What am I doing here?

What am I doing here? What on earth made me think I could write something that others might actually want to read? And does it really matter? There are some things I just can't worry about. Who did I start this blog for? Me - that's who. Me, who wants to have a place to write down things I think about when I'm knitting and things I think about when I'm not knitting.

I was home sick today from work - you don't want to know - and I decided to lie on the couch with the cat and watch hockey, which is the only sport in the world worth watching (this is NOT debatable, by the way). The US and Canada were playing in the World Junior Championships. I don't normally follow Juniors; I'm an NHL gal and I watch 2 to 3 games a night, on average, depending on which teams are playing. We have a hockey TV package, and my DH and I are totally addicted. I tell folks we have a mixed marriage; he's a Bruins fan and I'm a Rangers fan, but we get along well on games, as long as the Rangers aren't playing against the Bruins, that is. Anyway, he was at work and I was home alone with the cat (her name is Alvin - that story another time), watching Junior hockey, yelling for the US and knitting furiously to keep from biting my fingernails off. And then Canada won, after one of the most thrilling games I've seen in years, and a 10-minute sudden death overtime, and a 7-round shootout. I felt totally washed out. What a let-down to see our kids lose after working so hard for so long. I'd really like to see a 7-game series between the US and Canadian teams that played today. I'd pay good money to see them play and I bet there are a lot of others who would, too.

Anyway, isn't the name of this blog "Knit Circle"? Where did that ramble about hockey come from? So, what am I working on while watching all this hockey? (Buffalo is playing Ottawa right now - no score yet, but it's a good game.) I started the "Irish Hiking Scarf" on December 28 or 29 - I'm not sure which. I had already made a pair of wristwarmers that I got from a blog at http://irishhikingknitalong.blogspot.com/ . The wristwarmers match the scarf and the blogger also has a hat designed to match. I may do that next. I did my wristwarmers in Cascade Pastaza - 50% llama/50% wool - in a soft grayish-lavender color. I'm doing my scarf to match and, if I have enough yarn left after the scarf, I'll try the hat. I'm kind of a one-project-at-a-time kind of person, but I will occasionally pick up more than one thing at a time for a change of pace.

I've also discovered that I'm an insatiable yarn-ho....I looked into my stash and can't imagine what I'm going to do with all the yarn I have. We went to visit my sister in Louisville, Kentucky before Thanksgiving, and folks on a list I belong to suggested I check out Sophie's Yarn Shop. OOOOOOOHHHHHH, I liked it. Such very nice people working there and I ended up spending a little (yeah, right...) on some new additions to my stash. I got 18 skeins of baby alpaca that's just dying to be knit up into a lovely soft something, but I don't know what yet. I thought I'd make a sweater from "Big Girl Knits", but I'm leaning in a different direction right now and I might make it into a vest or a cardigan, if I can get the nerve up to try something like that. It's a lovely deep cranberry color, and if I ever get a picture up on this blog, you'll see that I have dark hair and fair skin, so it would suit me well. I've heard of folks saying that the yarn will tell you what it wants to be, but it's not talking right now, so I just take it out and feel it and sniff it and wonder when it will talk to me.

I also have some lovely merino in a soft forest green that shows stitches off beautifully. I had started a sweater, but I don't like the drape and I think the needles are too small for the project as it seems stiff so I'm thinking of frogging the whole thing and re-winding the balls and seeing what else I can make with it. DH bought me "Cables Untangled" for Christmas and I may look in there to see if something jumps out at me. Cables would show up so well on this yarn that it might be a shame to just knit a flat fabric like stockinette with it.

"Cables Untangled" has something like 12o+ cable stitches in it and I'm thinking that I should get some yarn just for swatching cables. I figure I could do each of the cables in a swatch big enough to practice on to see which I like doing and then keep them all and stitch them together into a blanket for couch-lounging. I'll keep that thought in the back of my mind for my next shopping trip. My local Stitch'n Bitch did a "yarn crawl" recently that I couldn't make it to. They had a great time and we talked about doing it again when we met last night. We meet on Tuesday nights and knit and talk and have a great time. Even DH comes with me; if he gets bored, he just plugs into his Ipod and tunes out with a hot chocolate, though that really doesn't happen often. He says I go to stitch and he goes to bitch, so it works out well. Enough for tonight; I need to pay attention to this game, there's goal under review and the score is Buffalo - 0 and Ottawa - 4 and it's getting interesting.