is knitting seasonal?

im beginning to think it is, to some extent, because i find myself suddenly unable to contemplate the knitting of a thick cable cardigan. partly this is because this year has been the Year of the Cardigan for me. a mountain view, two featherweights, and a summer solstice, not to mention two little boy items. thats a lot of garments, for me.

i sat down to knit the other night and for the first time ever, after only casting something on the day before, i had no interest. i know im easily distracted, but really? 24 hours and im bored?

it occurred to me that it wasnt just boredom. it was gut feeling that something wasnt right. rosered asked me what my gut feeling was, and i said ‘doubt about that item for me, doubt about that yarn for that item, and doubt about the pattern itself, in terms of its ease of instructions (or lack thereof)’. it occurred to me that this was a lot of gut feeling, and i would proceed at my own peril.

i have decided not to proceed. not at this point. i would not normally have moved straight to another cardigan, at this time of year, and if i was going to it would have been adrift. the only reason i started landon was because i wanted to wear it in america in december. that, my friends, is a deadline, and if there is one way for me to kill a project, its put a deadline on it. so landon is hibernating. it may yet reappear, possibly as a bruegel, which means i never really did make up my mind about that either.

do not despair, however. i am not completely self-will-run-riot, not just yet. i felt like knitting lace, and something delicate and difficult, as opposed to the soft squishy yet somehow stodgy four ply yarn-overs of the stonington (its like the bread-and-butter pudding of lace knitting, really). so rather than cast on something new, even though my fingers were twitching (silk lace weight and annis calling my name in particular), i pulled out something that was hibernating, and that will be just as useful in a cold washington winter as a 10 ply jacket, and that is the lovely estonian lily of the valley scarf in jade sapphire mongolian cashmere:

now that i am past my fear of nupps, and have conquered the art of LOOSELY making 5 stitches in one, this is flying off the needles.

its so soft, so beautiful, i dont know why i stopped in the first place. once this is done, i will let myself cast on something else very lacey and complicated.

summer is also when i seem to get my sock mojo back, and im pleased that despite recent weird discussions about needle sizes, i am nearly at the heel of the second monkey sock. i am doing the second sock no purl, the first one is purl and looks good

but the no purl looks better so far. the yarn is lornas laces shepherd sock in ‘pilsen’. oddly enough, the sticks are 2.5mm knitpicks harmony DPNs.

at least, i think they are!

k xx