Week Fourteen: Art Imitates Art

I am turning to writing more and more often in order to express myself. Given that I have a degree in writing, this should come as no surprise to anyone, especially myself.

However.

I am now journaling every day when I wake up, and just before I fall asleep.

I am now composing my blog posts over the course of several days, and editing them.

I have recently written A Poem. (Be afraid. Be very afraid.)

These are things I have not done for some time. For over a decade I have been occupying my time with (and defining myself by) my children. As important as child-raising and human-socializing and person-educating can be, it doesn’t take away from the importance of my Prime Directive, which is to treat yourself kindly and use the resulting energy to treat others kindly. This life is a bumpy ride, for which I believe we are each issued only one ticket, and we need to be each other’s shock absorbers. (And I’m finding out as I proceed through life that there is a lot of shock to absorb. There is a lot of pain out there, both having been suffered and awaiting the suffering of.)

I have found it interesting over the last few years that when I meet virtually with old friends, they don’t ask if I’m married. They don’t ask if I have kids. They don’t ask if I’m working or studying. Without memorable exception, they have all asked the same question of me: “Are you still writing?”

It gave me pause.

Was I?

Did journaling count? I have kept journals off and on over the years — but mostly off in recent years. (So I was kind of hoping that journaling didn’t count.)

Did scrapbooking count? For a while there I was designing pages and describing events so our memories would be easier to summon in the future.

Did blogging count? I started Chocolate Sheep in 2006? 2007? after writing a monthly e-mail newsletter called Wisconsin Crafter.

Did social media count? I have posted approximately 12,300 posts on Ravelry since I joined the site on September 27, 2007. On that site, which now has over 3 million members, I have started groups, adminned groups, modded groups, participated in groups, and lurked in groups. I have been on Facebook since (apparently, according to Facebook) sometime in 2009. I can’t even count how many notes, status updates, private messages, and comments I’ve written there.

Did they mean, Had I written a novel? or Had I published my short stories? or Had a written something else, something “official”?

I think what they really meant to ask was whether or not I was still myself — whether I had kept on doing the thing that defined me as “me” to them. They were checking in to find out if I were the same person they had known years ago, and whether or not time had changed me. I’m pretty sure they didn’t want to see my unfinished novel (and I’m certain I didn’t want to show it to them). They didn’t want to read my scrapbooks or see the hand-stamped cards I’d made. They were touching base about one thing they were certain was still true.

I didn’t want to disappoint them, so I said “yes.” It seemed very important that I say “yes.”

Exactly why was it important that I live up to [what I thought were] their expectations?

I wanted to be the same person. I wanted to be someone who hadn’t given up her dreams in the face of life and its challenges. I wanted to be that writer who kept on writing, no matter what life had thrown at her. And since nobody was demanding to see any evidence — such as links to articles I’d written for The New Yorker, perhaps — nobody was the wiser.

But really…. I really wanted to be that person. So over time, I have started writing again. I started different blogs in order to focus on different topics. (And I also discovered that I really enjoy the creative process of setting up a new blog. I have set up ten of them. Really, I can stop anytime I want to. It’s totally under control.)

So here I am, writing about writing. And while you can call yourself anything that you want, I personally find it easier to accept the label “writer” after I’ve clicked on the “publish” button.

Myself, many moons ago (1987), editing my own writing with a red pen.

I’ve also started reading again — new books, classic books, fiction, nonfiction, intriguing books on display at the library, my kids’ books. I’m getting new stories, words, and writers into my head. Instead of comforting myself by reading my favorite stories over and over, I’m gently reading my way out of my box. I’m also reading books about new ways to think about life, the universe, and everything — including thinking itself. I have purchased three new bookcases for my personal space alone (and applied Eminent Domain to acquire one from my eldest son’s room), and they are spilling over before I’ve even had the chance to bring up the many boxes of books that have been stored in the basement for the last several years. Probably for several years too long. Anyway, they can’t come up into the light until I have somewhere safe to put them, and we’re still pretty crowded here, topside.

