Where is the time store?

Seriously. How can I acquire some additional time in the day, time in the week, and so forth? Surely not by sleeping less, because, hello, not sleeping enough/well has not been, shall we say, effective in making me happy and productive. There's been lots of harumph-ing of late. And muttering. And wishing I could take a nap. That sort of thing.

But! After the next two work days, there's the long holiday weekend, like a gloriously comforting light at the end of a tired and grumpy tunnel. [And no, I don't care that tunnels themselves can be neither tired nor grumpy. I like my sentence and I'm keeping it. Harumph.]

I've got three, count 'em, three Thanksgiving dinners to go to in the span of about 36 hours. I won't be travelling anywhere over a half hour away, so I'll (thankfully) be able to fit in a few trips to the gym as well. In the meantime, I need to figure out what contributions are in order for each of the gatherings, and what items, specifically, will fit the bill.

On the knitting front, I bit the bullet and finally revamped the neckline of my Hourglass Sweater. Now the raglan neckline is an appropriate width, rather than threatening to fall off my shoulders if I sneeze. I took the path of least resistance, working the re-knit sections in the round even though the sweater was originally knit in pieces and seamed. I suppose I should have taken out the seams, re-knit each section, and seamed everything up again, but I'm lazy. And the sweater doesn't look good enough on me to make me think I'll wear it anywhere remotely important, so it's ok if it looks a little wonky around the neckline.

I've been plugging along on Thermal, too. Good lord, that's a slow sweater. Fingering weight yarn, tiny needles, and waffle stitch. Yeah. I'm knitting it bottom-up, in the round, and I'm almost ready to divide for the armholes... or rather, more accurately, trying to be patient and not divide just yet because I frequently make my sweater torsos too short out of impatience, and this one here is a prime candidate for that particular affliction.

As much as my opinion on Thermal is essentially "man, this is going to be a great sweater, but I just want to be DONE with it, already!" I still managed to tear myself away from it and put in a few rows of work on one of my new designs under cloak of mystery. Which, no, is not a cloak.

Annnnd, despite having two sweaters on the needles and a relatively lengthy mental list of people I'd love to give knitted gifts to in theory (depending on a whole bunch of factors), my attention has been pulled in the direction of a new sweater pattern that looks simple, very wearable, and -bonus!- quick to knit. Seriously, how cute is that? The examples up on ravelry all look lovely as well. Yet another sweater I want to knit RightNow!

Sigh. I really need to find a time store.

Well, look at that!

See, I can promise pictures of a new sweater and post them before an eternity has passed. Huh. I didn't know I had it in me.

Without further ado, here's the Lace Cardigan, in short-sleeved form:



And here it is with, as promised, a view (sort of) of my recent haircut.



I should note, too, that the hair looks a little horrific there because (a) I did nothing to it this morning, save for letting it air dry and brushing it, (b) this is after a full day of work and general succumbing to gravity on my hair's part, and (c) I'm not wearing any makeup. Yes, my hair looks better when I have makeup on my face. I don't know why, it just does.

Anyway, so now I'm freed up a little, from a mindset perspective, to drool over new patterns. For the knitters out there, have you SEEN the latest issue of Twist Collective? I want to knit at least half of those patterns, and I want to knit them right now.

Pictures soon, I promise...

So I finished the lace cardigan yesterday! And by finished, I mean finished. I've woven in the ends and blocked it and everything. I'll take a picture soon, although I'm not sure how flattering the garment itself will ever be, as it has a distinct lack of waist shaping.

I also planted those pesky tulip bulbs, finally. A row of taller white ones behind a row of shorter red ones, along the front of the house, on either side of the porch. They should, I'm hoping, go well with the yellow house and white trim, and with the orange day lilies that are already there. With the hostas gone, the only thing throwing a wrench in the color scheme is the bluey-purpley iris, but I like irises too much to get rid of it, and I'm too lazy (right now) to transplant it elsewhere.

Oh, right, and I also have two potted peonies that need to go somewhere, in the hopes they'll survive for next year. I think they're some sort of miracle variety, because I didn't get around to addressing the issue last fall (they're pink, and I don't know where to put pink things in my yard yet), but somehow they still managed to create new growth this past summer. I think the early snow we had last fall/winter provided some extra insulation for them. That, or they're just miraculously indestructible plants.

Anyway, I didn't - and won't - take pictures of the newly planted tulip bulbs because the visual right now is just a bunch of tamped-down dirt. Boring. Kinda like this post.

And as a quick final note, I've signed myself up for a 5k next year. Yes, this is the same 5k I signed up for last year and bailed on (I forget whether it was due to an injury or just plain low motivation and lack of training...), though at least my registration fee went to a good cause. This time, though, I'm determined to follow through. I. will. get. back. into. running. I will I will I will I will.

