No Bleeding Necessary

What you see here is a pile of good ol’ ribby cardi pieces. That’s right. I finished the sleeves last night. I’m going to block over night tonight. I haven’t even ordered a zipper yet (looks like zipperstop.com is the place to go…) and I still have to decide what kind of neck I want, but I’m almost there. The bulk of the knitting is finished. I can’t wait to put it together.

I also managed to put together our taxes this weekend. It wasn’t as bad as I thought and resulted in only one screaming match. 😉 We’re getting a nice refund. From now on I will be referring to money as yarn. Like “How much yarn are you getting back from Uncle Sam?” “Skeins and Skeins!” There may be a laptop in there too.

It wasn’t as exciting as some weekend plans, but I feel like I got a lot accomplished. Which is important because my sister is about a centimeter dilated as we speak – which for those in the know means should could go another three weeks or in the next hour. My brother-in-law and I are both getting jumpy – whenever the phone rings and it’s Jolie I’m like WHAT’S UP? Keep your fingers crossed for another couple weeks. Her due date is April 2nd and even though she’s done with being pregnant, we’d both like a little more time – I for one have a lot to do.

Here’s a picture of the wonderful surprise waiting for me when I got home:

It’s Spirit Trail Fiberworks 100% Superwash Merino Sock Yarn in colorway 38-05-02-03 from the fantabulous Annie! Thank you, again! It was a great surprise!

Also waiting for me was a thin package from WEBS with some eagerly awaited patterns:

I want to make the Seeded Cable Cardigan from Farm with my Jo Sharp Stash – either the Desert Garden or the Silkroad Aran DK Tweed (or maybe both if I like the pattern.) I think I’ll be swatching (starting a sleeve) very soon. I’m pretty sure I’ll be making the Lettuce Edged Pullover from Country Road too. I’ll be using Artyarns Supermerino for that for sure!

In the airport, leaving Las Vegas, right after I pulled the handle for the last time, I bought these:

I bought the earrings for the sole purpose of making stitch markers! Aren’t they cute? Hopefully they’ll bring me good luck. And the dice – well – a girl can’t ever have enough dice!

I updated my Arizona blog entry with pictures. Check it out if you’d like. I wasn’t completely thrilled with the pictures, but some of them I like. It was a good vacation, but alas feels so far away already.

One last thing. I find it amazing that the Republican party, the party that was all about keeping the government small and out of our lives when I was growing up, now feels that it can step in between a husband and wife AND THE COURTS. The Terry Schiavo case has me running scared. If anything good has come out of it, it’s that George and I have had some serious talks about what we’d want in a situation like this. I hope we’ll be visiting a lawyer soon. The hypocrisy of Congress has reached hyberbolic levels. They won’t allow gays to marry – god forbid we corrupt the sanctity of marriage – but they have no qualms stepping in to reverse a decision that a husband, her legal next of kin, has made for his wife. The age of Big Brother is upon us. I find the political maneuvering despicable and the whole situation so overwhelmingly sad for everyone involved.