I baked and candied yesterday to make gifty goodness for the folks I’m not ‘buying’ gifts for (I bought the foodstuffs for the candy, so technically I did buy them a gift, I just had to assemble it before gifting, but apparently handmade gifts are in a different category.  Weird.)

So the Christmas holidays are upon us again.  I can’t believe Thanksgiving has already come and gone, and Christmas is a mere 18 days away.  I have a lot of my Christmas shopping done already, with a couple of exceptions, but I think I might get them wound up tonight (I RAWK!) Plus?  All the stores I’ll be going to are in the same shopping center.  AH HA HAAA!!!  Planning for the Win!

I can’t get Flickr to  behave, so you’ll have to imagine all the candy goodness, and the finished sleevery of the first degree for Apres Surf – I’m working on the second sleeve, woot!, and then there’ll be finishing shenanigans (can you STAND IT?!), but one thing at a time?  Given that I’m probably supposed to be working on Christmasy-Whatnot, and I haven’t decorated the house yet, and I’ve become obsessed with Heroes, and it’s World of Warcraft Season again, and Christmas parties and other such to fill up times, it’s been a little sparse in the knitting department.  At least there are some dedicated knitting times coming up and I get to focus on the knitting with my whole mind and not feel guilty that I’m not doing something else with the time, I’m looking very forward to those times.  Buahahahaaaa Selfish Time – Bring it on!

Well, there’s not a lot to say here.  I got a new-to-me iPod at a deep discount, and it’s in very good condition, which is kind of awesome.

The vagaries I speak of are corrupt files on my iTunes, on my computer.  Until about 40 minutes ago, trying to adjust the ‘podcast’ settings on my iTunes so it would sync with my iPod was killing it every time.  I took some advice from a computer savvy friend of mine, and I hope to have fixed the problem.  Well, at least until the next problem pops up, because that’s the way of the modern (in)convenience.  But it’ll all be alright.  So anyway, I unsubscribed and resubscribed to a whole slew of podcasts, (I’m really sorry for jacking up all your stats, podcasters!  I was trying to get my computer to cooperate!  It wasn’t malicious, I promise!), and now I’ve got some fantastic knitting podcasts to look forward to listening.  Here’s the list of what I like to listen to (that I’ve managed to get to work):

• Here’s to Ewe!
• Cast On
• Knit Naturally (Texas Podcaster, and a ROCKSTAR)
• Knitting Rose (Texas Podcaster, and a ROCKSTAR)
• Craft Lit
• Brass Needles
• Stitch It!!
• KIPing it Real
• The High Fiber Diet
• CogKNITive
• Knitmore Girls
• The Manic Purl
• Sticks & String
• Lime & Violet (when they have new content…. it’s been a while.)
• Stash & Burn
• Gives Good Knit
• Never Not Knitting

I’m always open to new folks, so let me know if you have a fave that’s not listed here, and I’ll add them on!

I think I’ve isolated the culprit that keeps killing my iTunes, and that’s Accident Hash, which is (was?) a GREAT podcast out of Boston that plays (or used to play) the best in podsafe music, but I can’t get it to work anymore, and if it causes my machine to go boom, then I’m not going to hassle with it.  Sorry CC Chapman, love you dude, but fix your podcast so it doesn’t kill my system.

In knitting whatnot, the knitting continues on the Apres Surf Hoodie – I’m crawling up the sleeve – have about 9 out of 12 increase rows done (I have to increase 2 sts every 8 rows).  The rows are much shorter than the body rows, but for some reason I’m just really struggling on this sleeve.  I keep pulling out the swatch and feeling how lovely and soft it is after blocking, because the yarn is a little…. well, it’s crunchy right now.  I know it blooms up lovely, but I’m not feeling it in my fingers, and I need a carrot on a stick to get the thing done.  I have so many projects desperately clamoring for my attention, and I really, really want to get this done, so I can wear it.  It’ll be my first sweater, and it’ll also be my first cashmere sweater.  (hopefully not my last – cashmere is a luscious, lovely thing.)

