Thoughts

Fiber content: I think I suddenly hate my Vogue eyelet blouse - I can't bring myself to get back to work on it. I realized some time ago that I'd goofed on the very bottom, and I decided to let it go. I don't think that bothers me, but I've lost interest. (This is why I don't knit garments.) Fed up with not having accomplished anything, I spun three skeins this weekend. (A sportweight-ish silk single, a two-ply merino worsted, and a fat fat fat bulky cotton single.)

That's it for that - the rest is Oscar-related (it's a big night for me) and has absolutely nothing to do with knitting (unless you count that I was working on a sock periodically throughout.)

1. Yawn. Nice, gracious, respectful.....but yawn.
2. I couldn't bring myself to be completely floored by the interpretive dance thing - I thought it was neat, but still...interpretive dance. It's a stigma, I guess.
3. Stop with the tributes, montages, and mish-mash already. Then you'd be able to let people who win the awards actually take a second to give a speech. That's why we're really here, after all.
4. Let Will Ferrell, Jack Black, and John C. Reilly host next year.
5. Helen Mirren is a wicked hottie.
6. I'd give my left ear for Cate Blanchett's skin.
7. Speaking of ears, Babel had the most intrusive and obnoxious ambient-sound-music I've ever heard, and I can't believe a score that distracting could win an Oscar.
8. Someone snatch the platinum cluster of grapes off of Rachel Weisz's neck - she's perfect without it.
9. Were the hairstylists on strike??
10. I like where fashion is going...glamour is good. (But do something with your hair.)
11. Reese is exacting the perfect revenge - looking damn fine. (Don't lose any more weight, girl, or your chin's going to take hostile control of your face. Believe me, I know - I get pointy-chinned when skinny too.)
12. Heheh. Eddie. Next time, tell them to shelf the standard I-play-every-role-and-aren't-fat-suits-funny formulaic comedy next time. You might have a shot.
13. Jennifer. Hudson. Young lady, next time you're that close to Clooney, you pay him the fawning attention he deserves!! Every woman on the planet had the same reaction to the way she booked it off stage at the end of her speech. "WAIT! WAIT!! What about CLOONEY!?!?! He wants to escort you off stage - LET HIM!!!"
14. Four hours. Come on people, tighten up or start earlier. I'm sleepy, gotta work in the morning.
15. Leo. You can spray it with Mystic Tan, but you can't make it sexy. (Sorry, I just don't see it.)
16. Germany?? GERMANY??? The look on Cate's face said it all - what the hell happened to Pan's Labyrinth??
17. Oooh. Beyonce. Honey. When this is all over, please make sure you never get on stage with Jennifer Hudson again. She flat made you look bad. And desperately competing with her didn't help.
18. Seriously, Helen Mirren is SO HOT.
19. I think Gwyneth is past her expiration date. She looks sour.
20. Where's the fashion disaster?? Why does everyone look so classy? Did Bjork's invite get lost in the mail? The only gripeworthy things were so excruciatingly minor. Jennifer Hudson's gown had pockets - POCKETS! - and she wrapped one of those windshield heat reflectors around herself as a jacket; Nicole Kidman is skinny enough to slide right under doors now, which saves her precious time; Kirsten Dunst still has saggy cutlets; Will Ferrell's hair ('nuff said); Jack Nicholson's Daddy Warbucks impression...
21. Speaking of whom - how much do I love that Jack Nicholson enjoys his own company so much? He always looks like he's having an absolute ball.
22. Don't you love that Kate Winslet is suing a magazine for saying she's on a diet? She's so stunning. I'm still hoping that Real Women are becoming the ideal.
23. Be honest. Weren't you thinking maybe a little that it would be hilarious if Scorcese DIDN'T win and they'd trotted these three huge directors out there to give an award to, I don't know, Paul Greengrass? I thought it was obnoxious to have the three of them give the award - why even INVITE the other four nominees if you're going to be THAT presumptuous?
24. Be honest. Weren't you thinking maybe Al really WAS going to announce his bid? Didn't your heart beat just a little faster when he started the fake announcement? I'm holding out hope. (Face it, Hilary can't win and Obama's in over his head. We need a viable candidate that could have a chance at actually winning the ELECTION, not just the nomination.)
25. Speaking of which - there wasn't anything political going on during the ceremony, other than that. Weird. Nice. But weird.

