I'm Probably WAY too old for my vote to count, but . . .

I just listened to Nick Lachey's new song and I *love* it. Not too overproduced--not too underproduced. Clean and smooth and goes well soda pop. The kid has pipes! I admit, my first thought was, "Do ya think it was Papa Joe who prevented the kid from producing any music for the last three years?" I just think it's interesting that he produces such a nicely polished piece of pop a mere two months after being unceremoniously expelled from the Simpson clan (FWIW, and again, not like anyone cares, but since I'm offering opinions on pop gossip tonight--I also think it's a crying shame the degree to which Jessica has been WAY over "handled" by her "handlers.")

Now that I've cleared that up . . .

Chris is turning into an old man. Today I've listened to a rant about the decline of customer service, personal accountability, and the quality of DVD players. That's alright, at the rate my memory is going, pretty soon it will all sound new again. I always wondered how little old ladies tolerated the repeated tellings of their little old man's same 32 stories. Now I know--they either can't hear well enough to be bothered or they can't remember the other 4,392 times they heard the story. No wonder so many teenagers think their parents are dumb. Max is growing up watching his mother search for her car keys in a panic 7 to 10 times a WEEK.

Please direct your attention to the sidebar. We've updated our needle projects. I'll update the Lyra list later this weekend after I've downloaded some more music. I'm still looking for an mp3 recording of Baby Kangaroo.

But back to knitting. For the knitting olympics I'm making this sweater:


with this yarn: 2nd Time Cotton (Nantucket) from Knit One, Crochet Two


Technically the rules say I can't cast on until the night of the opening ceremonies, but I ignored that (i.e., cheated) and cast on anyway, since I figured with all the work I have to do, that I'd never have a snowball's chance of having anything to photograph by closing ceremonies if I didn't. (Which is probably what inspires actual athletes to cheat, too.) I'm glad I did because it soon became apparent that (a) I have enough yarn for two full sweaters and (b) if I can stay focused, I might finish them both by closing ceremonies. So now my goal is to finish the first sweater by opening ceremonies and to finish the 2nd by closing ceremonies. Since we don't have subscription TV, at least I won't be distracted by the actual olympics. (Although I am tempted to go out and buy some rabbit ears to see if I can get a signal.) So as far as the Knitting Olympics goes, only the second sweater counts. But if you're four and you live in my house, they're both crucial to sucess. Nobody wants to be the twin who "didn't get one."

Since it seemed I'd set myself a potentially reasonable goal, and what's life without some self-sabotage, I immediately went on to cast on a pair of socks from the book pictured in the sidebar. My only "complaint" with this book (because otherwise it's frightfully well thought out. The book has an interior spiral binding, a sturdy hard cover, big colorful pictures, clear directions, and a glossary.) is that the titles of the socks refer to the vintage pattern that the modern pattern was based on. So the French Children's sock is really a woman's lace-patterned sock for size 8-9 feet. There are a few like that. The bootkin sock really is for an infant though.

I've spent the last two days knitting gauge swatches for the socks. Maddening. I think I've mentioned before that I must be the most subconciously anxious knitter on the planet. I never, ever, ever make gauge with their suggested materials and needles. In fact, sometimes I can't make gauge at all because by the time I take their yarn and go up to the needle size I need in order to make their gauge--it just looks awful. I bought the size one dpn's they specified and still didn't quite make gauge on the size two's I just tried. I'm loathe to go up to a size three. It'll look rediculous, this little sock yarn on size three needles. I didn't return the size one needles. Quite a few patterns in this book call for size 000 needles and my 1's should come in handy then.