In Which Our Heroine Reveals The Depths Of Her Boneheadedness And Is Spoken To Reprovingly By Her Daughter

I am such an idiot. Such a complete idiot. So, I regaled you all with the tale of the Comfort and having to call Webs up and tell them that, alas, I needed two more skeins of the yarn. And, being Webs, they had it and immediately shot it off to me. And as I was taking pictures of it, a stray thought wandered through my head and that stray thought was, "My, this yarn looks sort of....thick." But I shooed that thought away until last night when I re-read the Poonam pattern. And people, it calls for Comfort DK! Why didn't you tell me!? DK!!! Argh.

So I was just talked to Rachel, who is in a stinky mood as her apartment has mice, and mouse traps, and apparently when there is a trapped mouse a fit of the girlies comes over the other three room-mates and Rachel is left to deal with the mess. Well, Stephanie gives her moral support, I think...the others absent themselves. She's also out of food, though I suggested fried mouse.

Anyway, she asked what I was doing this afternoon and I said that I needed to run up to the yarn shop whereupon she informed me that I didn't need yarn, in fact I probably needed an inoculation against yarn. And she has a point. Sigh. But still, I am really hepped up to do this little sweater.

I have finished my Umoja socks. See how pretty!


So I guess I'm not a complete idiot.

News Flash!

Dinner won't cook if you don't turn on the heat.

Unfortunately, that's not a metaphor. I really did forget to turn on the heat under the vegetables. Sigh.

Something else I forgot? To change the "1" to a "3" when I ordered the Berocco Comfort from Webs. See, a week or so ago I saw this...Berrocco's Baby Poonam (am I the only one who thinks that sounds sort of dirty?)...and I fell in love with it. And there was Webs having a great sale on Comfort! So I ordered it. Only I neglected to order 3...I only ordered one. Sigh. I just called and they are going to send me two more if they can match the dyelot...three if they can't. I'm such an idiot. But I think I am going to make this as a second sweater for Toby. Oooh, or I know someone else it could be for....

It's nice soft yarn. And machine washable.



And I also got some blue yarns. Rachel wants a Jayne hat, like the one I made for Stephanie, but she wants hers in shades of blue. I bought some Lopi, but that stuff is scratchy! So I ordered several blues in Cascade's Pastaza, also on sale...llama and wool and much softer.


I think it'll probably be the three middle ones, but I'll let Rachel take a look before I decide for sure.

Argh...there is so much I want to knit and only a finite amount of time.

Guess What?! More Yarn!

Yes, I ordered more yarn today...and after reading about Crazy Aunt Purl's resolution to buy only essentials for the rest of the year I feel a little guilty about it. But this isn't sock yarn! And it isn't for me! Surely that makes it better.

See, at Daedalus this past weekend I found a copy of Louisa Harding's Miss Bea's Playtime, a cute little book full of basic kid's sweaters. And there is a cute little girl's cardigan - v-neck with a little picot edge - that I just really want to make. And, fortunately for me, there is a young woman in the office with a brand new baby girl! (Well, she's a couple months old but still under warranty, I believe.) Anyway, I asked the mom if she thought it exceptionally weird that I wanted to make her daughter a sweater (she's the one I made the booties for) and the mom was very enthusiastic. So I ordered some Knitpick's Shine Sport in turquoise. I'm already looking forward to picking out buttons for it.

There's a really cute jumper in this book, too....

So, Anyway...

..one of the things that Mr. Pointy Sticks and I did on Monday for fun (oh, what wild and crazy lives we live!) was to go look at Toyotas. I wanted to sit in a Prius. (I really want a bright scarlet Prius just so I could name him Vivaldi, you know? As in Vivaldi, the Red Prius(t)? Classical music geek joke. Sorry.) Well, we did sit in one, though the salesman was madly discouraging us from even thinking of ordering one..."We're supposed to say there's a 3 to 5 month wait...and you know they start at $25,000 because they all come with a package...you know the Camry or Corolla is much cheaper and that savings would buy a lot of gas!" And blah, blah, blah.

So we got into the Prius...and it was claustrophobic. Well, not quite, but it seemed really crowded. Okay, I'm not a little person...I'm 5'8" and umpty-umpty pounds...and I could hardly get my knees under the steering wheel. Even after moving the seat back and adjusting the steering wheel...it just felt crowded. The passenger seat also felt squinchy.

Then we tried the Corolla and the Camry...both 0f them had that same squinchy feeling. I think it has something to do with the way the console is shaped but really...I hated feeling as though I could drive the car with my knees if I so desired. We also sat in the Scion. And that actually felt roomy and comfortable. The one in the showroom was a horrible French's mustard yellow but I did like the way the color of the exterior was carried into the interior in the edges of the instruments and such. Just not that particular color, thanks.

And what's with having the instrument panel in the middle of the dashboard instead of in front of the driver? So that the passengers in the back get a good look at your RPMs? Isn't it harder for the driver to glance down and to the side rather than just down in front of him? It's probably cheaper to manufacture that way...but I don't like it.

So there may not be a new Toyota in our future and our last three cars have been Toyotas and we've loved them. (Well, we loved the first one, the second one was great... but really, how excited can you get about a beige Camry? He's dependable, I'll give him that. But love may be a bit strong of a term for how I feel about him.)

I guess we'll look at Nissans. Maybe Subarus. Heck, we might even look at a Ford Focus. Not that we are in any rush to buy a new car. I figure, if we start vaguely thinking about it now we might have a new one by....oh, 2010.

Huzzah!

I actually finished a book yesterday. None of the ones I was reading...or that is, none of the ones I mentioned earlier. Obviously, I read it. It was Wit's End by Karen Joy Fowler. (She's the author of The Jane Austen Book Club.) There were bits of this new one that made me laugh, but the book never really pulled together for me. There was too much going on, somehow. But hey! I finished it!

And today I brought The House At Riverton to work with me. I've heard it described as half Rebecca and half Upstairs, Downstairs. Might be enjoyable.

And the second Umoja sock is chugging right along.

Edited to add: And now it's come to a screeching halt as I am at the heel flap and, while I am 99 percent sure I know how I did the other one, there's just enough doubt that I really need to consult my notes. Which are on a sticky note. Which is attached to Charlene Schurch's book. Which is sitting at home.

Whimper.