So much to read, so little time.

And yes, I’m still knitting…. looky here! This week it became increasingly obvious that I wasn’t going to have nearly enough yarn to complete Wingspan with even the two skeins I had, so on Tuesday one of my errands was to find a complementary color in the same weight to do the neckline edging. I didn’t get any college scholarship money on my color-matching talents, so I was a little nervous about the skein I’d picked. I took the project and the extra yarn to knit night to set some groupthink on it, and lo! and behold! they said that it was good! I proceeded to join the new yarn and knit six rows as quickly as I could, but with each row taking about 30 minutes, I knew I wouldn’t have time to cast off right then. I took care of that task on Wednesday afternoon, then ever so promptly wove in all the ends. I threw it around my neck and fell in love with it immediately.

And ah, there is so much more to knit… and to write. But tomorrow I’m going back to campus to study my calculus before it’s too late.

One sad Hufflepuff

It is with a heavy heart that I pass along the news that some of my most treasured handknits have expired. Yes, I know there are greater losses. But these knitted items were kind of a benchmark for me in a lot of ways.

First off, I didn’t knit them. They were the first handknits I ever received, from the first knitting swap in which I ever participated. It was the summer of 2007 and Harry Potter mania was in mid-swing. One night I’d probably had half a glass of wine too many, clicked on a link, and Bam! I was in a Harry Potter themed knitting swap. We had fake wizarding names and everything.

I remember the timing because it was when I was starting to knit the Ravenclaw-colored socks for my downstream swap partner, my youngest child was admitted to the hospital and being fed some high-calorie meals around the clock in an effort to pack some pounds on him. I was pretty stressed out and struggling with the double-pointed bamboo needles and actual Sock Weight Yarn, but I was making a game effort of it sitting on the hospital bed until the afternoon I pulled too hard on the wrong needle and yanked it out of about 25 stitches. I knew then it was time to quit without really quitting. I called in a favor to my cyber sister Lauren in Scottsdale, frogged the project, and sent her the yarn so she could make socks for my partner. I did make some beaded stitch markers and get other goodies for my downstream partner, but in the end she barely acknowledged receipt of my packages.

My upstream pal, however, was a whole different story. Jules sent me a pair of striped Hufflepuff socks, a drawstring bag with lotion and goodies, and my favorite type of Ritter brand chocolate — dark chocolate with marzipan. You can relive that happy moment here at my One Happy Hufflepuff post from June 21, 2007.

Jules was also the first long-distance knitter I met in person. We got together once at a cool yarn/fiber shop near Springfield, Ohio, that had, among other things, a claw-foot tub FILLED with yarn. It was on that day that I bought my first package of stitch markers, and a hank of yarn I just KNEW I would make into mittens someday (and I eventually did). It was that first meeting when I told Jules she had the hair of a spinner. Do you believe me now, Jules?

We met up again a couple of years later to visit a yarn store in Dublin, Ohio, and get some Jeni’s Ice Cream while I finished Those Noro Socks.

Many things have changed since then. Tommy put on a few pounds and got discharged from the hospital. I learned to knit socks and even more intricate items. I had meetups with other knitters, created a little knitting get-together we like to call Unwind, and started a local knitting group that’s been meeting for almost three years now. I’ve done another Harry Potter related knitting event, and got re-sorted; I’m no longer classified as a hardworking, loyal Hufflepuff but a brainy, clever Ravenclaw who has gone on to knit herself some nice ‘claw-colored items.

When you knit…. people don’t often give you knitted things. But other knitters know this, and the kindest of them make sure that the handknits keep getting parceled out. I cherished those socks, and this winter I was wearing them to bed when I felt especially cold. One morning a couple of weeks ago I took them off to discover that they had given their all.

I’m sorry, Madame Pomfrey / Jules / Crafty Peach. But they were loved.

Because I like you

I’ve been sneakily adding pictures of finished objects from 2008 to their corresponding places in my half-complete list.

