Unrelated photo

It's a bit of a blogging tradition that especially if you don't have much to say, you should still post a pretty photo. I haven't been out much lately, so this is a bit of a stretch. We've officially hit my crazy time of the year, and my sporadic updates get even more scattered.

I leave for Washington DC very early Thursday morning. After that, things will slow down very slightly, but I'll be with family for Thansksgiving, which is coming up fast, then it's just a few weeks before Christmas and the new year. It starts to all blur together for me starting around Halloween, frankly.

This year, I'm not doing any holiday knitting. My plans are to get through my meeting, hang out with friends, and to come back and work to generate more data and hopefully be working on a manuscript by the beginning of 2009. Other than that, I'm just hoping to survive the holidays.

This year, I'm not planning on any crazy baking, either. Last year I was so sick of baking that the smell of butter made me ill. It is baking season (I made a loaf of pumpkin bread and some chocolate zucchini bread today) but I'm not going overboard. I'm planning on making a few batches of cookies and cooking lots of soups and roasts for my family. Maybe some more breads, too.

On the knitting front, well, I finished a dishrag this weekend, but that doesn't seem exciting enough to post. The big red blob is ALMOST done, and I'm looking forward to the end of that project. There are some tough memories knit into it, but also, well, it's boring. I'm working on some garter stitch rounds and then binding off, but the stinking thing is huge now, and each round takes me a while. I started a Lace Ribbon scarf out of some really nice yarn, Handmaiden Sea Silk in periwinkle. It may be for my mom. It's my kind of comfort knitting right now. My orange sweater still needs seaming (I need time that I don't have to work on it.) Oddly enough, socks are beginning to sound more appealing again, and I'll take some yarn and needles with me for my flights, but I don't expect to get much done.

Facebook is still sucking up a lot of my time, thanks to word games I play obsessively. But now I really should go read and prepare....

Blob

While the parts of the orange sweater are drying after a bath in Kookaburra Wool Wash, I'm back to working on one of my two blanket projects. This is the pinwheel blanket, started in late August. It's for my son, from yarn originally intended to be a sweater for him (and then I realized it was only handwash). So now he gets a bright red circular blanket to snuggle under on the couch. I've got about 1.5 skeins of yarn left to go, and the rounds are getting LONG. I'll be glad to call this one done soon.

This is not my originally scheduled update

Imagine some knitting photos here - they are supposed to be, but I'm taking an unscheduled trip out of town today. Knowing that I need to drive south, I've been obsessively tracking Hanna - luckily the winds are in my favor, and it's a non-issue today. Also because I have no idea when or if school will be canceled. Despite beautiful weather, after-school care was canceled yesterday, as the elementary schools around here are emergency staging areas. I'm not feeling terribly concerned about this, since it's sounding mostly as though we'll get a lot of rain. I do have minor worries about my roof, which is old, and needs replacing, but there's little I can do about that. I tend to worry about it most of the time.

Woke up unfortunately early this morning, which is due to a combination of falling asleep early (for me, it was about 10pm) and waking up at 3, realizing all the things I need to do this morning before I hit the road. Insomnia isn't fun, but it does let me catch up on blogging. It is weird to wake up this alert this early. Yeah, I'm a little anxious.

I'm packing knitting to take with me, even though the last time I did a trip like this I didn't knit much at all. I've been making a Pinwheel Blanket for the wee beastie. Imagine a big, bright red blob here. I've been working on this one for about a week now. I didn't document it on Ravelry. For the record, I'm using Cotton Fleece in Barn Red, and one skein of charcoal, once I get there. I had purchased 3 skeins of the stuff to make Sherwood for said beast, but I had a realization that a) he grows quickly, b) it's not machine washable c) I'm slow to finish things d) I live in the south and d) did I mention it's not machine washable? So it's going to be a blanket for snuggling under. I ordered the other 2 skeins from Webs when I realized I wanted this to be bigger, and figured stripes would take care of any lot number differences. At last check, I roughly estimated it was about 24 inches in diameter with 2 1/4 skeins left to go. I do like the yarn - yardage is good, it's a reasonable price, and it's pleasant to work with. I don't know how much additional warmth the 20% wool adds to the fabric, or how much this will ultimately grow, but I would use it again if I were looking for cotton in this weight. It's not a really portable project right now, so I think I'll be throwing a sock into a bag to take with me, even if I'm still not that excited about knitting them right now. They are mindless, and I don't think I can concentrate really well right now.

Time for more coffee, packing, and soon getting the little one ready for the school bus. I can be contacted in the usual ways, even if I'm a little out of touch right now...