Is it Basic or Boring?

The rice-stitch cardigan is coming along beautifully, or it was coming along beautifully.  I have finished the back  the left front, and I am nearly done with the right front, or at least I am past the armhole shaping.  The knitted fabric, the weight, the texture, the richness of the deep brown color and the stitch pattern, are all fabulous.  They will all combine to create a favorite basic sweater that I hope to wear for years.

But I am bored.  I am practically bored to tears.  Why is it that the sweaters I most like to wear seem to be the sweaters I least like to knit?

Or am I just displaying a bit of temper because I was hemmed in all weekend by snow, snow plowing, and snow shoveling, and lots and lots of knitting.  I am ready for spring, for the promise of spring bulbs (now hidden under 18 inches of snow, which has not made any obviously visible progress toward melting).  I am ready for spring knitting.  I am sick of winter and sick of winter sweaters. 

But I only have six inches to go until I finish the right front.  I was about to write 4 1/2 inches, but then I noticed that I lost my mind for  a brief bit last night and got front and back confused, resulting in this obvious interruption of the pattern in a most visible place:

See those few rows with the telltale ridges?  They are far more obvious in person. Oops, time to rip out.   Will I finish tonight?  Who knows. 

I used up my netflix allotment over the weekend, subjecting my darling spouse to an odd collection of films that he probably would not have chosen on his own:  The Story of the Weeping Camel, which we both liked and which was convenient as we interrupted it in the middle for a snowplow run, Princess Mononoke which I thought was beautiful and charming although it did have a tendency to drive those moral points home with a sledgehammer.  Pour G was near desperation as he has very little tolerance for make-believe and fantasy in any form, and yet he did not wander away from the TV.  The last rented film was Ikiru which we both enjoyed despite the depressing story line. 

The knitting survived all those video treats in great form.  It was only last night, neither one of us feeling like pursuing any intellectually stimulating activities, that we were reduced to watching the offerings on the TV.  We ended up watching the remake of the Manchurian Candidate.  I was not that thrilled with the movie itself.  The plot was rather conventional and dragged at times, and at times it seemed like no one was making any effort to make sense or even make the movie seem plausible.  But I watched because I wanted to knit, and rice stitch begs for distraction, and also admittedly because of Meryl Streep.  I will watch Meryl Streep in anything and she was very good.  In fact the acting was better than the movie, not just on Meryl's part.

Tonight, perhaps I need a break from knitting.  But on the other hand, if I finish the front, I feel justified in a little dalliance with something else before starting the sleeves. 

Comments

[Gina]

Ikiru may be one of the most difficult films I've seen. I think I had a panic attack watching it -- I started to feel the weight of my life bearing down. Well, I'll really start to worry when you're renting "Dude, Where's My Car?".