Next Up On the Needles...

With last week's storming, Chicago saw the temperatures drop from an abnormal high in the upper 60s to lower 70s to it's much more normal late October temperatures. Saturday night I wenched around the apartment, wondering why our radiator heat wasn't percolating along. I know it's been turned on for the season, it has kicked in before. Finally, sometime after 2 a.m., we got steaming clicks and rattles and the apartment warmed up.

It's been a quiet weekend at Chez Hedgehog. The Philosopher, just finally at about 80% after a nasty bout of food poisoning, is presently laid low by something new gastrointestinal. A couple of hours ago he finally fell asleep for longer than 20-30 minutes, so I think we've come over the worst of it. Dinner has not revisited either (chicken and rice soup and a loaf of sourdough bread, thank you Campbell's for making this evening easy), which is an even better sign. I'm still chomping my way through the sourdough, one slice has peanut butter, one slice has honey.

I love good bread. Chewy dense slices slathered in peanut butter, jam, honey, Nutella, cheese, it's all very appealing. I haven't made bread in a long time, though once upon a time I think I was fairly successful with yeast breads. And with a really good bakery down the street, it's always tempting to race home and catch a roll or loaf before they close up shop.

I was supposed to go wool shopping today. It was the last day of Vogue Knitting Live and I thought I might even be able to stalk Franklin as I raided the marketplace and spent too much money. The Philosopher's illness meant I got no further than the grocery (four blocks). I was faced with a minor dilemma though: I'm on my last "current" pair of socks.

It's uncommon, especially after the disaster of three pairs of size 0 (2mm) needle socks simultaneously, that I don't have at least two pair of socks on the needles and going. I've been working through sock yarn that I wound up prior to the move in July, mostly because there hasn't been anywhere to set up my swift and ball winder. But I've gone through most of that yarn.

So I faced the stash--that's right, I still owe you a picture of the newly sorted stash on it's shelves:



Lighter weights are towards the top, a rather ridiculous amount of yarn in sweater quantities towards the bottom, and the cotton cones on the top. Why I still have that much cotton baffles me, it seems like I keep knitting through it. AudioGirl has hinted that another large mat would be welcome and I think we need one in the kitchen as well.

I went for two bins that had been identified as holding "next project" yarn, mostly sock weight but also some worsted and some seriously old DK that's I've been considering for a baby project. I dug the swift out of the office and cleared off the dining room table.

Here are most of the winding victims of the evening (except the far left skein, that one got squeezed and put away for a couple more weeks).



These will probably become tediously familiar in the coming weeks as they turn into three pair of socks and a scarf. The Lorna's Laces Worsted will probably become a hat but I thought it best to leave it in it's skein for now.  I can hear it sighing in the stash..."So close."

An hour and change of winding later, all my project bags are full and I'm once more prepared for commuting and meeting knitting.  And I didn't spend any money on yarn (today).