Brain Dump

Ramble-icious Update
Sorry no posts lately, y'all.

I forget that January/February just wreaks havoc with my headspace. The days and nights blur into each other, Caz working second shift doesn't help matters whatsoever, the kids and I have massive cabin fever thanks to dangerously cold temps and lots of snow and our continued inability to find boots that will fit Ben's flipper-like feet.

I've been knitting, albeit in odd fits and starts, as my cabin fever restlessness permits.

There are socks going on, and some other socks, and a fourth pair of Jaywalkers on the needles. But mostly, lately, I've been working on a lovely feather-and-fan scarf in Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, ostensibly for my mother-in-law, but we'll see who the final recipient turns out to be.

I do find myself astonished that I've been knitting for close to three years and I never worked in feather-and-fan until now. I love how it's just stupid flippin' easy, and yet looks unbelievably gorgeous and complex. I love that about knitting - that increasing and decreasing in certain orders can give you a gorgeous effect, that knitting your stitches out of order can give you another, equally gorgeous effect. The mechanics of it are simple, but the results are fantabulous. I love it. I'll post some pics soon, though I suspect I will not do well in capturing the true awesomeness of this scarf.

In other knitting news, I'm thinking once again on sweaters for myself. I swatched for Arwen, but never got around to actually measuring my swatch post-washing (yes, yes, you can point and laugh, I won't mind). And I hauled out Brambleberry again, frogged the inch and a half of sleeve I had knitted. Why did I frog it? Couldn't tell you. Think it was Winter Headspace Weirdness or something, because there wasn't a darn thing wrong with it. At least not that I could tell - it's not like I'd even done enough to tell if I was getting gauge or not.

Anyway. So I'm torn between Brambleberry and Arwen (or Samus, or Eris, or FLAK, or a host of other cabled cardigans out there). Brambleberry might win out simply because I don't have to make any big decisions beyond "start Brambleberry." And really, decision-making is pretty hard for me right now.

In Other News

Speaking of decision-making, I'm still reeling from the bad case of sticker shock I got this weekend, when I finally started researching preschool options for the daring duo. Holy crap on a stick. As Caz pointed out - for the cost of one year of preschool for the kids, we could buy a car. A whole car. Maybe not a big car or a fancy car, but a car. A CAR! I knew it would be bad, but man... I seriously about crapped myself when I saw the actual numbers all laid out there.

Oh, and here's that Crazy Twin Story I promised a few weeks ago:

So, back in mid-January, Meg and Jonathan visited us as they were passing through, as rock stars are wont to do. We hung out, they brought really cute knitted bears for the kids (seriously, check 'em out), and we went to a local Indian buffet for lunch (mmm mmm good). In preparation for their visit, Caz and I (by which I mean, Caz) prepared a yummilicious dessert - Sarafina's Almond Cake. We made it a day ahead, and then Meg and Jonathan had to postpone their visit by a day (rock stars, what can you do?), but that was all fine. The cake was carefully wrapped and kept safe, so no big deal. Besides, I could swear Lanea had said that letting it "age" for a couple days did nothing but good for the almond cake.

Well... yeah. You know what's coming, right? Sure enough, Sunday morning the kids got rolling before we did, and instead of coming into our room right away, they struck out on their own to see what they could get into. And so, of course, Henry got into the cake. Caz walked out of our room a while later to discover Henry sitting on the kitchen table, gouging handfuls of goodness out of the almond cake and stuffing his face with them.

So much for fancy dessert for our friends. sigh! At least the kid's got good taste, right? Right? Right? (Humor me here, just a little, would you?)

I tried to get pictures for the blogging, but the camera was not immediately accessible, and Caz, having spent two days on his very best Resisting Temptation behavior, decided, "Dammit, then I'm having some almond cake too!" and started cutting slices from the poor disfigured cake for himself. And well, I sure wasn't going to let him eat the whole rest of the cake himself, so uh... I helped. As it turns out, the goodness of almond cake completely trumps any Grubby Toddler Hands factor. Who'd have guessed it?


HA! Joke's on me! (Or: Update)
So, I wrote up this post this afternoon, but then got sidetracked before I could put in all the links. While I was out in the other room, I finally decided to check that gauge swatch I did for Arwen a while back. My gauge was. Spot. On. Absolutely perfect. The cable was also precisely as it should have been. So... I took a plunge and cast on for the back. And then, of course, got sidetracked some more, so I haven't done anything but cast on. But I did cast on. Looks like Arwen it is. Sorry, Brambleberry.