new WIP!!!

Check it out in my WIP's (sidebar): the Easter Egg socks. I'm really having fun with the two-at-once using Magic Loop, though I've decided that tangled yarn is my life's curse. It helped so much over Thanksgiving--rife with family drama--to have this project to work on.

Non-knit-related comment coming: I decided, after dropping Mom and Dad at the airport yesterday afternoon (after 1-1/2 weeks containing: one dangerous fall that resulted in a Gorbachev-style head scrape, some small yelling, a stolen purse and smashed window, a Turducken, twenty-seven loads of dishes, two movies, more lattes than a normal month, four trips to Sea-Tac, the full roller-coaster of family emotions, the world's best husband, and record-setting blankie time for Harvey with various family members) that closing a family visit is like getting up from a serious fall: you check yourself for brokenness, testing all your limbs to make sure they're still there, that you're still made up of the parts you were previously. I'm delighted to find myself intact. I'm also mostly delighted with how I withstood it, this complicated mess that is my family of origin. There were some transcendent moments that I know I will always remember, especially with Paul. I only had one 15-minute timespan that I'd erase if I could (the small yelling). Maybe when I'm 80 my Italian temper will have cooled, and I will have learned to entirely stay centered.

As it was, I felt buffeted and tested but not found wanting. Mom said yesterday as I was shepherding them through the airport, "You think of everything." I didn't need to say back, "I think of everything because growing up with you taught me to always be prepared for the worst." I suppose it's a good sign that, in this case, the yelling happened because I have let my guard down enough to not be prepared for the condition I found them in.

what's that, you say?

Why (in my FO's), it's a finished Sadie blankie!

I am beside myself with joy! I finished it just after midnight as our wedding anniversary was turning into the day after. B was snoring, Harvey was snoring, in bed beside me as I wove in the last ends on the backside. The mama will get it this weekend after a good wash. I took it to show the work girls yesterday, and everyone loved it. I imagine it was something like having a child: at the outset, you say, "Well, that doesn't look so hard! How hard could it be?" and then, when it's done, you know it will be years before you contemplate doing something so ridiculous again.

Or maybe not, because I found myself thinking last night, if I were to do one for another friend's nearly-three-year-old, I now know all the simple ways to weave many ends in as I create the blocks.

But this also means: today I can start a new knitting project!!!!! Look shortly for socks on the needles, and also a shawl started when I can get the laceweight unknotted and wound. My dilemma is, what to start??? I have stash and patterns for socks galore, and I really want to try something two-at-once, but not toe-up. Can I try this new technique and a lace pattern at the same time?

blunked socktoberfest

(That was supposed to be "flunked," but blunked sounds just fine, too)

Officially flunked, as it's now Nov. 5. And you may notice there's no Sadie blankie in my FO's. The good news is, I'm very close on that--maybe this weekend? I could post a picture now, and say it's done--because I have finished the front--but I am an honest girl, and it just wouldn't feel right.

I am literally itching to take up another project! I taught a colleague to knit on dpn's this week. She's making a Christmas stocking in Cascade 220 as her first project in the round. I thought pretty canny: no second-sock syndrome. But I could hardly keep from snatching it and knitting away--she was really picking it up quickly, and that made it look so fun I hungered for it. But we have to remember: nann is working hard to finish what she starts, and it is a noble fast from new projects.

Part of the reason I flunked is that my two jobs--counseling and training--have both been operating at high pitch.

I wore Faina's Scarf for the first time yesterday! It's been torrential rain the last week, and cold, and yesterday was a Maroon Friday (spirit day at my work). It was good to have her back in my hands again, I've missed her so! She really blocked nicely, and the fabric is very fine and light.

Harvey has been awaking at 4 a.m., wanting his breakfast. It is crazy making, but it has helped immeasurably with my NaNoWriMo novel (won't be blogging THAT--just another exercise in proving I can finish things). I have a couple thousand words to catch up this weekend, so with that and S Blankie and regular Saturday/Sunday errands, I should keep me hopping. If I don't fall asleep in my lunch.

I'm looking forward to adding a couple of WIP pictures next week, along with one very belated FO.