I boxed up the Horstia Tweed and sent it back. Life is too short to knit with unfun yarn. While I was in town, I had time to kill between a Weight Watchers meeting and a haircut, so I swung by the Hobby Lobby and stumbled onto their big Lion Brand sale. I bought a couple of balls of Kool Wool to play with, some dpns, and some Cotton-Ease from clearance which happened to be the same dyelot as my remnants from Secret Baby Gift Knitting. Gotta love a little Cheapass Yarn Adventure.

Meanwhile, I have knit an entire garment since last I posted. I knit up an Asymmetrical Vest from The Knit Stitch out of the Colinette Prism I bought on clearance at Bonnie's in Pittsburgh this summer. It's a little more asymmetric than intended; the back neck is 7" but the fronts are supposed to be 5 1/2" each, which would give a 4" overlap. Instead, I knocked off on the left front after 3 1/2" (conveniently, just as I finished a skein), which still gives me a 2" overlap, but at the left side. I like this effect from a design perspective, but also I think it is more flattering on me this way anyway because the longer front now covers most of the tummy bulge. Now I just need to go on a quest for three swell asymmetrical buttons.

Oh, and about that haircut– I had it whacked. I took in pictures of McKenzie Westmore ("Sheridan" on Passions, who is, by the way, NOT DEAD, big surprise). Now it is cute and flippy and looks GREAT with hats, heh heh.

I finally wove in the ends of the Mandalay Medallions sweater and wore it this weekend. I confess I haven't blocked it, so I hope nothing dreadful happens when it gets wet.

If you were thinking about ordering the Horstia Tweed "Try it, You'll Like It" special from Knitpicks, forget it! They had 31 skeins left and I bought them. Unfortunately, although the yarn looks and feels beautiful in the ball, it shed horribly when I swatched with it– so much that I'm actually thinking about sending back the other 30. I think it's particularly aggravated by being knitted continental; it's a loosely spun Z-twist single, and it nearly untwists as I knit.

I seem to have more or less recovered from last week's jolly adventures in endodontics. This is the first time I have ever looked forward to the novocaine shots! The root canal itself was practically blissful compared to the Four Days in Hell that preceded it. Afterwards I had only a mild bite tenderness for several days. And impressively, I did not have to rip out as a result of KUI (Knitting Under the Influence), in spite of large quantities of Percocet.

Meanwhile, I still cannot get motivated to weave in the rest of the ends on the Mandalay Medallion sweater. I'd better get at it, because by spring I expect to have to reknit the body. I've done the ends in the stockinette, but the 36 ends of the crochet section really annoy me. In particular, I get grouchy every time I think about the fact that if this pattern had been written a little better, the medallions could easily have been joined as they were made, so that there would only be 18 ends to weave in. Their very gratuitousness irks me.

Bleah. I got my Mandalay Medallions sweater finished (yeah, yeah, except for some of the ends) but I'm not going to get to go to the Women's Club Coffee tomorrow where I had planned to debut it. Instead I am doped up and awaiting emergency dental surgery Thursday. The Happy Fun Pill I took a while ago is starting to kick in, so I had better go lie down lest I throw up.

I have been knitting MADLY for four days and have just finished the body of the Mandalay Medallion sweater out of green Rowan Summer Tweed. (I went kind of psycho with new projects this summer). So of course I am wearing it around the house, with a sleeve and a half hanging on circs. I really like this business of knitting circularly from the top down. It has been grand fun to try this thing on as it grew. CH encouraged me to stop at the point where the bottom of the sweater ended just above my nipples, but I persevered to a length more appropriate to wear to the Women's Club Coffee next week.