that someone who has never met you and probably will never meet you, and does nothing but read a few blog entries, can get something so right, while someone who knows you your whole life can be so incredibly wrong? My secret pal is amazing. A previous post details how awesome she is when it comes to gift giving. Please contrast her outstanding performance with this.

My secret pal says another package is on the way. I'm so excited!

I am enamored.

Today I brought the usual stuff that I bring to work with me every day: 2 knitting projects and a book. I get an hour for lunch. But I bring this stuff every day, just in case. In case the building is evacuated and I have nothing to do? Yes, that's happened - a fire drill, and yes, I knitted in the parking lot. In case there's a shift in the time/space continuum and I'll have plenty of time to do whatever I want in the middle of my day? Still waiting for that one.

Today I brought the striped felted bag, which you haven't seen pictures of yet - for a couple reasons. First, there's just not enough there and it's dark brown and extremely unphotogenic. Let me get some stripes in. Secondly, I'm experimenting with the stitches around the corners to see if I can make them sharper and more...cornery. I'm not documenting this if it turns out to be a fiasco, so you'll just have to wait. If it works, I still may not tell you how I did it. I'll submit a pattern to Knitty or somewhere and rake in some of that Knitting Glory. Yeah, uh huh. I also brought the socks that I am so very excited about, so excited, in fact, that I perused the pattern book for a full 15 minutes before I left the house this morning.

So what did I do? I spent my lunch period eating Cheetos and playing Tropico 2 on the computer. I'm addicted. I haven't been able to win this one scenario for days now and it's making me nuts. But it's all I wanted to do today. I forsake knitting *gasp* for a computer game. And you know what? Sssshhhhh. I did it yesterday too. I KNOW! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME??? Must be the heat.

It's hot. Really hot. It's supposed to be over 100 today. I don't know for sure, but looking out my office window, it looks very bright. That means hot.

The monk's afghan....don't get me started. I'll probably tear up from guilt. He's having surgery #7 in a month, and there's no way that it could be finished. I can't even afford the rest of the yarn between now and then, so it's just not gonna happen.

And the scarves - I know. (shakes head in despair) I have...how many going? Too many. And they're scarves, for gosh sake, so I should be able to knock out one a week. But I'm not. KADD. There should be a KADDA. I'm on step one.

That pinwheel blanket was getting really hot in my lap, so next I wanted to do something that wouldn't touch my skin at all as I knit it. Something small, light, and quick so to give me that accomplishment fix that I so crave. And challenging too. So I headed to Meyer's House for some browsing-not-buying-no-really-I-shouldn't and saw a sample sock that I fell in love with. The yarn has been discontinued, but they had the booklet that the pattern came from. I agonized over some extremely soft charcoal grey sock yarn, with my Daddy in mind, but I just don't see him wearing hand-knit socks. And since he's retired, I don't think he'll wear a suit again until the next funeral or wedding. So I nixed that idea and got some in a color for my Mom instead - she may be a little more receptive.

Why not socks for me, you ask? Well, because except for going walking or to the gym, I won't wear them. I hate socks. They bug me. I wear a size 11 (yes, huge, thanks) so all socks are probably a little tight on me anyway and thus uncomfortable. As a kid I would have gone barefoot everywhere, so I think it's more than that too. My toesies want to be free. Later that day I drove down to Hearthstone Knits to see if they had anything new, and what do you know - they carry the Trekking XXL yarns that I've seen online and only online. And they had one ball of this colorway that made me want to make socks for me and wear them. Immediately. So what if they'll be the most expensive socks I ever owned. (And I know it could be worse - it could be that Lorna's Laces stuff that I keep trying to forget exists.) Yep. I'm making socks. And I get to make them so that they fit. I hope. If anything, they'll be pretty. I really love these colors. You can tell by the picture that I couldn't even wait until I'd taken a pic before I had to pull the label off and cast on for gauge. I'm very excited. About socks. Yeah.

I finished the Pinwheel Baby Blanket. I tried a picot edging, which wants to roll, so I'll try soaking it and weighing it down so it lays flat. It may not work, but it's worth a shot. Steaming it may work too. Can you iron acrylic yarn? Probably not.

Anyway, this is the first birthday donation I've done, and it was fun. I'll be trolling more blogs in search of another victim. Check out Good To Be Girl's blog to see hers too! There you will find (because I'm too lazy today) link to the pattern and even a spreadsheet to calculate how many rows you need to do to get the desired size. Have fun!

