My desire — my burning need — to knit has returned with a vengeance. Really. I’m back to resenting every second I have to spend doing anything else. I work on the couch, in the same place I knit, and my knitting bag is right there, right there to my left, piled high with projects on the go. On the table at my elbow, next to the lamp, is a large oval Shaker box with random pretty yarns and small in-progress projects. Right there. Like Odysseus passing the sirens, I must lash myself to the mast (um….my laptop?) and put sealing wax in my ears, to try to focus on work. I resent eating, I resent sleeping, I resent working, I resent it all. (One thing I don’t resent, though, is my strength training program to which I return today, with another kind of vengeance.)

So despite the fact that I have three sweaters up on deck, with patterns and yarns purchased and in hand (Wintry Mix, Flux, and Vodka Gimlet, yarn actually arriving for that one any day now), I slipped. Goofed up. Had a moment of weakness. Fell off the wagon. Had a blackout. Acted impulsively. Was giddy. Was reckless. Was impulsive. I went to my LYS to get a set of needles for my Wintry Mix. I SWEAR. That’s all I went for. I wasn’t going to even look at the yarn. The shop owner is devious, though, and hides all the needles and notions in the far back corner, so you have to walk through the gauntlet of gorgeousness to get there. But I was good. I went straight for the needles, picked out what I needed, and strode to the cash register. Strode, I tell you.

And then, as if it had a mind of its own, my reckless mouth asked, “do you carry malabrigo lace?” “Why yes, of course,” she said, pointing to the wall. “You don’t carry cadmium, do you,” I asked, three-quarters of the way to the wall already. And then I saw it. It wasn’t cadmium, but it has to be close. Sauterne is the color, and it sings to me the siren song of a second featherweight cardigan. I love my first one, my dragon’s blood red one, so let’s go primary: How’s about one in yellow? I asked myself. And I said to myself, I said, “Self? I think you need one.”

malabrigo lace, in sauterne. it's like there's sunlight inside the yarn.

Dang it. And whoopeee! This weekend I’ll be swatching for all four sweaters, and winding all the yarn into cakes. Is it the weekend yet?