Wanting to start

First off, the weather. The local weather people had me well-scared this morning with their talk of "parking lots like skating rinks!" and other things. I called the campus news line three times, each time got the "Winter's here! Drive safely!" message that they put up when people THINK the school might be closing but it is not.

So when I packed my lunch, I put in an extra piece of fruit and packet of nuts. I was thinking, "In case I get stuck over there at least I'll have something to eat without having to rely on the vending machine" (which tends to either break down or be empty in times like these).

I also grabbed my current simple-sock project, and made sure I had EVERYTHING I would need to go all the way through its knitting (scissors, tapestry needle, measuring tape) just in case. Just in case my doors freeze shut or the roads are covered with ice or who knows what happens.

And of course, I step gingerly out the door, expecting my stoop to be icy.

Nope. A cold rain was falling but it's just rain. As far as I can tell, it's still just-raining now. It might get worse later on, I don't know, but I guess I'm going to have to add "weather forecasters" to my list of "people where you need to discount what they are saying by at least 20%, maybe more if they are panicking."

***

I'm really wanting to start new projects. I keep going to my small-projects yarn box (well, one of them. I admit to having more than one box full of sockyarn). I've pulled out yarn for "simple socks" (the ones where there is no stitch pattern or cabling or lace or anything), I've pulled out yarn that I want to use to make my own pair of "Brewster Stockings" (from several-issues-ago Piecework. And I like the yarn I chose for them: a very historical sock pattern, made of purplish-pink Dream in Color yarn (the color name is "Punky Fuchsia." Um, yeah.)). I'm looking at the various sock books and trying to decide what yarn goes with what pattern.

And most recently, I found some Regia Silk 6-ply (in my sewing room clean up) that I want to use for the Cranford Mitts (pattern available here, they ask you make a small donation in return for the pattern.)

I'm going to do them in a dark brown, with cream for the "accents." I like that as I think it's both fitting for the historical style of the pattern, and also a color combination that will work well with what I wear a lot. (And I'm having to use the mitts more this winter; it's been colder. Some days I wear a pair of fingerless mitts for practicing piano).

So there are a lot of things I want to start. This happens periodically; I think it happens to a lot of knitters.

Some call it "startitis." (but there are some that don't like that term and observe that it is technically inaccurate (yes, I know: I used to work with a Medical Terminology person).

I'm not sure what would replace it. Startmania might work, but it's kind of clunky and ugly, and also, you want to be careful using mental-health terms very freely.

And the only other option I can think of, considering an "excess flow of start," would be very, very bad. (Startorrhea).

I'm not sure what (and if there is) a medical term for "desire," (other than the kind of "desire" that those couples-sitting-in-bathtubs-out-on-the-beach ads discuss), but that might be the appropriate one.

I don't know. So far I've resisted casting on for anything new, and instead forced myself to work on existing projects.