skittermagoo!

Actual knitting! And cats! And furniture! Wow!

Okay, I know. Even though I've been posting a bit lately, it's all boring crap with no fun yarn stuff.

Well! I promised knitting, so knitting you shall get!

First up, the Everlasting Cardigan. Or Neverending Cardigan. Cardigan of Perpetuity. Whatever.

the kitten paw is bonus

I've got the back and the sleeves done, and these are the two fronts (miniscule as they may be)! I'm knitting them both at once because a) I'm a glutton for punsihment, b) I thought it would be just that much fun to make this project seem even more neverending and c) So that I would remember to do the shaping at the same place on both pieces. I'm still not really sure why this project is taking so long, because I like the yarn, and I LOVE the color, and I really want to wear the finished sweater (it'll be next year at the soonest). Hmm, maybe it's all. that. stockinette. Ya think?

Until about, oh, this week or so it's been pretty chilly around here (for Texas anyway), so I've been wearing the hell out of all my handknit socks . . . and I finally got to the point where I had no more clean ones and needed to wash them all. I wanted, too, to try "handwashing" in the machine by filling up the tub, dumping in the knits, soaking them for a bit in wool wash, and draining and spinning, because I hate hate hate doing the roll-it-up-in-a-towel-and-stomp-on-it thing. Sadly, I was a little skeered, and let the socks sit in the laundry basket unwashed for a while before NanC came over and held my hand while I tried to figure out how to make my washing machine do what I needed it to. I really was scared that I would dial it in wrong and felt everything (including the superwash ones). Hey, I never said I wasn't irrational!

Anyway, I took the plunge, and I have to say that this is quite possibly the best way ever to wash all those knit socks! Yay! And I never realized I had so many . . . here they are all smooshed up together after drying:

I seem to have a lot of socks in some shade of blue. Must remedy that.

And now for something completely different . . . furniture and cats!

Y'all may not know this, but ever since we moved into this house (almost three years ago), it has been my intention to put some sort of pull-out sofa or futon or something in my fiber room in case we ever have overnight guests (the spare bedroom upstairs -- Hub's "office" isn't really as suitable). But every time I really seriously went looking, I couldn't find anything in my price range that I liked. By the way, when the hell did futons get so expensive?? So I waited. And waited. And didn't really forget about it, but resigned myself to waiting and saving some cash up. Then my February HOA newsletter came, and I just happened to glance at the back page (where there are sometimes "classifieds"), and saw that one of my neighbors was selling an oak-framed futon, cheap! Whee! I called, and went to look at it, and a couple days later, they were nice enough to put it in their van and deliver it to my front door.

Mardi really likes it, too

I haven't quite figured out yet where to put my wheel, and my other chair, etc, but it's all good -- I now have seating for more than one knitter, and overnight guests don't have to sleep on an air-mattress on the floor.

The cats really like the "suede-like" cover, and I thought for a moment yesterday that I had caught an actual moment of affection and non-growling between them . . .

Abby isn't growling!

But then, a second later . . .

Yep, growling.

Not an uncertain happy surprise

But rather a CERTAINLY happy one!

I freakin' love the "shuffle songs" function on iPod . . .

Here I am listening to songs on random, and one of my Favorite Songs Ever comes up -- I had forgotten I even had it on there!

(the video is a live version of Uncertain Smile . . . not the version I have on the Pod, but it's all good!)

Okay, okay, I promise the next post will have some knitting. Swear!

Further disappointment averted

When it comes to snacks, anyway . . . I remembered to bring a can of almonds to work to put in the "snack drawer".

No more wishful drawer-gazing.

To no avail . . .

I keep looking in my right-hand desk drawer (at work) hoping to find some sort of snack in there.

Nope, still empty!

Well, not empty-empty . . . I've got a bunch of non-snack stuff in there. But no snackage.

Sigh.

Do you to-do?

Ok, maybe I'm grasping at blog entries here, but hey, at least I'm posting!

Do you make to-do lists? I am a champion list-maker who hails from a long legacy of list-makers . . . I make lists for EVERYthing! (Incidentally, I think that's one of the reasons I lurves Ravelry so much -- it gives validation and organization to the knitting list part of my brain).

At work, I make my list in weekly form, because so many of the things I do are multi-day events . . . I was sitting here looking at my list from this week, and was struck by the fact that it is such an accurate insight to how my work-brain functions, as well as how changeable my plans can and have to be -- a lot of what I do on a Tuesday depends on what happens with Monday's work, and I'm often making plans several weeks into the future.

When I try and look at this from the perspective of someone else, I'm struck by how chaotic it looks -- lots of scratchouts and calculations and notes written in the margins (one such note is titled OH CRAP). I also note that I'm sometimes very ambitious and unrealistic about what can be done in one day! It's crazy-looking, especially when contrasted with my actual lab notebook (which is much more organized). The weekly plan sheet gives me a space to brainstorm and plan and outline my week, and also a place to spill my water bottle (that's what the crumpledness is about).

Another striking thought is that I have possibly sunk to a new blogging low by posting a cell-phone picture of my work to-do list. Sheesh.