Aeolian, which I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned here before, is an absolutely beautiful shawl with absolutely beautiful beading.  The beads I picked are too big, really, for the yarn I paired them with, and I’ve decided that I’m going to frog it.  It’s beautiful, and I love the color pairing, but I’m just really anxious that the beads are going to chew through the yarn in no time and I’ll have a beautiful, damaged project, and that Just Won’t Do.  So I’m going to rip back and pair the yarn with some smaller beads, or maybe switch yarns/beads altogether.  Heck, I may rip it out and switch projects altogether.  I’ve been thinking a lot about that Gypsy Shawl lately, maybe I’ll pull out that luscious hunter green baby alpaca and do that.  Or maybe I’ll (finally) do the Tina Shawl in that lovely cream-colored laceweight alpaca I bought – (2200 yards for $14!), or perhaps I’ll pull out the beautiful silver silk from Colourmart that I bought and knit the Crown Prince Square shawl.  Or maybe the cobweb-weight ice blue that I got for the mystery shawl I never started, because I didn’t like the finished piece… Or maybe that springy chartreuse mystery laceweight… Or maybe the Accidental Knitter Hand Dyed fingering weight yarn I’ve had in my stash for nearly 3 years (it’s been clamoring for a project, though, I haven’t really found the right one.) …..Or…. Or…. Or…. Or….

Darn it!! Gotta finish the Apres Surf! I want to wear it!  I need to finish it! GAH!

My movers come next Thursday (10/29) and I’ll be moving into my new place (woo hoo!) and I am therefore warmly ensconced in the packing of boxes, packing of yarn* and packing of Miscellaneous boxes, and deciding what to keep and what to get rid of, and what kind of stuff will go to the new place and where I shall store it , and what I’m going to need for packing, cleaning cleaning cleaning and getting ready to move away from this stupid crappy apartment with nonfunctional dishwasher, Goodwilling old clothes, packing a suitcase for the move-in day** because I’ll be moving in on a work day (I’m taking the morning off so my movers can move me, and then working in the afternoon,) then coming home to my new place, setting up my bed and probably then collapsing into it, then Friday working another half day, coming home to my new place, changing into grubby-grub grubbies and going to my old place and cleaning as if I’ve never cleaned (I’m doing a lot of stuff as I go, though, so it won’t be like I have a million things to do all on one weekend) (including shampooing the carpet – Rug Doctor! Hooooooooooooe!!!) and then going to my new place, cleaning some and unpacking, and getting ready for the next phase of move-in, which is Mr. Man’s move on Saturday. (I’m largely ancillary to Mr. Man’s process, aside from staying out of his way so he and his former roommate can carry stuff upstairs.  Likely I’ll get up and clear out, and go back to the old place, continue to clean and take pictures so that the move-out inspection will be corroborated by my pictures of what it looked like once I cleaned it entirely (and probably a final cursory overview to make sure I’ve gotten everything out of every cabinet and won’t accidentally be leaving anything behind for the new sap tenant. (I loved this apartment until the ownership changed, then everything went down the crapper.  Truly.  Honestly.  It was a great place, until they did away with quiet hours, destroyed the courtyard and put in a stupid dog park, where dogs bark from 6:00 a.m. until MIDNIGHT, and the maintenance people don’t know that broken means “doesn’t perform its stated function”, and not just, “doesn’t turn on”.   What I’m thinking is actually going on is that I’m off my lease in a week, and they don’t want to replace it until they can replace it with stainless steel appliances and upcharge because of the ‘upgrades’ for this apartment.  I have to say that I hope they do rip out the linoleum and put in Pergo flooring, because it would be a major upgrade, and because the vinyl is badly laid-out, the corners don’t match up well, and it just needs it.

