Surprise Yarn Store Trip

I had lunch with a solo practice lawyer who has an office in Plano yesterday. As I left his office (he was being really helpful showing me how he has things set up), I specifically told myself, "I do not need more yarn. I am not going to the Woolie Ewe. Even though it's just down the street a few miles, I'm not going there."

As I told myself this, I managed to turn the wrong way, and instead of taking Parker to Preston like I'd intended to, I got turned around and found myself heading south on Custer. Plano has changed a bit since I lived there, and so it took me a few minutes to figure out that I was really going the wrong way. The next recognizable landmark? The Woolie Ewe.

I swear I didn't plan this. As far as I'm concerned, the car drove me there by itself. It was the yarn fumes. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. I bought two skeins of Regia sock yarn and Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac. I used money my aunt gave me as a graduation present, so it doesn't really count as spending money I don't have, either.

I don't have much of a yarn stash because I'm just not the kind of person who will spend $75+ on enough yarn for a completely mythical sweater. If I'm going to buy enough yarn to do something with, I want to know how much yarn I need. If I have no idea what I'll use it for, I'm probably not going to buy it. (There are exceptions to this, but not a lot of them. Don't ask me about alpaca, I'm not admitting anything here.)

The problem with sock yarn is that there's never any question as to what it's for, or how much I'll need. I'm going to make socks with it, and I probably need two balls, skeins, or whatever it comes in, unless it's a big skein and then I need one. I fear that eventually I'll be up to my butt in sock yarn here because if I see it in a color I like, I buy it. Less than $30 for something I know I'll use eventually is more than I can resist.

Meanwhile, I finally got Arwen really started, and I'll be starting the first sleeve in the next couple of days. I have one Earl Grey sock all the way up to the toe decrease, so it's probably going to get finished tonight and I'll cast on the next one immediately to avoid the dreaded second sock syndrome. I also got an email about the fate of the Purple Tank Top of Doom. M reportedly likes it, and it all fits except for the straps, which her mother is just going to sew shorter.

Licensed, and suddenly finishing things.

I got my license in the mail late last week, and I've been trying to get things up and running for the last few days. I called a few people who had wanted me to call when I got the license, bought some office supplies, and made some plans. I've figured out what color the office needs painting, and I have the possibility of a few people who might want to pay me to do some lawyer stuff for them. I'm trying to remain hopeful even though I spent most of yesterday expecting phone calls and occasionally checking the phone to see if it still worked. I'm guessing there will be busy days and days when I'll wonder what I was thinking. I also discovered late this afternoon that if you carry the phone around all day, no matter what you're doing, a potential client will call when you've finally wandered off and left your phone somewhere, after business hours but before you would have knocked off if you had known a potential client would call. I hope I can reach them tomorrow before everyone heads out for the holiday. It would be nice to know I had some actual billable work to look forward to.

Today I stayed around home and did laundry and got ready to pack for the trip to see the folks this weekend. I have a bad case of the "I don't wannas" because I really don't feel like taking a long trip to eat a "family" Thanksgiving at the club, but it's not my house or kitchen it's happening in and I've run out law school to use as an excuse to spend the holiday at home cooking something decent in my own kitchen. My mother will probably want to go shopping on Black Friday, too, which fills me with horror. I'm looking forward to coming home already.

The bright spot in the trip is that I'm hoping to see some of my friends, and I finally finished the purple tank top of doom so I could hand it off to the mother of the child I hope it will fit. The finishing went much more easily than I thought it would, and I am filled with unjustified confidence for the eventual finishing of the Arwen sweater, which I haven't started yet. I might start it tonight if I have time so I have more than one thing to do this weekend. I'm afraid one project won't be enough to keep my patience running this weekend.

Done swearing. Commencing waiting.

We made a quick trip to Austin, staying overnight Sunday so I could be at the swearing-in ceremony for new lawyers. This is not, in fact, the final step to actual lawyerdom, though. I still have to wait for my license to show up before I can legally practice. I'm now checking the mailbox obsessively for the license, which will be here, uhh, when it gets here. I've paid all the fees, but this is the government we're talking about. I hope the mail person doesn't lose it. (Our mail person is daffy, and regularly puts mail in the wrong boxes. No one supervising seems to care much.)

While in Austin, I visited Hill Country Weavers, met some nice people, and petted some nice yarn. I bought yarn that may be socks for me (it might also hang out in my stash looking cool), and yarn that will be striped socks for a friend of mine who has requested striped socks. I bought a t-shirt that I eventually need to post a picture of, too. The shop was delightful. They're set up in an old house, and they have a huge selection. Everyone I met there, both the staff and the other customers, was friendly and nice. I will definitely visit again next time I'm in Austin.

I also finally picked up more size 6 DPNs. The only ones I had were this tacky aluminum stuff from back in the 60's (I think I got them from someone else's estate sale haul), and when I thought I bought some from Woolie Ewe it turned out that I didn't have my reading glasses on and I got 8's instead of 6's. Getting old sucks, have I mentioned that?

I finally made some actual progress on the Earl Grey sock. I knitted all the way there and all the way back, and I finally divided for the heel last night. The rest of it hopefully will go relatively quickly, and I'll start the second one right after finishing the first one. (This is how I have avoided second sock syndrome thus far. I don't wait to cast on the second one, and once it's cast on I'll work on it. It's really about the knitting to me, not the product at the end.)

I took two balls of the Arwen yarn with me, and didn't cast on so much as a gauge swatch. I'm thinking after the Earl Grey socks are done, I'll start the sweater and the striped socks for S. That way I have one complicated thing and one easy thing to work on.

Oh, and don't ask about Muir. I frogged it back again, and I'm just going to let it rest for a few months. I'll probably find a nice triangular shawl for a first lace project. It's not the pattern, it's me. I just can't seem to keep my concentration good on a 125-stitch-across lace pattern right now. I still want to try, but I might do better after I have a few more months of chart reading experience. For now, it just makes me throw things. So Muir is hanging out in the corner of my stash glaring at me like an accidentally kicked cat, and I'm leaving it alone until it doesn't hate me anymore.

Passed the bar.

I am so relieved. I can quit thinking about it and wanting to heave, to start with. It's a whole new world of not living in constant dread. Now I can start worrying about getting the office together.

I started the Earl Grey socks last night, and frogged them earlier this evening because I realized I'd gorked the pattern beginning up. I'll cast them back on tonight, and hopefully I can get the ribbing back on.

I spent a lot of the day on the phone calling friends, and a couple of hours working on my Nano novel. It was like pulling teeth out of my brain, and the idea I thought I had has morphed into an idea that I had last year that I didn't do anything with. I hope they work together, because they're now stuck together. I made it to 1,706 words, but the weekend's kind of shot for writing. I have no idea if I'll be able to pull this off this year. I wish I remembered how badly the first few days went when I did the last one in 2003. It seems like I had a better plot, though.

My DH has gone hunting. This week is the opening of deer season, and I get extra good wife points for not bitching about him wanting to go even though I thought grade release would be tomorrow. Tongith, there was no reason to talk him into staying what with me being out of my anticipatory misery. I won't sleep well without him. Might as well knit.