Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival

This past weekend, The Amazing E and I took Rock Creek Yarn to the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival for the second year. Now I wish I'd had the presence of mind to post something here before the show, but I've been so busy getting ready for the show that I didn't think seriously about it. Between being 6 months pregnant and needing to dye 20 pounds of yarn in less than a week, life was completely taken over by wool and sleeping. The show was worth all the hard work. It was the most fun show yet, and close to home. E and I didn't get out of our booth much to see all the other vendors or the events, but I'm told there was sheep herding, local wine tasting (E did get to that), classes, and lots and lots of fiber to buy. The best part were all the customers. If you've ever been to a fiber festival, you know that it's full of super friendly people just looking for a good time. And we were inundated by friendly people.

Too bad we also didn't get any pictures. Hopefully the festival will post some good ones soon.

We had a really great location in the front of one of the barns. That of course meant a lot of foot traffic, but we were also sitting right across from Rivanna River Farm and Fiber Studio. They are a local alpaca producer, and really fantastic ladies. I'll tell you. I spent the entire show pining over their hand dyed 100% baby alpaca yarn. I touched and cuddled it. I stared at it. And finally I bought five skeins of a rose and taupe colorway. There is a total of 1100 yards here. Enough for a sweater for me if I can put down the baby knitting.

Talk like a pirate day

It's that time of year again. Tomorrow is the day each year when those dastardly pirates all show their colors by speaking their stoopid and secret language in public. It'll be on Yahoo, I'm sure. And Ravelry. Grr. I guess it's good for me. A a ninja, this day each year helps me identify pirates and know who in my immediate surroundings are my sworn enemies. Silly pirates. You'd figure they'd want to hide their identities from us ninjas. But NOOO. They podcast their silliness all over the place. I wonder who I'll discover is a pirate this year.

On another note, this weekend is Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish New Year. The Rabbi's sermon might be very interesting....

Speculation

Pregnancy isn't always fun. I mean, the anticipation of a little one is very exciting, and the miracle of having another person growing inside me blows my mind. But the nausea, aches, sleep interruptions, and other discomforts you don't want to hear about tend to get me down.

But there is one part I find completely hilarious. It's the "what kind is it?" guessing. The Amazing E and I are waiting until our Chick is born to find out the sex of the baby. We figure there are very few genuine pleasant surprises in life, and this situation is one of them. So we're happy to wait. Some others, however, are not so patient. Indeed, many people are absolutely shocked that we're not taking advantage of the technology to find out. So in their curiosity they try to guess. And it's just hilarious to me.

So let's see? What do the Old Wives Tales tell us about "what kind it is?"

1. One story goes that if the fetal heart rate is above 140, it is a girl. According to the doctor this morning, The Chick's heart is beating 145 times a minute. So we're having a GIRL.

2. Some other people say that carrying the baby high, it's a girl. If it's low and around the hips, it's a boy. Well, my belly isn't big, but so far the baby feels like it's sitting pretty low. So we're having a BOY.

3. Then there's the acne test. Sorry to say, but I have acne. So it must be a GIRL.

4. One friend told me that since I have cravings for spicy meat, it must me a BOY.

5. But the same friend also said that if I still like my husband while I'm pregnant, we're having a GIRL.

6. 71% of the time the mommy guesses right. I think we're having a GIRL.

7. Apparently the baby effects the growth of leg hair. They, whoever they are, say that if your leg hair grows faster it's a boy. It might be TMI, but mine is growing just the same. And I hope our GIRL doesn't get cursed with fast growing leg hair.

8. I dropped the mac 'n cheese right on the floor yesterday. Clumsiness is supposed to be a sign of a BOY.

9. I just put my wedding ring on an string and held it over my belly. It swung in a circle rather than back and forth. This would indicate a BOY.

