trashy romance, fuzzy socks & more

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned I can’t be trusted to check in daily. I’m trying to be better about weekly. Really.

Random fact: A spider is living beneath my Wii balance board. I’m unthrilled.

First week of November -

• Wrote almost 12k on the vampire book. Woke up this morning and realized I need to write yet another chapter one. Bad habit of mine, starting the book too late in the story.
• Did not keep up with my fatchicksrunning schedule. I was sick the weekend, didn’t get to make the yoga and pilates (I was really looking forward to those) and didn’t bounce back. This week will be better, though.
• Bulk of my “for other people” Christmas shopping accomplished. Hooray.

Second week goals:

• Do week two of my fcr schedule.
• Finish first draft of vampire novel.
• No #3. The first two are occupation enough.

I’ve been pouting because I missed the Torrid socks. I had my eye on knee-high fuschia tube socks but was waiting for the 50%-off-clearance sale. I didn’t realize it was happening til 36 hours after it started and by the time I clicked over to the socks section, most of them were gone. Even the monkey socks. I’m debating whether I want to place an order or not. I could still score 8 pairs of cute socks plus a pair of wedge-heel flipflops for next summer, all for $26, but as much as I’m interested in great deals I’m also interested in knocking out debt instead of creating more debt. DILEMMAS.

I need to start holiday knitting. Bulky yarn and bigger needles are on my shopping list today.

Also tonight, a play!

After ripping out my footie, I went hunting for sock patterns and ended up at a sock-a-month group on Ravelry. The sock group has inspired me to spend the rest of this month completing a sock pair that I started last October. The sock has a fairly short leg and I knitted it on size 4 needles with a 48-stitch cast on, so a week is probably plenty of time for me to finish it and get it out of my guilt-list. Yay a plan.

I also realized that Ren Faire is coming up in a couple of months and my husband needs knee socks for his kilt kit. If I’m going in my sideless surcote, he is going in his kilt. I think I’ll end up buying a chemise for myself (yay ebay) but he has tree trunk legs, so needs custom socks. And I promised socks in order to get him to buy the kilt. Friday I’ll hit the yarn store and gather the yarns for his very long, large socks…and then I’ll start working on them. They’ll take me forevvvver. Maybe I ought to try the two at once technique in order to keep myself from finishing one, then never starting the second. Hmm. Must strategize.

Lately I have difficulty knitting to artificial light so my needle time is limited to daytime hours. Today I got my first footie to the point of turning the heel. Three & four are knitted together onto one needle and waiting for me to slip the sleeping stitches onto scrap yarn. I like to work the hourglass heel because a) it’s quicker than the gusset and b) it doesn’t involve picking up stitches with a crochet hook. I am really bad at the gusset.

In lieu of a photo, how about a knitting quote from my current written WIP, which will appear in February in volume 3 of the DREAMS AND DESIRES anthology published by e-publisher Freya’s Bower:

“Are you absolutely certain my dream man won’t develop characteristics on his own after he’s out of the box?” She glanced at her matron of honor, Nita, who twisted the steering wheel with the mad focus of a Christmas Eve knitter hell-bent on finishing a sweater by dawn.

(I really hope I wake up to a Ravelry invitation tomorrow!)