Well, last night I finished the Seaman's Scarf while reviewing the chapter on "abiotic effects on species distributions".
I also picked a little bit at both socks and then tonight I got in an hour on the cardi sleeves.

I'm ready to finish more projects. I want to start some new stuff (I got some Kool Wool at the Hobby Lobby sale and want to try for a rollbrim hat, I found some cream-colored Wool-ease in-stash for my "dream scarf" (see yesterday's post)) and having this many unfinished projects really is a bit much.

I do think I notice a drain, or a sense of un-ease, when I have so many projects going. I think it is because I am picking at each one - only doing a few rows at once - and I can't see any progress.

I want to finish up some things also because I'm getting bored with them. I don't know if anyone else has that problem, but about midway through a project, I just plain get bored with it and want to start something new.

I want to have a scarf going. Right now, for some reason, knitting scarves appeals tremendously to me. It may be partly because once the pattern is set up and memorized, you can just motor away and work - no having to worry about increases or decreases, no measuring to see if it's the necessary length or not - you can just go. And not think too much.

I find that a lot of the time knitting is a way for me of "de-tracking" my mind from bad thoughts, especially simple knitting like scarves (by "bad thoughts" I mean worrying, or the type of reflecting on human nature and its faults, that I tend to get into if I let my mind wander too much).

For a while, Clara had a little banner that said something like "Knitting is better than Prozac."

Which is true for me. Or at least I think it is. I've never needed Prozac. Yet, at least.

And now I am going to bed. I am reading a book of C.S. Lewis' essays, "The Problem of Pain".
I picked it up last year shortly after Sept. 11 and found myself unable to go very far in it. Now, I'm getting through it and finding it interesting and meaningful.
I wish I knew whether recordings of Lewis reading his work existed - I imagine he would have a very comforting sort of voice to listen to.