10. Lastly, my favorite one. Craving chocolate is a sign of a GIRL. I must be destined to have only GIRLS forever.

DH's latest revelation from ON HIGH

He wrote his new insight into the nature of the universe this morning:

I have a new theory about cats
I have an entirely new theology.
In the beginning, god created the universe. It was, in fact, a revelation of this world from beyond the shadow that he installed to hide us from his presence
There is, however, a personage that evolved from this shadow - the Lord of Chaos
Indeed, this Chaos Lord is responsible for entropy and the nature of the universe ending in a heat death
For the Chaos lord has agents in this universe
In the form of kittens and cats. Cats are indeed sent from the Lord of Chaos to be adorable and irresistable to humans
Yet they are agents of entropy, forces of destruction
For in fact they are responsible for random placement of socks, hair ties, toy mice, and other objects around the house
That we put away previously
This morning's evil deed was hiding my wife's wallet
Right when she needed it
They knocked it down
Knocked it down behind the couch
Much as they were responsible for the downfall of many civilizations
Egypt
Babylon

I got got

Maven over at Fiber P*rn tagged me with a Meme. I don't think she understands what she's done, tagging me like that. I am happy to oblige her, because now I'll have the opportunity to exercise my stealthy and mad ninja skills on her at a time of my choosing. Yesss. Yesss indeed. Revenge is a dish best served cold, and I'll savor and plan the meal for a long time.

As the first step in initiating my newest vendetta, I'm posting here 7 things you probably didn't know about me.

1. I am a ninja, not a pirate. The pirate thing is just my cover. Don't tell anyone.

2. I can make fire without matches.

3. I am not left handed. Even if both my parents are.

4. I feel great shame when my floors are dirty, but I can't give a hoot about the state of the windows.

5. I have only been knitting for 4 1/2 years.

6. I am clueless about computers. For real. As far as I'm concerned they are powered by a tiny fairy. And I do not care to learn the truth.

7. I find sweet corn detestable. In all forms. Yes, some of you know that, but probably you don't actually believe it.

As I recall, Mrs. Strauss tagged me for a meme centuries ago. I am tagging her again.

First knit for baby

The other day I finished this project for the Chick. The Chick is too small to model it now, so the Bear bottom is filling it out for us.
The pattern is WHW Plain Wrap by Ruth Garcia. Tzurriz recommended the pattern. It's a size small. The yarn is Mission Falls 1824 Wool merino superwash. It only took a couple days of work, and I'm likely to make more and then re-lanolize them.

My latest project

I've been working on a really big project lately, but I didn't want to show it until making a good start. The Amazing E helped with getting it started, and has been supportive and helpful during the last 10 weeks of working on it.

Here is the result of our hard work up til now.
You can see here the little arms, the cute button nose, and the giant head. So it takes after both of us.

What's Jeremy Clark-Erskine up to now?

As some of you know, Jeremy Clark-Erskine is a convicted identity fraud artist who sneaked into my life about three years ago. I believe he stole my credit cards and car in an attempt to flee to Canada after escaping from jail in Indianapolis. Since then he's been accused of pulling off some serious fraud in Canada, and was eventually sent back to Indiana to serve out the rest of his sentence. Canada sent him back without prosecuting him for the thousands of dollars in theft and fraud I'm told he committed. Oh yeah, and my local police completely dropped the ball on prosecuting him.

Well, he served his sentence, but then was charged with escape. He served a few months for that, and was released last summer. Then early this year I was contacted by a very confused woman who had been dating him at the time of his last arrest. She was completely innocent in what he did, and she told me about his latest caper. I don't know that I should relate it all here, but it was an elaborate scam against a large corporation that she said got him new clothes and a long stay in a fancy hotel. He was arrested and convicted of some crime related to theft, even though I understand that he also commited a number of other crimes. The sentence passed was two years. He served three months and was just paroled. Really, this multiple felon was paroled after serving three months of a two year sentence.