I need to do some photo shoots of the FO’s that still live with us, but some of the giftknits’ photos were lost in the Great Hard Drive Crash of June 2008 and I won’t be able to put up photos of them. You will just have to Use Your Imagination.

This also means I will be trying to sync up what I have in iPhoto with what I have in Flickr with what I have in Ravelry with what I have in the WordPress Image Library. Please send aspirin, or perhaps a six pack of a local amber ale.

Knit Night was great. I claimed a table in the back room and for the first time in my life, my friends came back and asked if they could sit with me. With ME!!! I am finally one of the Cool Girls!!! And I got to show off Tom’s Mittens and the bamboo socks, and work on a Super Secret Project for almost the whole time. KittyMommy and Molly Bee and Dale-Harriet and Yo Jane were there, among many many others — it was a pretty packed house.

I want to cast on for my January Personal Sock Club socks now. I’ll be thrilled if I can get the cuff region completed tonight. I’ll sneak in a few more pictures if I can.

So, this one time, at Sheep and Wool…

…we had this little party, and about 40 people came? And had cheesecake? And won door prizes?

And then we all got massively tired and wished we could sleep for weeks and weeks. But we did take some pictures. They’re not great, but they’re pictures, and they’ve already taken Stage One of their journey and now actually reside on the computer rather than in the camera.

I’ve got a few things to do first (like shower, and run out for diapers and wipes) but I want to take advantage of this being a 3-child school day and put up a very nice blog post with some of those pictures and lots of words.

Here’s our display at the Country Store on Saturday morning. I don’t know why the camera was doing that! (Hi Brandy!)

Here are some sheep (including Shetlands). Check out the horns on that Jacob!

Four-day-old lamb, 2008 WI Sheep & Wool

 

 

Shetland sheep, 2008 WI Sheep & Wool

 

[/Jacob Sheep, horns and all!]  

The feed is sweeter in the other pen!

 

Here is the food at the Afterparty before anybody had some. Chocolate chip cookie pizzas in three flavors, pizzelles in two flavors, chocolate dipped pretzel sticks in four varieties, and two types of cheesecakes with three fruit toppings. Coffee, soda, water, etc. The wine was a door prize ONLY.

 

Chocolate dipped pretzel sticks

 

 

Cheesecake bar — New York style and chocolate mint chip

 

 

Chocolate chip cookie pizzas

 

Here are the door prizes, almost all of them. Some people came to the party and dropped more items on the table.

And here is the TARDIS I made just for the party. You won’t believe how cool my children think this is, and where it is now.

Off to do errands, then I’ll fill it in later.

A tremendous thanks to everyone who attended, everyone who just stopped by the table to say Hi even if they couldn’t come, everyone who helped in any way, and especially to Cheesehead with Sticks, who really made it all possible. I really hope there’s an event like this next year, even if I’m not involved with planning and running it.

September 11: OK, I almost give up. Sorry about the formatting. If I can figure out how to fix it, I’ll do so one picture and caption at a time, saving in between. Meanwhile, I’m on with the rest of my life.

Ravelympics, Day Twelve

Finally, some progress. Last night the gods smiled, the angels sang, two cans of Coca Cola kept me alert, and I got some knitting done on the second Rose’s Wrist Warmer. I was feeling pretty good about this all day today until I grabbed some heavy pans while preparing dinner and got so much pain in my left hand I thought it was broken. My very first thought was d@mm!t, there goes the wrist warmer. But it seems much better now. I’ll just knit s-l-o-w-l-y and perhaps my hand won’t mind.

Want to hear about the Mystery Knitter I met at Irish Fest? Of course you do! But first, some background.

In May of 2007, in cahoots with my never-met-but-sure-we’re-sisters blogger friend Lauren, I checked out a web site called Clanarans, which promised a sweater or sweater kit that corresponded to your Irish clan. Lauren was able to order sets for her surname, but for some reason “Dooley” wasn’t included. Not Irish enough for them? I don’t know. Anyway, I emailed them about it, supplying the English and Gaelic spellings, and asked if they would have it available someday. They wrote back and said, Not now, but keep checking. So, every few months I’ve been checking. Still no Dooley sweater.

