It's almost 2 am and you'll never guess what I'm doing. Okay, I suppose if you're reading this, then you probably can guess. I'm blogging. WOW. Who knew this could be so addictive?

Still working on the Something Red (er... mine's purple) cardigan. It's growing beautifully. This time. I originally tried to start this top-down raglan cardi four separate times a few weeks ago. I'd get just a few rows done and already I could see that my increases were not symmetrical. You see the pattern calls for strategic placement of stitch markers to show you where to work the raglan increases. Okay that makes sense. But you see, I am just not happy with stitch markers. We do not get along well at all. Really. Trust me. I find them visually distracting. I would so very much prefer if pattern directions described how to do these things using common sense and visual cues. Perhaps in addition to the stitch marker approach, we could have a brief exposition of the structural logic of the garment's construction? I began to wonder if there was an error in the pattern, or I am just missing something here. I even went so far as to email Haley and ask her to toss a few rows of of the pattern onto her needles and tell me if it's just me or what's wrong with this.

I had started the cardi in August in some beautiful new aqua/turquoise cotton (Butterfly super 10). But I found myself ripping it back over and over and over again, and eventually I gave up on that one and switched to some cheaper yarn so as not to destroy the nice unblemished new turquoise stuff. Found some sweet purply mystery fibre in the stash. Since we were heading into fall, it was probably time to put the tropical sea away for a while. I'll get more use out of the purple cardigan this fall and winter anyway. No idea what the fibre content is, but it is very soft and warm and the colour reminds me of Welch's grape juice.

Anyhow, after much gnashing of teeth I decided to go without the f---ing stitch markers, throw caution to the wind and just build the raglan shaping intuitively. The tools were just confusing me so they are gone! (YEAH!) And the cardi is starting to shape up reassuringly. (Whew.)

You know, this makes me think there's probably some kind of psychological functional style issue. Maybe I can learn something about myself here. I am just not a gadgets kind of gal. I have lots of materials: yarn, art supplies, cooking ingredients, music scores, books,... but very few toys. No fancy row counters or tools, but plenty of needles. No fancy kitchen tools, gadgets or machines, just a microwave and standard electric stove and oven, a couple of pans I use almost everyday for everything, some well worn wooden spoons, and a couple of simple knives. Lots of recordings but no ipod or mp3 player, just the CD walkman or my computer's CD drive and speakers. No blackberry or PDA (God forbid). I did break down a few years ago and get a cell phone only because it became impossible to coordinate rehearsals with a group of chamber musicians without being more telephonically accessible while out of the house.

Too much paraphernalia just gets in my way - I'm not wired for that. I also definitely need to understand why something works the way it does. More on that next time. We'll also learn how I was totally in love with the colour fuschia as a child and in the 80's, and therefore now I could knit a freaking fuschia cozy for the CN tower from stash yarn without spending a penny.

Wish I had some pictures for you. Let's all just tell the universe to send me a lovely digital camera, okay? Click your heels together three times and say: "I wish there were pix. I wish there were pix. I wish there were pix."

Oh, good, it's only 3 am. Lots more time for knitting!