So why bring him up again? Two reasons. One is that I got a flurry of hits to this blog today from private and government servers in Indianapolis. I would guess that he's been arrested again or some damn thing. I hope so. The other reason is that I contacted the Indiana Department of Correction in the last week to let them know that a bug in their system makes it hard for the public to find out the status of this guy's incarceration. After all, Jeremy has a lot of victims who would like to know when he's out of jail and if he's complying with parole. When I contacted them, I encountered a complete idiot who could not find his records, claimed he'd never been in an Indiana jail, and got nasty when I was finally able to pull them up and sent her the link to the record. Once again, the State of Indiana proves its incompetence when dealing with this guy.

So Erskine's out there. I know he's been paroled, but since the morons who are supposed to be keeping track of him can't seem to, I do not know if he's complying with parole or on the run again. If you know what's up with this guy, send me a comment. I don't have to publish it, if you ask me not to. My motives here are to see to it that people get him charged for the crimes he commits so he spends as much time as possible in jail.

If you are his latest victim and looking for information, first please go to the police and cooperate with the prosecution. Second, don't believe anything he's told you and don't blame yourself for whatever he did.

Jeremy Clark-Erskine is a convicted con artist. One arresting officer I've spoken to called him "a real predator." I personally have spoken to nearly a dozen people he's scammed in the last ten years. The aliases he uses that I know of are Jeremy Erskine, Jeremiah Clark, and Duncan McDonald. He is from Indiana, but has claimed to be from Canada, Boston, Ireland, and Scotland. For grins, here's his picture:

Silk Aeolian Shawl

In an amazing feat of knitting monogamy, I knitted this shawl in just over a month.
Pattern: Aeolian Shawl from the Spring 2009 Knitty
Yarn: Rock Creek Yarn Silk Lace
Needles: Knitpicks circular size 3.
Start Date: May 9, 2009
Finished: June 12, 2009

Notes: I added two repeats of the yucca chart and a repeat of the agave chart, so this is a hybrid of the two sizes. The size 8 glass seed beads where added using a crochet hook I made from the wire inside a twist tie.

It rains a lot in Maryland

First of all, thank you to Creative Crocheter. She once again identified one of the plants growing in my yard.

Like I was saying. It rains a lot in Maryland. At least compared to Chicago. It rains here at all times of the year, often for hours or days at a time. In fact, it's raining now, and will be for four more days. All the rain here has several effects for homeowners.

The nice thing the rain does for us is cause lots of things to grow outdoors. There's more stuff popping up now, like this weed in my yard. Right now the property is covered in strawberries. But they're the wild kind that don't taste like anything. Believe me, I ate them. At least they're pretty.

The peas are pea-ing.
And the roses are making an early show.
The other thing that all this rain does is back up into basements. We woke up to that this morning. The water probably came out of the sump pump pit, and if it did we're covered. But today we're working really hard to make sure things (like mold) don't start growing indoors, too.

Proving that I do things other than knitting

It being summer and all, we figured that we needed some sort of window treatments in the bedroom. You know, it cuts back on sleeping time to have daylight streaming into the room before 6am. So off to the fabric store E and I went.

I told E I could do it, even if I'd never made any type of curtain before. He picked the fabric, a striped blue silk dupioni; I picked the design. After working forever to get the hardware properly installed, there is a working Roman shade on one of the two bedroom windows.
Perhaps I'll even make the second one before the days start getting shorter.

More beauty this week

Nothing really new popped up for a little while, so I didn't stretch things here by taking pictures of wilting flowers. But today there are some nice things to show around the new house.

Last weekend, the Amazing E planted me a new garden. We decided on what will eventually be an informal perennial garden based on one my grandma had, plus some other things that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. This weekend the plants are staring to take root. This project will probably go on for a year or two more, but we have a start now. There is a pretty dark red flower that smells good; I don't remember the name. He also planted a butterfly bush, yarrow, a coneflower, and some flowering thyme and other low lying plants. Eventually, I would like some black eye susans, more coneflowers, and astilbe. Planting in the back yard turned out to be a challenge because a previous owner had an above ground pool back there. There's at least a foot of sand in the back yard, so we have to put soil wherever we plant.