Back with fibery things soon!

Stitches, Smitches.

(Don't let my flippant title fool you - I'm jealous as hell and I hate you all. I want Cookie's patterns, dammit, and I want them all, now. That, and the STR booth. I want that too.)

So while you're all off strangling each other for the last skein of Cracked Canyon, I'll be.....well, I don't know what I'll be doing. But it'll be yarn-related.

I've been destashing like a mad fool - and I've been working hard to build back up with the proceeds. And with my order from Loopy, I achieved Groupie status and can't wait to place my next order to make it official! (mutters something about placing five orders in 32 days)

Cara said it much better than I did. Kudos.

Our honeymoon is all booked up, finally. We'll be staying here in Vancouver; here in Whistler, and here in Victoria (that's the one I'm really stoked about!) We booked mid-level rooms at really spectacular hotels, and we're hoping our cloying honeymoon-y love and irresistable charm will lead to the hotelier shaking his head, surreptitiously sliding the keys to the Presidential Suite across the counter and muttering, "You crazy kids enjoy yourselves, ya hear?" (Delusional? Yes. But it's marriage - I think it's healthy to go into it with rose-colored glasses. Heh.)

I still have to finalize stuff for the invites, and work on securing the flowers. (Susan at work is doing the arrangements, but I gotta find the supplies.) Then....ummm....I don't know, there's probably other stuff I have to do, but I'm really getting focused on the silly fun stuff now - what adventures to do in Whistler, knitting the gorgeous knee-high wedding stockings (using what else but this yarn, and of course with a garter to match!), sticking my hands into the three pounds of lavender buds we have for "confetti"....meanwhile I still haven't bothered looking for a videographer. But that detail isn't FUN.

Orlando's Friday weather has been stunning lately. Look:

Hey, Dude, Thanks For Sucking.

Jeez. I just read Cara's most recent post (which I think she may have deleted so it wouldn't become a big thing...in which case, I'm perpetuating and I'm sorry). I checked her previous post for a hint of what might have inspired her - turns out she got flamed hardcore by someone accusing her of being a whiner and other nasty things. (Cara?! She of the generous perma-contest? No way!)

Sometimes I wish I was a Harlot, or a Wendy, or a Cara...and then I see something like that. And I remember that people don't always like that you're popular, or doing well, or happy, or feel okay about sharing your opinions. And I thought, wow, I'm glad I have a small readership, I guess, because everyone is nice who comes here, and no one flames me out.

But then I remembered - I did get flamed out once. And it hurt. Because it wasn't about something at work (where a bit of flaming comes with the territory) or my knitting (where I perhaps deserve flaming sometimes!) - it was about the most important thing in the world to me. Someone who (clearly) doesn't know me left a comment on my 100 things post basically telling me that living with a man to whom I wasn't married was asking to be let down hard. (I've deleted the comment because I didn't want that kind of negativity here, so I can't quote exactly - it was more hatefully worded than that.) The person wasn't even a knitter, so I've no idea what he was here for, or why he was so curious and vested in my personal life. Say what you want on your own blog, but why would you want to come here and attack my life??

It hurts to have someone go to special effort to slam you for something so deeply personal, like the love of your life or your whole outlook in general.

I'm not asking for anything by saying all this - just throwing a little sympathy out into the universe, I guess.

And to say that Karma bites, bites hard, and bites in the arse. Don't say nasty things to people. Especially don't try to take away their joy.

(Oh, and just in case that guy still, for some reason, drops in on me sometimes: You were wrong. Asshole.)

Speaking of karma.....remember this sock? (That is my favorite photoset. I've added a few new pictures to it. I kill me.) I've destashed the yarn.....and the sock. I couldn't bear to rip it myself, so I put it on destash, and someone has offered to relieve me of it. I think I'll miss it a little - but I did get out of it something priceless: Travis' favorite photo of me.

I'm precious.