So. Fast forward to Sunday at Irish Fest. I was at the Cultural Village anyway, so I decided to take a look through the tents and see if there was any wool. A few years ago, there was; lately, not. But you never know. I went through every tent, I tell ya. Nothing.

There was one tent left, which looked like it was probably selling T-shirts and jewelry. I decided to go in anyway.

Just inside the door were dozens of knitted wonderful things. Aran sweaters, baby bonnets, “longies,” mittens, you name it. I recognized the sweaters immediately, but a big sign behind their table confirmed it. Clanarans.

“You know,” I said to the woman on the left, “about a year ago I emailed you because you didn’t have a sweater for my name.”

“What’s your name?” she said, jumping up to check the list.

“Dooley.”

“Hmm, we still don’t have it. Tell you what, e-mail me with the Gaelic spelling of it and I’ll see what I can do.” She took out one of their flyers and wrote her contact information on it, then looked up at me. “I’m the sweater designer for Clanarans.”

Folks, she also had just finished four days of teaching a class on sweater design as part of Advanced Knitting during Irish Fest Summer School. She teaches you how to select cable patterns, allow for proper size and fit — the works.

Guess where I want to go next year!

It gets better. I pulled out my completed Rose’s Wrist Warmer for her to see. “You can do this,” she said. I felt that same warm rush I got in college when a professor told me I could write. My goodness, I’d been writing constantly since I was about eight years old and pretended to start a neighborhood newspaper. But the Validation by an Expert still gets to me, in a good way.

So, I’m going to email her, and keep plugging away at this. Four years ago I didn’t own a set of knitting needles. Three years I thought I’d only need one pair if I picked the right size. Now I’m afraid to count them. If you insist upon learning something…you can. You truly can.

In and out

Hi all, we returned from the Trip Of All Trips on Sunday and I’ve been playing catch-up ever since. I can’t tell you how many miles we put on the ol’ van, but we had an oil change the day before we left and we probably need another one by now.

Here are some bizarre statistics:

States visited: six
Knitting completed: two sock-heel flaps
Yarn stores visited: one
Yarn stores spotted but not visited: three
Ravelry members met: three 
Great-grandmothers visited: two
Number of times Tom fell down the stairs: one (the first day)
Knitted items photographed: three
Blogs I read: none

So, I still have a lot to catch up on. Unfortunately for everyone who’s waiting for me to catch up to them, tomorrow is the start of the Olympic Games and, more importantly, the Ravelympics. I am only doing one project, but there are many more people planning to do many many more projects. It seems a little silly when I try to explain it to non-Rav people, but we of Team TARDIS are having lots of fun already. I have new friends all over the world because of mutual love for Doctor Who (keep it clean in the comments, ladies) and it’s just one more fun thing to do. Oh wait, one more stat.

Anthropomorphized fat globules knitted and sent to to England: one.

So, the deal is I cast on for my project during the Opening Ceremonies, and try to cast off before the Closing Ceremonies. I’ll be knitting a pair of Rose’s Wrist Warmers, the ones Rose wears in Doomsday (last episode of season 2 of Doctor Who). This should certainly be doable for me. I’m slow but I can crank out a pair of mittens in a weekend if I need to, but there’s just one thing. The pattern is….charted. The backs feature traveling-style cables with seed stitch in the middle, and the Very Colorful Chart is something I’ve never followed before.

We’ll see.

Because I spend more time on Ravelry than I should, and I feel guilty, I will make an effort to post on the blog every day during the Ravelympics instead of just hanging out over *there* with my *Ravelry* friends. Who knows, I might even try to post a picture.

