stuff I should be doing

Don't even start.

I have been having too much fun reading other people's blogs to do anything on my own. I am so excited to be able to read French knitblogs, not that there's anything wrong with a steady diet of Harry Potter (_et le Prisonnier d'Azkaban_, at the moment). They use Elann and Ebay just like we do. Remarkable. My impression is that more interesting yarns are available in Europe now than there were a couple of years ago, as I recall from what the lovely English SheepThrillers wrote.

On Saturday, Sawadu2.blogspot.com and I rescued a 48" loom. It had been moved three times and never used. The owner did not succeed in advertising that she would sell it for $100 and portage away before the sale on the house closed. She called Sarah's place of work and offered to donate it. They collect looms. Sarah's blog tells it best ), but it involved a certain amount of heavy lifting, a LOT of snow, and driving something around a hundred miles (Henniker, Concord, Salisbury (get truck),Concord (get rest of loom), Canterbury (drop off loom), Salisbury (return truck, cup of tea. At LONG last), back to Henniker. I

I started what might turn out to be a TGV, a _Tricot de Grande Vitesse_, which is to say one you make in a hurry. I had several balls of what I think is Cascade in nice diminished-ego green, cheery gray, black, and red. I am double-stranding it and I hope 176 stitches around is enough. I made about 2" from the bottom and will go a bit farther and tape-measure it. It's cold here at night.

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day, so clear it was almost painful and so beautiful it was a cliché. There was frosting on the pine trees and brilliant light from dawn till about 2pm, when it clouded over. Sarah and I needed our morale raised, so we took a hint from TheWoolenRabbit.com and went to the sale at Patternworks. Center Harbor is about an hour and 15 minutes from Henniker. It is a very pretty touristy town on Lake Winnipesaukee. It has white buildings, white tarped-over sailboats, and these days also white snow-covered lawns and lake. The Patternworks knitting store and the Keepsake Quilting store (both owned by the same company) are right across the road from the lake in a decently designed little mall -- Patternworks is actually in an old house that they moved when the strip mall was built. Lots of colors. Keepsake is the best quilting store I have ever seen, even more cloth, I believe, than Fabric Place in Woburn. I behaved fairly well, since I gave up quilting a couple of years ago and gave away my stash. But, like, artistic flamingoes on a black background? Perfect for Grace and Dahlia. Kokopelli on dark blue? That tea cosy I have been going to make Bruce and Sue. A batik duckie for my daughter...

I actually behaved better in Patternworks, though I did get the Priscilla Gobson-Roberts sock book in paperback and some needles. Hardly any yarn. Really.