Thursday is Christina's B-Day! Christina is one of the coolest people I know. She is a rape counselor and does all kinds of work to help kids deal with racism and oppression. She is one of those rare people who spend their lives making the world a better place, and I'm lucky to know her. And, she taught me to bind off when I started to knit, so she's a knitting senpai of sorts too. Anyway, I made these stitchmarkers for her this morning to give to her at Urban Knitters. Happy Birthday!

Every couple of years I take a day off from work so that I can get up earlier than I do for work, drive almost to work, camp out for a couple hours, then go home and do nothing for about 12 hours, then drive back to the place I went that morning, and wait for a couple more hours, get in line, pay for an item, then leave. I'm doing it again this Friday.

Yep, it's Harry Potter time. The Borders near my office (and not near my home) starts giving out line tickets when they open at 9am. Last time I got there around 7:30 and was number 6 or so. I could just wait and buy it on Saturday like sane people, but that's not as much fun.

The major difference this time is that now I have something constructive to do during all that waiting time - I KNIT! So, what shall I knit on Friday? We're looking at about 5 hours of time, some of it spent standing in line. I'm thinking I need to finish some of the scarves that I've got going. Don't try to tempt me into starting some Hogwarts scarf, because I don't have the money for the yarn, and I have too much going now anyway.

Do you associate what you knit to what was going on when you were working on it? I got 1/2 way through a ribbon scarf last Saturday night, and was watching some old Lemmon and Mathau movie on PBS. I did the second half last night, and as soon as I picked up the needles I was thinking about that movie. I watched "The Talented Mr. Ripley" which cleared my head of the old one. I wonder if I'll think about Matt Damon when I wear it.

I've been doing some serious stash-busting lately - updates and pics soon.

Someone that I would like to consider a friend has something really exciting going on - he's got a segment on an HGTV show! He's one of the Urban Knitters, too, which is how I know him. Here's a link to his web page describing the shoot.

Christopher is a really amazing guy. And I'm not saying that because I'm sucking up to a now-famous person. I'm saying that because it's a fact. Every interest, every endeavor that Christopher explores he goes into with great forethought and preparation. He learned all about bees when he was considering gettnig a hive, including diseases and how to prevent them. He learned all about the types of birds that he's adopted, and strives to give them a wonderful life (including preparing for what will happen to those that outlive him). He is an amazing fiber artist, and is actually studying history and technique as he works - it's not just a hobby. Because of his dedication to everything he does, he seems to be successful at everything, and probably is. He's even half of a happy couple, which is difficult as we all know. He's kind and warm and friendly in spite of his talents and successes, which speaks volumes. What really strikes me about him, other than that he looks great in a shiny shirt, is how everything he does shows respect for those around him. It's that aspect of him that makes me smile whenever I see him. He's a treasure.

Anyway, enough gushing. As soon as I find out when he's gonna be on, I'll let you know.

Well, nobody voted, so I let my id decide. I polled it hourly and it changed its mind pretty frequently. By 3pm on Saturday the Sophie Bag was done (except for felting which I didn't get to.) I did 5 rows on the Pinwheel Blanket. I did 4 rows on the Probability Scarf. I picked up the Fall Interweave Knits and started on the Fingerless Mitts, completing one and getting a couple inches into the other. And finally, even though I could have finished the Fingerless Mitts, the KADD (Knitting Attention and Dedication Deficiency) kicked in and I started on a felted bag idea I've had since the Peruvian Bag Sale at Elann last fall. The 6 bags of yarn are taking up waaayyy too much room in my stash trunk, so some of them had to go. I'm making up the pattern as I go along, so I hope it turns out OK. I've brought the other mitt to work with me today and hopefully I'll get a real lunch hour to work on it.

I have a choice.

I can do the Sophie Bag that's just barely on the needles. Chances are I could finish it this weekend. It would deplete a ball from the stash. I could felt it when I do laundry this weekend and it would be complete. If I don't like it, I can put it in the pile for the Womens Support Holiday Boutique, so it could count as my charity knitting for Sunday. And it's small, so wouldn't be so hot in my lap.

OR

I could continue with the pinwheel blanket. I have just 26 more rows, but that is 11440 stitches. It would take all weekend to do those 26 rows. But then it would be done and off the WIP list.

OR

I could start on the Sunset Wrap for which I spend a lot of money on yarn and haven't touched yet. I'm really excited about it but don't want to start unless I'm going to work on it straight through to ensure I can get an extra ball of yarn of the same dye lot if I need it (which I really don't anticipate, but you never know) and I want to maintain the same gauge, and I'm afraid that I'm still new enough that if I put it down for a while that may change.

So, which do you think I should do?