Doing Nothing

Still searching for my Muse, I followed your advice, Gentle Readers.  When nothing is happening, then that's what you should be doing: Nothing.

I mellowed out and spun some more, not in my usual style, but as loose and relaxed as I possibly could make it.  My three plies wanted to become worsted-weight, so that's what I let them do:

I'm happier with it than I expected, considering how uncomfortable it was to spin that loosely.  Nice lesson in letting go of control, that.

After that, I felt I could take another crack at the Garter Stitch, seen here under the not-vigilant guard of the sleeping MacTarnahan:

Garter stitch is also not easy for me.  Something about the way the stitches present seems like exactly too much work for my fingers.  Not like stockinette, where the stitches are just a little more inviting to the needle.  I do dig the uncurliness of the fabric, though, which is an extremely welcome change from stockinette. 

I chose garter stich for the bottom of my cardigan because I just could not face another bout of 2 x 2 rib.  It's not that I couldn't suck it up and deliver the 2 x 2; especially now that I have the killer cast-on  for it in my bag of tricks.  No, the problem is that there is no corresponding tubular bind off for 2 x 2, and I have my heart set on matching trim edges for this beastie.  So garter it is.  And in spite of my petulant little attitude, I have to say that in this painted yarn, garter stitch is really beautiful:

Get a load of those sweet little color pebbles, will ya?  Totally worth doing.  Would be nice if I had remembered that garter takes twice as long as other stitches when I issued the decree to myself, though.  Mean Designer.

Tomorrow I'm on a plane to Sunnyvale, CA, where I get to play with the sassy knitters of Purlescence Yarns .   Drop by if you're in the neighborhood, and see what sort of trouble we get up to!