Sorry for the info-dump, but my knitting has been curtailed and for some reason I don’t feel as guilty sitting here typing when I’m supposed to be packing boxes as I do when I’m camped out on the couch knitting and watching my soon-to-be-gone cable television (no cable TV in the new place! I’m going to get SO much more knitting done!)

So anyway, that’s the story of my life at the mo’.  I feel like I get boxes upon boxes packed, only to find that I still have more boxes to pack after that.  It’s frustrating, but I know it’ll be worth it once everything is said and done.  We signed our lease yesterday, and looked at our ACTUAL new place. It. is. Awesome.  It faces north-south! It’s on a corner so we only share a wall with ONE NEIGHBOR! And it’s not a wall that touches either bedroom!  (It backs up to my bathroom, the kitchen and the dining area.) YEAH!!!!! This week can’t be over quickly enough. ________________________________________

*Do you just want to completely cast on every yarn in your stash when you’re packing it into boxes, or once you’ve packed it into boxes, do you want to pull some out and cast on, or is that just me?

**I have a method for moving – you pack a suitcase with stuff you’ll need immediately at your new home:  your shower curtain, a towel, toiletries, sheets, something to sleep in, changes of clothes until you anticipate actually getting at your clothes, any important paperwork you’ll need before you unearth your desk paperwork (i.e. Confirmations for new service with electricity providers, high-speed providers, etc. so you’ll have them if your service doesn’t come on as planned, and any other critical necessities.  I almost always have some kind of non-perishable food in there, too, or even a sandwich and packed-lunch (and Chocolate) so I have something to eat without having to eat out. It sounds crazy, but having the small creature comforts available to you when the rest of your life is packed in boxes in the living room really makes it more bearable.

I FINALLY finished the front of Apres Surf, and started on a sleeve.  I’m super excited about this prospect, owing in part to the fact that sleeves should go faster than the body, because of the shorter-row-ness of it.   I got the 6″ stockinette cuff done and did one row of patterning last night, whilst watching another show I’ve become hooked on, the Next Food Network Star, and Iron Chef America.  I’m going to miss The Food Network (and the Discovery Channel, and History, and SciFi Channel (I do not recognize the name change.), and Cartoon Network…) although I suspect that my TV viewing will be substantially curtailed at the fact that I no longer have all of these channels. 

In other news, Mr. Man and I went to Best Buy (on the recommendation of the guy at the AT&T Store) to see if I could get the new phone I liked for free.  I couldn’t, so I still have my old phone.  It’s okay, though.  My old phone is a good old phone, and I still love it. The new phone I was lusting after is a Smart Phone (I think), and I take exception to having to pay for a service I likely will not use.  I use my phone as a phone, and a texting device, and that’s really it.  I don’t do e-mail or surf the web or use it as a GPS or anything like that, so having to pay an extra $20 a month for that puts me off of getting a new phone, however spiffy the new phone might be.  Still, though, while we were there, we looked at TVs (Best Buy has some FANTASTIC TV deals), and happened to spot a new Wii game that looked super fun – Wii Sports Resort.   It has something called a WiiMotionPlus that you click onto the controller that lets you do more with the controller.  So naturally, we ‘tested’ the game with a game of Ping Pong and a sword fight.  ZOMG so much fun.  We’re probably going to pick that up closer to Christmas time and get ourselves a battery charger thingy for the WiiMotes, because those little buggers SUCK batteries!  But I digress. 

So we looked at all those things, picked out what we want for like the next 4 Christmas/Birthday/Anniversary-type gifts and spent like a gorzillion dollars in our heads, and then we left, having bought nothing.   No sense in buying stuff just to move it in 2 weeks, and I’ve already packed the Wii.  (I know!)  Only because it represented a fantastic option for shirking the box-packing process.   So I boxed it up and packed it.  Now my only shirking options are the Internet, knitting, and TV.  (“Only options”.  Feh.  As if I’m not COMPLETELY shirking with just those 3.)   Besides that, I baked Chocolate Chip and Heath Bar cookies, made a pot roast, sorted my filing and boxed up the bottom drawer of my Elfa desk.  

