Justification

I missed Friday Night Knitting Club last night because Durwood and I went to a Barbershoppers concert, so I decided to go over to Loops and Links to knit for an hour this morning. I stopped going a while back because I have no resistance to the yarn on the Wall O'Savings. Today was no different. There it was lying in wait for me, seven skeins of Aurucania Toconao #502 worsted weight in a luscious tomato red darkening to a wine red (it's darker and oranger, not pinkish, in person). Nine hundred seventy-three yards of potential. If I wait until I've lost a bit more weight it'll be enough for a February Lady Sweater. I'll have to see what I can do with it once I have the Christmas knitting and the Khaki Cardi done. Done, not close to done, done, finished, finito, that kind of done.




At the concert last night they gave out door prizes, a lot of door prizes and I won one. It was such an interesting assortment of items, I took its picture so you could see it too. There's a bottle of pink Australian wine called Screwed; on the label are tons of excuses: I missed the bus, my alarm didn't go off, my computer froze, etc., a gallon jug of antifreeze windshield squirter stuff, 2 bottles of gas line de-icer, and 4 free lines of bowling at a local lanes. I didn't win the quilt or the savings bonds or any of the restaurant gift certificates, but I love the useful wackiness of the prize I won. Durwood and I will have fun going real bowling one winter day.

This concludes my portion of Blogtoberfest. I managed to post almost every day and I made up the ones I missed so the number of October posts equals the number of days in October. I've enjoyed doing this and I've still got nearly half of the other participants' blogs yet to visit, and I intend to keep reading them until I've read a least a bit of each and every one. I'll definitely be doing this again next October.

Drat!

This is what happens when I don't keep track of my rows; I had to frog the second part of the project because it's waaay bigger than the first and they'd look stupid together and wouldn't fit. Arrrgh. Not such a "quickie" project now, is it?

This would be a perfect day to loll on the couch with my knitting and a novel to listen to; it's drizzly and windy, perfectly dreadful out there, but I've got things to do like return library books and help Durwood set up his job search account online and get my nails done. My life is abuzz.

Only 2 Days Left

Blogtoberfest is winding down. I'm kind of going to miss it, going to miss having to dredge up a photo and something interesting to post every day. I'm replacing it with NaNoWriMo. Having to write 1667 words of a novel each day during November will keep me nicely occupied, thank you very much. I know I can do it; I've done it three times before. I know the hardest part is reminding myself that I can type any manner of tripe, doesn't have to make sense or be grammatical or spelled correctly, doesn't have to connect to what was written the day before, nothing. All it has to be is words. I've got my "inner Hitler" safely stowed in her jar and a vague idea of where the words might go come Sunday, so I'm all ready. Wish me luck.

I've been knitting at work today. Only one customer so far. I found The Dark Crystal on Netflix instant play list so I'm deep in the world of Jen and the Skeksies. Jim Henson was a genius.

My writing friend, Roi, published a book and set of cards of spiritual guidance called Spirit of Archetypes. They are supposed to be used to help you make your way through life's pitfalls but I can't seem to get past the gorgeous art on the cards. I shuffle through them and imagine all sorts of stories growing from them.

Back To The Drear

Happily I didn't have to work yesterday when it was sunny for the first time in what seemed like weeks. Today it's overcast again but it's not supposed to rain until tomorrow night. I see that it's a bit sunny right now but the sun is going down so even if it was clear it'd be dark soon. I did have a few customers today so that was good. I always feel better when I can put a little $$ in the till to help Mr. & Mrs. Boss stay afloat.



Today's knitting is a gift for someone, so all you get to see is the project bag waiting under the desk for knitting time. Nice fishy fabric, though, don't you think?

I Need a Keeper

I said it yesterday and it's so true. I was supposed to get a haircut this morning but my beautician was ill so since I was on the east side of town I zipped over to Hobby Lobby to get a skein of a particular yarn to make her a felted purse for Christmas. One skein, that's what I was after. Did I stop at one? No. (But then you knew that, didn't you?) I did get the purse yarn. I hope she likes these colors.


But I also found these on two of the ends.

I was sucked in by the colors of this sock yarn and by reading on someone's blog yesterday about a woman she met at Rhinebeck or SOAR who only knits single socks, all kinds of patterns, all kinds of yarns, one sock. So this Red Heart Heart & Sole yarn, with Aloe, will be my first foray into knitting a sock on size US2s. Maybe. Unless I lose my nerve and bump it back up to 3s. Or maybe I'll find a pattern I like that calls for US1s and just go for it. That is, of course, after I finish the Reef Socks, 2 Stealth projects, a shawl and more of a sweater. Oh, and a quickie project for someone's birthday. So, yeah, someday I'll be knitting this yarn.




Then there's this I Love This Cotton yarn. I'm all about the variegated, you know that, but I also like the feel of this. It's a little finer and a lot softer than either Sugar 'n Cream or Peaches & Creme. It'll be good for a Ballband warshrag for car knitting.

I was tickled when I checked out and it came to exactly $20, but I didn't have to spend it. I could have saved it. Someone needs to save me from myself. Please!


I did knit on the Lava shawl last night and got through the first 2 rows of the column lace. See? It's a little holey.

Weak, So Weak

I stopped at Michaels yesterday on my way to the grocery (it's so not on the way, it's the opposite way) so that I could pick up 2 more skeins of that alpaca yarn since there's nearly twice the yardage in the wool skeins. Don't want to end up halfway through a glove and run out of the correct dye lot yarn, now do I? I even had 2 more coupons, 2 receipt coupons from the day before to use. Guess what? Now the alpaca is on sale so the coupons didn't work on it. Did I just pay for the on-sale alpaca and leave? Of course I didn't. I stood there in the not-Basic yarn aisle and picked out two skeins of Pure Organic Cotton yarn in two lovely variegated colors that the coupons did work on. I need to have my Michaels visa revoked. I can't go in there unescorted lately; I need a keeper. Pretty colors, though, huh?

A Touch of Green

A while back I read on trek's blog that they use cloth napkins to reduce paper use. She doesn't wash them every day (except for the one in their daughter's lunch) so she's not using more water and power either. I was intrigued, but Durwood seemed unenthusiastic. The idea clung to the back of my mind so the next time I was cruising Goodwill I looked at the napkins, but they had mostly pink and blue, neither of which I'd let in my kitchen. Then I found a hook of smaller, striped cotton dishtowels for a buck each. I realized that I could cut them in half, serge and hem the cut edges, and use them as napkins. I love them, and seeing that I made 10 of them, Durwood is even using them. Much nicer than paper. Thanks for the idea, trek.