Cheap + Hot = Good

I cannot tell you what joy this gives me:

I stumbled into Target last night and discovered that one of my favorite edgy-nerdy-chic designers had set up shop in Target's beyond-awesome GO International campaign. Not since I walked in and found Luella Bartley in Target have I been so thrilled by this store. (Although in that case, she came along a bit late for me - I'd already blown some embarrassing amount of money on a perfectly stunning emerald green leather bag at Bendel's during one of my NY weekends...but that's off-topic.)

I only picked up one (perfect, lovely, adorable, well-fitting) skirt. It's the well-fitting part that thrills me - things from Target never seem too impressed with my ass. I buy lots of tops there....but, uh, no bottoms.

Wait till you see what Travis has gotten into.


Look at him! Crafting! My mom bought him this basketweaving kit in Cherokee, NC for Christmas. He broke it out and played with it for a while. This is, ah, the calm before the storm. About 20 minutes after this picture was taken, the basket in progress (in the same configuration in which you see it here) found itself skittering across the dining room floor, having been chastised thoroughly - and I'm sorry to say, rather rudely and explicitly - as had the horse it rode in on. The pieces are now in his office, where they have been instructed to just sit there and think about what they've done.

(See, honey...you should have stuck to knitting. It's very calming.)

Etsy alert: I found seller Kindred Spirits today. Her yarns are beautiful, and definitely on the inexpensive side for hand-dyed superwash and merino sock yarn. (Ironically, I was referred to her by someone who bought destash yarn from me, and the new purchase was five cents more than the money I earned selling the yarn to the recommender. One step forward...)

The new rule is destash-to-restash. Since the whole Knit from the Stash thing is lost on me (being that I mostly purchase sock yarn anyway), I'm trying to get into the habit of selling stuff I'm not knitting if I want new stuff. (I give it a week.)

I'm still working on socks and secret projects....I know, it periodically becomes terribly dull around here, at least if you're looking for finished objects.

The blog equivalent of dangling shiny objects to distract you from my lack of visible productivity? Eye candy!

Sunday night the sunset and the dusk was so beautiful - even though we were driving the turnpike, I had to ask Travis to stop and pull off the side of the road so I could get a picture of the stunning sky. (And fortunately, we managed to not get shot for pulling off the road. What is going ON, people??)


Have a beautiful day!

The End Of A Long Happy Road-Trippy Day

I just got back from SoFla - we had a great day, and now I get to give some stuff away! In a minit.

Schrodinger asked, legitimately, how cold exactly it has to get around here for us to consider it "cold". It depends on who you ask and how long they've lived here. Being born in Washington and raised in Texas and the moutains of New Mexico, I was pretty stunned when I moved here and people wore parkas when it was 60 out. But my blood, too, has thinned - I'm ready for a light jacket at around 65, and I'd officially say it's cold in the 40s. This weekend it has dipped into real live freezing.

It's always worse downtown, too - if I stand still in my yard, it's not that cold. But the wind whipping down the skyline corridors can bite like crazy. Not Manhattan-in-January or anything...but still nippy. I like cold, hate wind.

Next subject: Dudes, I. Am. Awesome. Travis and I are planning our honeymoon in Victoria/Vancouver/Whistler, BC. And what did I just find out just HAPPENS to be in Victoria on June 9 and 10? The Victoria Knit-Out and Fiber Festival. And who did I find out just HAPPENS to be a speaker at said festival? Oh yeah, the Knitterly Neo, The One....The Harlot. I immediately called Travis with serious over-excited verbal diarrhea about the whole thing.

Me: Ohmigodohmigodohmigod, Harlot's gonna be in Victoria during our honeymoon, I'm so stoked I'm gonna puke and you know i think the fact that it just HAPPENS to be where we're honeymooning is another sign that we're MEANT for each other!!
T: I'm not sure that I take it quite that way...but that's pretty cool.
Me: Would you hate me if we spent a honeymoon day at the Knit-Out so I could meet her?
T: Are you kidding?! It's the Harlot! Of COURSE we will.
Me: (squeeee wheee whooopeee, various noises only dogs can hear)
T: Out of curiousity....would my answer have even mattered there?
Me: No. But I love you for understanding that she's my Elvis and for not making me divorce you seven days in.