Moving is sometimes a waiting game.  I’m making myself wait to pack more stuff, because if I pack everything 2 weeks out, I’ll be living out of boxes and I kind of hate that.  But if I don’t get on the packing bandwagon soon, I’m going to be packing up to the minute the movers arrive, and I don’t want that either.  It’s a delicate balance. 

All that to say that my weekend was action packed, but… well, it wasn’t.  It was actually a pretty dull weekend.  But I got a lot done.  Except for what I didn’t get done.  Oh! and we ate Greek food – it was Mr. Man’s first Greek food aside from Gyros out at Faire, which may or may not count, depending on how loosely you define ‘Greek’.  He seemed to really enjoy it, so we’ll probably be going back to Zorba’s again.  Tasty Tasty!

I swear, when I unpacked everything into the yarn cabinet in August, all the yarn from the underbed boxes fit into the cabinet.  Now, apparently, I’ve either forgotten how to pack yarn, or the population has grown somewhat – The cabinet is only half-emptied and the boxes, they are full!  I’m going to either have to unload into one of those clear plastic drawer thingies, or unload the remainder of my cabinet into U-Haul boxes.  Good for moving, bad for yarn storage purposes. (Of course, it’ll all be going back into the cabinet ‘on the other side’ (buahahaha) but I really want to protect my yarn from creepy crawlies, so I may just go get some more plastic bin things.  The Jury is out.  I could line the box with a plastic bag to protect the yarn…. I’ll have to cogitate on this, because I’m pretty loath to spend more money on clear plastic bins that I probably won’t use after I’m moved, but that will protect my yarn while it’s being moved.  Actually the bag thing is sounding more and more like a good idea, on a short term basis.

This bonus blog has been brought to you by the letter ‘y’, for yarn.  Help control the yarn population; knit/crochet/weave/craft the stuff up as soon as you acquire it, or else your stash will become epic.  Mine is not epic yet, but it’s certainly giving it that old college try!

Okay, this is minor to most people, probably, but I think it’s pretty darned cool.  I knit a pair of socks in 20 days.  A Pair. of. Socks.  20 days.  I can pretty much thank Dancing With The Stars for part of that, because I knit the socks through 2 weeks of DWTS broadcasts and missed week 3, but knit some on them that week, when I would have been watching DWTS but was out and about and missed the show.  But it’s okay.  I wasn’t entirely project-monogamous to the socks, and I still managed to start and finish them in 20 days.  I think it probably has something to do with the fact that the pattern is easy, works up fast and looks good in a million different yarns.  It looks FANTASTIC as a solid, too, so I’m really pleased.  Anyway, here’s the sweet and lowdown:

Pattern: Monkey, by Cookie A.
Mods: Knit on a US2 (2.75 mm) instead of a US 1(2.25mm)
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss Sock, in Cosmos (2nd pic is a better approximation of color)
Fits woman’s 8-8.5 foot.
For: my Mom.  (Hi mom!)

I’m kinda floored about the 20 days thing.  It blows my mind, to tell the truth.  It’s nerdy, I know, but I’m irrationally proud of myself.  Hopefully I’ll finish Sunday Swing as quickly and I’ll be onto another project.  I surmise that Sunday Swing will not be finished as quickly, only because I’m moving at the end of the month, and moving (actually, really, the preparation to move, the move, and the subsequent unpacking) does not lend itself to a lot of knitty time.  I’ll do my best to carve out some time (probably during DWTS), but I’m reasonably confident to say that I probably won’t get as much time in on these until after I’m ensconced in a new address.  But I’m okay with that.  And frankly, my hands are kind of okay with that too, because they’re a wee bit sore, and carpal tunnel doesn’t look good on me at all.  Just sayin’.

