You know you're a knitter when 'shaving under your arms' means that your sweater is pilling. And comments on Comments...

Dear Blog-

I am finally having to face what the painful reality of being a Yarn Ho is. Sure, there are probably lots of women out there who think of themselves as Yarn Hos, but until you find yourself knitting a sweater for a cat for money, trust me, you don't have a clue what being a Yarn Ho really is. They say that every addict hits their bottom eventually, and sadly enough, I have hit mine.

I do something stupid like this about once a year. Last year at this time it was knitting a very unpleasant scarf of lime green mixed with fuzzy stuff for the very nice woman who helps run the farmer's market to give to her sister for Christmas. I don't remember what she paid me, but it wasn't enough to make up for the excrutiating boredom of garter stitch scarves, combined with the pain of humiliation inherent in knitting with fluffy stuff. The year before that I knit one for her in pink fluffy and pink sparkly stuff. Please God, let me have learned my lesson and can we move on?

The cat sweater is compounded by the fact that I am having to make this up as I go along. Not too terrible, but every measurement I need at any given point is not among the measurements I have at hand, and it took several days to hear back from her with my last questions. The upside is that it is A) small and should be over soon, B) made with alpaca, and C) knit on bigger needles and should be over soon. But my pain will soon be over and I can go back to working on my second sleeve of the PW to soothe my shattered nerves.

HUMILIATING YARN HO CAT SWEATER PROJECT

Speaking of shattered nerves, last night at about 8:30, DH requested that I bake something for him to take in to work 'before Friday'. Today being the only day after last night at 8:30 pm and before Friday, it was kind of down to a time crunch. It reminded me of the classic mother's complaint about the kid who tells his mother the night before he is supposed to bring the cupcakes in to class. However, my DH asks me for very, very little, and I ask him for a lot, so I am happy to do this for him, and pleased that he wanted something I baked. I am a danged good baker, I must say.

I was planning a trip to the grocery store today anyway (shattered nerves part coming up), but OMG! Just as God put every barking mad person in Tucson in a car yesterday and sent them out on the roads, today he sent them all to the same grocery store that I was going to. I swear people wander around in the store like they are in one of those Dawn of the Dead movies. Zombies! All of them! Staggering about aimlessly with glazed eyes. Do any of them know where they are going? Do any of them have a CLUE what they need in the store, or where to find it? How do these people feed themselves the rest of the year if they can't find a blessed thing in the store, ever?

But I survived (without a couple of things I couldn't find) and here I am, working on the cat sweater, working on the blog, and working up the energy to go do some baking.

Also, I have to tell you that I really appreciate and enjoy all of your comments. It gives me a little thrill to see the hit counter go up each time I look at my blog. Look! Someone actually wants to read what I write! I am not sure how to reply to individual comments and questions as blogger doesn't give you that option, everything comes to me with an addy of noreply@whatever.com, and I would like to keep any replies separate from the blog, just to keep things moving. If in future you have questions, please, please put a return email addy in your comment. I promise not to publish your email addy, but it would give me a way to get back to you. Also, please do leave your name or nom de plume. Anonymous comments probably always have the best of intentions, but seem rather cloak and dagger, and makes me wonder why you don't want me to know who you are. I won't publish any anonymous comments, although I haven't received any that weren't pleasant, please have the courage of your convictions and leave your name. :-)

To Marie- The felted hat pattern is my own, so if you have tried one that was similar and didn't work, it wasn't mine. I'd be happy to help you if you would send me an email. I think I found a way to track down your email this morning, but I'm not certain.

Karen (and a couple of others who have asked) - I am in the process of converting my pattern files to pdf files and then I will put them up on the patterns for sale page. I believe that so far all the patterns will sell for $5, and there will be a Paypal button on each pattern page that lets you order the download right away. In the meantime, you can send the $5 and the name of the pattern (or what it is) through Paypal to Lynda@Luna-Aromatics.com and I will be happy to send you the pattern sooner. And thanks for the hint that I need to put in my contact info on that page, I really appreciate that, it was one of those no-brainers that get forgotten.

Anonymous - The cactus shown are indeed Thanksgiving cactus. Christmas cactus have a smooth-edged, scalloped leaf, T-day cactus have the leaf with the serrations. They are indeed very similar, but I haven't seen a true Christmas cactus for sale in centuries, they are all T-day cactus labeled as Xmas. Schlumbergia truncata (aka crab cactus) is the T-day, S.buckleyi is the Christmas one.

And to those nice people who commented on my sweater sleeve - thanks so much, I love it. I don't mean to seem immodest, to me it is more the work of the Knitting Gods and the designer, I am just so tickled that I am doing this. I can't wait til I have an entire sweater!

Ok, DH just called to say he is on his way home from work. Time to go put on the dress, the starched organdy apron and the pearls. No, I really AM kidding.