shake loose.

This post brought to you by today's NaBloPoMo prompt. I opened my eyes to the inspriation in my inbox this morning. It prompted something good, or at least something better.

Reorganizing

Please pardon the dust in the wool room. I acquired some shelves* and have been stuffing them with yarn and fiber.

This is most of my sock yarn. Seeing it all in one place is a little alarming. There is quite a bit of lovely stuff here. I need to knit faster, give away more socks (and perhaps yarn, too), and stop buying souvenir sock yarn when I travel.

*Shelf acquisition is bittersweet. I bought them from Knit Happens—at the going out of business sale. It is sad to lose the LYS that welcomed me after we moved from Boston

The Ides of March

January whooshed by. And so did February and half of March.

Golden Gate Bridge on a rainy Sunday afternoon, February 22, 2009

I'm not quite sure how it got to be March 15. Maybe it was the January trip to California. Or Mom and B's visit for West Side Story and the Inauguration. Or 3 visits to the dentist in as many weeks. Or being on the road every week in February. Or all the little things I've knit so far this year (three pairs of socks already!). But somehow, it is mid-March, and I'm not sure where the days have gone.

Today is cold, dark and dreary; much like the day 3 weeks ago that I spent exploring San Francisco with an old friend. I cheered myself up with a quick visit to the Knit Happens fifth birthday sale this afternoon. I came home with yarn for three sweaters: Decimal from the new Knitty, a tunic from French Girl Knits, and Donegal Tweed Chunky for Debbie Bliss's Inishbeg. I also found enough manly Shaeffer Anne for a pair of over the calf socks for D. That blew today's yarn budget, so I came home to knit (and do laundry and pack) instead of driving to Savage Mills, MD, for the Homespun Yarn Party.

There is more business travel on the calendar for this week (Dallas) and next (Atlanta). Then Sock Camp! I'm off to start my camp homework. Again.

Setting the record straight

D has requested that I set the record straight on several aspects of our guest room / destash deal.

1. The original terms of the agreement included the bins exiting the front hall before Christmas 2006.
2. "Patience personified" was my phrase not his.
3. I should have closed yesterday's post with "continued marital harmony" and not "renewed marital harmony." My original phrase implied that we had lost something we have not lost.

I'm looking forward to starting the room transformation tomorrow.

Conceding defeat

Last August, D and I converted one of our spare bedrooms into a guest room. We agreed that I would destash to the point that all the wool would fit into the larger spare room closet and under the bed in the guest room. Fourteen months later, after D has been "patience personified" (his words, not mine), there are still 6 bins of yarn, cross stitch stitch supplies, and unfinished sewing projects in the front hall, and fiber in the guest room closet. I sold some stuff—probably about 2 or 3 bins—and I have a few more batches to post to Destash or eBay or Ravelry. I also have a huge box of oddballs to send to a worthy cause. I just cannot find a good cause; all the wool accepting worthy causes are not returning my emails offering a big box of yarn.

I really thought I could part with more, but I truly love everything left in my stash. Conceding defeat will give me back some knitting time. For the past several months, I have avoided knitting because I thought I should be destashing. Instead of doing either of those things, I found other things to do (like reading Ravelry forums and blogs).

As part of the process, I frogged a bunch of abandoned projects, but there are still a few lurking. I doubt I will ever finish them, but I cannot bring myself to frog them or toss them, either. Yes, I have a few issues with letting go.

This weekend, D and I will figure out how to dispose of our spare bed and rearrange the furniture one more time. When that is finished, I will have a studio again with permanently set up sewing machines and drum carder. And D will be able to close the door on my mess. Sounds like a recipe for renewed marital harmony to me.

Summer of Socks wrap-up

I pretty much only knit socks this summer. I did not, however manage to meet all of my Summer of Socks goals. This is mostly because my image of how much knitting time I have and the reality of how much knitting time I have just do not match.

My total tally for SOS2007: 3 finished pairs, all of them started before SOS officially started (the Summer Monkeys missed by only a few hours, though), and added 3 new odd socks in the odd sock basket.

l to r: Travel disaster Hedgerow Socks, Solstice Slip, Sockotta basic sock knit last fall, and blue cotton Widdershins that started SOS2007 too long, but now fits perfectly.

Let's review my SOS goals:

1. Knit more sock yarn than I buy Umm, not so much. Enough said. I would post photographic evidence, but the jump drive with my photo archive is at home, and I'm here.
2. Finish a pair of two of socks from 2007 sock club yarn Again, not so much. I've knit 1-3/4 Rockin Sock Club Solstice Slip. I will finish sock two soon, but not before midnight tonight. Here is what sock 2 looked like as we departed Washington, DC, for this year's tropical vacation. During 10 hours of flights yesterday, I turned the heel and knit about 1/3 of the leg. And read two novellas from a fun trashy romance collection.
3. Knit mates to odd socks Again, not so much. I added three mateless socks to the collection, and only finished one pair that had started SOS2007 as a complete mateless sock. The travel disaster last month did contribute to the addition of two mateless socks to my collection.

Summer of Socks!

