Phyllotaxis

I was so tired this morning, and I woke up with a single word in my head.

Phyllotaxis.

Why? I own Knitting Nature, and there are quite a few patterns I would like to try. In fact, I bought yarn the other day to knit one of the sweaters. I'm even having trouble choosing where to start. But after a long day at work (12.5 hours) why would I wake up thinking of phyllotaxes?

Weird.

There's been a lot of knitting going on lately, and even more yarn-buying. Fall is here, and it has triggered some sort of larder-stocking mechanism in my brain, in which I start buying yarn for all those projects I have yet to do. It's been pouring into my mailbox. Two 1-pound cones of laceweight Jaegerspun wool-silk arrived yesterday! It's not random, I have projects and patterns picked out for each of these yarns. It's just that I don't have nearly enough time in this particular decade to get to them all.

And yet I keep trying.

Though I was looking through the stash the other day and acknowledged that there are yarns that were intended for projects I no longer want to make and can't think of another use for the yarn. Six skeins of mercerized cotton, each skein a different color?

I took Little Boy to Michael's for the big yarn sale on Sunday so he could pick out a (cheap) variegated yarn to knit with. (He really likes the rapidly changing colors of cheap ombres. Go figure.) There was a demo by the front door for a round knitting loom, and it was being demonstrated by a teenaged BOY. That was it. Little Boy sat himself down and learned to do it. We left with a loom and several (cheap) yarns, and he's currently knitting a hat. The excitement he's found in being able to knit an OBJECT instead of simply a snake is hard to describe. It's pretty awesome.

But let me just state for the record: the first yarn he picked out was one of the most expensive yarns at Michael's and was an alpaca blend. He does have the beginnings of good taste. Somewhere.

I'm closing in on the final few rows of the triangle Florence scarf from Fiddlesticks knitting, cast on for a mystery project (I know what it is, but I won't post it till later) and I'm trying to finish the Schafer socks. I really want to cast on for the wool-silk I received yesterday. It's going to be a gift for a friend, and she's long overdue for some pampering!