Progress report: Pre-Ravelympics

Bamboo socks: Sock One at foot, Sock Two needs gusset stitches picked up. 
Silk Lace Stole: Still stalled.
Tyrone: Still stalled but I’m getting encouragement from afar to finish.
Secret Christmas Project: conceptualized, begun, and hidden. This is a **new** project and I’m looking forward to the Reveal pictures at Christmas. But I can email details if you’re interested.
*Sheesh, am I doing anything else?*
Heelflap scarf: Still stalled. 
Irish Hiking Scarf with cursed yarn: Still stalled.

I sense a theme.

Anyway, hi to everyone in Blog-Land, and I’ll try to catch up on your blog (and revamp my own) soon.

What happens at Knit Night….

…stays at Knit Night, of course.

But the short version of last night is that we had a perfect storm of Wisconsin knitbloggers (ElizabethSABLE, Jaaladay, Dale-Harriett, Cathy-Cate, and more), a knitting ‘zine distribution (knitcircus #3), knitting tattoos (thanks Cathy-Cate!), delicious drinks, awesome projects, and a newbie who lent who lent structure to our evening. I wish I’d been wearing a wire so I could provide a transcript, but there was a lot that was Not Safe For Work, Not Safe For Children, or generally Not Suitable For Public Sharing. But all hilarious. If I get the chance to recall some of the evening, I’ll try to. We were a wild and naughty bunch hiding in the back room.

I handed out Ravelry badges and left 20 copies of the Second Sock Worksheet at the Sow’s Ear for distribution to whoever would like to help test them out. I also worked on my alpaca shawl exclusively and didn’t even take the Adipose project out of the bag. (Ironically, DH was at home watching most of the Doctor Who episode that included the Adipose; I still haven’t seen it.)

I’m still catching up with my Doctor Who viewing, but I don’t know how I’ll manage to see any of Series 4 before the finale on August 1. Series three, I should wrap up tomorrow night. Then I have less than a week to clean, plan, and pack for a multistate trip that will include a family reunion, two family mini-get-togethers, as at least two Ravelry meetups. If I can do some online viewing of Series 4, it means I won’t be sleeping. Just like now! But I really want to be aligned with the rest of Who-ville.

No other projects are getting attention now that I’m more than 80 percent done with the alpaca shawl (I’m conveniently ignoring the time it will take to make a crocheted  or I-cord edging, since I don’t know how long it will take). I need to mail at least one FO, and make arrangements to send out items for a swap so I can get the rest of my Doctor Who Scarf yarn. And I could probably finish the rest of my Ravenclaw mitten if I wanted to.

I haven’t even thought about my travel-and-trip knitting. Does anyone have suggestions for what WIPs I should take along? A week after I get back, the Ravelympics begin, and I’ll have a lot of simple knitting on my plate, taking my full attention. Then it will be time to really, really, plan that festival Afterparty.

Yikes, I’d better get busy! I didn’t know I was so far behind…..

Podcast me!

I now have a hand-me down iPod shuffle, thanks to Mr. Chocolatesheep. My music is all on CD in the car for listening while I drive, so I thought I would start listening to some knitting podcasts.

But I don’t know where to start! I have heard of a few…but don’t know what would be to my liking.

So, what’s your favorite podcast and why? Don’t put a link in your comment, as you may end up in the Spam Bucket and it’s been icky in there lately. Just give me the name of the podcast or who does it, and I’ll follow up with you if I need more information on how this all works.

Knitting update: doing the hand decreases on Mitten One right now. Did more of a Debbie Bliss demin square. Everything else is just sitting around.

Top Chef tonight! It’s Restaurant Wars everyone!

The Summer Lineup

School is winding down here, and the summer schedules of travel, Scout camp, and pre-kindergarten school (!!!) are visible on the horizon. It’s going to take a while to figure out when & where we can go, especially with the price of gas being what it is. Maybe we will rent horses and ride to Ohio. Best not to dwell on that.

