A short yarn story, the beginning of a cowl, and more beginnings

I was in the yarn shop the other day, because we were nearby, which we almost never are, and it was open.  A lady seated on a sofa near the Malabrigo was knitting, and she asked me what someone will always ask if you go into a yarn shop:  “What are you going to make?”  I said I didn’t know.  Which I didn’t, and don’t.  This is how it goes with me.  I never know what I’m going to make, I just now and then buy some yarn I like, kind of at random, and then, when I do come across something I want to make, I open up the cupboard and see if the right yarn is in there.  If it isn’t, I guess I just go make something else.  And there always turns up something that is just perfect for the yarn I have.  Always! 

So, by way of a labyrinth of blog hopping, I spotted Ann Weaver’s Albers Cowl.  I went to the cupboard, and found a whole lot of fingering weight solids and semi-solids, and they looked well together, and it was good.  Happily, the Albers Cowl involves garter stitch, and Log Cabin-style construction, and it is simple and soothing and portable and, well, everything I want in a project right now.  I also want to make this and this.  I am already headfirst in the cupboard about those, too. 

I know why I need so much garter stitch, so much calming and simplicity.  It is because of this:

He’s so handsome and awesome I can’t stand it.  It was his birthday, too.  So much transition around here.  I am practically dehydrated from all the emotional blubbing.  Oh look at them, on the brink of their bright grown-up lives, remember when they were little?  Mercy, I can hardly manage it.  Enough with the caps and gowns around here already!  Must knit garter stitch!  One Log Cabin-style cowl, coming right up.