I read the new Vogue Knitting yesterday and wasn't tempted to make a single thing. None of the featured yarns or ads in the back inspired me. That is very, very rare. Oh, there was an excellent article on the state of the British Wool industry. I had no idea how hard the economies of production (over there) are on sheep farmers. No wonder English yarn is so expensive! But other than that, I just leafed through the magazine. Maybe I am currently immune to new projects because of my recent European acquisitions. It's just all too fabulous for competition. This may be the first time that this has happened in my memory, but I feel completely satisfied with my stash. How many people can say that? And how long will it last?

Stash is usually a dirty word for knitters, though some people are coming out of the wool-hoarding closet. Wendy over at Knit and Tonic has an incredible photograph of her in her stash, bathing in wool like some crazy knitting porn fantasy. She's really amazing, that Wendy! I'm not sure that I am ready to come to terms with the contents of my stash. I still have a lot of questionable yarns in it that were bought out of the sales bin when I first started knitting. I've still not learned to resist the siren song of sale yarn, but I'd like to think that I buy a better class of it now. I should weed it out and give it away, but to whom? There are also the beloved, projectless yarns. What will I do with 1300 yards of nearly lace weight charcoal alpaca? It is so wonderful that I am afraid I will never find the right project for it. I rarely buy yarn without a project anymore. Whether or not the yarns end up becoming what I'd originally planned is another matter entirely.

Yesterday was a blah day. Jet lag is not nearly so glamourous as it sounds. I have to wait for hours for my friends to wake up before I can call them, then I'm off to bed at the ridiculously early hour of ten. This is clearly an opportunity for self-pity. Well, I was supposed to have a gig yesterday. The production manager and I had discussed it three times. Yet, when I called him yesterday morning to inquire when he wanted me to come in, he told me that he had hired someone else for the gig. Argh! I played it cool, but really felt shat on in this situation. I was looking forward to seeing my work friends and instead I was at home watching the latest Law and Order spin-off. Not exactly a high self-esteem day. I just need one really sunny afternoon, to reset my clock and my outlook. But, being a Chicago spring, that is unlikely to occur.

At least my knitting is going well. My Giotto pullover is just flying off the needles. Yes, I have other projects languishing on the needles as I type, where my attention might have been better directed, but how could I resist this Giotto yarn? It was a real bitch to wind, possibly because I was using a wooden swift and it is a ribbon yarn. Giotto isn't hateful like your typical ribbon yarn, though. It isn't slithery, and at the pattern gauge, makes a fairly firm, cushy fabric. I am already to the armholes on the front piece of the sweater. Well, the adapted front piece. I can't ever follow a pattern without meddling, so I decided that I do not want a twenty-seven inch long sweater. I got out my trusty tape measure and measured one of my favorite sweaters. It's only twenty-one inches long. The Giotto sweater will be 23 7/8" long. Too-short sweaters drive me crazy, so I hope that this will be a happy medium. I look forward to wearing it soon!