exhaustion

Has it really been weeks since I last posted?  I guess school and work and kids just got the better of me and I was too tired to bother.  Since we last spoke, I've done some knitting but I've mostly been doing homework.  I'm on break right now and thank goodness I am because this last set of classes just about killed me.  My final projects were truly ridiculous and I'm still wiped out.  My back is so badly out of alignment that I've been having a hard time sleeping and I can feel that my collar bone is grinding when I move my left arm.  I really need to see the chiropractor but I just can't afford it right now.  I'm entrenched in a battle with my former employer and it's affecting my unemployment so the budget is really tight right now.  Luckily, I've been taking in some repairs and finishing work from the shop which helps make up a little of the difference. 

I've been commissioned to knit a sweater for a friend's husband and I've been agonizing over it.  I've knit 3 swatches and I've tried to cast on and get started but I do this thing where I feel like, if a person is paying me to knit something for them (and it's not cheap) then I want the finished item to look like it was worth the amount they paid.  I also get bored if the item is too plain.  Plain socks?...then I need the yarn to at least be a really pretty color.  Solid color yarn?...then I need a nice stitch pattern to show it off.  Giant turtle-neck pullover for a 6'2" man?...then I want to put a cabled panel down the center to break it up and make it look a little better.  That should be easy enough but I've gone over it and over it, and I've narrowed it down several times.  I've knit four-five different swatches and come up with three likely candidates.  Here's the issue.  My favorite one is harder to knit and harder on the hands.  The next one looks more like the first one and is easier on the hands but will still take more time than the last one.  The last one is fastest and simplest, (and Aaron likes that one best) but it's just boring!  So therein lies the problem.  Fast, or interesting.  Can't a girl have both!?  So I'm off to cast on and figure out what to do about this issue.  One way or another, I'm starting this sweater tonight.