Sock It To Me

I am going to knit socks again. Note; the lack of the word try. The problem is, that just like schoolwork you don't really want to do, there are so many ways to avoid knitting you don't really want to do.

First, I determined I needed smaller needles. I knit as loosely as is humanly possible. This is partially due to the fact that I detest taking time on knitting, and I expect to see progress almost immediately. Now I successfully made items on smaller needles, so I am not completely opposed to them. But it was with difficulty I gave up my size 2 needles and procured size 0 needles instead. Even with those, the stitches are still slightly loose, but the idea of moving to a negative needle size just seems wrong.

Now the other option is to move to a heavier yarn done on smaller needles. But then, what yarn do I use? Actually this is a problem overall. I own a large quantity of beautiful handpainted sock yarn (impressive considering I actually have never knitted a matching pair). My problem with that is I don't want to waste that yarn on my sock knitting. It's being saved for shawls and such. The other problem is that I do have some Malabrigo superwash worsted weight. But really, do I want to waste that on socks? Of course I could get cheap yarn but who wants to knit with cheap yarn? See where this is going? So right now I have 4 rounds of sock done made out of a lovely (but not hand dyed) self striping commercially available yarn. Of course it'd make a really cool scarf especially woven but anyway.

But every time I pick up the sock, I get a sudden urge to do something else. Some of these are really good things, like clean my bedroom (which is always an abyss), clean out the car (another good thing), or delve into my pile of marinating roving to actually spin a bunch. This has the self rewarding factor of making more yarn, which I can add to the pile. Of course the ever growing yarn stash (that Shop Hop was a really bad idea) is an issue in and of itself. Everywhere I look I see yarn. Every bag I open I find a skein of stashed yarn. I am simultaneously delighted and yet slightly overwhelmed. Add to this the fiber stash, which is overflowing the closet, and I need to do something about it.

Tuesday night it hit me like a bolt of lightening! The kids are no longer using their playroom. They play in the living room, after all, they're 11, they don't spend hours with toys, they spend hours online or playing games. So, we don't need the playroom anymore! The playroom, (which actually used to be an office/workroom) has a lovely futon, and great light. It's right off the living room. To sell the idea, I told them we could keep a card table set up in there permanently, and said it was going to be an 'art' room. By the time I had one of them at Target picking out shelving, they were so sold on it, they even ignored the fact that the shelving was to be for yarn - except to suggest we buy more of it (shelving, not yarn). Of course this project is just in the starting phases, but I can picture it in my mind. Yarn displayed lovingly in labeled shelving, sorted into colors, and weights. A work table in the corner, and I'm thinking even a way to organize needles. I might even be able to move a spinning wheel in there (if I can figure out a way to get the kids to organize their stuffed animal stash, that's a total go).. And this is a great way to procrastinate on my sock - again.