Stream of consciousness posting ahead....

I'm going to need a lot more boxes. I've filled up five boxes of "giveaway" kitchenware (but this did include going into the overflow stashed in the big hall closet) and I still have to pack up the stuff I'm keeping and move it out of harm's way. (It's a beer box - yeah, the guys at the Goodwill pickup station are sure I'm a lush by now, but those 20 bottle boxes with the nice handles are the mover's best friend. They carry a lot of weight (hello, full glass bottles) and they have handles so they are very easy to move. I stockpile them for times like this. I told you, this family knows how to move.) I can't believe I own this much kitchen crap. It's sort of obscene. Boy and my friend L get to weed through it before Goodwill gets the rest to recycle through society.

[Note to self: I need to ask Boy to save beer boxes for me. I'm out, and I'm off even low carb 95 calorie "girl beer" until this diet plateau breaks.]

Greta - I'm thinking of crocheting a Homespun jacket off the Lion Brand patterns site - it's Einstein-ish in its mindlessness, but I think it'll show off the stripe effects even better than Einstein. I still want to make an Einstein, but I want to use Lamb's Pride Bulky (for those really cold Florida dog-walk mornings).

Ugly crocheted bucket bag is almost done and ready for felting. It's a butt-ugly colorway of an otherwise nice yarn. Plymouth Charisma, which is Plymouth's name for some New Zealand yarn, the name of which escapes me. Nice yarn, a bit fuzzy for felt for my taste, but I used it as an accent color in a number of felted bags with great results. I've never done a whole bag from it because it's so hairy, but I'm just experimenting with bag shapes. Just wait, this will turn out to be a bag I love. It's often that way - I'll hate it while making it and it hits water and the felting magic takes place, and suddenly the sad little runt is the pick of the litter. Though this will take a Felting Miracle, I think. The colors are dull and muddy - blues and purples, but the blues have a gray undertone and the purples a brownish cast, and they don't work well together. It's just icky. We'll see what we get when it takes the Magic Kenmore Ride.

I've been crocheting more than knitting (I hope this doesn't get me thrown off the knitting blog ring). I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it. But the next thing I start will be a Trinity Stitch Shawl in purple Cotton Fleece. I'm intrigued by the pattern and the idea of a purple shawl, it's flashy enough to really work with my usual wardrobe of black and neutral and denim.

Segue to my clothing crisis - okay, I'm just asking here: Who the hell wears those ugly cropped pants with freaking palm trees all over them? Or flowered ugly cropped pants? Or any of the bizarre craptastic fashions we have been blessed with this season? Boxy, loud, ill-fitting, you name it, it's everywhere. Where are we supposed to wear these things? Even in a casual office that's totally inappropriate - it's like the work wardrobe was totally thrown aside by all the buyers this year, in favor of whatever the hell is the theme of the year - Garden Party from Hell? We're all digging in our closets to get dressed for work. One of the secretaries in the office was wearing the best pair of capri pants ever on Casual Friday - they were trim, fitted, the right length (just covering the kneecap with a little vent) and neutral tan. I tackled her to ask where she got them, and she said she'd had them a long time and didn't remember where they came from, but she's a big discount store shopper so she suspected she found them at Ross. We did a brief duet rant about the shitty clothes rampant this season. I suspect that if, for some inexplicable reason, you really want a pair of baggy-legged pseudo-carpris in fuschia floral or with a palm tree print, you should hit the mall around mid-June, when the clearance racks will be stuffed with them. Because when I see people in my building, or at the supermarket, or church, or anywhere, we're all still wearing black and tan and white and grownup dresses and suits. From last year, mostly, and we're sick of it. Thank you.

I'm praying for a backlash to grownup woman clothes. We aren't all on vacation.