I’m sick. this sucks. I got sick on Friday afternoon - that weird tickly throat thing. and I’ve spent the last few days congested as all heck. figures, considering how nice the weekend was. Saturday I was all motivated to dye some sock yarn. I was going to try the self striping method in Yarns to Dye For, which recommends a 40 ft skein. turns out that the clothesline is 20 ft across - perfect! so I get the yarn balled up (the book claims that’s easier), and the ball self destructed on me - the free end kept getting wrapped up with the working end and it was just all kinds of messed up. I finally got it all wound but was paranoid that I had twisted it at some point, so I attempted to rewind it. bad idea. now it’s even more messed up than before. grr. argh.

so I attempted to finish up some things. didn’t go so well, considering I felt like crap. (I did make a bit of progress knitting on the cat bed while dh drove to check out a new game shop on Sat and on the drive to buy lawn chairs on Sunday. unfortunately, shopping completely killed any motivation I thought I had before shopping. *sigh*)

despite still feeling a bit crap (I’m wishing for a vacuum to suck all the crap out of my head & lungs. I hate being congested), I did manage to knit a bit on the red socks on the bus this am, after I finshed weaving in the last two ends of the flower washcloth. yay, one item done.

so at lunch I continued this grand motivation and wove all the ends in on the birthday socks. yay! two things finished in one day! now, to finish Eli’s sweater… and the HP scarf. and to start the steering wheel cover (that I bought the yarn for back before I took the mirror off my old car and stopped driving it.)

here’s the pics:

a finished pair!

the finished washcloth

so, I was blog-surfing, and stumbled on Thomasina’s LibraryThing. and I’ve created my own. except I can’t remember half the books I own. *sigh* so, my knitting library (in progress) can be seen here. one of these days I’ll figure out how to edit the blog from not-at-home (aka work/library/wherever) and add a link to it in the sidebar.

bday socks are almost finished - just need to finish the toe. tonight will be a night of finishing. dh wants to stay late, and since we carpool, well, that leaves me stuck in the Cities. so I’m going to join up with the Burnsville SnBers and finish the bday socks, the nephew sweater, and the flower washcloth. and if I get all that done, then I’ll work on the red socks.

I’m also itching to finish up the HP scarf, but I didn’t feel like dragging bringing that along. too many ends to weave in/tie off. but I want to get that done ASAP. and then I’ll look for another project to try and finish, while I cast on something else. I want to do a sweater (since I’ve done the swatching and all) but I’m scared I’ll pick the wrong size and end up with something that doesn’t fit. maybe I’ll do the lacy one first - it seems more wearable over the summer. (I’m also thinking I need a shawl or something for at work, but I don’t know if I really want to make one.)

I told dh I was going to Yarnover. he starts singing:
Yarn over across the universe
always knitting stockinette cuz we don’t know how to purl

yeah. it makes no sense. but then, neither does the original song (Star Trekking). at any rate, everytime I think of a yarnover, I’m going to get that stuck in my head. thanks.

so yeah, Yarnover was fun. I resisted yarn. I dropped $45 on patterns instead. mostly they’re for purses/bags, some of which are felted. which is weird, cuz I thought I wouldn’t make them. cuz I don’t use them. and I didn’t think I’d get into the whole felting thing. but these patterns were ones I liked. I bought the Starburst bag pattern from Just One More Row. and one for a little wristlet that’s got a cable design across it (forget who that one’s by. will check and edit it tomorrow) - both of those from Zandy’s. and one for a little beaded & felted coin purse (forget who the vendor on that was, but I resisted the sock yarn they had that was mighty tempting). oh, and one for a little felted basket, which looks really cute with a planter stuck in it (from Clickety Sticks). and then I found the snowman pattern collection. I just bought the two basic snowmen patterns. figured if I ever made the snowmen, I’d go back to get the patterns for more hats/accessories. (those I got from The Yarnery. I think.)

so yeah, lots of knitting inspiration. and then I went to JoAnns and took advantage of their weekend sale - got some of the missing sizes for my dpns & 16″ collections, a small quilting ruler, a couple of cute fabrics that will become something for my sister one of these days, and a few other things. all on sale.

in other news, we bought both the Vibe & the Jetta and traded in dh’s car in the process. (I have a Jetta! happy dance!). and someone came and bought my old car on Saturday. (more happy dancing). it was a good weekend. except for all that rain. (which can take a leave of absence at any time)