Lack of inspiration will not leave me alone.  It’s haunted me all February and is now following me in to March.  All I want to do is make pretty things.  Really… is that so hard?  But I sift through patterns and nothing looks enticing.  The other night I was perusing my stash and nothing was singing to me.  Not even the unspun fiber.   I know that I have an annoying habit of letting my aesthetic shift every so often, and I think that it has just shifted.  Previously I had been drawn to bright, saturated colors, variegated yarns, fingering weights, tiny needles and simple patterns that allowed the garish yarns to shine.  But now everything that seems appealing to me is made of muted, earthy tones.  Architectural patterns, rich, intricate cables and worsted to bulky weights are what I long for.  Sadly, my stash is seriously lacking anything muted, earthy, bulky and worsted.  And I’m still on the no yarn until April kick.  

So, I’m trying to ignore what my heart wants to knit.  And it hurts, actually.  But, I know that it’s a necessity right now.  I trudged back to my stash this morning and found some bulky novelty yarn that I had been ignoring for quite some time.  Since my feet were cold, I decided that it wanted to be slippers.  I set out with the lovely Amy March Slippers pattern, knowing that my loud, variegated yarn will probably murder the simple beauty of the pattern.  And I was right.

BUT, there has been some good to come out of this.  First and foremost, I have finally learned a toe-up method that does NOT involve a provisional crochet cast on.  (And there was great rejoicing!)  The figure-eight cast on (which can be found here, along with some crochet cast ons) just might be my new favorite thing.  It was crazy easy and relieves me of all kitchner duties.  And that’s a wonderful thing.  Actually, I want to start a pair of toe up socks just so I can try this cast on again.  But, with toe up socks comes another technique that still eludes me:  the short row heel.  I’ve tried to read tutorials on the short row heel, but apparently they are all written in a foreign language.  Now, my slipper pattern actually had a little tutorial on how to complete the heel in the pattern.  And it was still a foreign language to me.  I tried.  I followed the directions diligently, but it made absolutely no sense.  I kept ending up with large holes and running out of stitches rows and rows before I should have.  I finally just improvised and ending up making a heel that looks like a heel flap, only knitted in reverse.  Now I just need some ribbon and lace to finish this one up and then I can move on to the second one.  

In spinning news, I’m spinning the most luscious batt right now.

I received it in my most recent swap.  It’s a Merino, cashmere, baby camel and silk bled.  Hello, luxury.  I’m going for a delicate lace weight as I have a lovely neck piece in mind for it.  This stuff is seriously a dream to spin.  

Still making progress on Lew’s yarn.  I finished up the singles and have moved on to the plying.  I’m so close.  I just need to get out of this slump so that I can finish it up.