Big Brother redux

I forgot to mention yesterday that I added another site stats monitoring system to my blog: SiteMeter. The stats you get are less detailed than StatCounter, but the advantage I do get is that I'm not limited to a log of just the last 100 users. So I figured, what the hey, I'll use both.

My mother told me last night that I should be keeping track of what I spend on all this knitting I do. She did not, however, come up with a satisfactory answer as to why I should be doing this. My mother, I should point out, seems to constantly be nervous that my husband and I spend too much. She even complains every Christmas that we shouldn't be giving so many gifts, regardless of my assurances that we have a non-extravagant, set-in-stone Christmas budget which does not affect our ability to pay for food, shelter, clothing, or DD's education savings. :) Of course she is more nervous now that we are a single-income household, but still - the constant lack of confidence in my money-management skills is starting to get wearing. One of these days I'm going to sit her down with our anal retentive budget spreadsheet as proof that I know what I'm doing.

Sorry, I guess that was quite rant-like. My mom is an awesome, awesome lady, but every now and then...well, I guess most people are like that with their parents. Naturally, my feathers ruffle more when the value of my knitting is called into question - them's fighting words! :)

NEW - Magic Carpet sweater for DD

Haven't I already got enough projects on my plate, you ask? Why yes, yes I do. I freely admit this. However, I also freely admit that I am undaunted by this volume of projects, and that this volume has no restraining effect whatsoever on my ability to be inspired to do more. So nyah. "Magic Carpet" is a sweater pattern which appears in Alice and Jade Starmore's The Children's Collection book. It is an absolutely gorgeous pattern - it's got animals on it, plus some funky designs on the borders, all in an Africany/Middle-Easterny style, and I want to make it for my kid. However, there's no hurry. I actually prefer the pattern as written for the 4-5 year or 6-7 year sizes, so this will probably be a project for 2007 or later. (Yes, I do plan that far ahead. Yes, I am that anal. Yes, the fact that I have a detailed budget spreadsheet should have given that away.)

Carnival Coat for DD

I finally went into the pattern book and took note of what the cardigan pattern is actually called: "Carnival Coat". Yesterday I got a lot of work done on this. The collar is now finished and a fair bit of work has been done on the body:

I avoided folding the collar over for this photo so as not to obscure how much work I've done on the body. This pattern is pretty unexciting, but it does have a few good things going for it. Firstly, as I mentioned yesterday, it is interesting to be knitting from the top down. And secondly, the yarn really is lovely. It feels lovely and it looks lovely - I'm pretty jazzed on all the tweediness.

United Way cardigan for Jack Rosatelli

Wove in more ends this morning in the car. I'm starting to see a distinct improvement in the tangle on the inside of the cardigan.

Spanish Knight for Mom

Took this with me to work today, and got a few more rows done on my subway ride. The cables are now discernable and it's looking very cool indeed.

Persian Tiles afghan for master bedroom

I've been considering axing this project lately. Now that we have a comforter on our bed, DH is no longer complaining about how cold he is at night (in fact, quite the opposite - he regularly throws off the bedspread on his half to avoid sweating buckets). So we no longer really need an afghan. I'm a bit reluctant to frog this because I've spent so much time on it already, and it is a very kickass pattern. However, it would free me of some WIP guilt, and would let me do my Persian tiles shawl project for my grandma without feeling, "Oh lord, not this pattern again, will it ever end?" :) It will probably take me a few weeks to work up the courage to really be okay with cancelling this project. I suspect that my husband, on the other hand, will never let me hear the end of it.

Patons sweater for Jack Rosatelli

I brought this to work yesterday along with a gift bag and some tissue paper. I wrapped it and put it on his desk next to the MAMMOTH gift basket that our department bought for him. So it is now officially "given" and off my plate. Hooray!