(Speaking of kismet, I watched The Notebook for the first time today. I might as well have just slammed myself in the face with a garden trowel repeatedly and spent the whole day crying about that. I hate it when a movie isn't particularly sad, and yet it leaves me in a weepy puddle for, like, three hours. I can be such a GIRL. But I can say this - it's nice to finally watch a movie like that without having a totally skeptic attitude about that kind of love being possible to find.)

Finally, it's time to give up the goods - I had great entries (particularly giggle-inducing, I thought, were Susan and CB's entries - Susan doesn't knit...yet...and I'm so grateful for her hilarious entry - and I loved Rosi's for its honesty...'cause yeah, that's kinda what it looks like to me too...and I loved Heddy's for reminding me about those little cups, which I used to drink out of all the time when I went fishing with my granddaddy.)

So yeah, in the interest of fairness and Cara-ness, I used a random number generator and came up with ..... Lexa! And you guys, you gotta read her most recent post - the universe knew she needed some yarny cheerful goodness!

Back to my sock.......

What? Cold?? WHY???

I love cold weather, I do. But because I live in a tropic-hell climate, I eventually gave up all my gorgeous sweaters. (Storebought - these were BK sweaters. Before Knitting, not Burger King.)

Now it's getting cold out, and I want sweaters. But really what I want is a sweater I can just toss on for the outdoor portions of the day. (Floridians tend to hit panic mode and crank inside heaters up to about 80 when it's chilly out - so really you want to wear tank tops and shorts wherever you're going, with warmer garments on top.)

I'm dreaming of a bulky-bulky-bulky sweater. Not bulky in a "does that girl weigh 140 pounds or 300?" kind of way, but bulky in that size 35 needle, super-bulky yarn held double, I-knit-this-sweater-in-a-weekend kind of way. Not boxy and unflattering, just....quick and dirty. With a huge, huge cowl neck. 'Cause big knits are all the rage right now anyway, and cowls are all over too. And I love the snuggly look of a cowl. (I like the look of turtlenecks too, but they're so constrictive. Cowls are the less oppressive version of the turtleneck. Like, cowl is what Cameron Diaz SAID she was like - casual, no pressure, fun to be around - and turtleneck is what Justin found out she really was - kinda clingy, itchy, uncomfortable...I'm speculating, of course.)

Of course, I don't have bulky-bulky yarn for my bulky-bulky sweater. Now I have to decide whether to buy it or just continue to dream. I have too much on the needles, and a design project I'm working on (and in love with) and just not enough hours in the day.

Still....

Brief discussion of something I find fascinating. When I knit in public, you know who's most likely to approach me? Men within ten or fifteen years of my own age. And it's never in a "let me use the fact that you're knitting as a window to hit on you" sort of way....it just seems anytime I park it in a Starbucks and whip out the sock, at least one guy will come up to me and kinda smile and watch for a moment before noting that his grandmother/aunt/mom/whomever was a knitter.

I know there's a lot of fuss made over the "grandmotherliness" of knitting, and I resent it (what's so wrong with my gram-gram??) - but personally, I LOVE that I reminded that guy of his grandmother. He smiled, and he remembered her, and maybe tonight he'll go home and fish around in the attic to see if he can dig that old sweater she knit for him when he was six and his mother packed in a box and insisted he should keep...

Grandmotherliness be damned - because of me, someone remembered her. And I got a pair of socks out of the deal. Big wins all around.

Speaking of big wins - you still have plenty of time to enter the contest! Do it! You know you want to....you could score something fantastiful!

Happy Valentine's Day, My Lovelies!

Yep, I'm not a huge fan of this one (ugh, Hallmark holidays) but it's a good opportunity for me to say "Hey, thanks for reading my nonsense, much love!"

Hey. Thanks for reading my nonsense. Much love.

(Randomly inserted useful suggestion: Buy yourself something nice from any of your favorite online shops - Paypal's running a nice little refund thing right now, and you have until the end of March to spend the money to get your kickback.)

