my need to possess you has consumed my soul my life is trembling i have no control

...and now I won't be able to sleep because the only song that Animotion ever did will be running through my mind. Me and my bright ideas. Admit it, you have the song "Obsession" stuck in your head now, too, don't you? Here's the video, for those of you who remember it, or just want to watch random Spartan warriors and Cleopatra lounging by the pool (it's amusing even with the sound off).I think my brother really dug this video. We had a band so he could wear these spandex tiger striped gold and black lamé pants he got and play his guitar, and I played keyboards and sang backup because "that's what girls did" (yeah, I know, it's amazing he lived and all), and his friends and all would come over and we all got dressed up in cool-looking clothes and stood around in our driveway with our instruments looking totally awesome and recreated the best videos of the time. And our drummer is now a drummer for a famous Grammy-award winning Top 40 rock band and this amuses me to no end, because, you know, we, well, sucked ass.

Oh, so my obsession. Yeah. It's this sweater. I finished knitting the cardigan for Bill right about when he and I had a falling out and he stopped speaking to me. It's the Boyfriend curse, only who knew it applied to gay boyfriends as well? So it's blocking but it's causing a mental block in me for seaming it, and I needed to start something and the llama needed to be swatched so I started the Vee sweater out of Karabella Merino Superwash, late last Wednesday night, and let's see how far I've progressed:Yeah, the back done, a sleeve done, and halfway up the front. And a thousand episodes of Law & Order: Various Incarnations. This is the fastest sweater I've ever made for an adult, and it's the 46" size. I mean, really. Zoom, zoom.

worked hard all my lifetime no help from my friends so lord won't you buy me a mercedes benz

It's been hard, trying to get my health better, going through a divorce, having some friends and family members reject me, starting a new job after almost six years at the same federal government agency, and moving to a new city all at the same time. That whole thing about not changing your entire life all at once? Yeah. Sometimes, you should. But fallout is inevitable and I suppose I've been...introspective.

So it was nice to come home tonight to a package from my fairy godmother, who turned out to be Jennifer. Jennifer is also about to change jobs, and she lives in Michigan, in a city I used to work in, back when I was in graduate school, so I feel kind of warm and fuzzy even though we've never really "met."

Anyhoo, in my package was a wonderful quilted bag that I'm sure she made herself, although it looks professionally made, because she's quite the quilter (alliteration is my friend) with candy and sweets all over it (which is great since I can't eat them so much with some of my illness precluding it nowadays but they're great to look at and think about eating in extreme moderation and all)and inside the bag were three lovely things of yarn, all in or containing my favorite color, acidy green, aka "Jess green," and for all of which I already have projects planned, a great Frankenstein hand towel that's already in my bathroom, pixie sticks, Jelly Bellys, bath gel, lotion, an emory board from an LYS (? - although useful) and a case with makeup brushes, because she somehow knew that aside from yarn, I spend all of my money on makeup.Thank you so much, Jennifer! This really perked me up. I can't wait to knit with the yarns, none of which I've ever used before. I'm so excited! (Although I don't have, you know, a decent camera, or adequate lighting in my abode, so sorry I can't take better pictures.)

me and my llama me and my llama we're going to the dentist today

I finished the second sleeve of the sweater. Tomorrow I'll start blocking it.

For my next trick, I give you this.I know. It's a rare and magical creature, the gauge swatch. And while I like to live by the philosophy that gauge swatching is for pussies, in this case, it's good I did, because boy howdy was that gauge off, and I am NEVER off on gauge, but it's a thinner yarn than is used in the pattern I'm making, which is why I swatched. Which means I got gauge on a 15 for a yarn where the recommended needle is an 11, and the pattern calls for a 13. The resulting fabric is far looser and drapier than I want it to be. Do I try again on the 13? (I can't just go up a size, because I'm making the largest size, which should fit me exactly, and I'm not sure the math will work if I add stitches.)

The yarn I'm trying to use is the new Karabella La Llama, which is, amazingly enough, 100% dehaired llama. I know you couldn't have guessed that based on the name or anything.

Which brings me to my last point. Every time I sing the "me and my llama" song from Sesame Street quote in today's post title, people say I'm crazy and that they never saw that song. Well, for you naysayers, here you go. Begging the question, of course, of who has a pet llama in the middle of New York?

i've got one hand in my pocket and the other one is flicking a cigarette

Here's the Fetching in question from the last post, done in the new Karabella Superwash Merino, which is really nice, by the way, and comes in really pretty colors.I want to get more at Stitch DC and use the leftovers to make a randomly striped hat. I was inspired by a dumb teen girl movie.

Look, Ma, I knit the right front, too!But props go to Amber for forcing me to stay on track and finish the front when I bugged her while she was working at Stitch DC on Saturday, and THEN she subtly encouraged me to cast on for the second sleeve, aka the last thing to knit, so I did, and by Sunday night I had several inches of the second sleeve done while watching all of season 3 of The Closer that I had recorded in August and not watched at all.and now I'm actually close to being done with the sleeve.

I'm not sure what I'll do when I no longer have this sweater to knit.

but there's something wrong when you just feel like you're the hardest little button to button

Thank you all, Not Jess is allowing me to blog again.

See what my Fairy Godmother sent me?She said it was a clue. I just like the buttons.

So Crazy Lady. In April I was wearing some pair of fingerless mitts I made myself and she indicated somehow the she wanted a pair, and it was her birthday this week and she's in Virginia making my life crazier this week, so I am making her Fetching. Almost done. She sees the finished one.

"I thought fingerless gloves were supposed to have fingers, at least. I don't understand how anyone can wear these and not have their fingers get cold. I want a pair of fingerless gloves with actual fingers."

*sigh*