Oh, I forgot to tell the story of petitioning St. Anthony to find my double points. Damn, that guy works fast. I'm just tickled. I made my request and went to Mass and then to coffee, and when I came home I glanced down the hallway (I don't know why.) Boris was in Girlchild's old room, looking quite guilty about something. I went to investigate, and he had tipped over a woven box I hadn't thought to open, but which, I now recall, was sitting in my bedroom before my last rearranging binge. I swear to you, I went into that room and checked every possible knitting stuff box in it - except, obviously, that one.

So Boris, who never bothers with anything in that room, where those boxes were sitting for weeks, was somehow moved to go into that room and knock over that particular box and paw through the contents. On the floor, next to the tipped-over box, was the roll of double points. I kid you not. Thanks St. Anthony, you're a hoot! (Of course, the irony is that I didn't have a spare pair of size 1s to start the fingerless gloves, which means I have to get back into sock mode, which leads to my ruminations about how projects just go into holding patterns for no discernable reason.)

If you feel uncomfortable with the formal, sister-approved "Dear St. Anthony, please come around..." you can always use the irreverent but equally effective shout-out: "Tony, Tony, come around!"

Just a bit of fun Catholic folklore in action.

I owe pictures. I know I do. My beading binge has created many, many stitch markers. I have whimsical markers, blue and rose glass bead markers, Celtic-themed silver markers, and some really drop-dread beautiful (at least to me) amber and green glass on gold rings markers that officially became my favorites, next to the lavender glass on silver. Stitch marker making is too much fun. Try it, you'll love it. No more plastic markers!

I am wearing earrings I made - simple silvery beads on fishhook wires, they are so light I can't feel them at all. I made a necklace, bracelet and earring set from the silver and lavender glass stuff. I made heavier Celtic-themed bracelets from malachite and pewter beads. Damn, this is too much fun. Why did I ever stop doing this?

Knitting? Nope, been beading. I have a nearly finished Felted Pouch from Weekend Knitting, and I really love the colors and can't wait to finish and felt it. I need to spend some quality time with my books and figure out what I want to make next. I need to buckle down and finish some things - isn't it weird how some projects just stall, and you have to kick start them hard to get them moving again? I'm not unhappy with anything that is stalled on the needles - I liked them when I cast them on, I will like them when they are done, if I change my mind I'm a ruthless ripper. I'm not ready to rip any of these things, but somehow I can't get excited about finishing them either. But I must, somehow, get excited. I need Viagra for Knitters.