a surprise is coming

Knitting!! Just the word is so relaxing to me...

It would be great if I could write here about how wonderful the knitathon for victims of Hurricane Katrina was on Sunday at the Knit One store, but sadly I could not attend due to a serious amount of work that I needed to get done that day. How I would love to knit with some others, and soon!

I at least have been able to knit at all, albeit by myself. Most of my time has been spent on the Harry Potter bookscarf, which I work on mostly on the bus. This morning, before getting off the bus and running into my classmate Derek who was walking to where his fiance?/wife? had gotten into a car accident up the street (! - she's okay, although car is not), I finished the third (of five) set of stripes. I'm still not the world's best jogless jogger, nor am I especially skilled at counting to 16 (I have a row or two more than 16 between a couple stripe sets...), but at least the scarf is looking all right. I'm also encouraged that I am learning how to use the small yarn/thread and needles employed by this tiny project. When I first started, I thought the microscopic materials were most difficult to work with, but now it's not problem. Hooray for progress!

I was very happy to get some time to knit on Saturday afternoon. I put all my projects in a basket, took it down to my favorite chair in the living room and pulled out whatever suited my fancy at the moment. I worked a little bit on the Starry Night pullover and the bookscarf. OOH - and I also created a special surprise for some special people who shall remain nameless until they actually receive what I knit for them. Exciting (to me, at least)!

Other than that, my "knitting time" has mostly consisted of attempting to transform my hanks of Cotton Fleece into center-pull balls, which has taken on average of about 1.5 hours per hank. This is NOT encouraging. Well, it's not encouraging me to ball more hanks...but it IS encouraging me to buy a ball winder and swift... My birthday is right around the corner (October 12), so perhaps I'll see what that day brings me before rushing off to order. Besides, all my circular needles are in use at present, so I can't even cast on the skirt that goes with the Cotton Fleece (unless, of course, I buy more needles...).

Speaking of buying needles, I purchased some bamboo 4's from Target's dollar spot over the weekend. Kinda just wanted to see what the Target stuff is like, plus I tend to use 4's a lot (I actually need 4's for the skirt...but certainly not bamboo straights...). I used them to make the surprise. Fairly okay, although I'm no expert in needles.