Dance marathon

No, I am not dancing my little heart out: I am working all the damn time. We're not actually having another marathon at the moment, it just feels that way. There's my whining for the day. This doesn't leave me a lot of free time for knitting and other diversions, like watching the Netflix dvds that I've had forever or finally reading those books that I picked up at Shakespeare and Co. in Paris.
Despite that, I have managed to finish the body of my tiny gauge raglan sweater. I thought that it would take forever to bind off the three hundred plus stitches for the hem, but it was really more like half an hour. I'd missed my train (again), so it was a great way to kill some time. Now it is time for the sleeves, but as I am knitting the sleeve from the armhole instead of as a separate piece, it is awkward and cannot commute with me anymore. Also, knitting on #3s for more than 15 minutes makes my hand hurt. So, that is moving along slowly.
Instead, the Classy Drug Rug II is keeping me company on the train these days. This starts a lot of conversations. Clearly, some people think that this project is for a child. Well, it would have to be a very large child, because it's for someone with a 41 inch chest! And there are the usual comments, such as references to grandmothers who knitted, observations about my speed, the dreaded C-word. Cute-get your mind out of the gutter! I've never heard the other one in the context of a knitting conversation, but you never know. The body of CDR 2 is done and I am working on the first sleeve. At this rate, it will be done within a fortnight.
I bought a new knitting book this week. Well, new to me, not to the shelves. I am looking for a fabulous project to make for a beloved cousin, and decided that the funky raglan unisex sweater in Loop-d-loop would be good. I like the idea of it: irregular ribbing, an open raglan seam to the collar, luscious Rowan yarn. Further inspection of the pattern proves that I like only the idea. The pattern comes only in one size, 48 inches. That is big, and the cousin in question is believed to have a 38" chest or thereabouts. That's a hell of a lot of ease! Also, one sleeve in the pattern is raglan and the other is set-in (poorly). WTF?! How did that seem like a good idea during the design process? A lot of the patterns in the book leave me scratching my head, so I am glad that I didn't pay full price for it. There are details that I plan to steal for other projects, and projects that require a lot of math for alterations, but very little to be made as-is. I can see that I will end up designing a sweater myself incorporating the elements that I like in the crazy sleeve sweater, but not before tackling a few other projects.
I just got my tax refund, in an unexpectedly swift manner. My thoughts immediately turned to impulsive purchases of luxury fiber, an AbFab afghan kit, a full set of Addi Turbo needles, etc. Instead, I went on a very responsible spending spree. Yes, that seems like an oxymoron, but keep reading. I bought bras this afternoon. I went to TJ Maxx and bought every bra they had in my size. All five of them. Bra manufacturers seem to operate under the belief that large breasted ladies like practical colored bras. And it's hard for anything to look cute in a D cup. The reward for pawing through the poorly organized, overcrowded lingerie racks at TJ Maxx? Well, I ended paying less for all five of the bras than one of them would have cost a block away at Carsons. They're all very practical, which is not the most appealing thing for a girl in her twenties, but I love a bargain.
I read the new Augusten Burroughs book in one night. It's very fast moving. The book on Georgian princesses that I purchased on the same trip is decidedly not. Yes, I realize that a book about George III's daughters isn't going to be a pagetuner. It's dry. I'm used to dry. It has print roughly the size of that in the phone book. That is a problem. I'd hoped to pass the book along to my grandmother, but there's no way that I can do that if it makes my young eyes ache after a couple chapters!
I thought that Mother's Day was tomorrow (it's not), so I went out on a Gift-for-Mom expedition before work on Thursday. This took me to a new yarn shop. An actress I know told me about it after she stumbled upon it during a trip to the Auditorium Theatre. It's very conveniently located for knitters who work in the Loop. Well, I went there, imagining a skein of beautiful but expensive lace weight yarn that my mother would never buy for herself. The owner of the store had a far better suggestion: glass knitting needles. Sounds as helpful as a rubber crutch, but they're made out of Pyrex, with art glass ends. They're really beautiful! The unexpected benefit of this beautiful, clear glass is their magnifying effect. Wonderful for fiddly little projects like my lace-making mom enjoys! I am so excited about this gift! Much better than my first idea, an AbFab kit (shipped from the UK. I love my mom, but I don't pay retail for Colinette!), or my second, a CO Bigelow box. She still hasn't used up the Origins sampler that I gave her for her birthday two years ago. So, magical looking needles fit the bill. They're wrapped up in tissue now, but maybe I'll be able to grab a good shot of them after Mother's Day. And, even though I need more yarn like I need a hole in the head, I bought some Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool yarn for a good summer AC cardigan. It's very lightweight stuff, but warm due to its silk content. Predictably, I opted for vibrant blue. Maybe someday I'll make a yellow project to mix it up, get out of my color comfort zone. Not anytime soon.