Aaahhh...

In case it wasn't clear (writing makes some thing so difficult), that was a sigh of relief. The good kind of sigh of relief, I should further clarify. There are many reasons to sigh with relief on this Friday.

On the knitting front, I am sighing with relief because I'm done with must-finish-this-ASAP knitting. My Loopy Swap knitting is done, and waiting until it can be sent (not until at least the tenth!). Of course, you know I'll sit here patiently waiting, and then the day will arrive and I won't be able to make it to the post office, or I'll forget, or something will happen, and I'll be late, just because I was early. Such is life.

I came home on Wednesday to find Rick waiting for me. As soon as I walked in the door, he asked, in a tone both plaintive and hopeful, "Did you have a lot of meetings today?" To which I responded, "??" He added, "Because my hands got very cold while the girls were swimming today." Apparently in our world, meeting time = knitting time. So I stayed up and finished the paris-roubaix mitts, to great acclaim and appreciation.
He likes them, and I'm glad, as he's not usually into small knitted froofies (which is how he sees things like this). To recap, these are Anne's Paris-Roubaix mitts, and I knitted them in Plymouth Baby Alpaca DK, using size 5 needles. They knitted up very quickly, and I love how this yarn feels; they're even loose enough on his hands that they'll trap heat very nicely, without being in the way (that's why they're a little shorter than I made my zigzag mitts).

I'm also sighing in relief because the end of deadline knitting means a true end to project monogamy. You all know I cast on for the first little nothings scarf, but that is on a back burner (note that by back burner, I mean not that it's in hibernation, just that I'll knit on it every few days instead of every day). Why is that lovely little bit of a thing on the back burner, you ask? Because I've cast on for the second little nothings scarf! (oops) I told Anne I'd love to test the pattern on that one (look how nice I make myself sound there; really, I pretty much pounded down her e-door demanding to be let at it). I knitted two repeats to check out the charted and written versions, and folks, I've got to tell you (I know you're going to be surprised here), it's a lovely pattern. (BTW, have you all seen her Bleeding Hearts stole in the new IK? I'm slavering to get my hands on my copy, and am considering knitting it in laceweight Malabrigo -- maybe a bright robin's egg blue for spring? What do you think?) She just put it up (you can go to her post to see the pictures), so it's available. Mine is not so impressive:
You've really got to go to her post to see what it's supposed to look like. I'll wait, you go right ahead. Are you back? Did you see how it looks like sailboats with their sails bellied out in the wind? I'm charmed.

I'm also sighing with relief because I both got and cast on for the first Rockin' Sock Club installment. Yay! I'm going to post a picture here, as bad as the light is, because I'm so happy to be knitting socks again I can't stand it. This means that this is a spoiler. If you haven't received your package yet, or you have some kind of superhuman self-discipline and haven't opened it yet, this picture is not for you. Turn around, go back to Anne's site to look at the pretty scarf some more, do something, but do not scroll down. All right, I warned you. Here's the yarn:
And here's the sock (the colors in the yarn photo are more true to life):
It was so nice to just do some plain old sock knitting last night. It's the ultimate comfort knitting for me. I decided to join the sock club, in spite of wondering how I'd feel if I didn't like a) the colors, or b) the patterns, for a couple of reasons. First, I figured it would make me expand my color palette, at least in theory, and I know that if I really hate something, there are always people I know who will like it -- the girls, at the very least (they are nothing if not catholic in their open-mindedness towards colors). Second, I thought that it might encourage me to try out some different ways of knitting socks (I have a tendency to cheat and change patterns to my favorite heels and toes). And here with this first sock, I got both. While I might not have chosen these reds, in person, they are gorgeous, and I know that I'll actually wear these socks. And the pattern itself has both a short-row heel (top down -- I never do short row heels without heel flaps on top-down socks), and a star toe. Just enough change to keep me on my toes, without being so much that the socks are no longer comfort knitting. Aaaahhhhh....

All right, I'm going to stop here and not write today about our lovely evening at Cirque du Soleil's Corteo last night, or about the work chaos that has resulted from the governator cutting $380 million from the CSU budget. I probably won't be posting tomorrow, as it is my birthday, but I'll be back on Sunday while all of you are watching the Superbowl (just for Anne, I will say, Go Pats!) to tell you all about it.