This morning, as I staggered out of bed, some things occurred to me. This by itself was rather remarkable, since I am generally incapable of thought until I've had a fair bit of coffee. More things have occurred to me since getting my coffee...so let's get a little introspective, shall we?
1. Claudia threw down the gauntlet yesterday in the comments, surmising that her lime tank is better than my blue tank. As I prepared to go to war to defend my blueness and say vile and defiling things about Claudia's lime tank, and go make a comment on her blog about how sucky the lime is anyway, and why doesn't she....like...knit blue stuff when it hit me.
I like lime better than blue. (I am especially envious of Claudia's lime, which is much better than my blue) I like orange better than blue too. I also like green better than blue. This revelation begs the question "Why is everything I'm knitting for myself blue?" Pathetic Fallacy perhaps? Does this mean that I'm expressing something? Is the blue symbolic in some way? Do I own too many pairs of jeans? Am I wimping out? What would Freud say?
(Vell now, let us konsider vat you are sayink. You prefer zee ozer colourz but you deliberately deprive yourzelf of zees tings dat give you pleasure. You are angry wiz your fazer? You need punish yourself for somtink? What does your mozer tink of blue? Let us examine also why your laundry is undone.)
2. This tank is boring me to death. Ok, fine, near death. I can feel my life force slipping away as I work each monotonous ribby endless row...it is only my deep belief that I will win the ongoing war with the splitty yarn that keeps me hanging in there. (It is an interesting twist of fate that the needles appear pink in this photo, when they are, in fact...you guessed it, blue)
I can't wait to get to the front, at least then the cables will prop up my will to live. This brings us to the second question. Anybody else notice that I'm knitting pretty simple stuff these days? Is it just me? I feel like my knitting lacks...zip or something.
What I need is Daredevil knitting. Something wild and dangerous, something with real hazard, like huge gaping steeks, or reams of lace knit from the finest wool I can find...or maybe a sweater with an insane chart, screw that, how about like Four charts, yeah! Four charts with tiny little squares and parts where the instructions are vague and it's do or die baby. Some pattern that takes real gumption, something I can get behind. A pattern that takes guts.
It may be (gak) time for another Starmore, or something like THIS. (I got woozy when I looked at that. I've wanted it for so long).
Suggestions for breaking out of my knitting blue funk are graciously accepted.
Samina asks which mag my new cabled tank is in, why it's Vogue Knitting spring/summer '02, (you know, the one with the blue sweater on the front.) but do me a favour, knit it out of something orange, will ya?
Posted by Stephanie at May 25, 2004 12:10 PMWell, there's always the Mediterranean Lace pattern in Meg Swansen's Gathering of Lace book. Just make sure you use the 2nd printing. The errata from the 1st printing (which I own) made me frog what I had started and put the book away. I find that pattern very intimidating, and for a brief span of days, considered it a worthy challenge to overcome. Then reality hit me, and I pushed it back a couple years. I would both love, and hate to see you do it.
Posted by: LauraA at May 25, 2004 12:32 PMSometimes a tank is only a tank. (You tink? No, wait, that's Yentala...)
But this impulse to switch from something boring to something intimidating may bear analysis. Sweetcakes, what about something =fun=?
Posted by: rams at May 25, 2004 12:47 PMLove the phonetic Austrian accent!
Blue...health, healing, tranquility... kinda goes along with your recent projects - simple and more relaxing to knit. This is your "blue period" embrace it.
I found it very interesting that dark purple is associated with frustration. When I started trying to teach myself to knit I was on a huge purple kick, huh.....
On challenging projects, have you seen Debbie New's book? It gives me a headache.
Posted by: allyson at May 25, 2004 1:02 PMStephanie! Be careful knitting the front! I see a big, honking mistake in the cables on the right as you look at the picture. Cables aren't crossed right in one spot. I hope that is just the knitter's mistake and not the directions. Oh well.....That should keep you on your toes for a while.
Posted by: Casey at May 25, 2004 1:12 PMOh, you are so right! There is a mistake in the cable on the COVER of VK! I can't believe I never spotted that before. Wow, you ought to get some sort of prize for your sharp observational skills.
Posted by: Anne at May 25, 2004 1:30 PMArgh!! I'm not a Freud fan, but since I have studied him way way too much, I can give the Freudian color perspective. He would say that your id (the irrational part of the self) is craving the lime and the orange while your superego (the goody two-shoes part of the self) is wanting something safe and boring, like say...gray? I don't know. Anyway, Freud would say that your ego (the decision maker that favors moderation part of the self) has chosen blue as a compromise between the extremes of too wild lime and too boring gray. Don't you just love my very technical psych jargon? "Goody two-shoes" ;-) Oh yeah, Freud would also definitely say that you had problems with your father. He was such a dirty old man. Hmmm...I wonder what the behaviorists would say...
