Sweater Anxiety

I have sweater anxiety.  I know the pattern I want to knit (Girl Friday from Knitty, Fall 2009).  I have the yarn sitting in the office / disaster area (Paton's Classic Wool in Cognac Heather).  I just can't seem to pick up and cast on, though.  This would be my first sweater for myself, and I seem to be afraid of it.  I swatched the lace pattern a few months ago, and have no idea what needle size I used at the time, so that irritation with myself for not taking proper notes and wasting time is part of the finger-dragging, I think.  I also am afraid of my own ability to create something that actually fits me.

...I started the draft of this post a few days ago (Before Stitches West!) and that same night, I finally managed to haul out needles and wool and get a new swatch cast on.  Today I finished and blocked the swatch, so I'll take some final measurements (and hopefully edit this post to include a picture)  tomorrow.  It looks like the 9's I used today were a touch large, but I don't actually have size 8 tips in wood, so I'll spend some time negotiating with myself about the merits of doing a little extra math vs. ordering size 8 tips, having to wait for them to arrive, and then swatching again.

What do you think I'll decide?

Edited to add this picture of my swatch, now that it's been washed, blocked, and dried.  The color is a bit washed out in this photo, but the texture shows up pretty well. 

TGIF

The end of a long rainy week.  Spaghetti for dinner.  A glass of wine. 

Now, if only the living room would pick itself up.

Pardon Me, But Did You Know That You Have A Flower Stuck In Your Teeth?

Alrighty, here's a picture D took this morning.  I had just gotten out of the shower and went to see what he and the girls were doing.  The girls both really, really wanted to show me their flowers.

Just Checking In

Wow, more than a week has already slipped by.  I knew this would be my weak point as an erstwhile blogger.

I suppose it says something that I've made the time to figure out how to get my knit meter on here, but haven't actually tried uploading a picture yet.  I've been knitting a lot of cotton dishcloths this week.  Totally mindless.  I got the yarn on sale at Michael's a couple weeks ago, and I now I wish I'd gotten more, the rate I'm blowing through it.  I told D last night that it was "preemptive mood adjustment".  Between that and the wine, I survived a week of toddler mayhem, anyway.

I'll work on the photo thing later, I guess!

There were some good things about the week:  A wonderful morning at Ponderosa Park, where the girls tackled all sorts of new and interesting playground climbing structures, and a tour of one of the Santa Clara fire stations on Friday afternoon.

Today's Unexpected Awesome

...5 bagpipers, all wearing different kilts, tuning their instruments and warming up in the parking garage as the girls and I walked back to the car this afternoon.

The First Post

I'm feeling a distinct lack of clever this afternoon, but I am going to proceed anyway.  I do not know what this blog is or will become.  There is so much potential it's hard to even get started.  I suspect that you will eventually get to hear about what we're cooking and eating, what I'm reading, where we've been, what I'm listening to, some of my more random reactions to things I've encountered on the web and in "real life", what I'm knitting / crocheting / stitching, and the obligatory cute kid stuff.

Be warned:  I am hopelessly addicted to exclamation points and smilies when I type.  I will do my best to avoid inflicting them on you.  I am also just a smidgen verbose.

I will be back soon with a real introduction, but for now I'm off to play with blog widgets and gewgaws.