Admittedly, I haven’t written much in the past week (heck, I haven’t written anything).  But, I have an excellent excuse reason.  Actually, several reasons…

#1 reason is, I have a bad Continental knitting habit of using my right index finger to help out on each and every stitch.  I don’t actually need to use it — I can knit and purl without moving it at all, if I think about it.  As I say, it’s a bad habit, which means I do it more-or-less unconsciously.  I even demonstrate it to new Continental knitters in my classes as a great example of what not to do.

Unfortunately, it’s not merely a bad habit — it also means I get tendonitis in this finger a couple of times a year.  This time, it came about because I spent a couple of marathon sessions last week working on a UFO with some completely inelastic recycled silk yarn in linen stitch.  Pretty, eh? 

Eventually, it’s going to be a bag, which is why I chose to use linen stitch, for its firmness as well as its ability to blend colors between rows, due to the horizontal bars across every other stitch.  But it also means it’s a bitch to knit, especially for long periods of time.

Originally, this yarn was going to be used for a Knitty bag pattern but I just wasn’t happy with the way it was coming out.  I was thinking about whether I should try something else with it, and I looked on Ravelry, where I saw that not too many other people were thrilled with the FO in the end (not that mine was an FO, by any means).  People said things like the bag was too shallow, and didn’t actually hold things very well.  Which, for me, is the whole idea behind a bag.

Sooooooo, I decided to cut my losses and frog it.

Mind you, this decision did not come easily.  I had gotten all the knitting and seaming done, and had cut out a lining of yummy mulberry-colored shot silk, and had even gotten some seriously heavy-duty interfacing stuff to try to whip that bad boy into shape — but nothing doing.  To use Rock Star’s memorable turn of phrase, it was

"like sewing beads on a turd,"

meaning that no matter what other efforts go into it, it still will be fundamentally flawed.  I don’t give up easily, but this particular battle was definitely lost.  I’m a lot happier with the new project, except for the soreness in the finger.

However, this time around, along with the tendonitis, I seem to have some funny nerve thing going on.  Every time I press against the side of my first knuckle, I feel a tingly twinge up around the second knuckle.  Hmmmmm.  (And you wouldn’t believe how many times a day you press something against the side of your index finger.  I have become acutely aware.)  I’ve given it about a week to see if it subsides, because the usual treatment for the tendonitis is a dose of steroids, which I prefer to avoid if at all possible.  But now it’s time to see the doctor… and maybe to try to break that bad habit.  Is it too late for New Year’s Resolutions?

#2 reason is, I’ve been continuing to work on the Great-Studio-Cleanout-No-Really-I-Mean-It-This-Time.  Remember back at the end of 2007 I was brave enough to show you my pile of UFO’s?  Well.  I have diligently winnowed through just about everything in the damned studio since then, and I am pleased to report that the UFO list is down to only 17 items – which all fit into this nice, narrow, organizer stacker thing.

Well, almost.

I could simply lie to you through the magic of photo-cropping, but yes, I admit the pile of "fixers" is mostly on the top shelf of the dark brown bookcase next door, and there is the duct-taped box full of Manos on the bottom shelf of the same bookcase.

But only because the duct-taped box is too big to fit into the stacker.  And one of the fixers has moved into a bag in the stacker, which means it might get worked on someday soon.

The important thing to remember here is that the stacker only comprises 10,620 cubic inches of space – so that means I’ve reduced my pile of UFO’s by roughly 26%.  OK, not a stunning statistic, but not chicken feed, either.  (And I didn’t subtract the volume of the shelves in the stacker, either, so that 26% estimate is a bit on the low side.) 

I’ve been working hard on the GSCNRIMITT project for a few months now, so I will self-indulgently include a couple more pictures of the almost-completely-cleaned out studio.  Here is the overflowing bookcase, now pretty much contained – and BTW, everything in there except the very top shelf is knitting literature.  The bottom right shelf is all vintage material, which I’m defining as 1974 and previous; the second from the bottom is all "retro" which is 1975 - 1994.  On the bottom left are my binders full of finished project info.  More than one person could ever need, right?  Ha ha ha.

And here is the lovely organized closet, which, before I embarked on this whole project back in December, was a breathtaking shade of sunshine yellow.  

Don’t believe me?  Thankfully, just a few minutes after I started painting, I remembered to take pics to remind myself of just how very, very yellow it was.  Kid you not, the evidence is that the entire room was painted this color at one point.

Finally, in the interest of full & complete disclosure, here is the teeny, tiny little pile of things I still have to sort out.

Oh, yeah, and in that brown paper bag on the right is some new yarn.

And it’s sparkly green metallic eyelash.

Old habits die hard.

#3 reason for not blogging for a week is, I actually got something finished. 

Did I say that the list of UFO’s was down to 17?

Oh (she said ever-so-casually), I really meant 16.  Hooray!

This is an "artistic pair" of Stashbuster Spiral stripe socks – instructions available here at hipknitism.com.  I used the leftovers from DH’s Colinette brown socks, and bought a couple of coordinating colors ("stashbusters", my fanny.  Everyone knows there is absolutely no chance that you will have just the right amounts of leftover or stash yarn in just the right colors for something like this).

Yes, the one sock has a blue toe, a berry heel, and a brown cuff.  The other sock has a brown toe, a blue heel, and a berry cuff.  YES, I did it on purpose.

To those of you who always make fun of my supposed inability to appreciate asymmetry — you know who you are, Sandi – I now can say, phooey.  (But in the nicest way possible.)

And I really don’t intend to wear these in public, if I’m honest.  These are strictly bedtime socks – to go with my blue polar bear flannel pajamas – of which no picture is available. 

Most self-indulgently of all, here is a great photo of ol’ Morgan.  I claim a flimsy tie-in with knitting because he’s lounging on the wool throw that my MIL knit for her son / my DH, lo these many years ago.

It’s one of his favorite places to sit, although he prefers that my legs be stretched out on the sofa so he can kind of loll on them.  (I am referring specifically to the cat, although that’s not to say that DH wouldn’t also be interested.) 

While it’s not really a reason for not writing anything lately, it is Morgan’s one-year anniversary of surviving with kidney failure, and he’s still doing pretty darned great.  Just look at those Gorilla Paws!