Startitis

After reading the Yarn Harlot's recent blog post about her wicked case of startitis, I realized I'm coming down with it too. It's still that early infection feeling, where you know you just don't feel right, but no symptoms have come out yet. Well, I did spend a couple hours completely reorganizing my yarn stash, finally moving all the handspun into easily accessed drawers instead of bins. Boy, I have a lot of handspun yarn. Some is already tagged with a project in mind - the dark brown-grey natural bluefaced leicester is going to be a cardigan or open-faced sweater in some nubbly stitch pattern with perhaps a complex cable running down the front. The laceweight royal blue shetland is destined for a (you guessed it) Shetland lace shawl. Ever since I started knitting I've wanted to make one. I also really want to make a faerose shawl, but don't have enough handspun in one type for that too. Of course that's not saying I don't have enough wool I could spin up, but startitis won't wait for that kind of thing. I'm almost freaking out excited at the thought of starting some of these big projects after so many socks and hats. Of course, I have to finish the pair of x-mas gift socks I'm knitting right now. And I do need to find another travel knitting project for my next business trip. I always do socks or a scarf since I can tuck it in my bag and knit during the workday too. Size-wise the shetland shawl is tempting to bring, but even a simple lace pattern can be dangerous knit in a dark color in ever-changing situations. Maybe I could bring along a sleeve for the sweater, that's kind of like a sock, right?

I was at the Farmer's Market this morning buying heirloom apples to can Apple Smash this afternoon - an ultra chunky form of applesauce more akin to apple pie filling. There was a cold misty precipitation (I can't really call it rain), and I was snuggly happy wrapped in my handspun wool shawl. I love the water-repellent nature of wool and its ability to trap body heat yet still breathe. Well, I better get to peeling apples if I want to get this canning started.