It’s Furious Balancing

The first phase of knitting is obsession.  Everyone knits too much when they start.  Everyone worries that they’re obsessed.  Everyone worries that they won’t be able to stop, or that they’re getting carried away.  The bad news is that you’re not going to be able to stop, that you are getting carried away, you’re knitting too much, and that things are probably going to get worse.  The good news is that soon you’ll be in so deep you won’t care anymore.   — The Yarn Harlot

Remember those blue socks I was going to make?  Well, they’ve landed in the “hibernating” pile while I’m working on other projects.  A lot of other projects:

A fuchsia cabled vest, knit in the round.

A sideways-knit cloche from Boutique Knits in a royal blue bulky alpaca.

To see the finished cloche, check out the great photos on this blog post.

A Noro striped scarf alternating two different colorways of Noro Kureyon. Click on the gallery photos to embiggen.

I have to add that I’ve made much more progress on the vest and the hat than those pictures show.  The hat is ready to be seamed and have stitches picked up for a cable running up the side.  The vest is about 2 inches longer.  Only the scarf pictures are current.

These are the projects on My Knitting Rotation.  There are a few other UFO’s out there — besides the socks — lurking in various phases of unfinishedness.  These three are just the ones I can’t keep my hands off of.

Not only that, I’ve got a zillion things on my To Be Knit list  — thrummed mittens, a cabled hoodie by one of my favorite designers, an entrelac beret — and I’m chomping at the bit to get started on those.  I’m going to make myself finish a current WIP before I cast on anything else.

I promise.

Really.

I think I’ve mentioned several times that the dark, dark yarn I used for my Black Rose Socks really dragged me down towards the end.   I needed a (short) break from sock knitting to tidy up a few WIP’s and to marshal my forces and make decisions as to the yarn and the pattern for my next pair of socks.

The yarn choice was a little difficult.  I needed something brighter and more alive than the Gothic Rose.  This was my first choice:

ONline Supersocke 100, a self-striping 75/25 wool-nylon blend.  It was a bit TOO bright for my current needs.  I have a hard time believing in was made in Germany.   It seems a little too perky.  I mean, we Germans certainly can be perky when we want to be (I’m thinking lederhosen), but this colorway lacks a certain Sturm und Drang that says “German” to me.  I also thought I would be blind before the heel turn on the first sock.

I chose this yarn instead:

Malabrigo Sock Yarn, in the Impressionist Sky colorway.  I’m trying it out on out Cookie A.’s Hedera sock pattern. 

I love the subtle color gradients in the yarn.  Blue is my favorite color, and I find it hard to imagine that I will be sick of the sight of it anytime soon.

Perhaps I just jinxed myself.

I thought it would be appropriate — considering my woeful grasp on U.S. history — to read the text of the Declaration of Independence.  Taking ten minutes, if not less, to read up on Why I’m Enjoying a Three-Day Weekend seemed like a good idea to me (and it’s helping me put off the housework that needs doing).

In any event, I drew some interesting parallels between Getting Rid of King George and Getting Rid of Dubya; and, yes, my emphasizing certain bits is my not-so-thinly-veiled attempt at editorializing.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world….

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance….

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power….

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury;

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses….

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments;

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever….

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.  A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Amen. Amen. Amen.  Enjoy your Independence Day, cats and kittens.