A Little Yarn On The Side

Normally, there isn't much yarn I don't love.  In weak moments, I have even been known to purchase bright fuchsia Fun Fur, so my standards are obviously not too high.  However, this yarn might be completely without temptation for me. 55% New Zealand Merino Wool 20% Nylon 15% Alpaca 10% Possum Possum????????  Not that there's anything wrong with it, but I can't even hear the word without images of Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies , and when one is trying to think of classy knitting projects, it's best not to picture someone with string for a belt serving up a stew of your yarn source . 

A friend has sworn that the next time I mention that I am going to make two project simultaneously, she will remind me to stab myself in the leg repeatedly until the urge passes.  This is a good thing. The problem with doing two projects from the same pattern AT THE SAME TIME is that if you make a mistake on one, you're more than likely going to make it on the other one as well.  Another problem is that if the pattern was written by psychotics who leave you with two unexplained pattern pieces, you have TWO projects with unexplained pattern pieces.  According to the pattern, the red one belongs somewhere on this apron: and the black one on this one:  which doesn't make any sense.  Since I had them, I decided to go ahead and use them as facings for the top yoke, but decided to actually match them up color-wise so they would make sense.  Of course, by the time I decided this, it required mostly hand-stitching them in place, but it would really irritate m...

Okay--no funny drugs today.  I had my toe x-rayed on Tuesday just in case I'd done something more serious than a clean break (I haven't, but it is broken), and the x-ray process was so painful that when they offered me pain pills, I jumped at the chance.  (Or lunged, I suppose, since my foot was propped up on the table at the time.) Oh.  My.  I'm glad pain pills exist. I truly am.  And when I actually broke my toe Saturday night, I was probably in enough pain to take one of them.  I'm not now.  I'm now at a point where pain is preferable to 4 hours of comatose.  And now that I can operate things again, it's picture time!!!! The black pi topper chemo hat:  A new blue hat:  and the latest pi topper: The blue one will be on it's way to another friend who celebrated her 40th birthday by undergoing an operation to remove a brain tumor, but the green one will hopefully be in the gift bin a VERY long time before it gets an owner. ...

New lesson for the day:  If a medication says "Do not operate machinery while taking," one probably can't operate a sewing machine either.  In fact, knitting needles might totally stump one if the drugs are strong enough.........

Andy wasn't all that wild about Gaidig's suggestion that Andy be my cabana boy while I recuperate, though I was all for it.  He did make homemade pizza tonight and mix a large white chocolate martini for me, so the life of the stupidly-injured isn't all bad. Not to mention.......the final cornucopia is done, allowing me to chalk up another 5 yards of fabric to the tally (note to self: home decorating yards of fabric are depressingly large compared to yards of 45"-wide cotton), and the black chemo cap is done!  There will be a picture of the chemo cap tomorrow as there is something in the combination of me/digital camera/linux operating system/laptop/blogger that generally results in "orientationally-challenged" pictures appearing on the blog.  And that's even when I DON'T have a martini.  If I tried it tonight, I'd probably sprain my wrist or something..............

So, the GOOD news is that there will probably be a lot  of knitting going on tomorrow.  The bad news is, that's because I broke my stupid toe last night and we are hosting a Christmas party tonight, so I have been on my feet waaaaaay more than I should today.  Theo thinks I'm trying to recreate the fun of having a cat with a broken leg for Christmas two years ago.

Remember how I said my cousin wanted a black chemo cap as well?  I didn't have any of the yarn in black, so I needed to order more from Elann.  And, I thought, since I was already going to be placing an order, I could do my reward-for-another-year-of-cold-sheeping purchase a bit early.  I had decided that I would allow myself to spend $100 on yarn as a reward.  What I wasn't prepared for was Cyber Monday.  $100 went a tad bit farther than I had expected. In addition to the new supply of yarn for chemo caps, they had some great fingering weight merino that will be perfect for an Alice Starmore pattern I've been wanting to make, and some really soft worsted-weight yarn that is probably destined for this sweater and a few scarves.  The good news is, I didn't buy more yarn than I've used up for the year so far, though I wasn't too far off.  However, there is another finished chemo cap (I had to be doing something while waiting for the 2 1/2 day...