Procrastination

My Secret Pal sent two links that she thought I’d be interested in. The first is a Mason-Dixon dishcloth swap. (This reminds me that I ought to post pictures of my summer finished objects so far. However, this will not happen today for reasons which will become clear soon.) I don’t know if I’ll get my act together for the deadline (also, I’ve got plans [I bought yarn for two projects, knowing I was in the middle of two projects. This is not good. This is knitter-blogger behavior, and I am not a knitter-blogger; I am a blogger who happens to knit. Big difference.]).

She also sent a link to a sock war. This also looks like fun, and the organizers have a sense of humor (as worthy in knitters as it is in vintners). But, Secret Pal, let me let you in on the history of me and sock knitting. Three years ago, I thought, “I should learn how to knit socks, just in case.” (In case what? Well most times, I brush it off and say I don’t know, but a tiny part of me, the tiny part that insisted I get a Jeep after I saw Red Dawn (and that part won, BTW, I did own a Jeep my Senior year of high school), says, You know why!). I went to a yarn shop, and they sold me the Patons sock booklet. I went home and made 4 pairs of socks out of yarn I had at home (i.e., not sock yarn); I started in September with a pair for Trixie, then one for Impera, then I knit like a madwoman in the office to get a pair done for the Consort for Solstice (we exchange hand-made gifts). I finished my pari sometime in February after that. Everyone loved their socks, but within 6 weeks, they had holes in them (because 1: the socks weren’t made from sock yarn, and 2: they wore them around the house without slippers, the imps). I took a break from socks for two and a half years, at which point I finished a second pair I had started for Trixie, then knit myself a lacy pair of socks (with sock yarn! On size 1 needles!). Which you have all seen. And which took me, what, 4 months to make? This is all a long preamble to say that if I joined the sock war, I’d be dead before I got to the heel of the first sock. Figuratively; you know, in the game. (And those two projects I’m in the middle of? Two pairs of socks. Yup.) But, maybe one day, if they do another round…

And now, readers, I will let you in on a little secret: I am not the neatest person in the world.

Well, I’m not the messiest, either: that would be my mother-in-law (she knows it, we know it, everybody knows it), and, tied for second, the-Consort-Impera-and-Trixie. So I try my best, I really do. But when I get overwhelmed with project deadlines, my desk hypothetically looks like this:



Just hypothetically, you understand. Which is bad because then the neat-freak part of me (yes, every perfectionist has one of these, don’t doubt me) says, “I can’t concentrate on the project at hand! I’d be much more productive if we took a couple of hours off right now and cleaned this pigsty up!” (Because little does my neat-freak part know, but it is really multi-personality disordered, and that’s just its procrastinator personality talking.)

And so that’s why I won’t be posting pictures of my finished objects today. (Because my guilt-laden part already wasted time creating an entertaining blog post for my readership today.) It’s potluck night, so I think by this evening all my different parts are going to want a drink or two, and I will make the Consort drive us home.