Yesterday turned out to be pretty darned good here in Harlotville. Our daughters brought home report cards that made me a satisfied and delighted mother, (although I haven’t seen the teenagers yet…)We went for a bike ride to buy beautiful fresh fruits and veggies (and wine) in the Village, then returned home, moments before the rain. I love getting home minutes before the rain, I mean we were outside for over an hour. It could have rained on us, but the planet chose not to. I feel respected. Then it rained enough that for sure I’m getting out of dragging the hose around the yard to water the garden. Today I am cherished by the earth. (This is what you get for having a godless heathen union anniversary on the solstice, and knitting with glorious orange yarn, Co-operation)
While I was feeling pretty good about getting to skip the bi-weekly rousing game of “hose wrestling”, my brother called (I swear he was giddy. Absolutely giddy) to tell me that he had sold his house. He and my darling and lucky sister in law sold the thing for an obscene amount of money and it was only on the market for three hours. Perfect. (This is especially good since the preparations for putting the house on the market and dealing with “open houses” and stuff was driving him so crazy that he was going to make us all nuts)
Joe called to tell me that due to a string of bizarre and unlikely events, he had gotten some crazy expensive piece of super cool recording equipment practically free, and then said he was coming home early because it was our anniversary. (Aw…he remembered. This is especially significant. Joe doesn’t remember squat. Last year I found out what he was doing about my birthday. He knows that my birthday is “when it’s warm” so as soon as it starts to get warm , he waits until one evening when I’m asleep and then checks my drivers license. Touching, isn’t it?)
Dinner was lovely, the children polite. The wine good and the knitting? Well let me tell you. That Amy is a smart girl.

Amy said that I should try a blunter needle with the splitty yarn.
I’ve used Microspun, and can testify that I had better results with it by trying out different needles. Blunter needles seem to handle splitty yarns better by sliding past each individual strand instead of gouging right into the middle like pointy needles do.
This was the exact opposite of my plan. I had this theory that a really sharp needle would…well I don’t know. Frighten the stitches? Scoop them up? I’ve got a preference for sharp needles and I always think that if something isn’t going well it’s because my needles aren’t sharp enough. I went and got a blunter circular and lo and behold, what Amy says is completely true. All hail the mighty Amy….blog saviour for the day.
(psst…Amy…got any ideas about speeding up the laundry?)
And Rams? The blasphemy of circulars, (though I agree with all the points made by Rana (including irrational predjudice) is because I knit like this:
My right needle is tucked under my arm and my right hand pivots, throwing the yarn without holding the needle. It’s a really, really fast way to knit.
This can’t work with a circular.
Rams also asks why, since I wanted more modesty with the tank, I’m not knitting it in the round. Executive decision. It turns out that the tank isn’t sewn up at all in the front, the ribbon is just threaded through the lace pattern. Seemed to me that I could just thread it through a little lower, depending the modesty of the moment. This was of course before it dawned on me that this means that all that stands between me and public nudity is one ribbon. Normally, this wouldn’t be that high risk, but I live with Joe. There’s no way he’s not going to spend the whole summer pulling that ribbon. It’s going to be beyond his ability to control himself, so I may just add a stitch or two. In any case i thought that knitting it back and forth would give me choices.
All in all, it was a very good day. So good in fact, that Joe and I bought a lottery ticket. Hey, we’re on a roll.