Bleh. I haven't posted because I generally feel bleh. This time of year sucks the energy right out of me. Add to that a general crabbiness manifesting itself constantly - reading the Knittyboards/other lists (if I ever read another word about the Japanese Aran sweater, it will be too soon.); TV (sucks, although Project Runway does start on the 9th - better late than never); life (what the hell are the rules about girlfriends and Christmas gifts? why do I bother giving my brother a list of CDs when I just get lame excuses for why he didn't buy them? why won't my DVD rental company answer my question about where the third disk went?). Christmas is always a let-down. I order most of my gifts, and ask for the rest. And surprises? Sounds like a great idea, but my family sucks at surprising me. A Canadiens T-shirt? Not the height of creativity. A clay sheep pin? Cute, but have you noticed it's not my style (I'm very minimalist when it comes to jewelry.) I could whine on and on, but I can't be bothered - lethargy, you know.
Knitting:
I bought 3 balls of Stone Mission Falls 1824 to sub in with the Aster:
I swatched both colors up, just in case, but the Aster was clearly the winner. The Teal will become something else at some point.
I finished ripping Birch out and re-cast on. Progress is getting faster - I'm on repeat 10 (100 stitches down, 199 to go!), although the picture was taked after repeat 4 was completed:
Mom's sweater hasn't been getting a lot of love lately, because I've wanted something more complex. Simple lets my mind wander, and from now until mid-February is not the best time to be mind-wandering. I will get back to it, and just work on it while watching TV and other mind-involving activities. Plus, I found the second ball of yarn for the current pair of socks - I couldn't find it and had great fears that it had fallen into the trash. It was actually wedged under the bookshelves - or at least that's where the yarn fairies returned it to, because I swear I looked there.
Acquisitions:
Christmas brought a bunch of books, one CD (A Very Scary Solstice, Lovecraftian Solstice carols that crack me up, but other family members *cough*brother*cough* find "disturbing"), an 3-D puzzle of New York, which I have wanted for years, a ballwinder, the aforementioned sheep pin and Canadiens T-shirt and 2 gift cards for the LYS. I spent the smaller-denomination one on Barbara Walker's Second Treasury. The larger one will wait until I need yarn for something. My swift will get here when it gets here, which is (fingers crossed) soon, since I think it shipped out on Friday.
Thursday morning, my birthday present arrived 3 months early. I got a Battle-Damaged Angel Puppet Replica. But wait, you say, didn't you get that last year? Well, sort of. I got the standard Puppet Angel replica. This one is from after the werewolf attack, and has a removable nose. (Scarily enough, they're going for more than double the price I paid on eBay.) It's a rare show of geekdom from me lately. (And when they come up with the Vampire version, I'll be getting that too - in for a penny, in for a pound.)
Then, after the real mail came (parcels arrive earlier), I had more new yarn:
300 grams (give or take) of handpainted silk from Hipknits. I have no clue what the color is called or what it will eventually become. I need to see how the color repeats before I commit it to anything. I could possibly do an Ella, or maybe make up my own wrap pattern. It will ripen in stash until something strikes me as being the appropriate use.
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