Drops of Brandy

This past week was fairly busy. There was a farewell party at Hermano's in Concord this past Monday for a co-worker who is moving on to a new job. After that I had to hit Petsmart for a new aquarium heater as my previous heater had attempted fishicide by boiling on Sunday (I hadn't noticed the thing had malfunctioned until the temperature had reached 92 degrees), and then I had to hit Hannafords for various supplies and gift cards for my nephews. The following night I had a Jetboil current and ex's dinner, and then I had to hit RiteAid for cards to mail the gift cards to my nephews. Apparently the smart-ass Christmas cards I already had in my possession were not appropriate for young recipients. (Okay, so I get that the one I had with Santa talking about his new all protein diet and the reindeer running around looking for other missing reindeer might not have been the best choice.) Wednesday was a quiet evening and I worked on the front of the Tramline Cable Sweater. Thursday evening I went to Alison M's and got to see Edgar's Christmas photos. That dog is crazily cute. I also received a really kind gift of Dream in Color Smooshy in Cashmere in a fabulous purple from Mary T.  It's gorgeous, I just want to roll in it. 

This week my friend Mindy C finished the sweater that she's been working on, and that I've been helping her with during our lunches at work.  It's for her nephew and it came out really well.  I'm curious to see what she picks for her next project.

In other obsessive knitter news, I have been kind of bummer that Knitmeter doesn't work on facebook any more, because the application on facebook allowed you to calculate how much you had knit since you started keeping track.  The web version of this application only allowed you to calculate how much you had knit in the past month, last year, etc., which was not as cool as far as I was concerned.  It finally occurred to me that I could do much the same thing, by designing my own spreadsheet on Excel.  So I did.  So, not counting the yarn I've knit in the Tramline Cable Sweater (because apparently my OCD does not allow me to count the yarn until the project is complete), I've knit 7,971 yards or 4.528977 miles since August 29, 2009.  If you want a copy of the worksheet with the formulas, email me.

This weekend we were slugs.  Very much slugs.  We didn't really do much.  I spent most of the weekend working obsessively on the Tramline Cable Sweater and listening to audio books at the same time.  We both had today off, but we still were slugs. I finished the front of the sweater about half an hour ago.  Yay!!  I think I managed to get through the front without screwing up any cable crosses this time.  I've looked over it carefully twice, so probably I just need to show it to another knitter so they can spot it in a heartbeat.  There are two sleeves to go, so I'm two-thirds of the way through.  It's not eating as much yarn as I'd really hoped though, even though I added three inches of length to the sweater. I'm only through about six skeins for both the front and back.  Oh well. 

Three days of work this week, and then I have the following week off.  Unfortunately, Shawn has this week off, because the whole seniority system thing at his job sucks. Again, oh well.  I'm looking forward to Christmas Eve, Shawn and I will be exchanging our letters and having lobsters. For the last few years, we've exchanged letters to each other rather than buy each other more junk.  We buy quite enough junk for ourselves throughout the year, without adding to it.  I much prefer getting the letter than anything else Shawn could get for me.  Unless it's a sculpture he's made himself.  For those of you that remember the whole poem thing, since I finally did get the poem, I've moved on to requesting that Shawn create me a sculpture.  I've said that it could be a sculpture of anything, even an abstract concept, and it could be made of clay, playdoh, mashed potatoes, etc.  Shawn, to date, is not cooperating.  But, it took me a year and half to get the poem, and I've only started the campaign in earnest recently, so I'm not expecting it will be for Christmas this year.  For those of you wondering at my candor, Shawn does not read my blog unless harassed to do so.  Plus, he's well aware of the campaign at this point. 

That's pretty much it for this report.  Have a happy holiday for those of you that do that kind of thing.  And for those of you that don't, have a good time too.

Stay tuned for further updates as they occur.