Yes.

Successes (complete and partial)

1. Complete: Thanks to the inspiration and guidance of a recent smitten kitchen post, I figured out how to make a really good batch of home fries (a key element of breakfast-for-dinner, which one really must incorporate into one's life at least quarterly to ensure a proper level of contentment and whimsy). Helpful tips were the pre-cooking of the potatoes, so as to equalize their cooking time with that of the onions, and the use of butter, so as to create a crispy potato exterior. Addition from my own mind: a dash of cumin. Complete success.

2. Partial: The sleeves on the lace cardigan are done. Only one of them, however, has been sewn in place. Copious ends need to be woven in. Blocking must occur.

3. Partial: Tulip bulbs have been purchased (and have subsequently ridden around with me in my car for about a week). Hopefully there'll be a day with neither rain nor work in the near future so I can plant them. Relatedly, I've obtained the materials for weatherizing my windows. Unlike planting, this process doesn't require a rain-free day, or even daylight, but it does have a much higher motivation hurdle to address. Oh, motivation, how elusive you are...

weekend highlights

This weekend was a whirlwind, lemme tell ya. Or, I should say, I had things to do this weekend, and as a result am tired now, because I am apparently old. With a side of insomnia. Anyway.

I got a haircut. Nothing fancy or different from what I've done in the past, but much needed. In a couple weeks it'll be perfect and I'll wish I could make my hair stop growing at will. No pictures right now, but if I can finish up knitting the lace cardigan (ooh, haven't heard about that one in a while, have ya?) before my hair grows back to the length it was anyway, I'll try to get a decent shot of the cardigan and the haircut together. Two birds, one stone.

I tried to buy shoes for Awesome Friend's wedding (I triiiied, I really did!), but the store I was sure would carry them... didn't. Le sigh.

At the other end of the footwear spectrum, I wore my beyond-broken-in pair of sneakers to tromp through some mud and go urban hiking. No, really, there's hiking within the boundaries of my (very small) city. I know, it's just barely a city. But still, it's really cool: there are acres and acres of marshes and wooded trails (and a waterfall!) a stone's through from residential streets and a shopping center or five. And you'd never know it when you're in either setting. My (mini-)city rocks.

A fair amount of time was spent taking a putty knike to old wallpaper and a rake to old leaves. Thankfully, a fair amount of time was also spent eating delicious food and laughing with lovely people.

Oh my gosh, and I re-watched one of my favorite movies ever. Crash. It won the Oscar for Best Picture for a reason, folks. So good. So.so.so.so.good. I'd already seen it, so I already knew what happened, and the two best scenes were still amazingly powerful. Tears rolling down my face kind of powerful (and I don't cry at movies, like, ever). If you haven't seen it yet (why the heck not, I ask you?), get your hands on a copy posthaste!

A Month of Wednesdays

I'd realized sort of vaguely that I'd been posting less frequently lately, but imagine my surprise when I scrolled down through the last three... four... FIVE... posts to find that they were all dated on Wednesdays. Huh. I'm a creature of habit, always have been, and am well aware of said trait, but that much? Really? I guess so!

Anyway, let's cross something off the most recent ATDL, shall we? Yes, we shall.

Progress on Thermal so far

As for the rest of 'em, let's roll out the accountability fanfare. Dah, de-DAH:

- Get a pair of prescription sunglasses
Not yet. In fact, might wait a while to see if my prescription is where I need it to be (headaches again. argh.)...

- Find a pair of brown boots to replace the current pair, which has seen better days
DONE! Brown, heels but not too much, zip up, cute square-ish toe. Approx $50. Thank you, Bass outlet!

- Buy tulip bulbs
Um, not yet.

- Plant said tulip bulbs
Clearly, no.

- Purchase housewarming gift(s) for TNG
DONE! And he lurved them.

- Go. to. the. gym.
Yeah, I went. For 25 puny minutes on an elliptical machine. Went for a two mile walk with the CraftoMom today. Tomorrow's activity will be brought to you by renovations, no doubt. Gym again on Monday. Yes.

- Take and post a picture of my progress on Thermal so far.
Oh yeah!

- Stop working on Thermal and get some progress done on a neglected new design
Oh. Yeah....

- Make hotel reservations for the weekend of Awesome Friend's wedding
DONE! Just now! Thank you, ATDL, for reminding me.

- Buy dress and shoes for aforementioned wedding
Next weekend, I swear.

- Prep windows for winter
Sigh. No.


But I *did* carve a pumpkin. (And TNG did, too, a cool cyclopse jack-o-lantern, but my camera batteries fizzled out before I could get a shot of it.)

Ghostie's got a little case of osteoporosis, it seems. Carved pumpkins don't last forever, ya know...