Itchy fingers

My order from KnitPicks was in West Virginia on Saturday so I am hoping it will show up today. I'm very excited. Probably more so than I should be, considering. I'm in love with the idea of knitting the cape I've mentioned, so it will be awesome to have the supplies to do that - but I am still working on the hat for Karen, and I'd kind of like to avoid starting too many things now that I have gotten back down to only two WIPs. At one point I had something like four or five on the needles at once, which starts to make me twitch. Two is a good number - one complicated (the hat), one mindless (the shawl). That way I have something interesting to knit at home and something that doesn't require too much attention that I can take with me when I go places. Also, the cape is really a fall/winter garment and I have been pretty constantly too hot for the past couple of weeks, so the idea of knitting something warm and thick is kind of...daunting is not the right word - I guess it's just not really appealing.

I did also order a ball of Shine Sport in Cloud to knit myself some cotton slippers. The hardwood floors are a little tough on my feet so I wanted something softer between me and them, but all the slippers I have are designed to keep your feet warm as well as cushioned, which I don't really need. I have a pattern for ballet slipper-style...uh, slippers. Shine is a cotton-modal blend (modal is made from fiber that comes from beech trees - I had to look it up) so it should be fairly cool and all the stuff I've read on various internet sites spoke highly of it as a textile. It's also machine washable, which, again, I do not ever intend to knit anything for the feet that is not machine washable. Because, you know, FEET. I am not going to hand wash anything designed to be walked on. Anyway, I'm hoping they will be fairly quick to knit, if I can just figure out the assembly part of it. I'm really a big fan of things that do not need to be sewn together, but these have to be seamed down the middle (or, actually, along the side, I think, but I'm not sure).

I was so mad at myself - I forgot to take the pedicure socks to church to give to DB this past weekend. :oP I will have to wrap them up in tissue paper tonight and put them in my church bag so this does not happen again.

I did make good progress on the hat for K. I made it through the last increase row for a while so the next 18 rows are just straight stockinette. I've gotten better about the increases, but they're still a little tough on my hands.

There's several finishing instructions for blocking the hat and adding a band inside, that I think I may leave to Karen because they are all specific to the size of one's head.

I am regretting my choice of color a little bit. I don't like the dark blue and light blue together as much as I thought I would. To me, it kind of looks like it used to be dark blue and white and then it bled in the wash. disagrees, but he usually does when I am unhappy with my work. Not that I don't believe him, I'm just saying. It's kind of in his best interests to say it looks okay. ;o) I think what I wish I had used was Burnt Sienna and Buttermilk. Also, I'm not as fond of the stripes themselves. I think I would have liked them thicker. So if I do this pattern again, I will do it in Burnt Sienna and Buttermilk with a strip pattern of 4 rounds instead of two. Live and learn. I'm not sure I ever will do this again because I have found it to be kind of difficult, but I don't know...it might go better the second round, and I can think of a couple of people who might have use for a hat like this. We'll see. Anyway, I still have a long way to go on what I have now, and summer will not last forever!!

I worked on the hat for all of my knitting time yesterday, even though I had originally intended to make some cat toys for fun. After church and lunch, I went to Michaels and the World Market (I was looking for Japanese tea bags I could use to put the scent in for the little candy wrapper sachets I plan to knit, and thought there was an off chance they might have some, but they didn't - I can probably try Wegmans), and then I went to Best Buy and picked up Die Hard and Die Hard III (they did not have 2 or the box set, which annoyed me, but I guess they are probably expecting a new box set to come out when Live Free or Die Hard is released on DVD; I know 2 kind of sucked, but I want it anyway), and Sense and Sensibility (what? it was on sale!), and then I went back to 's where he was indulging an urge to bake. So I knitted, watched movies, and ate cake and cookies fresh from the oven. It was a damn good day.