Manisk

I can't control myself! I don't want to work. I don't want to take care of my house or family. I just want to knit, crochet, read about knitting, read about crocheting, look at yarn, and think about all of the above.

Clearly I'm attempting to avoid reality, and reality is pretty overwhelming right now: We're selling our house and moving overseas. My father is very sick. My husband is stressed out. My mother is sad that we're leaving. My son is in constant need of attention. I have students expecting me to guide and advise them competently. I have friends with whom I want to maintain friendships. I'm going to be starting a new job in a foreign country. Argh. There's just so much to deal with!

So, instead we have:


This is made out of left over linen that my mother gave me, improvising a pattern out of Erika Knight's Simple Crochet. It makes me very happy, even though it doesn't really have much of a function.

Then there's this:

Or, rather more accurately, these:

Which are the grannie squares for the "Häkelbeutel" purse that I failed miserably at last month. I won't have enough yarn to finish it, and I am too cheap to buy more, so why even bother? Manic behavior. But ah, the triumph of mastering the evil "grannie square." What I didn't understand before is that, unlike in knitting, in crocheting you don't make the stitch into the stitch below, but rather below the stitch below (if that makes any sense). It changes everything.

And then the German sock yarn (Trekking XXL, purchased used from a Raveler) for making the Drops "rillejakke" arrived in the mail the day before yesterday, and it is so gorgeous that I absolutely had to drop the Lattice lace pullover (which I'm finding rather demoralizing since I'm convinced it will be too small) and start knitting. It's kind of a midnight blue with various blue, teal, and purple highlights. I'm really enjoying the easy garter stitch. Very therapeutic for my addled mind...


And if that's not enough I spent a lovely afternoon with my mother yesterday deciding on her birthday present. I'm going to -- what else? -- knit her a hat. After visits to three different yarn stores we settled on three skeins of this (O-wool Balance, 50% merino 50% cotton, all organic in a color called "Ruby"):


I did manage to work my way through my mail-in election ballot, and turned it in today. I also finally managed to call a plumber to set up an estimate for the plumbing work that needs to be done before the sale of the house goes through. And after a reminder, I faxed a form over to the title company. Little by little I do a few things, but mostly I just sit in a fog, frantically manipulating needles.