I have finally been struck with the cold that plagued by family all week. As I sat on the couch making my way through the first season of 30Rock (which is funny as hell and my new addiction!) I began to feel that guilty itchy sensation that comes with doing nothing all day long while those around you pick up your slack. Since the headache and fever prevented any physical exertion I dug out my crochet needles and yarn and worked up some much needed winter hats for the kids.

I crocheted Otter’s first even though I was fairly certain he would never use it. He can’t abide restriction and finds hats, gloves, and coats to be the most opressive objects ever presented to him. Surprisingly he took to his new hat rather well. It seems watching me make it all afternoon turned it into something cool instead of something irritating. He couldn’t wait to try it on and didn’t want to take it off.

Once Monkey saw Otter’s hat she demanded one “exactly like it but with a poof ball.” We settled on candy cane stripes for her colors and I did my best with a poof ball on top. She seems quite pleased with it. Now I am wondering how hard it would be to make matching mittens…

We are facing another storm, with balls of ice/sleet/snow falling down and bitter wind whipping through the streets of Red Bank. It is a weather that fits my mood lately, but I recognize the need to cheer up a little. So, while the cold wind blows little balls of ice onto my windows, I indulge in a little American consumer therapy.

Lee and I are quintessential consumers. We can usually be cheered, even if only briefly, by the purchase of new shoes, a new bag, something for our Macs. Today for me, it was yarn. Skeins and skeins of fancy woolen yarn, just waiting to be turned into baskets, bags, hats, scarves, wallets, whatever I want. Blue variegated yarn with a knobby, uneven texture. Multi color yarn, in sea and fall colors, with a steady medium texture. Piles of lovely yarn!!

Hope is a pile of colorful yarn. It could be anything you set your mind to, and there is something really pleasing about that. That may be why I have a tendency to hoard it, I have an increasingly large collection of “potential projects” growing in my craft cabinet. Not to mention the fabric for the other million things I intend to do. (I really should get to finishing those baby blankets.) Yes, I am pleased by possibility, and therefore keep growing my collection of yarn into a smorgasbord of possibility that would take me months to complete. I should never have to go to the yarn store and purchase more, but let’s face it, my stock of opportunity would wither if I did not start out each project with newly purchased yarn. I would also not have the chance to indulge in some shop therapy.

I will inevitably decide to turn all this yarn into christmas presents or some such thing, requiring me to use almost all of it thereby necessitating a new trip to the store for yarn replenishment. It is a vicious cycle.