I leave you with a pretty picture of a statue (artist unknown) that was just "unveiled" (read: plastic removed) in front of the new gargantuan building downtown that houses, among other things, a 12-theatre cineplex. Perhaps someday I'll share my thoughts on having a cineplex in the middle of downtown, amidst the belching congestion, drunk club kids, and eight-dollar parking garages. (Or I can just share my thoughts now: It's stupid.)

Point is: the statue is pretty.

Oh, and for those of you who bothered to keep reading.........VALENTINE'S CONTEST!!! Hee! (You didn't think I'd show my love and affection just in words, did you??)



What the HELL this THING?? It's a statue torture device phallus structure in the middle of downtown, and it just BUGS me. Tell me what this thing is. Whoever comes up with the answer/story/rant about this thing's insane design that amuses or fascinates me the most will get a skein of some fabulous sock yarn (and there is plenty of fabulous sock yarn - I don't think it likely that I'll knit 70 pair of socks this year.) Let's say by Sunday night. (ETA: I don't want y'all to feel intimidated by someone else's clever answer. You never know what's going to give me the giggles. And if everyone keeps making me laugh like I have been so far, it's probably going to come down to a random number generator anyway...you may know how terrible I am with decisions.)

Mwah!

Friday Sky

Orlando's nickname is "The City Beautful". I'm not sure how it beat out all the other beautiful cities for that title...and I'm not entirely sure I agree that it deserves it, especially now that developers are determined to pour concrete in every green space available....BUT - on days like Friday, I can kinda see what they're gettin' at.

Fridays the bus gets to work earlier than usual, so I get to leave earlier than usual - I like to walk through the city, stop at the Starbucks for my caramel macchiato, and pick up the bus at the very last stop. Friday I took some photos and kind of noticed my city for the first time in a while. I guess it's not such a bad place.

Last night I finished the first Kill Bill sock.


I tried to knit them tall enough that he can wear them under his motocross boots. Travis loves them - he has slender legs, and these are designed to fit him, not me....for once. I can barely even pull them up over my calves!

I rewarded myself for finishing one of his socks by buckling and starting one of my own:


This is the Posh yarn I picked up from The Loopy Ewe. It's 70% merino and 30% cashmere, and is very similar in structure to Socks that Rock. I think they'll wear really well. I was going to knit them into my wedding socks, but I decided I want high socks, so turns out I didn't buy enough of this yarn. (More on my latest plans for that some other time.)

We're going to check out a bellydance show tonight (a good friend/bridesmaid is performing a solo, and I can't wait to see it!) I'll leave you with a portrait of my entire Saturday so far - note the lower right corner, where you can just make out that I'm still in my jammies.

Sale Alert

Just right quick, then I have to get back to work (I am suffering from serious motivational problems today):

Chez Cas, a LYS to me and a great online yarn shop to you, is having a sale on Cherry Tree Hill sock yarns (full disclosure:because CTH is having a design contest). Carla's offering 20 percent off every skein - so that comes to $17.40 for a handpaint and $14.20 for a solid. All orders over $25.00 get free shipping, and Carla's just a super lady - so if you're in the market for CTH, or whatever else, check her shop out. (She also carries Hanah silk ribbons, which are like crack to me. I love them.)

Little Bit Of Everything

Man, I got an FO, some yarn pr0n, and my new stuff Wednesday Thursday.

First up, the fourth pair of completed socks of 2007.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Cookie's Monkey from Knitty
Yarn: Socks that Rock in "Lucy"
Needles: Crystal Palace size 1
Start Date: January 13
Finish Date: February 7
Mods: Just inserting an eye-of-partridge heel flap instead of the slip stitch one.


They qualify for Project Spectrum, too. And I love the way the yarn pooled - it's crazy how that happens. Adelle made the same pattern in the same yarn, and yet hers look totally different. (Sidenote: this is the very first time I've finished knitting a pattern from Knitty during the same season in which the pattern was released.)

I got my new bag just in time for New Stuff Wednesday!


This thing is big enough to carry everything I could possibly need.


I love the contrast fabric, and I've already done my best to stuff the thing full.


I even have a little mascot:


Did you spot the new sock in progress? It's just my standard sportweight sock....but the yarn is such fun. And I was being selfless - this one's strictly for Travis, even though I wanted to cast on another sock for me....