I’m moving at the end of this month, which is very exciting for me, as I’ve come to really hate the apartment where I live now, owing entirely to the new management company that bought the complex, and the fact that they’re such a downgrade from the management company who was here.  I loved those folks, and the new maintenance people apparently don’t know that when a dishwasher is broken, it means that it DOESN’T GET DISHES CLEAN, not that it doesn’t turn on.  They come in, turn it on, and deem it NOT BROKEN.  My friends have heard this tale before, so I’ll leave it be here, but ZOMG. Kill.  I’m so freaking sick and tired of explaining how the water doesn’t get to the top rack and everything that goes in comes out just as dirty.  It just makes me livid.  The apartment managers would not put up with this in their own homes, why in the WORLD is it a different standard when it’s a rental?  Gar.  Kill.

I’m completely taken in by Dancing With the Stars.  It’s become a Monday-Tuesday Ritual.  I wish I had TiVo so I could tape it, fast-forward through all the filler crap in the show (of which there is MUCH), and just watch the dancing. That’s what I’m there for, not the commercials, not the color commentary, and not the ridiculous judges.  I could skip the results show all the way to the last 5 minutes and not miss a thing.  I’m thrilled to pieces that all of my favorites (except Tom DeLay) are still in, and I hope Mr. DeLay’s feet feel better.  2 fractured feet.  Frak that.  I’m not at all surprised at the people who have been eliminated, as, well, they just can’t dance (or they have bad attitudes.  D e b 1  M 4 z 4 r*, I’m looking straight at you.  My money is on M3l155a Jo4n H4r7** to be eliminated next, because she seems to really struggle with nervousness and lack of rhythm, plus?  I never liked Sabrina, the Teenage Witch – it was a stupid show.  There. I said it.  I’m hoping K311ie 05b0urn3*** will really practice and forget about the self-doubt.  I really relate to her for some reason (not the my-dad’s-an-aging-rock-star-and-I’m-(sorta)-famous too, or the I’m-so-rich-I’ll-never-actually-have-to-work bits), I like her.  I thought she was going to be a train wreck, and she’s my favorite of the show.  Weird, huh?  But enough about that. Any DWTS fans?

I’m just almost finished with the front of my Apres-Surf Hoodie, then I’m on to Sleeve Island, and I’ll be ready to start partial-blocking, seaming and knitting the hood – Woot!  This sweater WILL be finished in time to wear during cold weather this year.  It WILL!  Or my name’s not… Oh nevermind.  It will be.

The Monkeys continue apace – I’m into the last motif on the 2nd sock, then I have to decrease for the toe, Kitchener and weave in ends, and finis!  For my next trick pair, I’ll be making the Sunday Swing socks, from Knitty, with some KnitPicks Gloss Sock yarn, in Carbon– er, it used to be called Carbon, now I guess it’s just ‘Black’.  I liked the name ‘Carbon’ better.  Yeah, it’s not as succinct, but it has a poetic ring to it.  Maybe it’s just me.  They are also for the maternal unit, who seems to really love hand knit socks.  So much that she wears them to holes, has me darn them, and continues wearing them. But it’s good, you know?  I love that she wears her socks down to nubbins, and appreciates my knit work, too (and, according to her, has been ‘ruined for store-bought socks’).   I gave a pair of socks to Mema (Jaywalkers), that I knit and I couldn’t get over my feet****, and they fit her PERFECTLY.  Awesome. And bonus?  She completely loved them.  Like, LOVED them.  Which rocks even harder – yahoo for folks who like my handknit socks.