There was also another azalea that bloomed. This one is a really nice pink.Then there is the mystery purple flower. I'm pretty sure these are from a bulb patch on the side of the house.
Lastly, an iris bloomed this week. Some others are making buds. I can't wait to see what they look like.
I also have an update on the mystery coral colored flowers. Those of you who guessed flowering quince must be right. This week it has little fruit on it.

There ought to be more soon; E and I are looking forward to it.

My Masterpiece

I'm jumping ahead of myself a little, but I can't resist. Rock Creek Yarn's silk spinner only gets about 300 grams of this yarn to me per week, but I've been saving it up and dying it for the Sedalia Fiber Festival this weekend. It's the previously mentions Silk Lace yarn. Now I've got 8 one hundred gram skeins for the show. There would have been more, but the Cherry Blossom Festival Sale was wildly successful for this yarn. Thanks for that.

I have to say something. I love this yarn. Really. For lace yarn, it's very strong. And soft. And shiny. Pretty soon a picture of an in progress project will show up here. But I've been working lately at dyeing up this super special yarn, and I'm in love. Take a peek at an "unofficial" picture taken just now with my iphone.

FO: +3 Red Socks of Doom

I'm actually quite pleased with these socks. They fit great, they're pretty, and the yarn feels really nice. If you recall, I started these socks back on November 30, 2007 in a fit of nerves over my wedding. It was the next day, so what did I do? Cast on socks of course. Since then, they've moved with me three times, gotten lost several times, and have had their needles repurposed more than once. Why +3 Red Socks of Doom? The beautiful lace killed my hands.

These socks were made according to Cookie A's Hedera pattern, which is available free on Knitty. They were knitted on size 1.5 DPN's out of Mountian Colors Bearfoot Yarn in a varigated red. I will be knitting socks from this yarn again someday.

Very pretty. Very dangerous.

Um.

They're Pantaloonies. They're made of sock yarn. Um. I don't think I have anything else to say.

Name that yarn!

So I've been dying this yarn mostly in Cherry Blossom for a while now. Until this time, it's only been available from my silk spinner in very small quantities. But now he's sending me several pounds. It's super pretty and the customers love it. Right now, it's just named Silk Lace. This is a lace weight yarn. It's 100% mulberry silk with great sheen and drape. The yarn is 2/20 count, that's two very thin plies spun together. I put it up in skeins of at least 100 grams, over 1000 yards. The best thing about it is that it's really strong, so you don't have to worry about breaking it when pulling out points on a fancy shawl.

But I don't know what to call it, and it's so fancy it needs a fancy name. Any ideas?

What's poppin up in the yard this week? May 1 edition

We bought a house that had previously been owned by a gardener. Signs around the property, like built in flower boxes, raised beds, an insulated shed, and hanging basket hooks everywhere, pointed to this. Talking to the neighbors confirmed it. There's stuff growing everywhere. In fact, we feel like we really have to spend this year watching what comes up before we think about what we might like to do with the yard. It's really full of stuff, and new things are coming up all the time.

I didn't have the foresight to start doing this a month ago, so we've missed the mountains of jonquils that came up about the time we moved in. Then we had a dwarf crabapple tree and an ornamental cherry tree bloom. For a while we had a bush in the front yard with little yellow flowers. E was smart enough to name it; I was not smart enough to remember. Last week the tulips made a brief showing. It's too bad tulips bloom for about three minutes before the petals fall off.

It seems that people in the DC area have an obsession with blooming trees and shrubs. There are magnolias, dogwoods, azaleas, and of course cherry trees blooming everywhere. I can't remember anything on this level going on in Chicago.

This week we have more flowering shrubs and trees.