Posted by: Amanda* at May 25, 2004 2:43 PMThat cable is going to haunt me. At least I didn't knit it, nor am I going to wear it. Gaaahh...
Posted by: Rana at May 25, 2004 2:57 PMThere is nothing wrong with knitting phases -- and knitting what you call "basic stuff" at such an astounding clip makes it amazing stuff. And what about those intricate doll clothes a couple of weeks back? And the wrestling with the entrelac-that-shall-not-be-named? Easy -- bah! Now in my easy phases, I do really, really, really basic stuff. Do you think this trend might be a "blog effect'? (Got to feed the blog...)
As for blue, well, if you DON'T like blue you HAVE been misleading us! How can anyone prefer orange to glorious blue?
Posted by: Laurie at May 25, 2004 3:07 PMI have no superego/id conflicts in my world. Id wins all the way. I'll have you know that I have an orange top on my needles right now! Of course, I also have a blue top (the famous Rowan Audrey) on another set of needles.... Could I be wrong about those conflicts? I'd better schedule an appointment with my mom or dad. They're BOTH shrinks.
Casey, your powers of observation are scary. I bow to you.
Posted by: Samina at May 25, 2004 3:18 PMyou could always do something insane.. like that lovely fair isle bag in the latest IK done on size 1s with 11 colors. Or you could re-write a pattern to completely throw everyone off. but if there really is a problem with that cable (good catch!) then I think you'll be fine with that amount of excitement.
Posted by: anj at May 25, 2004 3:52 PMI'm seeing a lot of, uh, blue around here. Maybe you need to get yourself some lime yarn? Or if you wore some tinted glasses, maybe the blue would look more purple? And then you would probably just realize that you love blue, and Claudia can just go be limey!
Posted by: Mariko at May 25, 2004 4:25 PMStephanie - sometimes blue is just blue.
Posted by: Linda at May 25, 2004 4:49 PMYou need two words, "extreme knitting." Get out of the blue funk and grab some colors, go all four-charty with it and live a little. Remember, No. 4... Knitting Goddess.
Posted by: roggey at May 25, 2004 4:59 PMAs to the blue and lime tanks: you have had what among my family and friends we call "A Hydrangea Moment", referring to the time we were driving toward a nursery and I was ranting about how much I disliked hydrangeas--on and on--and suddenly I realized I really, really wanted a hydrangea bush for our yard. I love it when someone else reports a Hydrangea Moment.
Posted by: Leslie at May 25, 2004 7:34 PMOh my God, you are the funniest fiber blogger... nay, perhaps the funniest blogger period. I'm dyin' here. Plus you know someone from Sydney, Nova Scotia, where my great-grandparents came from. You rock! :-)
Posted by: Janet at May 25, 2004 7:53 PMFunny, but I initially read "lime tank" and "lame tank". What does that say?
Posted by: Gina at May 25, 2004 8:31 PMAh, me. Please do that amazingly intimidating Spider Queen shawl. Please.
I am so envious of anyone who can knit lace like that.
You could do it out of a lovely lime-ish green to make it really pop.
Or, failing that, you could trot yourself off to the giganto craft store of your choice and collect many colors of embroidery floss to knit with.
Really, I hear some people do that.
VOGUE KNITTING has a MISTAKE on the COVER??? Betcha that got someone fired...
Blue is restful. I love blue. It looks awesome on you. Accept the Universe's plan for you. All will be clear in the fullness of time.
Posted by: Lene at May 25, 2004 10:14 PMDon't make me come over there! Or maybe I should throw you a lifeline. A mango microspun lifeline. Dontcha think? If you think so too, I think you know what to do.
Posted by: claudia at May 25, 2004 11:19 PMLove the finished tank. I think the waist is fine, but then I was just admiring your ability to wear a nice tank while thinking "gee, I would like to wear something like that but I have way too much arm fat."
Sigh - must be the poutine, right?
Totally understnad the blue funk. For some reason, 85% of my stash seems to come in shades of purple.
Wonder what that means....
Posted by: Carrie at May 25, 2004 11:34 PMUm, this might sound a bit weird, but why not knit something with a blue background and a lime and mango pattern? I really like the dark violet microspun color -- the others would look wonderful in contrast. Or, perhaps, a bright and colorful space-dyed yarn?
I misread Lene's comment as "All will be clear in the fullness of LIME."
Posted by: Sylvia at May 26, 2004 9:20 AMYou get no sympathy from me because I LOVE blue. But if you're really tired of it I"ll be a martyr and take all your blue yarn off your hands... if it'll make you feel better.
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