I fought the shawl

And right now, we're at a draw. I started Muir yesterday, and I can now confidently say that I can do a provisional crochet cast-on. In fact, I've now done it four times. Every time I thought I had things working, I'd discover little problems like too few stitches at the end of the first pattern row, and I'd end up starting over. I have so many stitch markers in this sucker it's a wonder I can see my stitches.

So I needed something else, something for when I need mindless knitting. I have the yarn for Twinkletoes and for Hedera, but I found out this morning that I didn't have size 1 or size 6 dpns. I went to the close LYS (which shall still remain nameless) and the service was wonderful, even though they didn't have what I needed, but the other customers still looked at me like something the cat dragged in. The woman who helped me was really cool, though, and it occurs to me that both of my really good experiences there have had her in common. I'm going to try to figure out when she's there and when there is not an afternoon class going on, and see if I have a really good experience. I don't want to do the people taking the classes out of their class time, but if the only person there waiting on people also appears to be teaching the class, and the class is in the middle of the store in the middle of the afternoon for two hours, well, there's a natural conflict of interest there between the class and customers. At any rate, maybe everyone won't hate me for being there if I can just figure out when would be a good time to go.

I ended up at Woolie Ewe again for the needles because I still needed them. I was good, and only bought needles.

I'm wondering if my head will stop hurting when I get my bar pass results. It's hurt every day for nearly a week, ever since they started painting the damned McMansion across the alley, so I think it's partly paint allergy and partly stress.

Local Yarn Store Comparisons

I had a much better time at the Woolie Ewe than I expected to yesterday. I need to quit thinking that Plano is a long way to drive for yarn, because really if I want to go to a store with a really friendly staff and a good selection, it's where I should go. The Other Yarn Store (which shall remain nameless here) has semi-friendly staff most of the time, but they also have terrible hours, almost no sock yarn, and the other customers are generally unfriendly. It's not that I expect to make a new best friend every time I go into a store, but the Ewe seems to attract people who are happy and enthusiastic about knitting and yarn and who smile and chat with other people who feel the same, and that Other Place seems to attract a bunch of old biddies who stare at me like I'm something the cat dragged in.

When I bought my real Knitting Bag, the one with the frame, the other customers at WE saw me wandering around with a staff member as I bought tools and stuff to put in the bag, and I was greeted all over the store with, "Yay! A new bag! A new knitter!" This Other Place, if I'd bought the same, they would have looked at me as though they were afraid I'd take my expensive new bag and tools and sit by them and contaminate their projects with noob-ness.

Anyway, I had a good time yesterday at the Ewe, and I spent about an hour fondling yarn and making new friends. I bought a really cool present that wasn't a gift certificate for my friend (I don't think she'll see this but I'm keeping quiet anyway), and I bought myself some really pretty bottle green laceweight to make the Muir shawl in this season's Knitty. I also mentioned that I'm in the Woolie Ewe group on Ravelry and I got my 10% discount and a Woolie Ewe bag.

We watched Black Snake Moan last night, and I got all the way into the toe increase for the striped socks. I think I can finish them this afternoon if I just settle down with them for an hour. I'm also going to force myself to get the purple tank top finished this weekend before I'll cast on the laceweight. I've promised my DH that the next set of socks is for him, so I hope my Knitpicks order gets here soon because I have teal sock yarn that I could make lace socks for myself with, too. I think I'm developing a sock problem of some sort.

In other news, the countdown is on. As of yesterday, one week to bar results. I'm starting to feel sick as well as paralyzed and unmotivated.

Later: The striped socks are finished!