It’s sort of been a grumpy week so far. Well, it’s sort of been a grumpy month or two, but this week has been no good. Yesterday was a good day but Monday nearly made me cry and today started out good and rapidly went downhill. I was such a frowny mess when I got home that I ate potato chips and ice cream for dinner (don’t do that, your tummy won’t like it).

I’ve been seeking out happiness where I can find it this week so, in addition to giving the froggy some arms and a new mouth, I made these:

If you remember, I originally designed these booties to alleviate some work-related grumpiness. I don’t know if it’s just coincidence that I always choose to knit these booties when I’ve been having a rough time, or if I’ve somehow invented baby booties with sanity-restoring properties.

In which case, I should totally market them to harried mothers and become filthy rich in the process.

But I’m hoping that today will be the end of the grumpiness, or at least the worst thereof. I had a breakthrough moment on my walk home today: I am grumpy because I am overwhelmed.

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I made some frog legs, but not the kind I’d eat.

(Actually, there no kinds of frog legs I would eat. I’m very much an omnivore, but amphibians are on my list of Animals that are Not Food.)

You might have also noticed that I removed the mouth. I decided it looked too…lusciously porn-y.

That photo makes a good game of Spot the Clutter on my Desk. I have never in my life been able to keep a clean desk. This caused many fights with my mom when I was younger. Now I just happily pile away.

I literally have nothing on the needles right now. Ok, not quite literally, as I have about four rows of a tiny tube knit up after I got it into my head that I was going to design a sock. And then I quit. But beyond that, nothing. Not so much as a baby hat.

I have a couple of toys on hooks, one of which you saw here, but that’s it.

And it occurred to me the other day that I’m just uninspired. The projects out there are plenty inspiring. But the yarn I own…meh.

I’ve never been a big yarn stasher. Limited income (poor grad student) and limited space (poor grad student apartment) just make it impossible to really stash. If you remember, my entire stash looks like this:

And right now, those green drawers are easily half empty. The basket mostly held yarn for the Ombre Blanket and is now three-quarters empty.

This year has been an expensive year (though for good, happy reasons) and I just can’t justify buying yarn when I had, at last count, almost thirteen miles of it. Except for the ball of green Plymouth Encore being used for the amigurumi frog ($5.75), I cannot remember the last time I bought yarn. I’ve just been knitting through what I’ve got, and I’m officially sick of it all.

Thirteen miles of yarn, all earmarked for projects, and I don’t want to cast on any of it. Not the Alpaca Silk, long earmarked for the long-coveted Vintage Cardigan by Norah Gaughan. Not even the gorgeous laceweight from Sundara, because I wanted to design something special for that, and that requires time (something else I don’t have much of right now).

If I had a random stash of non-earmarked yarn, I could at least do something. Swatch exciting stitch patterns. Make a purse. Some random socks.

Instead, I’ve got thirteen miles of earmarked yarn, and not a yard I want to knit. What is up with that?

You won’t tell anyone if I go splurge on something pretty this weekend, will you?