A Little Yarn On The Side

* Do I knit for the finished items or so I can buy more yarn? * How many shawls can one person truly wear? * Why is buying yarn so much more fun than buying groceries? * Why can't I get as excited about eyelash scarves as I do about lace shawls that will take a heart-wrenching amount of time? * If people own cats and don't knit, what do their cats nap on? * How many more times until I learn: scratchy yarn = scratchy sweater? * If those darn story problems in high school math had been about knitting, would I have complained less? * I've never been attracted to really big men. Was this out of the fear of having to knit them cabled sweaters? * Is it just a coincidence that my closest friends appreciate hand-knit gifts? * Would there be less road rage if everyone else knit at stoplights too? * If knitting is so dang popular, why do strangers keep complimenting me on my lovely crocheting? * How long can I keep a project in the Project Time-Out Bin before it's d...

In the last 2 weeks, I've hosted 3 parties, gone out 3 times, had two different rounds of house guests, gone on a long weekend to Oregon, baked THREE chocolate zucchini cakes, made two batches of pickles, and met some friends for lunch. What I have NOT done so much of: * sleep * knit * sew We returned from Oregon Sunday around 3:30, and Andy's parents arrived around 5 for a quick visit on their way to Seattle. My little sidekick was obviously thrilled to see them as well, because he promptly brought my mother-in-law a dead mouse, which he hid inside her shoe. Luckily, she's a cat lover, so she could appreciate it as a "gift," though I was, of course, mortified. I guess I should be thankful he didn't recreate the live mouse floor show that he provided for one dinner guest. I have finally reached repeat #12, so one more and I'll be halfway: and it still continues to look exactly the same. I think I'm going to do a little minor blocking with the i...

Okay, and the shop wasn't open yet, BUT I didn't camp out in front of the shop and wait for them, so that is something. (When you have 46,000 yards of lace yarn you grasp at what you can....and it's quite often yarn)

Okay, I really just ran out of time, but I DID NOT cast on a new project for the trip! Instead, I found a bag for the Kimono Shawl to travel in and it says it's having a lovely time and is enjoying the cat hair-free environment. It's gotten rather picky since it started going out and about with me lately. AND I'M STILL ON THE WIP WRESTLE-MANIA TEAM!!!!!!!

So, we're driving to Oregon tomorrow for a couple days (and since we have a house sitter, I can say this on the blog), and while I have 17 WIPS, none of them are good portable knitting. To be fair, I've been carrying around the Kimono Shawl, but I have just worked the third snagged thread back into it, and that's getting a bit tiresome. I want something that will fit in my purse and with a pattern that's easy to remember....but I'm trying to finish at least one more WIP by the end of the month.... Although, the only WIP I've been working on this week is the Kimono Shawl, which doesn't have the slightest chance of being finished in 9 days, so in 9 days I'll STILL have 17 WIPS..... Maybe just one little lace scarf......?

Today the Kimono Shawl and I got the car's oil changed and the tires rotated, and now that I've reached the 11th pattern repeat I'm feeling a bit more enthused. I'll be halfway after the 13th repeat, then it's all downhill from there. Don't you think it's looking a bit more manly after all the grease and motors today?

I actually was in bed--well, more "on" as it's freakishly hot here this week--most of the day with A COLD (which is an obviously stupid name as there isn't anything COLD about it), so I got the 10th repeat done on the Kimono Shawl, which leaves 16. And as it basically looks EXACTLY the same as it did yesterday & the day before & the day before... we're just going to say that this is what it's going to look like for the foreseeable future. This is how WIPS are made. You start out--the pattern and the yarn are new! They're exciting! You want to see how the pattern will look! You've got an inch! Then two! Then somewhere along the way, the inches become less noticeable, the pattern becomes a bit less interesting--perhaps even monotonous. Maybe a troublesome sock yarn starts calling your name....Maybe you start to wonder what you ever saw in lace, and when was the last time you saw someone wearing a shawl in public? The merino laceweight th...