Happy Solstice!!

I can't wait till there's an actual appreciable difference in how early it gets dark, because this is ridiculous.

In knitting news:

I've only got one more run of the chart and then the toe to do on my second twisty sock. It's got a mistake on the back--I couldn't deal with ripping out yet again, and besides, we're RUNNING OUT OF TIME--but the mistake is pretty, so what the hell. If we're really lucky, I will not run out of yarn. Cross your fingers.

I'm making one of those pervasive two-row scarves, out of one striping and one solid color of SWS. Yep, the stuff I picked up for $1.50 last month. Because A) you never know when you'll need a random gift, and B) it's really nice to knit something I don't have to think about. That twisty sock needs a hell of a lot of thinking.

Also, my mother needs to learn not to tell everyone everything my brothers and I talk about. Brother #2 and I were saying a couple of weeks ago that it would be fun to do a handmade gift yankee swap sort of thing, but never actually mentioned it again, because really, there aren't that many people in the family who make stuff worth getting. (B2 and I totally do.) And then last night I get a Facebook message from one of my cousins in Connecticut, asking if we're doing a handmade swap, and getting really excited about it. I am not sure how this cousin caught wind of the idea: neither the brother or I have mentioned it past that one conversation, and I know for a fact that my mom has not talked to this cousin's mom yet this holiday season. Which means that my mom mentioned it to someone else (seriously, mom?) who then told this cousin. Who is fourteen and very excited about it. Sigh. Well, if she's dead set on it, I think I have a purple hat that I can sew the ends in on (finally!) and throw into the pot.