It's Sweet Georgia's "Kill Bill" colourway, and it makes me laugh. And while we're on the subject of yarn pr0n....


I picked up a skein of J-Knits in "Providence" from The Loopy Ewe - and I'm very proud of myself for picking this colourway, since it's kind of purple-y and outside of what I might normally go for. Vaguely. Not by much...but it's something.


And then I got some of the (soon-to-be-restocked) Apple Laine in....um, exactly the colours you might expect.

So yeah, on the one hand, it's a good thing sock yarn doesn't count. On the other hand....sock yarn was really one of the only things I ever bought anyway. So I guess even though I'm following the rules, my stash marathon thing is, uh, not actually going so well. For every pair I finish, I pick up maybe three more skeins, and I'm in deep love with all of them. I need surrogate sock knitters.

I'm going to go snuggle with my Lucy socks and my kitty. Whenever he finds himself not indisposed.


"Uhhh...do you mind?? This is terribly undignified."

Little To Do With Knitting

First, thank you for your inquiries - all is well here. We were blessedly unscathed in the terrible storms, although we did sleep with the windows open that night and woke up to a howling racket and wet windowsills. Certainly better than many people fared, though.

And I'm not sure if what I'm about to share is related to the storms, or just a super-fun coincidence, but...Saturday night, after going for Thai with a good friend while Travis hung out with some of his buddies, I got home and heard a strange tapping sound while I lounged on the couch watching TV.

I got up to inspect, realized what it was, threw some towels down, and called Travis to come home.


Do you see it? This is the entryway between our living room and dining room, on the first floor, directly below the second floor's guest bathroom. Which means...?


Which means, "Oh shit." The plumber will be here tomorrow morning first thing. Fortunately the home warranty is still in effect. That doesn't make this any less of a pain in the arse, but it DOES make it much less stressful knowing that it's likely whatever the damage is, we won't have to pay for all the repairs. (I say "all" to brace myself for contingencies.)

Ahh, the perils of an 87 year-old home with what we have come to learn were perhaps questionable renovations.

Let's get back to the good news.

I picked up a Valentine's Day gift to me. I love it every bit as much as Scout does - a good knitting bag, that doesn't look like a knitting bag, that goes with everything, that resembles something I might be carrying important work-related items in.....perfeck!

(Speaking of work-related .... I officially start the new job duties tomorrow. Yikes.)

Emily, the genius-woman who's doing the wedding jewelry, finished up my bridal set...it's so stunning and so exactly-what-I-wanted-only-better that I cried when I laid eyes on it. She's really quite brilliant - and everything in her shop is on sale right now. A pair of earrings I got at Christmas has become one of my most favorites, and I just adore her.

Look at this handsome guy:


I wonder what he's thinking. By the expression, I'm guessing it's profound and beyond my comprehension.

Finally - Travis went out riding today, and Brodie had to survive for an entire four hours stuck in the house with me and no daddy. Oh the agony.....so upon T's return, there was a love-fest:



(I love when he puts one ear up like that.)

Back I go to knitting - pausing to look up at the commercials, of course - and trying to ignore the tap-tap-tap sound.

No worries....no worries, no worries, no worries......

If Only I Was Going To The Circus!

Today is AWESOME!!! AWESOME!!!!! It couldn't get any better without monkeys, ponies, and a trapeze!!

First up, it was La Supervisor's birthday, and we had Banana Dream cake from Toojay's, which is almost my most favorite cake ever (hers too).

Being that it's the first day of February, I flipped the page on my faboo theatre posters calendar that my pal at work Jim got for me (we're both big theatre buffs) and it combined two of my mostest favoritest things:

Socks! And musical theatre! Musical theatre and socks! February = good!

Also, I got some photos of my first Monkey sock, which I finished a few days ago.


To recap, this is Socks That Rock in the "Rooster" "Lucy" colorway. And I must have been high on wool fumes, because I decided to see how they looked with my dress shoes and somehow got it into my head that it was kinda cute.


It's not cute, I'm sure. If I actually showed up to work like this, I'd get laughed right back onto the elevator.