I started Aeolian with my black diamond copper lined 8/0 square hole seed beads and my Lana D’Oro Chocolate brown laceweight yarn, and got a few repeats into the yucca pattern when I realized that a) my work is already getting heavy and I’m not even 20% into the project yet, and b) my beads are not going to be adequate to the task – well, the number of beads anyway.  So I went a-huntin’ and found ALMOST matching beads.  The difference?  The originals were square-hole, and the new are round-hole.  A beading aficionado-friend of mine told me that this DOES make a difference, because the square hole act more like a cut, faceted bead and the round hole ones give more of an all-over shimmer.  This has me a wee-bit paranoid and I’m thinking of going hunting again for the exact matching bead. (Actually, maybe ix-nay on that.  I went hunting for an hour just now and found nary a site that offered specifically what I was looking for.  Even finding an 8/0 copper lined black diamond bead was a struggle, much less one with a square hole.)  I may eventually just throw up my hands and knit with what I have already, but seriously?  I’m thinking very seriously of swatching with round- and square- hole beads and deciding once and for all whether it’s important enough for me to go find the exact-match beads before I start hunting again.  After all, now I have something like 2800 8/0 black diamond copper lined seed beads.  I’m so weird, to be obsessing over something like this. Or am I?   Well, I’ll swatch. We’ll see.  Maybe I’ll be a good little Bloggerina and post pictures so you can all see too.

*Sorry ’bout the leetspeak there, I just don’t want to be botted by fandroids of that actor.

**her either.

***…or her. Plus?  It entertains me to write in l337sp34k. Nerdery, I has a bad case.

**** There’s a story here:  I knit them with Sz 1 needles, the yarn (Lion Magic Stripes) was already dense when I knit them and it grew in the wash, making them very sturdy-like.  I couldn’t get them past my heel without REALLY straining stitches (and myself), and I had to just cop to the fact that they don’t fit my feet – I knit them too tightly (for me).  Knowing what I know now, I could knit them with a larger needle and probably not have any problems (and it’s not like I don’t have any more sock yarn.). But I’m not one to knit the same pattern over and over.  Not when I have a whole 3″ 3-ring binder just dedicated to sock patterns.  Heck no. So there you are.

I laundered my mp3 player.  Let’s never speak of this again.

So I went to the Delightful Hands sale last week.  I’ll spare you the gory details of how much I spent, but I’ll share with you how much I bought, and share some pictures of the pretty. :)

So…. Yeah.  I was great on Friday.  I was all… “I’m on vacation, what will I do?”  I was going to sit home and watch TV-on-DVD – I was all set – 2 discs of Burn Notice Season 1, Disc 1 of Californication, 3 Cinematic Titanic discs, and I got up on Friday, chilled out for a while, and, since Mr. Man wasn’t over at my place yet, I decided, what the hey!  I’ll drive on up there, it’ll probably be pretty picked over, so my budget will be safe, because I won’t spend a bunch of money I don’t have on yarn I don’t really want, no problem.  My willpower is strong enough!  Yeah!

….. Riiiiiiiight..   If you psych your willpower up before you go to a yarn shop, you are powerless against $1 a ball mohair, and Berroco Pure Merino DK in your favorite colors at 40% off. I’m just sayin’.

Needless to say, I fell down at the yarn shop.  I fell down, my credit card flew as if by magic out of my wallet, and slid through the credit card machine, which laughed its wicked laugh and took my money with glee and merriment, and I took home over 60 balls of yarn.  Over. 60. Balls. I mentioned it was deep discounted, right?

I am a bad, bad Mormon. Or I would be, if I was a Mormon.

But look how pretty it is in my cabinet!

The Haul:

Top row, L to R: Feza Lama Mohair in Purple & Cream, Feza Kid Mohair in variegated purples

Middle row, L to R: Twinkle Kid Mohair in chocolate, Feza Kid Mohair in variegated aqua, Berroco Pure Merino DK in Dk Grey

Bottom row, L to R: Berroco Pure Merino DK in Black, Cream and Eggplant.

So Yeah.  I have a lot of mohair to go on top of my other LOTS of mohair:

(I might love mohair… maybe. A bit. Perhaps. I admit nothing.)

But I digress.  I’m thinking of making an Estonian lace shawl with some of this – I have over 4200 yards of that beautiful purple Lama Mohair, so I’m thinking a pretty square shawl is in order, or maybe the Vortex Shawl.  We shall see.

