Saturday morning I had to rise from my extremely cozy bed at 8 am to go to work. That is a struggle on the best of days, but very difficult after being kept awake by the blaring bass beats coming from next door until 2.30 am. I honestly contemplated calling the police, which I rally don't want to do. It's a square thing to do, and it would be fairly obvious who called. But 2.30, neighbor? Not cool. I had a lot of coffee on the train (full of people unused to riding public transportation, sigh) and managed to get to work only ten minutes late. Those ten minutes caused by the great slow moving mass of people inching towards the Taste of Chicago. Taste brings everyone out of the woodwork. Or, as my coworker put it, all sorts of people who walk down the street as though they've never walked on pavement. It's all pretty quotidian for me now, so I must take the crowds in stride. Slow, short stride.
Fortunately, I have a few other things to think about. My knitting for example. I may be a convert to the socks on circs method. I really dig it. I used to scoff, saying why fix what isn't broken (double point needles), not wanting to buy loads of long circular needles. I still cast a doubtful eye on the two circs method. That's a lot of cash, buying all of those Addi lace needles! I wish that I could post a pic to illustrate this method, but I've promised not to post any in-progress photos of the supersocks. Trade secrets and all.
Yesterday, I went to the big sale at my favorite LYS. A number of popular, excellent yarns were 40% off. When I got there around 2.30, it looked like a monkey had been loose in the store. The pima silk yarn that I wanted was greatly diminished, and there was much diving into bins to root out additional balls of a given color. In the end, I bought enough alpaca yarn to make a short-sleeved polo shirt, a lacy tank and matching shrug, and a few "just in case" balls for the 4C alpaca cardigan. Fortunately, I had parked quasi-legally right in front of the store and didn't have to carry my purchases very far. When I say quasi-legally, I mean illegally. In Chicago, most on-street parking is free or becomes legal on Sundays. I actually parked in a no parking ever zone, along with a few other hardy souls counting on the CPD being otherwise occupied. Sure enough, no tickets, clamps, or tow trucks--thanks to crowd control staffing over at the Taste.
My mother also just gave me ten balls of Baby Alpaca Grande, in a kind of lemon-lime color. It's fabulous yarn, and an incredibly generous gift. Basically, she gave me enough yarn to make a cardigan. A big, cozy, green cardigan. So, I officially do not need any more yarn or projects for a while. Here's a list of things in the knitting queue (I refuse to disclose the contents of my stash, for fear of being hauled away to a round room):
*the baby sweaters (really, almost done. just sewing at this point)
*the ubersocks
*summertime tunic from Interweave Knits, in a soft, coral color. I'd like to be able to wear it at least once this summer.
* slip-stitch tank from Fitted Knits, in a rich purple color. Again, a summer garment.
And many, many more. I'll just have to be a knitting ostrich for a while and work on projects I've already stashed. Pics to follow soon.