She's lookin good, Verne

I hope a lot of other people get crippled when starting a blog post. I don't know why I think that I'll remember a clever post-title 8 hours later, but I keep believing it. Also, all the funny drains right out of me when I park here at the PC. That's why titles from The Far Side are just right. If I could choose God, he would be Gary Larson. Of course the world would be just as irony-infested as usual, only with more cows.

My knitting loops apace, but the blog falters before the mating ritual that is my stash and the Rav circling and hooting at each other. It's so hard to keep my lips on the air valve, blowing until I have a blowup cow girlfriend.

In good, non-self-flagellating news, I have organized my stash and there are decorative baskets involved -- and lots of (Ziploc we pray thee) moth-proof freezer bags.

Swatch for Norah G's Serpentine Coat has been alarming:

1. how does she expect abstract-shaped color patterns to go smoothly, knitted flat?

2. either the book's yarn is a very different dyelot or the photographer was a slick SOB because my brown mix Odyssey is loads darker and I haven't seen golden tones yet. which led to

3. blue doesn't rise above background -- cause purling back in crazyville is so worth it when invisible!

Swatching with my new Patou singles is charming. I tried the Twist Little Bird pattern:

It looks a little Christmassy. I can't quite walk past the cuteness. One problem is that the cream is the main quantity, so it will end up being background even though I don't fancy a lighter sweater. I don't have enough colors for a more traditional fair isle deal. Ack. So far the cream is a tad thicker than the others, too.

I've had a bitter feud/phobia with provisional cast on for years. Always ended up looking like I'd swirled the needles in a pot of spaghetti, so I had recourse to the crochet method a few times. A few weeks ago I watched the Zimmermann/Swanson Workshop DVD (seeing the technique live for the first time) and it looked a bit more reasonable. Then when reorg'ing the crafts closet I found a doomed old project and turning it about, what did i spy but a rather neat looking prov.cast on! What? I know no one else did it and it looked shockingly good. So this week when casting on the bird hat/swatch I fearlessly whipped up my nemesis and started up! Sooo not visible in bad photo.

At the top, birthday flowers from my bar. Awesome.

If only I still liked to drink :(