Also our TV seasons are ending — not all at the same time, of course. Our favorite BBC America shows (Top Gear, Last Restaurant Standing) have already had their season enders, Bravo (Top Chef) still has a few weeks to go, and Food Network (Next Food Network Star) is about to start. Somehow we missed most of the NBC season of Thursday night shows, but managed to catch the season finales of 30 Rock (Mexican cheese doodles, anyone?) and The Office (I said, OKAY). We’ll have to watch the full seasons their second time around, with more daylight and no school to get the kiddies to bed early when something like My Name is Earl is showing at 7pm.

I’m conveniently ignoring the other stuff like office visits, hospital procedures, baking for the pizza place, and coordinating this Sheep & Wool afterparty. Because when your husband points out that you haven’t blogged in a while, maybe it’s time to get back on track.

Last weekend DH & I went to the unsold empty house on Saturday and did some work on it. He mowed the shaggy lawn, we moved in a set of washer & dryer to give the laundry room that “laundry room” look, and I vacuumed all the carpeted rooms. The drive belt had snapped on the vac the day before, so this meant hooking up the attachment hose and doing all the work crawling around on my hands and knees. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. But at least the house got aired out & looks better. We brought back 2 sets of cross-country skis — what timing!

No meetups (too much work to do), no trip to Herrschners (I think he’s on to me), not even garlic cheeseburgers from Marvin’s (they weren’t open yet) or cannolis from Cheese Louise (they were closed already).

But I did get some knitting done. I did one and a half sock-yarn squares for the Doctor Who Afghan Project, and worked on the cuff for the second Panda Cotton sock (cast on at Late Night Knit on Friday, amid much fretting and grumbling).

And Knit Night was good, even without the traveling Dale-Harriet in attendance. Her daughter Lovely Mary was there, hiding from a sock gusset (unsuccessfully, as it turned out), Molly Bee stayed longer than usual, and I met some new (to me) knitters while sitting at the Big Table. I saw yet another knitter with a boot cast on — what is the deal, and I hope this isn’t catching!

So, here’s the project summary:

Tyrone (for Jack Tom): Still on hold, but I know where the project sheet is. In my pattern binder, of all the odd places. Yeah, I know!
Irish Hiking Scarf (for ???): Still on hold while others go first, has no priority.
Panda Cotton socks (for DH): Sock One on hold pre-heelflap; Sock Two at mid-cuff.
Acrylic tube scarf (for ???): on the verge of frogging. I am really starting to hate this thing. Will trade for fiber, please make offer!
Acrylic heelflap scarf (for ???): I’m using leftover yarn from a pastel Colleen sweater and knitting a scarf in Sl1, K1 across, Purl back. I’m only a few rows into it and it’s still curling up at the bottom, so I’ll have to do a bunch more before I can see if it looks good enough to keep.
Hufflepuff mittens (for me): Working thumb gusset on Mitten One. After some of these “exotic” fibers I’ve been working with lately, knitting with Plymouth Encore Worsted feels great!
Silk stole (for me): Snuck this one in on you, didn’t I? This was supposed to be a cotton lace washcloth. But I found a couple of balls of Shire Silk in baby blue at a new local yarn store, and cast on for a “washcloth” with size 15 needles. I haven’t done a repeat in a while, I don’t know how much yarn I’m going to need, I’ve never used silk, I’ve never done lace. I don’t care. I’ll get more yarn when I need it.
Leftovers afghan (us): I’ve started on a second five-inch square from the Debbie Bliss Denim Cotton Aran yarn. In about 35 years I will have a blanket. Or, 4 squares if I never find any more of this yarn on sale.

I had a knitting dream the other night, too. I was working with some sort of cobweb weight green lace on a really fancy project that I had completely hosed. The border didn’t go all the way around, some sections looked like entrelac squares done with a different shade of green…..you could almost hear the frogs croaking offstage. I was glad to wake up from that one.

What else is up for this week? Big Tom has an appointment tomorrow to be fitted (perhaps) with a mild orthotic (his left foot turns in, sometimes). There’s a colonoscopy scheduled for Thursday (not mine) that could use some positive vibes. And there was a line from yesterday’s mass bulletin that caught my eye:

“Pray for the sick, for there are many.”

