Once again, I am a sucker for pop culture reference. I can’t help it — the lack of filtering ability bipolar comes with means I absorb pop culture like a sponge. While it makes for a stupid human trick of remembering all sorts of pointless things, it also eats up a lot of spoonage because it’s hella intrusive.

Anyways.

This week was definitely about seams though — I finished the little sweater! I had to do the sleeves first, which was all sorts of stripy, Freddy Krueger-gone-patriotic cute:

Doing the seams was definitely a bit of the mixed bag thing. I found a great tutorial on horizontal mattress stitch, and as you can see, it made for a very clean join:

Though I can’t say the same of the darker areas, hee hee. The seaming on the sleeves and shoulders are functional at best, and when I was picking up stitches around the neck, I pulled from the wrong side of the piece. It’s fine functionally, and not horrible visually… hopefully I’ll get it more correct next time. But on the other hand, I sort of got the hang of normal mattress stitching on the sides as well, so it’s all progress in the right direction. I used this video for my side seam guide, if anyone was interested. Even with the sound off (one reason I don’t watch videos on my computer; I dislike it making noise at me ever), the quality of the video and the demonstration makes sense.

The finished product:

The next pattern in the book is a matching hat. I meant to let myself have a break before starting it… but I failed in that regard. I definitely have a full-blown knitting addiction at this stage, hee hee. But then, I also have found myself wondering — perhaps this is seriously the limit of what my spoons can do right now. And in that, I’m maxing out my productivity in a hobby that is fulfilling and not terribly wearying. It doesn’t require nearly as much thought as writing, and it doesn’t necessarily require me to deal with other people (e.g. – social networking, which I think can fairly be considered a hobby).

Or perhaps depression is trying to trap me in an isolation bubble, and I’m enjoying myself too much to keep my guard up. I managed to easily talk myself out of going to the last Stitch ‘n Bitch meeting, though I was basing that on a valid medical reason (slept all day). At work, I’m always in this haze that excludes everyone else. I don’t know whether that’s a depression thing, or a self-preservation thing, but it means that I couldn’t tell you the name of anyone else in that building who I’m not related to (only a slight exaggeration). Having said that, it could just be a side effect of my mind being so wonderfully still by comparison to the before times. So maybe it’s that relaxation thing that I’ve heard so much about, ha ha. I don’t know — I’m just continuing to muck through each day as they come, trying to eke out what enjoyment I can!

I hope everyone out there is having a good weekend.

<3