No, not the kind where you are compelled to cast on 5 new projects at once. I am talking about the sort of startitis I get all the time. The inability to start at all. Last weekend we unpacked the last of our boxes, this house is set up and it’s lovely, the nicest place we have lived in a long time. I am feeling (colds aside) relatively healthy. Life really is getting back to normal. But still there was no knitting. Eventually I had to face the fact that I have trouble getting started on things. I am pretty good at maintaining my momentum, due mostly to a need for closure that borders on the obsessive. If only I were so committed to getting started. I have a terrible habit of just not making a start on things, especially when the task is difficult, annoying or boring. If you were interested in book keeping (I am not) you would find a definite pattern to my book keeping practices…

Eventually I realised that I needed to be knitting again and that it was never going to happen if I kept waiting for the urge to knit that bloody sock. It’s very pretty, I am pleased with the outcome so far, but the Spearfish pattern hovers somewhere between boring, annoying and difficult. Although I usually find stitch patterns easy to remember, I have to consult this pattern constantly and yet keep making really stupid mistakes, which is driving me nuts. Other than that I can’t quite pin down why I am not enjoying knitting these socks, but mentally it’s been hard work to keep at it (or it was before I stopped and failed to start again). Finally it struck me that the Spearfish socks were not my only UFO and that I could work on Shedir - which is my idea of knitting bliss. Less than a day later and what have we:

Pattern: Shedir - Knitty Fall 2004 Surprise
Yarn: Rowan Calmer in Khaki
Needles: 3.25 Addi Natura circular and 3.25 Addi Bamboo DPNs

This hat was just so much fun to knit, beautiful yarn, wonderful cables. As I said, my idea of knitting bliss. I may have to make another one, though it may have to wait a little while. I am thinking of casting on the DB Jacket with Moss Stitch Bands next, hopefully gaining enough momentum along the way to return to the dreaded Spearfish socks when I am done.