Today’s blog entry is brought to you by the garbage can that I call my life. Knitting content may be far and few between so be warned if you tread ahead.

My first pair of socks for SOS is done. I have decided if I something ever happens to my husband and I need to remarry for some bizarre reason, I want to marry Fleece Artist sock yarn. Why didn’t I start knitting on this stuff sooner?! This has to be the most amazing sock yarn knitted to date. I almost cried when I got my socks done. I have yet to knit with Socks that Rock; I can’t imagine how it could be better than Fleece Artist. If it is better, I’m not sure if I could handle it or if I’m worthy of it.

The neverending shawl is still not done yet. I was obviously smoking something thinking I could churn out 75 rows of a shawl in less than 4 days when it was taking me a whole day to do 8 rows. With the start of SOS, I of course, set it aside to work on socks.

However, I now have a new secret weapon to tackle this hurtle: Knitpicks Options Circular Needles. Why didn’t I get these sooner? I’m sure just about everyone has made the switch to these wonderful needles months ago. I’ve always considered circular needles a necessary evil: the joins were never smooth enough, the cables would always kink and twist, a butter knife had a sharper point, always having to go out to buy yet another circular needle because I didn’t have the right size; the list of things that bugged me about circular needles went on and on. Immediately upon receiving my starter kit, I switched the shawl over to the Knitpick needles. What an amazing difference! I think my knitting speed increased by 50%!

The yarn withdrawals are hard to deal with. It’s tough to pretend all yarn except what is in my stash does not exist. I nearly cracked when I heard my LYS got some Art Yarn handpainted sock yarn. I was just going to go down to look when I realized full and well that if I look, I will buy some if I find a color that I have halfway like.

Mountain Knits exist! I found their website last night and got confirmation from a real live knitter that they are wonderful and full of all these wonderful luxury yarns I have only drooled over on the web. It’s enough to give me the strength to keep going with the yarn diet.

Only 16 more days until the Stash Enhancement Expedition. This trip ought to be good enough to give me my yarn fix until Christmas. I have never done two yarn stores in one day before. Fiber fairs with multiple vendors are the closest I have come to a true yarn crawl. Does anyone else have any suggestions for places to go for a really nice yarn crawl? I’m always on the lookout for new yarn stores. I want to see at least one example of every type of yarn made before I die. That’s my lifetime goal.

My father-in-law is in town for a 2 week long visit. He’s been here 3 days and I’m all ready twitching. To describe him in one word: Unabomber. There is just something creepy about him that makes my skin crawl. I fully expect to open the newspaper one day to read headline “Portland Man Goes Crazy, Kills 20.” When my cats hiss at him, I know it’s a sign. They never hiss at anyone; they may not like most people but they rarely if ever openly hiss at people. The FIL is emotionally unstable, has the tack of a nuclear warhead, and treats everyone like they are stupid. He’s always making “helpful” suggestions that I need to do now if not sooner. He gets a chance to corner you; he will talk your ear off about the most random, off-the-wall topics for hours. He has all these bizarre theories about the government, big corporations and political groups. I fully expect him to join one of those millennium, world-is-ending sort of militia groups one day.

Last visit, he decided to rearrange my kitchen to make it “work better”. I couldn’t find anything and spent the better part of 2 weeks getting it back to normal. Same visit, he plugged up my sewer system at 10 o’clock at night (We will not go into the graphic details of how he accomplished this; it would gross out the most cast-iron of stomachs) and then proceeded to tell me how to fix it. His idea only made it worse. Thank goodness my parents came to the rescue to save me from having to call a 24-hour sewer service.

As stated before, I’m all ready twitching. It was bad enough Saturday that I cheerfully volunteered to help my mom move 2 tons of hay. (I hate moving hay) I feel like a corned animal in my own house. I thanked my boss for giving me some much work to do that I have to work overtime just not to be in the house. My knitting bag is packed in case I need to make a quick getaway to my parents and my husband is all ready warned. So if you don’t hear anything from me for a while, know that I’ve gone into hiding.