In other news, I have been knitting, but not any of my new stuff.  I ordered some yarn for my Mom awhile back from Knit Picks, namely, the Gloss Sock Yarn in Coal (or is it Carbon?) and Cosmos; black and purple, respectively.  After some hemming and hawing, and a couple of false starts, I settled on Monkey for the Cosmos.  No, it doesn’t have monkey motifs, but it’s very pretty and it’s coming up great in this solid yarn – beautiful stitch definition and a lot of fun to knit up.  I’m working it up on my Harmony Size US1 (2.25mm) needles, (thank you again for the beautiful needles, Mr. Man! I love you!), and I’m knitting both at once, so my gauge doesn’t get all wacky and so that the socks will be finished at relatively the same time, which is cool, actually, and less likely that I’ll get the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.

I still haven’t figured out what I’m going to do with the black yet – I want to do something really cool, because knitting plain black socks sounds like a recipe for personal madness, not to mention?  You can BUY black knit socks.  I don’t want to make something you can just go buy.  I want to make something you can’t buy.  So I’m still looking for patterns that will 1) show up in black yarn (this yarn is pretty dark black, with a subtle sheen (from the silk content) that will show off a texture) and 2) won’t be absolutely insane to knit.

I also finally cast on the front of my Apres Surf Hoodie.  The cast on is a bit of a pain (It’s an invisible provisional cast on, but different from the crocheted provisional cast on), so I was reluctant to do it, but I really do want to have this hoodie to wear come cold weather in Dallas (Come on cold weather!) , and like they say with the lottery, you can’t win if you don’t play (which I don’t, but it’s a good point) – You can’t finish if you don’t knit!  So I grit(ted?) my teeth and cast it on, and I got a good 1.5″ knit on it last night – amazing how fast sport weight in stockinette, knit comfortably on a US3 (3.25mm) goes when you’ve been used to knitting a light fingering weight tightly on a US1 (2.25mm).

I also finished my weaving project du jour, but I’m not going to talk about that here, because it’s going to be a gift for someone and I don’t want to risk letting the secret out before I actually gift it, but I will take pictures and post them once they’re gifted.

So anyway, that’s the knitty news that is.  I’m on vacation this week, and on the docket today is a lovely matinee and general take-it-easy-ness.  We were going to go to the Aquarium and the 6th Floor museum today but that’s been postponed to Thursday due to a little bit of irritating static this morning, and we’re going to catch a matinee of Julie & Julia this afternoon.

So, I had a pretty mellow and groovy weekend, and I’ll fill in more detail later tonight.  Several people have mentioned how they would like to see the yarn cabinet all full up, and don’t want to go over to my flickr (or don’t know how), so here are the full-up pics, for your viewing enjoyment:

With Doors Closed:

With Doors Open: (Cue angel chorus)

The door/drawer hardware:

Still love it, love opening it, love looking at it.  It’s in my bedroom, as there was not a suitable wall to place it against in my living room. (Darn that chair rail!)  But there are upsides to this – I had to clean my room and rearrange furniture to get it in here, which included moving the bed and desk, and naturally, I vacuumed once I had moved them, so my room is much cleaner than it was, even though the bed is back in its original position (long story). Plus, my yarn is right there, so I can look at my stash and Ravelry, and then my stash again, and make sure the yarn is catalogued, and match up patterns and yarns easy peasy.  Well, that’s the idea anyway. 

The drawers are deceptive.  They don’t look big, but there’s room in there to spare for my doodads.  Love. Just love.

One more thing:  This is most of my yarn.  I didn’t put in the acrylic stuff – it’s in a bin under my bed.  Not because I don’t like acrylic - it’s good for some purposes - but I wanted to leave a little room on the shelves, and stuffing it absolutely full would make it hard to see it all, so it’s not totally and entirely full up.

Also?  The 2nd shelf from the top is my sock yarn.  There’s nothing on that shelf but sock yarn.  Isn’t that cool?!

Oh, and one last thing:

Happy Birthday Mr. Older Brother!  Hope it’s a great one!