Lucky for us, we already know that cooking and knitting are prayer.

Big Tom

When I turned two I was really anxious, because I’d doubled my age in a year. I thought, if this keeps up, by the time I’m six I’ll be ninety.
— Steven Wright

Happy Birthday #2 to my little man — my friend Jen calls him Big Tom since he’s been underweight and behind the eight ball for so long. But he is catching up fast. He is such a sweetie and a ham.

Of course, the State of Wisconsin thinks he turned two yesterday. Silly trusting me didn’t bother to double check his birth certificate until after his first birthday, so apparently I need to do some legal filings to get it corrected to his real birth date. I was going to get this done in time to be a birthday present — but I didn’t.

My oldest son has wrong information on his birth certificate, too, oddly enough. Right after he was born, someone said brightly, “Look! Right at nine o’clock!” Everyone in the room turned to look at the clock, which was one of those enormous schoolroom types that you can see from the other end of the hallway. It read 8:50. Sure enough, when the birth certificate came, it said 9:00. That genius was the person responsible for reporting accurate information to the state. Sigh.

Anyway.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered the comment contest. I met a bunch of new (to me) knitters and read a bunch of new (to me) blogs, got a lace washcloth pattern to work on, discovered that there’s a whole blog dedicated to tracking knitting blog contests, and found out a lot more than 10 people read my blog. (Who knew! Well, now I do.)

Congrats to Molly Bee for winning! She has yet to pick her prize package.

I guess now I need to knit, and write about it, and post some !@#$% pictures every once in a while.

And everyone has been so kind not to bring this up, but I haven’t been mentioning much chocolate in the blog lately. I certainly haven’t stopped eating it.

That may change. There’s a local (within walking distance) pizza place that would like to offer desserts, and when I stopped in to tell the owner I was thinking of going to baking school, and would he be interested in my homework, he about flipped. I just bought a new pizzelle maker and will be making some samples for him soon. If that works out, I may be baking at his shop one or two nights a week. So I will have dessert pix to share! If WordPress lets me share them.

I’ve also got the WIS&W afterparty to bake for, and I gave myself a pretty ambitious menu to learn. But I’m one of those people who needs deadlines. Desperately. So blast it, it’s time to get started.

But knitwise… I decided to cast on for the bias square for the Doctor Who afghan. The plan is to collect enough squares for two afghans — the U.S. one auctioned to benefit Doctors Without Borders, and the U.K. one auctioned to benefit a hospice that helped care for David Tennant’s mother when she recently died of cancer. They are easy peasy 4 inch garter stitch bias squares, not even mitered squares (I guess that’s next), made from sock yarn. My first one is more than half done, and my plan is to just keep making them until I run out of leftover sock yarn. NOTE: I am NOT coordinating this effort. It originated in the Who Knits? Ravelry group (come and join us!), and I am just making tiny little squares.

I may start doing this with larger amounts of oddball yarn, too, and just tucking them away until I have enough for an afghan for myself. Maybe I’d better put an explanatory note in with them in case I get hit by a bus and somebody finds this bag of squares and thinks WTF.

Next on the list is starting the second Panda Cotton sock, so I can work two heel flaps right in a row and have a cigarette. I’m figuring it will be Just. That. Exciting. (I’m kidding, folks. I have never smoked anything I was offered.)

Knitwise the other projects are the Red Heart tube scarf, the MCY IHS, and Tyrone (sigh). I will probably knit that lace washcloth before I start any of them! That’s just the kind of knitter I am. I have to have a plan so I can thwart it.

ETA (edited to add): The Yarn Harlot has just shamed me into putting Tyrone at the top of the list. If anyone can encourage me through the weird first few raglan rows of sleeves-meet-body, please comment with said encouragement. I haven’t touched the sweater since last October, and it’s quite likely I don’t know what I was doing, or what to do next.