Then my mom calls. She's been on the phone with Delta trying to book our honeymoon. (I can't remember if I mentioned, but part of her rather extensive and fantastically generous wedding gift to us is our airline tickets - otherwise we were going to be relegated to wherever JetBlue flies for less than $79 each way.) She used the magic "h" word when booking the flight, and we're upgraded to first class!! She had to throw in some more miles to get it, but not nearly as many as they normally charge for a first class flight to Vancouver. Sweeeeeet!!!! I love my mommy!

And I can finally reveal my secret pal, 'cause she got her package today. Knittin' Kninja was my spoilee for this round, and I had a blast spoiling her - even if she does work at a yarn shop, my dream job. She's still a newlywed...and she's gotten some really good news recently!! (wave and grin)

But THEN!!! There was a package in my mailbox - I figured it might be a shipment from one of my clubs, but then I spotted the return label. I'd recently sent some replacement yarn off to Schrodinger - she'd knit a gorgeous hat, Shedir, out of some yarn she won in my contest, and then she dropped the hat and someone had run off with it by the time she went back to look for it. The agony of a handknit lost broke my heart, and I felt I had to do something....and she repaid me times, like, twenty! Or thirty!

First, there was the fantastic poem in the card - which I hope she won't mind me sharing, because I thought it was so clever and priceless:


She included one of the best yarns ever:


Brooklyn Handspun! In one of the colors that was on my list of finalists! (I take my sock yarn very seriously, okay?) This is the "Red Rock" colorway, and it's so wonderful and not done proper justice here...I did a little better on the close-up:


(Man I really want one of those Canon digital SLR cameras....) And do you want to see how easily it fit right in to my Warm Cubby?


(I divide sock yarn only by major color families - I have a Warm cubby and a Cool cubby. And I have a Cotton cubby, since one of my MVPs is allergic to wool - one of these days I'll knit him a complete pair of socks to justify keeping it all separate.)

AND then there was this little pouch-of-fabulous:


Lookit! It's only the PERFECT red...I can actually take this with me to anything wedding-related to show exactly what red I want. It's small and square and the exact right size for a commuter knitting bag. I'll prove it:


The sock-in-progress and the iPod (currently paused on the Sticks and String podcast) fit just right! I don't have to cart my big ol' bag every day! (I like having my big ol' bag so I'm never without my project book, pattern notes, and little emergency knit guide, plus all the notions that I don't carry in my purse...but truth is, most days I don't need that stuff at all. It's just a crutch.)

Thank you SO MUCH, Schrodinger!!!

Okay, now I'm off to take Travis to dinner; in a rare case of anti-serendipity, he had a really crappy day - other than the whole spiffalicious first-class-upgrade news we got to share - and I want to cheer him up a bit. (Offering him a skein of yarn didn't seem to do it. He's so weird that way. The other night when we were almost asleep and I remembered that I had wanted him to look at my yarn stash and pick out yarn for his Wedding Socks, he seemed less than thrilled about getting up for that. Can you believe it?? Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night JUST so I can go pet the stash.)

Careful...This Post May Be An Explosive Device

(Snicker.)

Okay, I get it. I do. If you didn't know what this was, I suppose it could appear somewhat menacing. But to grind an entire city to a hault over a LITE BRITE???

I'm not saying Boston is insane. They have every right to be jumpy....after all, that's where some of the planes originated, and we don't give it much thought anymore as to Boston's end of it, but it had to be a scary day for them - so they're within their rights to be a little....skittish.

But dude, none of the other cities shut down....none of them have demanded jail time and money from a couple of 20-something guys who were just doing their jobs. Maybe it's not the smartest marketing campaign ever, but I think there may be a tinge of over-reaction here.

And maybe it's just because I watch the show, and love the show, and find this image, in lite-brite no less, to be hilarious. It wouldn't scare me because I know what it is.....but in the immortal words of our beloved Wendy: "Just f***in' Google it!!"

Surely there could have been one guy standing around somewhere who could have said, "No, no, dude, it's just a Mooninite."

Aaaaaaaaaaanyway......

Today marks the kick-off of Project Spectrum 2! I've participated already (there's blue and black in that Mooninite!)

I don't have any good knitting content right this minute. But here, read this post and laugh at the silly Muggles.