Knitting again

I'm back! My back and arm aren't totally back to normal yet, but they're a lot better, so I've started knitting again. I've made some progress on my slightly altered Endpaper Mitts. Here's what they look like now:
I like it, although not surprisingly, I prefer the original pattern to mine. In an unusual fit of doing more than one thing at a time, I've also started the Cabled Newsboy Cap from Stitch n' Bitch Nation. It's a nice, goofy little project that uses worsted weight yarn and that I can probably finish in a week. It's fun to knit with thick yarn every once in a while, because your stuff knits up so fast.

But that's not what I'm going to blog about. I'm blogging about my very exciting trip to Jo-Ann's today. Ok, not that exciting, but I don't have a lot to blog about.

The first very exciting thing that I got at Jo-Ann's was these very exciting puzzle blocks. I think I've blogged about my blocking woes in the past. Basically, I only have two appropriate surfaces for blocking in my apartment: my bed and my couch. Sadly, I use both my bed and my couch on a regular basis, which meant that in order to block things I had to curtail basic daily activities in pretty disruptive ways. Well, that problem has been solved! You know the Knitter's Blocks, which cost $50? Or this knock off from KnitPicks, which costs $20 and is sold out until the end of June anyway? Well, Jo-Ann's had these guys on sale for $8:


Yay! Blocking problems solved.

My other Jo-Ann's purchase was their new Deborah Norville sock yarn.


This stuff is clearly meant to compete with Paton's Kroy. The price is right: it's $3.29 per ball, and I think you'd need two balls to do a pair of socks. I'm not crazy about the colors, though. These were the two best ones, and they're not colors I'd generally buy. I'm going to play around with it a little bit after I finish my current projects, though, because I'm curious to see how it knits up.

I have nothing to say

The good news is that I'm back from D.C. in one piece. The bad news is that I am not feeling particularly witty or articulate at the moment. I think I have blogger's block. I have nothing at all to write about. I'm still working on my Green Tea Raglan, but I haven't got around to taking pictures yet. I'm going to wash and dry the back tomorrow to shrink it down to its correct size, and I'll try to take a picture then.

And other than that, I have no news. I mean, I sort of have news. Here are some things that I have considered blogging about:

1. The new Cynthia Rawley "Whim" line of fun summer things at Target is full of adorableness. I bought pretty much the cheapest and not-cutest thing in the whole line, a lunch box for $3, and it was still pretty darn cute. I'm very excited about my lunch box. It's the perfect size to put a sandwich in to avoid the dreaded sandwich squishage problem. Every time I put a sandwich in my bag in the morning, it gets squished by lunch time. I think the whole point of the Whim line is that it's supposed to be goofy, non-utilitarian stuff, but the lunch boxes are actually pretty practical. And the goofy, non-utilitarian items are awesome, too, for those of you who are into that kind of frivolity.

2. As you may be aware, this has been a bad year for terrible mass death in the Chicago metro area. We've had university shootings and Layne Bryant shootings and a whole rash of horrible murders of school kids. And yet none of that has freaked me out as much as a stupid truck smashing itself into the Chinatown El station. Because the thing is, I can't actually picture Northern Illinois University or the Layne Bryant in Tinley Park (and in fact I have no idea where Tinley Park is), but that El station is totally part of my mental landscape. And apparently, that makes mass death much freakier.


3. It appears that pretty much everyone in my family, or at least every female member of my family, is obsessed with the terrible teensploitation show Gossip Girl. How could it be that a show could have such terrible ratings, and yet everyone I know could watch it? It may be that the audience of Gossip Girl is comprised entirely off people whom I know personally. And that's kind of weird, because I don't actually know any high school-aged girls at the moment.

4. I'm trying very hard to get into Battlestar Gallactica at the moment. I really should love Battlestar Gallactica. It has all sorts of things that should make one love it: its very thoughtful and deep and I'm nearly certain that the people who make it share my basic politics. And yet I'm not sure that I do love it. I think I might prefer Gossip Girl I'm going to reserve judgment until I've finished the first season.