In preparation for the Summer of Socks 2007, I bought a little bit of sock yarn this month. And the mailman brought packages from both the Minds Eye and Rockin' Sock Clubs. And on Wednesday at Knit Happens, I added a summery skein of Fleece Artist Merino Sock yarn to my plans. I would show you pictures of all the new yarn, but I have not had the daylight free hour required to get good stash beauty shots. Tonight, I am in Atlanta, all the new yarn except for the Fleece Artist is home in Virginia, and hotel room lights and my tiny camera do not make for good sock in progress photos.

Like Claudia, I am a fan of the LIFO system of sock stash management. I started my first "official" SOS07 pair when I got sick of knitting Tulip ties right after I paid for the yarn on Wednesday. Then I read the various SOS contest rules and realized that I jumped the gun by about 10 hours. I'm OK with that; I did not join this knit-along for the fabulous prizes. I joined for the camaraderie, to "meet" some more sock knitters, and challenge myself to finish a few of the dozen or so unfinished sock pairs lurking in the wool closet and knit up at least a skein of the Minds Eye and Rockin Sock Club skeins that have arrived in my stash since the beginning of the year. I will now be winning the most socks contest (I do not have enough time to knit most days), I do not plan to do any sock designing this summer, and I will probably finish the current Fleece Artist Monkeys before I go on vacation July 4--so the vacation socks will fall inside of the rules.

Blocking Block

I have three projects ready for blocking, but I cannot manage to string enough useful time together to accomplish the blocking. Tonight my very limited home and not sleeping time went to packing up the last round of sold stash for shipping.

I finished knitting Tulip's main pieces over a week ago. I finished Mom's cruise shawl in April. I'm going to see Mom on Friday--I would much rather hand her the shawl in person than trust it to the USPS. And Icarus spent all winter and spring waiting for his bath and moment to shine. I want to finish these projects and add them to my list of finished things. Even though I KNOW blocking lace is magic and that the Damask will bloom and drape after a nice soak, the ability to make that magic eludes me.

I have, however, successfully sold lots of yarn in the past three weeks. I bought more, too--but I spent birthday cash and stash sale proceeds for the new yarn, so it is allowed even though I did not buy it in May or at shops I have never visited.

If I could locate the project, the camera, and daylight at the same time, I could share my finished Monkey Socks. I knit them in about 3 weeks (late April to early May), and left them in the project bag until yesterday needing only one toe grafted and ends woven in. While weaving in the first sock's ends, I discovered that I dropped a stitch when grafting that toe. Some swearing and 30 minutes turned that mistake into a pair of warm socks. I so do not need wool socks right now, but I will be happy to have the extra pair in my sock drawer come November.

Cats steal yarn

Back in March, I fell off the no stash bandwagon and came home from the Knit Happens birthday sale with enough Damask to knit Tulip from Rowan 41. I knit a big swatch because it took 3 tries for me to get gauge. I knit the back in 9 days. Sometime between March 18 and my mid-April trip to California, 2 balls of the yarn disappeared. I have looked everywhere in the stash closet and in the rest of the house with no luck. Tomorrow, I'll be calling every Rowan stockist I can think of in search of more in the same dye lot. I am certain that as soon as I find some and it arrives, the cats will return the balls they stole.

If I knit it right away, does it count as stash?

I admit it. I fell off the no yarn purchases wagon earlier this month. I checked out the Superbowl Sunday sale at a new to me, but local, shop. And a bunch of Alpaca with a Twist followed me home. I've already turned the two skeins of Baby Twist into most of a Ruffles scarf that matches my sweet suede blazer perfectly. But two skeins of this yummy yarn does not make a long enough scarf. Tomorrow morning, I'll be phoning In Stitches to see if they have another ball in stock. I also bought two skeins of blue Fino (75% alapaca / 25% silk) for a shawl to be named later.

The next day, I drove to Richmond to give a presentation. And I found yarn before my talk. A ball of mostly blue Trekking pro natura came home with me. That was sock yarn at a new-to-me shop found on my travels (The Knitting Basket), so it does not count (see Exception 3) against the no new yarn resolution.

Unfortunately for my already weakened resolve, I went to late night last Wednesday. And a yarn rep was in the shop peddling Shaefer yarn. And she had many skeins of "cash and carry" Anne that Holly bought to wet our appetites for the big order of Anne she placed. Since I was writing a check anyway, I added a copy of Rowan #41 from the big pile on the back table and a skein of Mama-E's sock yarn to my stach. I had successfully resisted the Mama E's since it arrived at the shop in November, but the spring-like shades in Camilla warmed my frozen heart too much to leave it behind. In short, I bought myself an early Valentines Day gift.*

And to come completely clean, I missed the Rockin' Sock Club instruction not to combine the sock club payment with an order, and a skein of Puck's Mischief arrived in early January. Coincidentally, making a purchase with the Sock Club charge saved me from having my payment returned.

And I'm off to Boston on Friday—where I will see Lucy and pick up my latest Minds Eye sock club skein. I'll probably also visit Woolcott, and maybe Wild n Wooley. There will be no shopping on those visits. Only hanging out at the table and catching up with old friends.

*Before the real Valentine's Day gift arrived in our living room. Which we are enjoying tonight snuggled on the sofa with the kitty-girls watching the BC-Duke game while sipping bubbly.