The Saga of the Scarf

I'm toiling away on my dad's scarf. This week I open three days in a row - today, tomorrow and Friday - which for those not familiar with coffee shop hours means I get up before the sun, at a time commonly known as the Ass-Crack of Pre-Dawn. It also means I have to head to bed around 9pm. Now, way back in my pre-coffeeshop days 9pm was when the evening was just gettin' started, but nowadays it's when I begin to yawn slightly. I'm definitely blaming the coffeeshop and not my ever-increasing desire to just stay home with needles and yarn, listening to audiobooks/podcasts. Lucas once asked me sweetly to not turn thirty-eight before my time, and the request has stuck. I really must try to get out more.

But back to the scarf! I did The Halfway Test today - the test where I hold the needle under my chin and drape the scarf around my neck to see where it falls - and it passed! Just barely, but it passed which is a huge relief because it's all downhill from here! At least this time around, I'm comfortable about the thing. The times before, it itched me wrong; the needles were too big, the pattern too wide, the edges too sloppy and of course, the yarn strangely striped. This time, although one edge is looser than the other, it's relatively well in line. Which is also good, because spring has sprung here in California, and I am dreaming of socks. Yes, socks.

Dear god, I never thought I would want to knit socks when Steve Madden has done such a phenomenal job. I mean, really - why mess with the man's work? But I do want to knit socks, and for this I again blame the afore-mentioned Wendy. And sock pr0n, whose web mistress I have a sneaking suspicion lives sooooomewhere near me in the Bay. Did you SEE her Space Invaders socks on Knitty? The 80's child in me is jumping for joy and whining to make them in knee-highs right now, but my more adult mental voice is chiding the child, saying it's too big a project for her Very First Socks, and that she should perhaps try something ever-so-slightly less difficult, having not only never knitted socks but also never tried stranded work or knit with double-pointed needles or for that matter successfully used a chart, and all those things aside, would she ever really wear them? No, I didn't think so. But I could show them off, and get mad cred with my nerdy friends, yo. Which is really what counts, right?!? Crap. I think I'm going to learn to knit socks, and I think my mother has taken over a part of my brain. Juuuust great. I also have a hankering for this yarn from Pickupsticks. I crack myself up.

Darcy gives the socks two paws up. SETI left a message on my cell phone today, but I don't think I'll call them back quite yet. The kitty paws are too cute to put behind one-way glass, don't you think?