brainylady

You want me to cast on how many stitches?

I love having a day off in the middle of the week! Yesterday was a holiday in Taiwan (Dragonboat Festival), and I slept past noon. The luxury! The hedonism! The downright laziness! Then Billy and I spent the whole afternoon at Café 25 -- I read the paper, read some of my book, worked on my new knitting project, and--

Hey! Hold it right there, missy! What new knitting project is that?

Here's the deal: I'd decided not to start anything big until I'm settled in Canada, lest I find myself halfway through a sweater on moving day. Till then, socks. Fine, so I was right on track, finished the whole wheat lace and signed up for Six Sox. Then I had my whole My Hobby Is Important revelation, during which I decided that I wanted to try Cascade Fixation for my next socks. Period. Nothing else would be acceptable. And this would be fine, except... well, don't you hate it when you want to buy something that isn't available in, like, your country? Me too. So I ordered, and I must wait. In the meantime, I found myself in the knitting void, the abyss of No Projects On The Go. So I adjusted my earlier Nothing Big decision. It became the OK, But Nothing New initiative.

To make a short story even longer, I decided to use the leftovers from last year's RocKami: a black Japanese cotton/acrylic blend. First, I turned to Vintage Knits, only to find that most of the patterns set Large at a 36-inch bust. I don't have time for math at the moment, so I moved on. And I found it: a pattern with the right gauge that requires the right amount of yarn! My new knitting project is Polka Purl Dots, the sexy little wraparound top from Interweave Knits (spring 2004). I love Véronik's designs, and I've had my eye on this one since I first saw it. I'm an inch into it now, and an inch is no small feat when the cast-on edge is more than four feet long! It takes me fifteen minutes to knit a row. I was afraid the polka dots wouldn't show up in black, but there's a slight shimmer to the yarn (the acrylic part, I suppose), and I think the pattern will show up nicely -- probably not in photos, though. Boo.

I loved all the comments on the last post, about bookshelf (dis)organization, except they made me miss my books even more. I also love that new people commented. Hello! Apologies to all for Excessive Capitalization and Italics today -- I don't know what's come over me. Help! Whatever it is, somebody get it off!