Acting Rashly

Start-itis n. Med. Condition suffered by handcrafters in which many new projects are begun, but older projects are left to languish unfinished, sometimes indefinitely. Common among knitters, crocheters, and spinners. Cure: no known cure, but startitis can diminish after being allowed to run its course.

Yes, I've got me some of that. I really really really wanted to finish my Tempting this week (or even Monday, but that was really reaching far). Because I have this voice in my head that tells me I should just complete the sweater, that I must complete the sweater before I do anything else, that if I do not, my moral character will be called into question and I'll never finish anything for the rest of my life. (Mom, is that you in my head?)

Of course, I am choosing not to listen to that voice (it's hard, because it keeps yelling) and last night I cast on for what I thought was going to be a Jaywalker sock, but turned out to be a Twisted sock (free pattern from KnitPicks) in now-discontinued Sock Garden (Star Gazer Lily colorway).

It's a really nice pattern, top down, with this tee tiny cable in the k2 p2 ribbing - you just ktbl the second stitch, don't drop it, then k regularly the first stitch, then drop both off. Do that on R1, then R2 is just k2 p2. It's easy enough that I feel confident I can make this sock, and it has this new skill so I feel like a SuperKnitter when I make a tee tiny cable. I'm knitting this on bamboo dpns, US sz 1/2.25mm, 5" long (ChiaoGoo / Westing Bridge, LLC). I think I'm going to switch to the KnitPicks metal sz 1 dpns when I get them (after the rush--everyone in the knitting world wants these babies), because I feel like I'm going to snap the bamboo ones every time I go to make a cable (tee tiny).

I've also gotten my knitty little hands on the Sizzle pattern, and wanted to start on that right away. Of course I don't have the yarn for it in my stash or in my budget (yes, $15.00 for 127 yards when I need 750 yards = $90.00? We'll file that away for when-I-win-the-Lottery knitting), so I started swatching with KnitPicks Shine, which was going to be for my Picovoli (which never really happened... ah, the start-itis).
So yes, I began swatching. But I cast on while watching ... some Nova program? Or Arrested Development? I don't know. It was completely engrossing, whatever it was, because I cast on for a freaking 10-inch swatch. Nobody needs a 10-inch swatch. Good lord. And of course I got bored with it before I got a good 5" length to measure my gauge (I'm pretty sure I have to go up from US 7 to US 8 to get gauge, though). And next time, I'm going to cast on slightly less than 10 inches for my swatch.

And all this start-itis leads to guilt about my bridesmaids' gifts. I promised all of them I would knit them something as a thank-you for putting up with my wedding. At the time it was very lovely in my head -- a lace scarf for Laura! A cabled scarf and hat for Maribeth! I'll design a shawl for Margaret to keep her warm in the menacing AC of Florida! A teacher bag for Christine! There may have been sparkles floating around the room when I decided all this. I've promised my girls these gifts, and I'm casting on for things for me? Foolish Kathy. I'll keep going on the socks, but I'll put Sizzle away for another time. Maybe after I finish two gifts I'll start something for myself. (Shut up, I am not martyring.)

Dermatitis n. Med. Inflammation of the derma, or true skin. Contact dermatitis n. Med. Doctor-speak for "Huh. Well. Heck if I know, really. But it's not contagious!"
On Tuesday I noticed a rash on the back of my neck. Weird. Went home, took a benadryl and immediately fell asleep (my usual reaction to any kind of anti-histamine). Woke up at 10:00pm (lovely!) and the rash seemed like it was sort of better, though it was in more places than I realized at first. Went to work yesterday, itchy and worse, then to the "convenient care clinic" 4 blocks down the street from my apartment (living in town totally rules lots of times). Waited in the waiting room. Waited in the exam room. Had no knitting, but did have a new book about knitting from the Library (Nancy Bush's Folk Socks), so wasn't too bothered. I was bothered when the nurse came in to do the intake and had her back to me the whole time, while typing into a little wireless laptop. Um, hello? If it's wireless and on a moveable table, don't you think you could ACT LIKE A NURSE and make eye contact with me while you're asking me about my last menstrual cycle, you insensitive clod?!!

Of course, being a Midwesterner, I didn't say that. But I was closer to saying it than I ever have been before. That encounter (if you could call it that) set up my mood for the rest of the visit, which included waiting some more in the exam room, while Little Johnny two rooms down constantly wondered aloud about where the doctor was, diagnosed himself aloud ("I think it's probably due to my asthma."), expressed his boredom aloud, and opened the curtain between his room and the next and enumerated (aloud) the equipment therein. Incorrectly, I might add. Little Johnny's Mother was the pleading/bargaining type ("please don't open the curtain again" "How about a fruit snack [i.e. more sugar]?"), and the whole thing was repeated (ALOUD) throughout my visit with the doctor. I had to ask him to speak up twice (admittedly, my hearing is not the greatest, but still) and I felt like saying, in a deep authoritative voice, "Little Johnny, it's time to be quiet now, or else I will smite you down as I would smite an irritating mosquito dancing in my ear!"

But of course, being a Midwesterner, I didn't say it.