I need a better name for startitis...

I've always understood the syndrome but hated the name "startitis."  "-itis" as a suffix means "inflammation of" and I'm pretty sure I don't suffer from an inflammation of my starter.  No, I suffer from a disease of starting, a disorder of starting, I SUFFER from a DISEASE of starting, so I'm gonna pick "startopathy."

Regardless of what we call it, I've got it bad this week.  I cast on for Matt's Sam Jackson sweater and just tonight, for no reason other than the fact that I'm insane, I cast on Citron.  It started because I have this skein of laceweight Malabrigo that I started knitting baby stuff in, then changed my mind about the intended baby, then stalled out on the sweater deciding to do hats for babies from now on.  I planned to repurpose the skein of Malabrigo into something else, like a lace scarf or cowl for myself.  I spent many lovely days looking through ravelry for single skein lace scarf/shawlette/cowl patterns and bookmarked several. Citron came out and I thought it was the perfect match.  And then I started thinking about it.  My skein is a lovely light butter yellow.  Perfect for a gender-neutral baby knit.  Not so great for a warm-hued redhead to wear up near her face.  I wanted to knit Citron though, so I dove into the stash and pulled out an ancient skein of Cherry Tree Hill Cascade Lace in Fall Foliage.   I'm iffy on the yardage, because I think it may have changed over the years, but I'm totally willing to try it.  The colorway is very odd, there is a lot of yellow and brown with weird deep purple in very small (VERY small) repeats.  It's fun to knit with, and the brighter colors may be more flattering, and if they aren't, well, then I'll give it to my mom who loves yellow & fall colors in general.

Tomorrow I'm off to my only solo grown-up birthday experience in years....and I'm bringing mindless knitting for the movie/restaurant.  Gavin's Op Art - ready for his first birthday in July, perhaps?

Hooray, the Dale for Gavin is to the yoke! I have the sleeves on and it's all one piece now. It is so downhill from here, it is not even kidding. Let's just try and forget about 300+ tiny stitches a round and a jillion more decrease rows...the end is near!

This past weekend I also got to show off my mystery knitting to its recipient. I'm knitting my best friend Jen a pair of socks, Blackrose. They are Malbrigo Sock, bought from Webs, in RayonVert, which to me was the perfect rose colorway. A purple with bits of green. I'm in love with the heel on this sock - just the way it looks in this particular yarn. More pictures to come; I just have one in Ravelry from when Jen tried it on. I was afraid it would be too big - for some reason, it just looked slouchy (must be a visual effect of the lace section) and I wanted Jen to make sure it was okay. The bonus of her trying it on is that now she's totally dying for a pair of handknit socks, so I have a lot of motivation to finish it, and she has motivation to finish her first pair of socks that have been languishing on the needles for *cough*years*cough* a while.

Considering a loose sort of knit olympics challenge, but have too many MUST DO projects. Oh, and still no free time (and very little free space on the DVR!) in which to watch & knit. Maybe I'll use that time to bust through Charlotte's Dale, providing I've finished Gavin's sweater and Jen's socks first.

You know how you reach that point when you are knitting for a deadline (maybe self-imposed, maybe holiday related) and you reach that point where you realize that you aren't going to finish in time, no matter what, and it's sad, but also a little bit freeing?

Yeah, not at that point yet with this baby sweater. I'm still in the well-if-I-finish-this-sleeve-tonight area.

That being said, time to watch TV and knit. Hooray, hoorah, as my daughter would say.

Being born third sucks.

Quick, picture-less update. I just cast on for a baby sweater for my upcoming nephew, my stepsister's third child. I have absolutely no time to be doing this, but I knit stuff for the other two, so I feel like it's only right that I knit something for this baby. He can't help that he's born third. He's due February 21st, but my stepsister's last two kids were born exactly two weeks early, so we expect him around the 7th. Considering that Hunter's 3rd birthday is the 9th, there could be some really interesting sibling rivalry for new baby boy P.

I finished the clogs for Bob, but they have yet to be felted.

I also found a purple kimono sweater that I started knitting for Charlotte, and I'm still trying to finish a little gray stockinette hat for her. Luckily hats are less of on issue right now, because Jackie found some in the attic at the house. She also found a couple sweaters that Charlotte can wear, too. One was Matt's, one was Heidi's.

The current project for me is that I'm midway through a knitpicks shawl in Gossamer Carribean, I think. I am hoping to get back to it soon, though my priorities really are to finish up some stuff for Charlotte.

I hope to take some pictures soon, and get this stuff into Ravelry.