The weird looking bushes in random places turned out to be azeleas. It's a good thing I didn't dig them up.
Then there's this little tree next to the house. Turns out to be a cute dogwood.
Lastly, this is a crazy flowering tree in the back of the back yard. Don't know what it is, but it has flowers.

Bat Shawl!

Okay. I'm not sure there is such a pattern. But I did knit the Icarus Shawl. It was a jump-on-the-bandwagon thing. Some of the other kids were doing it, so I did too.

This project was started on January 22 and finished on April, 16. I really wanted to do it all in one go and wear it to my friend's wedding in Chicago. It was finished on time, but it wasn't done in one go. I got bitten by the quilting bug and put the knitting down for an entire month.

The yarn is an awesome fawn colored laceweight made from silk and yak from Skaska Designs.

Fiber Alert!

Goodness!

Maryland Sheep and Wool is this weekend. I'm totally not prepared to shop for yarn. I mean, you need a list, a plan, and a team to do this festival.

Have not knitted a thing in three weeks.

Send help.

All's well that ends well

The closing was at 4pm on Wednesday. Our heroes spent an hour signing papers to find out that the government form still was no where to be seen. It would still be another 24 hours before they could take possession.

But they got the house!

Act 4 continues

A message just came through.

4pm.

It did not say what day.

Act 4 continues

In Act 4 of the saga of closing on the house, we last saw our heroes sitting on their hands waiting to hear that the government form had been filled out by the loan officer and sent into NeverNeverLand, where the actual settlement seems to at once constantly yet never taking place.

Wwwwelllll....

The last time we checked, Kung Fu Knitter saw signs that it was Friday afternoon in the real world. In the alternate universe they're trapped in, cryptic messages had been seen profesying that the hidden and mystical "Tuesday" would be the date of settlement.

Our heroes had had it up to HERE! with all of it, so the Amazing E got on the phone with the COO of the loan company and demanded a real time that the closing would happen. After actually raising his voice at E, "Tuesday" was renamed "Monday, We promise!"

Just then, a booming voice declared "Tuesday is Tuesday, and Tuesday is the day for the settlement." Oh well.

Remembering how to sew

When I was a child my mother taught me to sew. I haven't touched a machine in decades, so I'm really proud of this. It's my first quilt top and I finished it today.

House closing saga

I'll not get into all the gory details, but the house closing has gone berserk.

The first act was the comedy of "Paint the House." This happened when our lender sent an appraiser out to the house one week before closing. She did the appraisal, which fortunately came out higher than our purchase price. However, she said she would not sign off on closing until our heroes painted the cracking paint. Enclosed in the package was a photo of cracked paint on the front porch and instructions to "sand, prime, and paint" this area. We also learn that hiring a painter will cost us a couple hundred dollars and require getting bids. With only a week to go, there is no time for a bidding process, so Kung Fu Knitter asks if she can paint, and is granted permission. She arrives at the house to discover that she must repaint two large railings on the porch and the outside of all the windows. Thank goodness there is no second floor. So she bravely sands off the peeling paint from all these areas, applies two coats of primer, and puts on one coat of paint. It takes two afternoons. The heroes let the loan officer know that the painting is done.

Now for "Re-Re-Appraisal." In this act, the appraiser appears to hold up the house closing. Apparently she did not get out to the house for her Friday appointment until late Monday, two days before closing. On Tuesday it is discovered that she will not sign off on the closing because chips of paint were left in the grass. Now, it's late in the day and the young couple is supposed to be at the Rabbi's for a Purim dinner that night. They can't go over there on a paint chip hunt, so the wonderful realtor swoops in and does it. Wednesday, the day of closing, the appraiser is sent back to the property, finds a lack of paint chips, and signs off. But it's too late. Everyone is irate, but our loan officer assures everyone that we'll close the next day. 2pm.

