Small Steps Toward Conquering The Dithers

Per my resolution to "Stop Dithering and Knit Something", I will refer to those inspiration-zapping periods of inactivity as "The Dithers". I almost lost my entire weekend to The Dithers, having only managed half of a mitten on Saturday afternoon and nothing else for the rest of the day. I think what helped was finally getting our respective work/study places finalised: we put Nathan's desk in the corner by the kitchen, and moved mine from the second bedroom upstairs down to in front of the livingroom window. Clearing out my workspace Saturday and leaving it in a fairly organised yet still inaccessible pile would certainly have contributed to my malaise. It's hard to want to work on a project if your materials look for all the world like a yarn-festooned Jenga game.

Finally, though, I truly have a desk of my own. It's not upstairs covered in books and piles of ill-conceived yarn purchases; it's not temporary, as it was to use Nathan's desk. We both have independent places to put our stuff - his school things, my projects/books/accoutrement - and I think that small thing alone helps me concentrate and get to work, knowing I won't have to move anything to make room for his homework, or that I can leave out my notebooks and pens and even have room for a framed picture or two.

As for rescuing my weekend, since I had all of my stuff organised once more, I could spread out my books and work - finally - on retooling the shape of the hood on the Laila scarf (see here - the listing is inactive but will still give an overview). I must have wasted a month on just the hood alone; the first time I did it, I didn't have any faith in my gauge and measurements and made the hood too long, which made it do this weird pouching thing once the scarf and hood were on. This time I made a miniature version and then used gauge and conversions to make it translate to full-size. While I'm sure I'll tweak the pattern in the future, I'm much more pleased with how this one turned out! It's cosy and comfy and, with just a little more work on the edging, will look cute on anyone :)

(The above is a picture of it laid flat. The colour in the photo almost doesn't reflect the real colour of the scarf at all - it's actually a deep ruby sort of shade.)