Friday, October 20, 2006

Call me a loser

Hi! Remember me? I'm back from reclusing myself away from the knitblogging world. (I know reclusing isn’t a word. I’m following the great American tradition of creating verbs from nouns by adding “-ing”.) I'm touched by the concern that some of you expressed over my recent lack of blogging. Nothing is seriously wrong over here--just a case of the blahs and a bit of a writer's block.

I had a cold a couple weeks ago and, as usual, I sat around and felt sorry for myself. I'm such a baby when it comes to being ill. As a kid, I didn't get ill very often (perfect school attendance from 5th grade until high school graduation!) so I got the short-end of the stick when it came to the attentions of Dr. Mom. In fact, my parents didn't believe me the few times that I actually was very ill. And yes I vividly remember being dismissed as "lazy" and "bratty" when I complained about not feeling well.* So now that I'm an adult and don’t have to wait for a parental unit to declare me sick, I milk it for all it's worth. "Pity me, I'm sick!"

PatheticKnitting-wise I've also been a loser. I started working on my Christmas gifts: Reid for niece Eva and Heirloom Aran for nephew Logan. Now you can see that Reid is basically finished. Seamed together, pink yarn ends weaved, picot edging worked. But notice that the ball of yarn for the edging is STILL ATTACHED to the dang sweater. It's been in that state for a week now. Pathetic. I'm just pathetic.

While the nearly finished Reid languishes in my knitting bag, the Heirloom Aran is clicking along nicely. What is it about working cables in fingering-weight yarn that I find so attractive? I was mighty disappointed to discover that I had to go up to a gigantic size 3 needle (3.25 mm for you metric types) to get gauge. There was much grousing when I put away the size 1 needle (2.25 mm). Suddenly the entire pattern was less interesting, but I cast on anyway. What else was I going to do with the yarn?

WhineThe back and the front of the aran are finished and I just started the sleeves. But now I don’t want to work on it simply because the sleeves have increases on the wrong side of the work. That’s right, I’m being crabby about having to increase on the wrong side. Why? Because not only am I a pathetic loser, I’m a whiner too. whine

So now you’ve gotten a dose of me in a foul mood and you can see why I didn’t feel like blogging. I’ll keep working on hauling myself out of this slump. A visit this weekend from Monkee and MonkeeMom should help with that.

*(The incident most deeply burned in my memory happened during a family vacation to San Francisco. We were in Chinatown shopping. At that time, Chinatown was very exciting and important to my father because Chinese Anything was impossible to find in Iowa. I started feeling bad. I told my parents. I could barely stand and couldn't bear to be inside the stuffy stores. My dad yelled at me. Called me selfish. After an hour or so of moping and yelling, he dragged me and the rest of the family halfway across the city to eat at a non-Chinatown restaurant because he thought I was complaining about being in Chinatown. But I just wanted to sit and do nothing. I couldn't eat the sandwich that he bought for me. More yelling. Finally, they took me back to our relatives’ house where I promptly began showing the less-pleasant symptoms of the stomach flu. Of course, my brother came down with the same illness the next day and my parents had to spend the rest of the vacation tag-teaming over who took care of the kids and who got to go sightseeing. Thankfully, I was nearly well by the time we had to fly home. Big brother was not so lucky.)

9 comments:

Jennifer said...

Oh, I'm sorry you were sick. It's amazing how childhood experiences with illness can really affect a person in adult life. My husband has a story involving the stomach flu and a 5 hour ride in a van that makes him phobic about the stomach flu today.

Anonymous said...

Well somebody's a bit of a Grumpy Gus, isn't she?

I totally understand, though, and it's so hard to shake off grumpiness before it's ready to go. So I encourage you to grouse and whine and complain until your grumpiness runs its course. Sounds like you weren't allowed quite enough of it as a child.

Reid looks great -- will you do an official FO post in which you tell us how it was to knit the pattern? I totally want to make it someday.

The aran looks great too, though I'm not sure I understand why the pattern became less interesting when you had to knit it on larger needles. Just a symptom of being grumpy?

I hope you feel better soon, both physically and mentally.

Meredith said...

Sorry you've been a bit out of it. The projects are looking very cute--looking forward to seeing the FOs!

Anonymous said...

Before my dad retired, he was able to spend two years on sick leave, because in over 30 years at the PO, he'd never used them. I know exactly what you're talking about.

The sweaters are lovely.

I think you should let your boss be the mean one and let yourself off the hook. :)

Karen said...

Oh finish Reid already!! It can't take THAT long! :)

Missed seeing your posts. I hope you feel better now. I would've brought you chicken soup....if I lived closer.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see your post, and I totally sympathize. I've had the same cold thing for two weeks and I want everyone to know how miserable I truly am (and then I want them to leave me alone, and stop bothering me for things like work and cooking and catbox cleaning...etc). Anyway, I hope that you do feel better soon, and also find a new project that really thrills you. It sounds like you're stuck in a project rut with the sweaters?

Anonymous said...

A gigantic size 3 needle? The mind boggles. ;)

That cable pattern is beautiful.

But that's how being sick is supposed to be. One is supposed to whine pathetically while people run about bringing you tea and toast and books and crossword puzzles. Wallow. It's the best way to recover. And then take an extra day when you actually feel human again.

Elizabeth said...

Wow, I love your Reid. I'm going to make that for my niece at some point so it's great to see a nearly-finished one. and lovely work on the Heirloom aran too. Feel better soon!

Terby said...

Both are lovely, Laura. Reid is gorgeous, and I like the Heirloom Aran very much. Oddly, I can understand your preference for the tiny needles (and you _don't_ knit socks?).

Grump away. I get sulky this time of year just on principle.