I had a plan and a list. I really did.

I did. I really did. Plan and List. There they were, written down on a post-it, stuck on the inside of my wallet. I even got it out and stuck it to my hand when I went into the store. It was all stuff I wanted for potential Christmas presents.

But then the store didn't have any of what I wanted (well, ok, Random Sock Yarn was on the list, just so I wouldn't feel like a complete failure) and I ended up buying six skeins of gorgeous emerald green (with some wee lurking blue) Noro CashIroha. In my defense, it was on sale for 40% off. (Also in my defense, it was my birthday money I was spending. Happy Birthday To Me, dammit!) I keep petting it. I think it's going to grow up to be a shrug of some sort. For me. And then I can wear it all day and pet it.

The Random Sock Yarn was also acquired, but I think it might end up as gloves instead of socks, just for the hell of it. It's a random not-very-posh brand, but the colors are all orange and brown and fun--although there's a chance that the only reason I bought it is because it matched the shirt I was wearing. And really, if it's not my darling Lanett, I don't really care what the hell it is. To tell truth, the store, which mostly has quite nice yarn, is a bust on the sock front. Even the solid colors weren't nice. I was hoping for decent solid colors, since my big bro has moved to chilly climes and will clearly need more than the one pair of wool socks that I've made him.

I need to get me to the super-nice yarn store, but it's more of a pain in the butt public transportation-wise. Then again, you'd think that nothing would be too far for decent sock yarn, wouldn't you?

Wonder if I should visit some friends in New York just to go Lanett-shopping. Hmm.

rummaging

My mother is a big fan of the garage sale, and while she does not knit, she sews and is a fan of all things fiber. So I was digging through some random knitting stuff today, and as a result I now have:

• One elderly white plastic US 2 (3mm) dpn. I'm hoping to find its friends eventually, as I have none that size.
  
• A zillion (ok, six) size US 4 aluminum straight needles, in various colors.
• One extremely heavy steel crochet hook, size I. (At least I think that's the size. It could just be a random I. Crochet hook sizing freaks me out with those letters.)

My cable needle also came out of my mom's random craft stuff, but I found that about a year ago.

And yes, I have been knitting stuff. Most of it I've ripped out, but one of it has led to the discovery that the tiered skirt pattern from Vogue Knitting's summer issue a couple of years ago is Really Cute. So now I have to buy some slightly more appropriate yarn and make a real one.

sorry, can't think of anything witty

It's too early in the morning for wit. Ooog.

However, it's not too early in the morning for a knitting update! I really have been knitting stuff:

Last night I put about four miles of i-cord on the Polychrome Barf Blanket. (It just took me five tries to spell 'polychrome.' It's apparently too early to spell.) Ok, so it wasn't miles, but it was long enough for me to get bored enough to do math (and that's long) and discover that I was doing 144 inches worth of i-cord. Argh. But it looks really nice, and I watched a combination of Psycho and So You Think You Can Dance while doing it, so I wasn't all that bored.

I have not, however, finished sewing in all of those cursed ends.

Other than that I have been having fun with the top-down raglan. I made one shrug-like item, which I think I mentioned before--but it's too early to deal with iPhoto, so no pictures today. I've also started a sweater, which, like most things I do with stripes and colors, will either be gorgeous or butt-ugly. I was firmly convinced of gorgeous for a while, but the purple is browner than it looked in the ball, and now that it's in the sweater I'm not entirely sure. Ah well. It'll be warm. And stripey. And I think it's going to fit! Whee!

I'm also trying to decide what to make people for Christmas. Should I make my parents a blanket? What to make the brothers? I set the bar far too high for my brothers: the first year I was knitting presents, I made one of them these awesome Batman wristwarmer thingies, and really, where can you go after Batman?

Sigh.

gaaaaah.

Guess what I'm still doing.

Gaaaaah.

Here, let me see if I can find a picture of something to break up the text monotony.

Ok, here I am snuggling up to George Washington:

"Hey, Georgie, do you like knitwear?"


And here's George with a Native American ally:

"Dude, really, the Steelers are the only team worth rooting for."

For the love of God

I'm still sewing in ends. I am stuck in some sort of hellish Star Trek: TNG loop of end-sewing-in, without even Jonathan Frakes to keep me amused. Or Worf. Yum. Worf.

Is my geek showing?

Anyway. I don't know what my next large project will be, but I do know it's going to have as little end-sewing as possible. If I show any signs of wanting to do fair isle anything, someone please kill me. Send me to one of those tar-pit sort of planets or something.

progress?

Sadness is sewing in four gazillion ends, and still having approximately five gazillion to go.

My God, do I need a What Not To Wear marathon. Even Without A Trace would do today.

Either that or I need to actually go buy the external cd drive for my computer (now that I've decided that that's the best plan) so I can get me some audiobooks from my friend the library. And then we can start a Five Really Good Audiobooks sidebar thingie.

Anyway. Back to sewing, dammit.

two things.

1. I absolutely adore my Garter Crack Squares Blanket.

2. Sewing in four gazillion ends (no exaggeration) makes me want to poke my eye out.