let's make a deal

I'm a sucker for a good deal. Some of you may remember my Knitting Without Tears purchase for $1.75 at the Friends of the Library book sale last summer. I think I did a jig heel-click when I found that morsel nestled amongst the other dust covered books in that 25-year old dank and mildewed box. I probably inhaled mold spores up the wazoo dusting that puppy off, but for $1.75??! Well, plague be damned! I also regularly test the bounds of E. coli and Listeria, buying reduced-price- about-to-expire beef and pork at the market. (But never, ever expired chicken. Campylobacter is horrific crap. Literally.) So far, we're all still kicking and we've certainly saved a bundle. But in terms of dining savings, you just can't beat Chinatown. And as blog luck would have it, my dad was in town this past week for work meetings. Oh yes, my dad and Chinatown!

Of course, my dad couldn't leave Honolulu without dining on his favorite Chinatown dim sum for breakfast. The poor waitress had barely managed to wheel the dim sum cart to our table before my dad anxiously blurted out, "Chicken feet, please!" I could barely repress the giggle as my jasmine tea threatened to spray out of my nose. Watching him contentedly gnaw on the talon webbing did my heart good. After breakfast, we took a stroll through town and you should've seen the way my dad's eyes positively lit up when he saw the "Live Animals" sign in the butcher's lane. The man could barely contain his glee as he pushed his way through the crowd. I think he was a little disappointed to find that there were only frogs and lobsters in the macabre aquarium of sorts. I'm honestly scared to know what he had hoped to see, but he took consolation in a couple of splayed pig carcasses and duck heads. Yeah, my dad's wired a little different than most.

So as I was saying, I love a good deal. And what could be better than a 4 for 1 KAL deal?? Well, that's what this little pair of footlets in Knit Picks Sock Garden Geranium is giving me! This humble 4 day knit counts toward the Sock-a-Month KAL, Count Your Socks KAL (bringing my total to a whopping 2!), It's NOT a Gift KAL (because they're definitely for me, me, selfish me!) and What's Your Skein KAL, since they were knit out of less than one skein of yarn (What did I say about good deals?)! I adore these socks! I've barely taken them off since casting-off a few days ago. And the whole time I was working on the second sock, I wore the first one by itself, a la Diddle Diddle Dumpling. This was my first (successful) toe-up knit, and my first short row heel and toe. I also gained confidence with provisional cast-on and I have to say....I think I may be a toe-up convert! At least for stockinette or self-patterning yarn. I love how no pattern is necessary with toe-up, once you understand the general principles and construction. Since I vowed that 2006 would be the year of rut-upheaval, I think I'd like to up the ante and try 2 circs or even Magic Loop toe-up for my next self-patterning sock. (But don't anybody call me out on that one!)

One of my other knitterly resolutions for 2006 was to stop being such a wuss and tackle more challenging knits. On that note, I dragged out ye ole Kiri. Some of you may recall how I got dumped by Kiri last fall. I refuse to be dumped by my knitting anymore! It's far too humiliating to get rejected by a pile of yarn. Acting desperate by constantly frogging and crying, however, is just as humiliating, so I'm playing it cool this time around, using lifelines and stitch markers to keep Kiri in line. With our tenuous past, I'm scared to jinx myself, but I think we may have a future together. Right now, I'm 6 pattern repeats into the 2nd chart (about double what the picture shows), which puts me at almost a third of the way through the shawl. I know the variegated Knit Picks Shimmer was not the best choice for this lace, but this is more of a 'process knit' to help me overcome my fear of lace. I'm using Clover Size 7 circs, but I'm definitely investing in Addi Naturas if lace remains in my future...that snaggy join with laceweight yarn is driving me bonkers! I'm resolute about not posting again until I'm done with the pattern repeats for Chart 2. I'm estimating that should take me somewhere near a week, but if you don't hear from me in 8-9 days, someone send in the Search and Rescue Squad!
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I was tagged with two memes by Jennifer and Sonya- thanks, girls! I'll do one now and the other on my next post, assuming I make it out of Kiri alive. ;-) I was asked to list 5 quirky habits about myself....hmmmm....things you wish you never knew....

1) I don't do runny eggs. Ix-nay on the sunnyside-up, over-easy and poached. Major double blech on those nasty soft-boiled eggs that they present all genteel-like in those china egg-cups. Chicken periods are not meant to be eaten runny!! Once that yellow goop touches my pancakes or french toast, it's game over. Scrambled HARD, please. The rubber-ier and browner the better.
2) I can't sleep facing the open end of my pillowcase. I need to be facing the enclosed end. Or something very bad will happen.
3) When washing my face, I need to splash an odd number of times, never even. Or something very bad will happen.
4) One of my guiltiest pleasures is watching really bad infommercials late at night. The E-zee Rotisserie, The Pasta Maker and The Food Dehydrator- all hail Ron Popeil!!
5) When riding in an elevator, I will shove little old ladies over to make sure I stand in the corner of the elevator. Because, you know, if the elevator should ever start free-falling 45 floors (seriously, am I the only one who thinks about these things??!), the corner is clearly the safe spot to be.

Let's see, who to tag....if you're willing to bare all, Laura, Olga, Lolly, Myra and Cathy, you're it!