this life one leaf

The ashes of the Central Park Hoodie continue to reassemble themselves. I'm finished with the body up to the armscyes (ahh, stockinette in the round, so boring, so restful) and am now trying to decide what I want to do with the sleeves. I've decided on this embossed twining vine leaf lace from Vogue Knitting. My first swatch attempt was in the round, based on instructions for knitting flat. I tried to mentally switch those odd-row k's to p's and vice versa, but damn, that's a lot to keep straight while Sayid's running around in a wifebeater, flexing and stuff. So I knit a flat swatch first, then once I'd decided I liked the results, I typed out an in-the-round version of the lace pattern. This is really my first lace. Exciting!

Also exciting? Hanging around at home on your day off because you've got a gash in the sidewall of your tire, and you've ordered new tires (online, that is, because it's so much better for the blood pressure than talking to car-parts salesguys--I may be a woman, but I know which tires I want, thanks) but they haven't arrived yet. At least I'll make some headway on the first sleeve. It's perfect porch-sitting, beer-drinking weather.

I'm a skullcatcher, actually

Only in New Mexico can you go shopping for a birthday present for your mom and find an assortment of animal skulls at reasonable prices. I'm not against hunting, being from Pennsylvania which has a massive deer overpopulation problem and all, but that's because the people I know who hunt deer eat deer. Venison sausage is a staple of the PA church brunch. But I can't imagine being a coyote trophy-skull hunter. (I texted my mom and asked if she wanted a coyote or an otter or maybe just a tiny weasel, but she seemed sort of... unexcited about the prospect.)



So I've given up on the Central Park Hoodie. I hate seams, and I was just too frustrated to try to fix the disaster I created when I snipped the wrong yarn trying to undo the bad shoulder seam in poor lighting. So it's becoming an in-the-round bottom-up raglan based on ye olde favorite, the Hourglass Sweater; the body is going to plain but I want to do either a lace panel or a cable panel on the sleeves, which I'm planning to make 3/4 length. I'm calling it the phoenix sweater, because I'm obvious like that. I'm already nearly through the body up to the armscyes because I've been Netflixing my way through Lost: Season 1. I didn't start watching it when it debuted in my usual, "oh God, that's like, so overhyped" fashion, but having seen a few episodes of season 3, I am now a) crazy to know what the hell's going on (not that I'll find much enlightment from watching back seasons, my sister tells me) and b) totally hot for Naveen Andrews, and stockinette in the round is the perfect accompaniment to drooling.