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.

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!

Friday Field Trip Planning

I'm going to a birthday party tomorrow night, so I need to go to the Woolie Ewe to get a gift certificate for a present. This has the added advantage of getting to go to the Woolie Ewe. My stash is pathetically underweight, and it's being pushed around by everyone else's stash. We're not gonna take it anymore. Of course, there's the risk that I'll have a terrible financial accident at the alpaca shelf if I go alone, but I might just have to face that peril.

I've noticed that all the pictures I've posted to Ravelry on the Flikr account are really dark. I know I sort of spend my computer and study time in a dark little hole of a room, but you'd think flash photography would be able to get around that. I think I need to spend more time in the room with the skylight. Or maybe I really just need to leave the house more.

The striped socks sort of progress apace, but for some reason I've discovered that every time I knit with anything Lion Brand I aggravate my hand problems. I'm sure it's my inner yarn snob causing this. Meanwhile, I knit all the way through Countdown last night (Daily Show is in vacation mode) and I still haven't finished these dratted socks.

I need to get onto the purple tank top and just finish it. It's going to take about an hour, and then I'd be done. Why can't I just do it?

Speaking of things I can't seem to just do, add cleaning my office room. I cleared things away after I took the bar, and the desk is under about a foot of crap again. I need to clear bookshelves to box useful stuff up to take to my actual office when it's ready. I need to find my desktop. I can't get started. The closer I get to grade release, the less I want to do in here. I'm having school nightmares again, too. I just want to know whether I'm holing back up in here and studying for another two months or signing a contract on office space and getting down with the painting and planning.