Someone stop me, please!

It's a sickness, I tell ya! I couldn't help myself and have started yet another pair of socks. These are feather and fan, using the Sunshine Yarns yarn Donni sent me. I love the way it's striping. The pattern is so easy, too, that it's the kind of mindless knitting I can do anywhere. Thanks again for the great yarn, Donni!

Lookie, lookie what I got

>Two luscious, gorgeous skeins of Koigu! Don't you love the color? Won't it make a great pair of socks to wear with jeans? Isn't my Secret Pal wonderful? I haven't been able to find Koigu at any of the many yarn shops here in Sacramento, so I was thrilled to receive this yarn. My knitting pals will be jealous when I show up tomorrow with my yummy new yarn. Yes, I know I have several projects going already, and I do seem to have knitting ADD, but I want to knit with this yarn! Now.

Of course, this is my dilemma.
The first photo is a pic of my stack-o-grading. The other picture shows my pile-o-projects. So, knit? grade? The devil on my shoulder says to knit ("Screw the students! They never read your comments, anyway, so make 'em wait!"). The angel on my other shoulder says to grade ("You owe it to your students to return their work in a timely manner"). Angels are annoying.

One too many secrets

Ya know, the only reason I started this blog was to participate in SP5. And I loved it. The woman I spoiled is a gem. Donni is funny, interesting, and talented. Like me, she seems to flit from one knitting project to another. We both seem to think the perfect thing to work on is the one in our knitting bag or that new magazine or book. I have had a ton of fun reading her blog and getting to know her a bit through the magic of cyberspace. So imagine my shock and horror when I discovered that the package I described earlier was from her, and not from my new secret pal! Not only was my new SP a bit confused, but Donni didn't get credit for her thoughtfulness and generosity. But I think it's all straightened out now. Thank you, Donni, for the yarn, candy, stitch markers and notecards. I love them. The color of the yarn reminds me of you: sunny and bright!

WOW! Just WOW!

Yesterday was a good day. A very good day. I got a decent haircut, which hasn't happened lately for some reason, and a great package from my secret pal. As you can see from the photo, there's a skein of handpainted fingering weight yarn that is already tapped to be the feather and fan socks from Socks, Socks, Socks. There's also some adorable note cards with knitting-related sayings. My favorite is "knit yourself silly". Well, OK, if you insist! There are also 2 really cute stitch markers that don't show up well in the photo. I'm no Ansel Adams, that's for sure. The Starburst were gone way before the photo was taken! Thanks, SP, I love each and every thing. I'm in grading hell right now, but will try to be interesting next time.

Fini, finally

The Kiri shawl is done! It turned out somewhat smaller than I'd hoped, but I'm pleased with it. I love the yarn and the color: Zephyr in color Basil. The picture shows Kiri with Fred, who is a bit disappointed that I won't let him eat Kiri. The other picture is of a simple scarf that I knit out of Emerald green Douceur and Soir, or however it's spelled. Not a big fan of mohair, even this fancy schmancy silk mohair blend. Guess I need to learn how to rotate photos! In progress: Kathy's Christmas socks, Birch Leaf socks from GOL, Gothic Lace socks from Hand Jive Knits, and I just cast on for the Mysteryshawl2 KAL. That, and I have to finish my "self-study" for second-year tenure review. Whew!

Sweet justice

Beware, almost nothing about knitting here. But I have to share with the few people who visit me here, my happy story. On Friday, I was driving to work when a guy in a giant SUV passed me going at least 15 MPH over the speed limit. He gave me one of those "get out of my way, person in tiny little Civic, or I'll run you over with my manly SUV" looks (you know the one)and then proceeded down the freeway like a bat out of hell. "Gee Whiz" thought I, "he must be in a mighty big hurry to have put so many of us in danger with his reckless driving. Tsk, tsk." (or something like that). About 30 seconds later, there he was, pulled over to the side of the road, with a police officer approaching, ticket book in hand. Oh, yes, Virginia, sometimes there is a cop around when you need one! 6 more rows to go and Kiri is fini. I messed up the first 2 rows of edging but since I wasn't using a lifeline (I know, cocky, cocky fool), I'm going to have to live with it. No way am I tinking 2400 stitches to get back to the correct part. If you are truly my friends, you will pretend you don't notice.