During intermission, the Kung-Fu knitter receives a request for bids on new appliances from the loan officer. Oh yeah, he forgot to tell anyone about about that. So Kung Fu Knitter flies around Maryland near the speed of light gathering and faxing said bids.

In the third act our heroes, the Knitter and Amazing E, are swept away to a place where the laws of time do not apply. The act opens Wednesday night when the loan officer says that he's working late and sending off the paperwork for closing the next day. According to him, everything is"clear to close." When he's contacted on Thursday morning to verify that he'd send off the package, he seems to reply in the affirmative. He has done everything that he has to to get to the settlement. It is at this point that time stops moving linearly. This odd phenomenon is first detected when the Amazing E receives a message that the title company does not have the loan officer's package. But he sent it already, right? Hmm. Someone calls said officer, and asks "WTF? We thought you said it was sent." He replies with something like "Well, yeah. But I can't do it now. Our system locks me out after noon for sending the papers." Someone's clock reads 11:55. Kung Fu Knitter becomes dizzy from the temporal dissonance and begins to sew furiously, almost as a nervous tick. The loan officer continues, "We never could have closed today. Government form A$&W!P* is not filled out. That will take at least two business days for all parties (including him) to look at and sign off on." It's not as if he didn't know about that form before time went out of whack, but in the great whirlwind of time it will hold up the closing until Tuesday if we ever return to the normal spacetime continuum. As the act closes, a great shout of disbelief is heard all over Maryland, this one louder than the one heard after the paint chip thing.

Seeing as how time is all messed up, we are assured that act five is written before act four, and has a happy ending with the young couple happy in their house. It's just thatno one knows at what point the final act will be revealed by the universe. It has happened, is constantly in progress, and has not yet come to pass.

In the fourth act, the heroes sit on their hands. They are not aware of the passage of time, and wonder if they will regain sensibility like Rip Van Winkle, several decades older. Or perhaps they will be returned to a time before they met. While they cannot directly observe the passage of time, they see signs that it's moving forward for others. For example, Kung Fu Knitter just received an email from the Rabbi and the Chabad house informing her that Shabbat is coming soon and that she should light the candles at 6:54 this evening.

So they sit, and wait, and wonder at what moment "Tuesday" will arrive.

So much happiness, so little time

Please excuse me for the lack of reading material here. February was full of fun and happiness, March will have even more.

Let's see. February. Yeah, the first half was all about house hunting. Then there was the Vegas trip where I got to see my sister, the Beautiful E and her guy. After that, there was the Wisconsin bachelorette weekend for my girl in Mokena. And then Tzurriz had her baby! I just got home from the very long trip for all of that last night. Whew.

So this week I'll be packing up the apartment. Next weekend the Amazing E hope to get back to Chicago for the bris of Tzurriz's baby. And then back here for closing on the 11th. One and a half weeks of house cleaning later, we'll be back in Chicago for my graduation. After that, we return to Maryland for the official move to the new house, which must be completed by the end of March.

In the mean time, there has been yarny progress. A pair of socks was finished, as was a hat for an Israeli soldier. Icarus is also nearly done. Aaaaand. The mystery box from Scotland arrived. I'll try for pictures soon.

Take care and stay tuned.

More about the house

The Amazing E and I finally got in for the inspection today. Everything is fine. We're taking it. Here are some pictures.

About the house...

You want to know about the house? Well, I'm gonna tell you.

The house is in a neighborhood called Kemp Mill in Silver Spring. It's a brick rambler. This is a type of house like a ranch. The main house structure has a big living room with a fire place, a dining room, a moderately sized kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. The kitchen has a one room addition off the back. The basement is the whole size of the house and is fully finished with a rec room, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a workroom. The attic is accessible by stairs and is semi-finished. It's big enough so you can walk around up there. One other cool thing is that the yard is great. We think that the previous owner was big into gardening. They did a great job making the outside of the house look nice.

Home Sweet Home

The Amazing E and I have been in house hunting craziness for the last couple of weeks. Today we got word that a house is ours.

