I know I'm tired when I can't cast on a circular needle and join it without twisting it. Never start a hat at bedtime.

I was watching Law and Order reruns on TNT last night (because current network programming has degenerated into totally unwatchable mindless crap IMHO, and that ain't just the PMS talking) and felting the second Booga Bag (love the colors - pics to follow) and still feeling disgusted about the Einstein, so to console myself, I grabbed a skein of Cascade 220 and cast on for a really simple ribbed hat. Cast on, join. Done it a million times. Okay, not a million, but many many many times. Never have a problem with twisting stitches. Managed to twist it last night. Twice. It was time to put the knitting down and go to sleep.

The good news is that I remember now how much I adore Cascade 220 - after handling the Lopi and even the Noro, it feels like velvet in my hands. So does the Cashmerino I'm using for Girl's Bardot sweater. For me it's all about how a yarn feels - I don't care if it's made out of petroleum by-products (not that Cascade is, I'm just saying) if it feels good on the skin, and by the same token, I don't care if it's handspun by barefoot nature girls from organically-raised sheep who listen to classical music and meditate and get their little hooves massaged regularly, it can still be crap. If it feels coarse, I don't want it near my body. I am not impressed by the mere words "natural fiber," or "organic" or whatever, I want to see it in action. If I could bring myself to spend the money, and I can't, I would make the Einstein from Touch Me - mostly rayon microfiber, but talk about luxuriously soft and deliciously drapey!

Anyway, the point of this irritated, PMS-driven ranting is that I realized last night that my knitting energies have been channeled ineffectively, and I need to focus on making things I really enjoy making. I've ranted it before, but I do not knit for a challenge, I don't knit to impress other people, I don't gain a sense of identity from my knitting - I just like to do it, it should be fun, relaxing and pleasant. When a project gets on my nerves, it needs to die. Lopi...must...die....

Getting ready to move the office, sorting and cleaning and throwing away - not many billable hours will be generated this week, but it's very satisfying to bring order from chaos. And I earned my professional keep this week anyway - documents I'd subpoenaed at the last minute, that I had to coax and wheedle and beg the receiver of the subpoena to please expedite, were a major factor in settling a big claim. This was good.

Girlchild is back "up North" freezing her butt off. She'll be down here a lot in December (hooray hooray) - next weekend we are getting together with some cousins we haven't seen in many years (the kids have never met one of them, he's been teaching in the Ukraine or someplace) then there's my company Christmas party, then Christmas itself. The calendar is very full this month. Boy and I and his beat-up pickup truck will go to the high school tree sale and get a tree one evening this week, if I can find the energy after playing scullery maid at the office all day to rearrange the living room to make room for it.

Hopefully the decoration unpacking will unearth the Advent wreath and, with it, I hope, candles bigger than stubs - I tried to buy fresh candles at our church store after Mass this weekend, but Sister was stampeded by wreath-buyers and the candles sold out by 10 a.m. It was nice to see a (polite, chatty) run on Advent wreaths and candles instead of a stampede for a DVD player at Wal-Mart.