To all those who have said, "How the h--- come you never update your blog?": The problem is that my blog is underfunded. I have been spending my computer time working on an Actual Paying Gig. If you will just send me your donations, I promise to update my blog more regularly. Cash and yarn are fine. We are not set up to accept credit cards at this time, but you are welcome to purchase gift certificates to ThreadBear Fiber Arts.

I am still reeling from yesterday's adventures in yarn acquisition. CH and I were in Indy for Borders Knit Night and the knitting group got a phone call. Turns out one of the local shopowners had SEVENTY-FIVE BOXES of yarn from a gourmet knitter's estate spread out on the back porch of her shop, and we were invited to come over and go through the boxes. We spent two hours pawing through stuff, and then dickered on prices for whatever we'd piled up. I got over 160 balls of Really Good Stuff for $70!!! I couldn't begin to list it all, but the twenty matching balls of Filatura di Crosa Missoni (aran weight wool/mohair, with multicolored plies) were worth more than that all by themselves.

In addition, I had been to a store earlier in the day that was having a buck-a-ball sale. I got enough Noro Implessions to make a jacket for myself, and thirty balls of other stuff as well. So now I must beg to disagree with Hope about who has the Best Stash in the World...

This trip beat the heck out of my last Indy Wednesday, on which a tree had the audacity to run out in the road in front of me. Well, okay, it didn't exactly run, but it fell there. And it didn't belong there. So my car got into an argument with it. The car lost. It is in the shop now, getting a new windshield and a new air conditioner condenser coil and probably much putty and paint.

I've been chugging right along on Scamp, with front and back finished and joined at the shoulders, and the neckband on. Since I'm dreadfully impatient, I had to go ahead and put the partial garment through the washer and dryer to see if it would shrink the specified amount. It retained its original size right up until the very last few minutes in the dryer, and then lo and behold! It shrank exactly as much as it was supposed to. So now I am knitting away without fear on a sleeve.

I took a little break last week and dragged out some UFOs. First I worked on a little girl's cardigan (from a Sirdar book, but I'm using LB Cotton-Ease). All the pieces are now knit except the interminable lower edging. If I ever get the urge again to knit something with a separate sewn-on sailor collar, somebody please take my needles away and jam them in my eye. I did eventually get the collar sewn onto the garment, and the collar edging half sewn onto the collar, before I stuffed it away again.

I joined Weight Watchers tonight. When I told the leader that I wanted to lose weight so that I could knit myself sweaters faster with less yarn, she looked at me like I had two heads.

I've finally managed to drag myself out of the funk I was in after the ThreadBear Open House on Sunday. Now, mind you, I had a marvelous time, as usual. I bought eleven skeins of Koigu and some other sock yarns, and Matt even wheedled me into sitting down at the spinning wheel. But, they are moving forty minutes' drive farther east, so I won't be able to attend Third Thursdays on a regular basis. I'm very, very happy for m'boys, but I'm sorry I won't get to see them and their entourage as often.

When we got home, I started a new project to console myself: the Summer in Kansas Shawl by Two Old Bags, in elderberry Zephyr. I knit on that in front of the TV for a while, then CH and I each had a couple of drinks and did the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle.

Anyway, I am okay now. I finished assembling Haiku last week, but it awaits buttons. It seems serendipitous, since I just got invited to a birthday party for a little girl the right size to wear it. After that, I started Scamp from the Rowan Pipsqueaks book (also the big Rowan Treasury) for my nephew. I had knit the whole back of that, and a few inches of the front, when I started the SIK Shawl.