YAAAAYYY!

Baby cables and big ones too

It wouldn't fit in the fancy schmancy light box, but I finally got a picture of this finished object. Baby Cables and Big Ones Too took me about 33 days to knit on size 5 needles with 10 skeins of Debbie Bliss cotton Cashmere. I really enjoyed knitting it. The pattern is knitting top down in all one piece. No seaming!
Eh. Maybe I'll see about a better picture one day.

Frogged already

Yesterday I was stricken by startitis. You see, Mandy posted photos of her newest FO on her blog. Realizing that I had the book with the pattern and some great yarn. The yarn is a fawn colored laceweight blend of yak and silk from Shaska Designs. I also have a great desire to do a laceweight lace project. I've never finished one. But Mandy inspired me. Icarus looks like one I might be able to do.

So I cast on and worked on it. And just now ripped it out. I missed a major concept in the first chart. Oh well. It was only one day's work.

And now with new pictures

I'm not a photographer. I'm a knitter. So I've always been a little disappointed with the photographs on this blog and on the Rock Creek Yarn site. That's kind of why I've been stalling on posting; the pictures suck. But the other day I went to the craft store and bought some tissue paper and poster board. Yesterday was spent cutting and gluing, and today I have a light box.

Right now I'm working on updating the pictures on the web site with nicer ones:

New (and old) knits for the new year

In looking at my knit from 2008, I realize three things. One, I tend to knit a lot of spur of the moment small projects. Two, I feel like I need to interject some structure to my knitting life. And three, I probably cannot keep any more order to my knitting life than I can to my stash. However, I still feel like I need to give number two a shot and do some 2009 knitting planning.

First things first. I have some projects that are shamefully still on the needles and have been there for over a year. Here I refer to projects on the needles that I actually like and may finish. These include:

1. The Oriel Lace Blouse that I started 20 pounds ago. It may not be knitted to fit me right now, but still want to finish it. Only the front remains unknit. I guess I have a couple of choices for what to do about the fact that it is unlikely to fit me as soon as it could theoretically be done. First, I could patiently put it away until a future time when I can wear it. Or there's the second course of action. It's made of alpaca. Perhaps it could be blocked to fit.

2. Those Durin socks. After Summer of Socks 2008, these got put away even though they were nearly done. I was burnt out on socks at precisely the wrong time because I was writing the pattern up to put it on sale. As soon as I can stomach the sight of socks on needles again, I really ought to finish them.

3. The last project shouldn't really be lumped in here. It's a love affair of mine so intense that I can only endure it for several days at a time before my heart and hands are exhausted and we need some time apart. It's the Rheingold Wrap. I love love love it. It's creeping toward being done, and I can probably finish it in two more good goes. Sigh.

As for the rest on my list, meh. I recently cast on that hoodie, and it's been zooming along for the last three weeks. Like all my recent projects, I can't seem to photograph it. That is, I can't get the gumption together to fight with the camera. And the rest of the projects? Like I said, meh. They'll get done some day.

So now I'm looking forward to knits for 2009. Hats are on my list, but I know not which ones. I'm sure I'll knit socks, but I can't fathom it now. One that's definitely on my list to start, if I can get the book for it at the library, it St. Brigid by Alice Starmore. For a small project, I've been eyeing Eunny Jang's Anemoi Mittens for over a year. In the midst of all this dreaming, though, I have to remember that it could all be for naught. I've heard that a late holiday gift is on it's way from Scotland...

Time for thinking

Over the last two weeks, I've spent days worth of time in the truckster. It's a lot of time to spent driving, and the Amazing E and I have logged well over 2,000 miles on the road between our trip to Chicago and our trip to Tennessee. It was a lot of alone time to talk and to sit and think while not talking.

During that time I knitted. Once again, my bad habit of no pictures has stricken. I also thought about my 2008 projects. I forgot one more. Quant.