And Blah, Blah, Blah...

Argh…I just don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just don’t feel write-y for some reason. I noticed that the blog posts started slowing when I got the new job, working with people I enjoy and can goof around with a bit. That might be part of it, though I’m not sure why – maybe I’m talking too much during the day and using up all my words. I’m not even posting much on Readerville any more. I just don’t feel I have anything interesting to say. (Which the rest of this post might prove.)

This week though I’ve been feeling sort of grumpy…and I’ve been trying to figure out why. Post birthday let-down? Post-election let-down? Pre-Christmas blahs? (I am so not ready for Christmas. Not just in the sense of “Oh, my God, I have no gifts for anyone and no ideas for anyone and I hate to shop!” but also in the psychological sense. Heck, I’m not ready for it to be Thanksgiving yet, much less Christmas.)

And then there’s the Wollmeise situation. Which is just so supremely silly that I can’t believe I am taking up time even thinking about it. I think I’ve mentioned before that The Loopy Ewe gets yarns from this German dyer, Claudia, whose yarn is called Wollmeise. The yarn is wildly popular…sells out in minutes, both at The Loopy Ewe and on Claudia’s own website. And you never know when it is going to be put up for sale at the Ewe. As anyone who reads this blog for more than a week knows, I certainly don’t suffer from a lack of sock yarn. It’s not as though I can’t find other yarn at The Loopy Ewe or a dozen other sites. But this elusive Wollmeise has gotten under my skin. And I’m a little mad at myself – no, I’m actually very annoyed with myself – for letting it get to me. It’s like a popular hysteria…and I’d like to think that I’m less susceptible than most people to fads. But obviously not because, damn, here I am, annoyed about the Wollmeise!

Loopy Ewe customers knew there was going to be a Wollmeise posting sometime this week and Tuesday evening I was sitting at the computer and checking Loopy Ewe’s site every fifteen or twenty minutes. And I still managed to miss it! It came and went between two of my site checks. I only knew about it because I checked in on Ravelry and saw people talking about what they had gotten.

And even though I’ve read comments from some people saying that they don’t even like the yarn all the much…and even though there are other dyers I love whose colors are drop dead gorgeous…and even though there’s like a one-in-a-million chance that I would be on The Loopy Ewe site at just the right time and be decisive enough to choose a skein before it was bought out from under me…and even though I can sort of hear my mother laughing at me for wanting something just because everyone else does (her view would be that if everyone else wanted it, that would be enough of a reason not to)…even though I know all that….there’s still this dissatisfaction, this sense of missing out on something.

And yes, I know there’s a thread on Ravelry where you can beg for some of this yarn from those lucky enough to get it but I’m not going to do that. I mean, I know I don’t need this yarn.

And you know, as I write about it here, I realize it isn’t even really the elusive yarn itself that’s really bothering me. It’s the situation…the sheer improbability of ever being at the right place at the right time. And the fact that people are swooping in and buying up multiple skeins, multiple times when they don’t really need it and then sort of crowing about it. And yes, many of them are generous enough to then offer the skeins up on Ravelry. But then why did they need to buy them in the first place? So they could play Lady Gracious? Because they, too, were swept up in the hysteria? Do they realize that if they held back that there would be more yarn for the rest of us? I dunno. It’s a weird phenomenon.

See? Supremely silly.

And I hereby resolve to put it out of my mind. So….

I am almost finished the yellow clown socks. They are actually going to be too small for me, I discovered. How clever of me. Anyway, I asked one of my co-workers, with smaller feet than I, if she might wear them and she allowed as how she would, at home. So she’ll get the clown socks.

The orange scarf is chugging along still. I’m just about through my second ball of yarn. It would be going faster if I…you know…actually worked on it.

And I need to start Rachel’s sweater. Perhaps when she’s home next week (yay!) I can double check her measurements and actually start. I am so afraid that I will somehow screw it up and I want it to be perfect.

And I need to seam baby Alexandra’s sweater. That poor thing has been sort of abandoned. I may try to take that up The Black Sheep on Saturday and sit for a bit and seam in good company.

And Rachel wants me to knit a Jayne hat, in shades of green, for a friend of hers.

And I am already thinking about what socks I want to make next. I'm thinking something in a solider color with some stitch interest.

Current Reading

I read the latest Dalziel and Pascoe book, The Price of Butcher’s Meat. It was…okay. I mean, a mediocre Dalziel and Pascoe book is better than most books. But it wasn’t up to the quality of the last one. And there were irritating sections written all in italics (when the recuperating Dalziel was talking into a mini-recorder) and sections written as lengthy emails, complete with misspellings (though, thankfully, no lol speech).

And I read a good YA book called Tunnels. Pretty creepy, with a very well-realized world existing under London. There’s a sequel coming out in 2009 that I’ll be looking for.

And right now I’m reading Hannah Tinti’s The Good Thief. It’s very Dickensian. I’m enjoying it a lot.

Whew! I guess I found some of my words!