January 26, 2009

Stratagem

Is it possible to be stalked by your own desk? No matter what I do I can hear something on my desk mumbling about how I'm not giving it proper attention. If I work on the Sock Summit (when you guys see the teacher list you're going to loose your minds. I can't believe it myself) then I hear The Blog rumble. If I work on The Blog, my inbox threatens to implode. If I address the inbox, then the writing work I have to do looms large. It's days like this that make me wish I had a boss who would step in and say "Go do this. I want it by five - and don't let me catch you knitting."

The knitting at least, is one area where I know where I'm headed. The skirt is drying, having finally decided to allow my own tenacity to determine the length. I decided yesterday that having reached a modest and scientific length of "somewhere around the knee - I'll know more after I've blocked it" - to call it quits wherever I was at bedtime, and this morning I finished the repeat (two rounds) and cast off. I've still got to knit a whack of i-cord for the waist, and line it, but I think the bulk of it is behind me. It's a pretty thing, and tomorrow when I put it on I'll know the length. I like the element of surprise, and considering that The Blog comments were divided amongst "Stop before the knee or you'll look ridiculous" and "Stop at the knee, it's the only solution" mixed in with an equal measure of "Just below the knee is the only appropriate length" I've let fate decide. It is as long as destiny wants it to be, and we'll find out how long that is when I put the thing on tomorrow.

In the meantime, I've set myself a goal. I would like to wear my February Lady sweater, which currently looks like this:

Fivepolwart51108-1

(plus another equivalent amount of roving)

to Madrona, which is (very appropriately) February 12. Nothing like a challenge to add fuel to the fire of overwork.
It's very odd, and probably says something very bad about my personality that heaping a big spinning/knitting project to the pile makes it all seem more reasonable, rather than less. We'll see if it ends up with me chewing on the leg of my spinning wheel.

(PS. For those of you who are Twitter-interested, I've started twittering (critics would say I've been doing it for a while) and all tweets (which are like very short on-the-run blog posts) are available on my Twitter page, or over there (I wish I could make an arrow pointing to it) on the right hand side under "I'm twittering...". They are all 140 characters or less, and can be done from a phone, which can't really be said for the blog. It's just another way for all of you to know what I'm thinking at all times, heaven help us.)

Posted by Stephanie at January 26, 2009 3:04 PM