Rip It. Rip It Good!

Okay, now that everybody over 30 has a Devo song stuck on a continuous loop in your brain and soon you'll be praying for the release of death, Dear God Just Make It Stop! my work is nearly done. For those of you whose brains don't automatically start playing that song when you see that title, I have four words for you: Annoying Swiffer Commercial Jingle. There, now no one, or at least no one in North America, has been spared.

I'm ripping the Amanda backpack. I realized this when I started thinking about it while driving home from work. I realized it's not thrilling me, and that lovely deep purple Cascade 220 is too lovely and too deeply purple to use on something that doesn't thrill me. Nothing wrong with the pattern, I'm just not into it.

I'm restless and trying to decide what to start next. Of course, I could FINISH things, but I'm in a starting kinda mood, and you know how it is when the urge to do something new overcomes good sense and responsibility. Somehow Cascade 220 just wants to be felted, it's so good at it, it seems a shame to knit it for something that won't be felted. That's what superwash is for, IMHO. So now I'm pondering its best use. I have enough of that lovely purple Cascade 220 for a felted pillow, but that would require actual organized swatching and felting, to measure to make the right size pre-felting.

I need to spend some time with my knitting books and my stash, and re-ignite the passion for the existing stash. Somehow the yarn in the stash isn't as exciting as the new yarn that can be acquired - it's the thrill of imagining the perfect yarn and the perfect concept coming together in the Perfect Finished Object. I realize this, and I'm far from immune to it, but I am on a Yarn Fast. Not a yarn diet, because that implies a measured small consumption of new yarn - smaller portions, careful selections. No, I am on yarn starvation. The past few months of unexpected household expenses (car repairs, house repairs, supplies needed for two hurricanes, followed by pond parts, oh my) have not been kind. To put it mildly. I have lots and lots of yarn. I do not need to buy any. This yarn fast will continue until the stash is down to 1/3 of its current size.

Meanwhile, the bizarro weather continues - today we had dark skies and bursts of heavy rain. It's the Ghost of IVAN. No kidding, the remains of Ivan beat the hell out of the east coast, went out to sea, turned around and has come back down to dump on Florida some more. I was truly boggled when I heard this on the news. This is just freaky. Jeanne is spinning in circles and not going anywhere but also not going AWAY, Lisa is heading this way, only Karl was polite enough to wander off and not bother anyone.

Monday's over, it's raining, I cleaned the pond filter and didn't go to the gym. Now I'm going to get that purple bag and Rip It Good.