Stalled

That's what I appear to have done -- completely stalled out. I hauled the jacket in to work on Monday, to share with a friend there who's also a knitter. The nice thing about showing it to her was that it validated both my knowledge (and it is definitely knowledge) that it's just too big, and my sense that I just don't much like those big swathes of brown. She suggested that I try to sell this one and then buy more yarn to knit another, which would indeed solve the problem of my complete inability to make myself start the frogging process. (She also scared the heck out of me by wondering out loud whether frogging was going to ruin the yarn -- eek! I'm choosing to believe that it won't, but frogging sooner rather than later would probably help to ensure that.) But I just can't imagine asking someone to buy a jacket in a style and colors that they wouldn't choose, so that course is probably out. I've worked out how to include the brown without it being overwhelming, which is a good thing. Now it's sitting on the back of one of my knitting chairs, waiting for me to just suck it up and unweave that first end. I have this sneaking suspicion that it's probably one of those jobs that feels huge and overwhelming in the contemplation stage, but that turns out to be not nearly so bad once it's started. We'll see.

Meanwhile, I haven't been doing any knitting to speak of. I'm not sure how much of that comes from the fact that I feel like if I'm going to be playing with yarn, I really should be frogging that dratted jacket so I can start it again (note, btw, that I'm not dreading the reknitting, only the frogging), and how much of it comes from my general feeling of overwhelmedness these days. I had the sudden and semi-shocking realization the other day that I'm going to be out of town for five of the next six weekends. And the one weekend I'm home is soccer play-offs (all weekend). That was a pretty crazy thing to come to grips with. And in the meantime, I still need to finish up my classes, prepare the talk I'm giving in early December (the last of those trips, and the one for which I wanted, and still want, the Elektra jacket), write letters of rec, etc etc. And Rick's been out of town this week. So each evening, once I'm done with the usual evening stuff, I'm just beat, and all I want to do is to lie down in bed and reread some of my favorite novels (this is a long-standing coping mechanism of mine; if I reread a novel, I don't get nearly so caught up in it and I can put it down -- important when the rest of life is crazy -- and I don't have to put nearly so much mental effort into tracking what's going on; I get to visit with old friends instead, which is a very relaxing feeling when everything else is durm und strang, change and chaos). So that's what I've done. I think there's something to be said for honoring the need to hole up sometimes.

And in the end, that's what this long slide towards winter solstice is, right? A time to reflect, to start gathering up those stored energies for the wait until spring.

My knitting has gotten some use, though. Not only has it finally started to cool down (it was 45 degrees when I left the house this morning, which feels chilly to my unacclimated southern blood), but Younger Daughter had to give a school presentation this week on Edith Nesbitt (her choice). I figured surely Nesbitt wore warm woollen shawls as she sat writing her books, so Younger Daughter got to wear Dovecote for its inaugural trip out into the world.
Since I was on furlough today, and since she asked me if I would, I got to come and see her give her presentation (memorized, three minutes long). She did very well, and only forgot one sentence. I don't usually do so well in my public presentations!
The looks on her face in both of those pictures are classic Younger Daughter (I think if you click, you can embiggen and see what I mean). Heh.

That's about it. We're off to Cincinnati this weekend, where more of my knitting will get a workout. I think that the Urban Aran will be the woolly warm thing of choice for the trip (it's only for the weekend, so I'm trying to keep the packing to a minimum). I have my travel knitting ready to go (a scarf, and Rick's socks, which should get finished soon), and my reading (The Knitter, and the IK holiday issue, not to mention Robert Jordan's latest book); I just need to decide whether I should bring one more skein of yarn and a sock pattern, just in case...