How much I hate crochet:

I hate it so much that even though I bought one of those comfort hooks and am becoming fairly proficiant, I'd rather attempt to make a doily than a granny square. Evidence of this is to the left. You see I've been hammering out those Bandwagon discloths, one after another, for the last couple weeks. I'm a distracted person with not much time to knit so thus far I've only done eight. When I started the ninth one I realized the colors I had chosen were too close (the blue you see there and another light veriagated blue) and thus the resulting dishcloth was stupid looking. I decided to try another pattern rather than go buy more yarn (hooray for my budget!) but was faced with the question of what pattern to try. Well, when you have a good 18 balls of Sugar and Cream lying around you're bound to find at least one discloth pattern on a ball band. I found four: two knit (one ugly, one not), two crochet (one hideous, one granny square). I was then faced with a choice like unto Sophie's. Knit a doily discloth, something that looked hard and that I've never even attepmted anything like or crochet a granny square. The mere thought of crocheting a whole project nearly sent me into convultions so I cast on eight stitches and into the circle I went. As you can see it went well. I was dang proud of that thing when I was done. I have to do a second one which doesn't exactly thrill me but it is a nice break from the Bandwagon cloths (they're like crack, I swear, you just can't put them down). The funny thing is, when I looked at the finished one I realized that somewhere in storage I have a doily that is done in the same (albeit much finer) style. Beautifully knit in teeny-tiny laceweight cotton thread, it's a star pattern just like that with a fantastic edging that's all pointy. One of my exes had a grandmother who knit amazing lace and that "simple" doily was something that took her an afternoon of boredom. She gave it to me when I was first learning to knit because I was so amazed at the tiny needles she used to make it. Anyway, I'm making progress on my Christmas knitting. Nine dishcloths down, seven to go (notice how the number grew?). I also have one pair of gloves and the Red Todd Kidd project which is likely to be back burnered since it's a time consuming one and I don't think I'll be able to start it in time. Sigh.

Today I crocheted.

Successfully, for the first time. Also Yorkie is a Honda, I am not: I'm a Lamborghini Murcielago! You're not subtle, but you don't want to be. Fast, loud, and dramatic, you want people to notice you, and then get out of the way. In a world full of sheep, you're a raging bull. Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz. Oh and life kinda blows around here lately. Though we have been having fabulous dinners. I've made these incredible pork chops in a burbon mushroom sauce, to die for. Tomorrow we're having flank steaks in a different burbon sauce. Come to think of it we also had some other burbon dish recently and this weekend I'm making coq au vin. Am I going through a cook book or the Boston Bartender's Guide?

A bit cheerier, perhaps.

Yeah, some good stuff happened. My (large extended) family isn't drawing names for a Christmas gift exchange this year. That really helps us out considering how broke we are. One of my cousins, Hawkeye, was sorely disapointed about it so we've decided to do a mini Secret Santa between the girl cousins. There are only five of us so I'm not sure how secret it will be. The rules are (because we're all broke): 1) You have to make your gift. 2) You have to use either things you already have or spend no more than $10. You know what this means don't you, oh faithful 3 readers or so? Overalls of Shame. The time has come. It has been ordained. Other good stuff that happened this weekend: -Went out with friends on Saturday night (best part was when we got lost). All in all it was probably one of the worst night out ever but since it was still out, I'm not going to complain (much). -Saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We even got a 15 minute intermission when the power went out. Delightful. But the movie was good, I got to see some good close ups to the scarf (I'd alter the pattern if I ever had to make another), and again I was out of the house. But the best thing that happened this weekend was I got a package frommy Hoilday Secret Pal! She seems to know me well. It included: Three hanks of 100% Alpaca in green, grey, and black. A hank of some orange sparkley yarn (wool, silk, alpaca, sparkle blend) already earmarked for an Ipod cozy for my sister who will love and cherish any orange sparkly object. The movie Incubus, starring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner and filmed in Esperanto, it's a horror movie. I can't wait to watch it, I don't even know where she found this thing. I'm sure it's going to be AWESOMELY bad. It was mentioned briefly in a bad movie thread on knitty and I said I'd love to get my hands on it, that's some good detective work, SP! She also sent me s Crocheting for Dummies and some crochet hooks so I can (hopefully) finally learn to crochet. I got a three pound bag of plain M&Ms, one of my favorite candies (must have cost a fortune to mail!). A Lantern Moon sheep tape measure which my son has named "Chompy, like the goat," I have no idea what he's talking about but it's cute anyway. She sent me Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac, which as much as I've read has been informative and amusing. Oh and a mixed CD that is spookily well made, I like all the songs. Lastly and not in the picture was a box of Hershey's Goodnight Kiss Hot chocolate mix, I don't know if she knows I boycott Nestle to the best of my ability or not but I though it was awesome that she found some non-Neslte hot chocolate! I usually have to hunt pretty hard or buy gourmet (Godiva is awesome, Ghriardelli not quite so good, Land-o-Lakes is good but don't mix it with milk, only water). And that, friends was my sweet, sweet Holiday SP haul. Hard to be bitchy with all that great stuff starin' at me. Okay, I'm off to finish Wavy so I can start on the Overalls of Shame. I have vowed to finish Wavy first. My sister has kindly agreed to let me put off the Harry Potter scarf until all my Christmas knitting is done, I think because she wants to see those overalls just as badly as you all do. EDIT: Oh yeah, the card my SP sent with the monkey on it. On the outside it says: "Know what day it is?" and inside it says: "Neither do I." In case anyone was wondering.