I need input, if you please.

In my queue of projects is a jacket/short coat called “Fur Sure” that Heather Lodinsky designed for Takhi Baby. I would need 22 or 23 skeins of it, which offends my frugal soul, as it retails for $15-16 per skein. We are talking Serious Money here, $330 to $356, just for the yarn. I also have that vintage opossum fur collar that I scored on eBay last spring, which is probably older than I am, so I feel no guilt whatsoever in having bought it. The jacket is designed for a faux-fur collar, and while it is pictured in red yarn with black fur in the book, and that is what first drew me to the design, I am considering a medium to darkish teal to go with the coppery collar.

Lambs Pride Bulky, doubled, would give me approximately the right grist. Have any of you knit with KnitPicks Suri Dream? I need a super-bulky yarn, and I need for it not to cost the equivalent or greater of my car payment! I think the Suri Dream might knit up too gauzy for what I want. This has to be a substantial fabric in order to support the weight of the collar.

Please, oh please, do not tell me to work several strands of Cascade 220 as one. The color range is admittedly luscious; the yarn and I have a long-standing disagreement, and two-against-one or three-against-one would be no fun whatsoever, when that “one” is me. Though I must admit that their Chunky Tweed yarn is intriguing, and have any of you tried their Chunky Baby Alpaca?

I want a new jacket. I want to spend $100 or less on the yarn to make it. [Stop laughing.]

Hrmm, I wonder if I have enough of the bulky Shetland and wool that I bought from Brother Stilts that I could combine it into a makeshift marled yarn and knit myself a tweed jacket? I need between 1320 and 1380 yds [@ 17.14 yds/oz for the Baby], because I think I can get away with the next-to-largest size on this one and still have plenty of ease and lose none of the panache.

Fun and games with Secret Santa:
Yesterday I gave my designee/victim a red brocade shoe ornament from Pier One, with this note rolled up inside it:

Dear Dorothy,

I buried the other shoe. Have a nice walk back to Kansas.

Toto

Last week I put a bag of bubble gum in her mail cubby. Her response yesterday?

Bad Toto - Bad dog!!!! The Ruby Red Slipper is gorgeous - thank you Secret Santa!

Last week my Secret Santa gave me a bag of Lindor Dark Chocolate Truffles. I think he/she was in trial or depositions yesterday, because no loot was forthcoming.

Two words: blond fudge.
One of our legal secretaries works part-time for a caterer. She brought leftovers to the office yesterday ~ so it was a day not *entirely* without chocolate ~ and was kind enough to bring the fudge by my desk before taking it back for the thundering herd [a/k/a my coworkers] to enjoy. This particular batch had slivered almonds and dried cranberries in it.

I think I could probably eat liver and onions if you threw in enough dried cranberries. [That is a rhetorical statement; if you show up on my doorstep with a skillet full of liver and onions, I will throw a bagful of dried cranberries at you. Probably still in the bag. Preferably one of those ginormous bags from Costco.]

I never got around to baking the oatmeal-craisin cookies that I was craving last Saturday. [Too busy having fun with my knitting.] I don’t see any cookies getting baked this week, either, as my social life looks more like LittleBit’s normal week. Last night was the only night that I thought I would be home. As it turned out, LittleBit drove us to FW to return the Renaissance costume, and we hugged the babies and came home.

TUESDAY: No knit night for me, boohoo! because I will be at the Christmas concert. LittleBit has another solo, this one in the second movement of the John Rutter Gloria, for you musical types. Oh, that I could be in two places at once.
WEDNESDAY: She doesn’t have to work, so I suspect we will be tooling around the back roads to fulfill her drive-time requirements.
THURSDAY: I have a brief meeting at church. I will take my knitting.
FRIDAY: The high priests’ social with their wives, to which all the single sisters [for whom these brethren have stewardship] are invited. I went last year and had a blast, so much fun in fact that I’ve put off Brother Sushi and our monthly dinner.
SATURDAY: First Annual Christmas Party with the Sisters of the Wool.
SUNDAY: Church as usual and a “Messiah” sing that evening.

Late yesterday morning, my messed-up sleep schedule manifested itself in a Keystone Kops attempt to transfer someone to voicemail. The attorney in question was in trial. Attempt #1 sent the caller to another attorney’s voicemail. She called back, and I apologized profusely. Then I almost sent her to the correct attorney’s *secretary’s* voicemail but pulled the transfer back just in time. I told her it was definitely Monday at my desk and that I was sorry she was on the receiving end of it; thankfully, she saw the humor and laughed it off. Third time was the charm.

I am attempting something like unto the Harlot’s Lene-imposed schedule, for my knitting. I put in half a round on the Stripedy Socks while the tub filled this morning. I will knit a row and a half on Jeanie during seminary, and then I will turn my attention to Firestarter. I hope to complete at least one pattern repeat on it today, and then I can go back to Jeanie.

I put all three patterns onto my pink Lucite clipboard and have it standing up in my knitting bag. I don’t know if the pattern(s) for Jeanie will ever become intuitive. At this point it’s knit eight stitches, flip to the next graph, knit 20 stitches, flip back, knit another eight stitches, flip to the third graph, etc.

You know that little voice that so many of us have, the one that says “You’re not [this] enough” or “You’re too [this]”? I confess to not hearing that voice very much. I don’t know if it’s a benefit of having raised five kids and having had to tune out a lot of noise, or if my Inner Critic is suffering a long-term case of laryngitis. What *I* hear is a Prussian stage-whisper, “K1tbl, p1, k1, p1tbl, d@mmit! Which page is the next chart on?”

Time to put on my shoes and assume the [passenger] position.