Updates and pictures and all

First, a blanket story
Two years ago, my cousin gave me a blanket for Christmas that was so soft, I believe I gasped as I unwrapped it. You've seen this blanket in countless cat-on-the-bed photos, the red-and-black plaid with a cream backing

It's not necessarily a look I would have chosen, to be honest, but once I touched it, well, that didn't matter one bit. Both sides are super-soft, and while of course with time and use, the initial miracle of softness has worn off somewhat, the blanket has stayed on the bed.

I was in Building 19 last week when another blanket caught my eye: though the look and the name weren't the same, something about the way that it was packaged took me right back to when my blanket was new, and I reached out a hand to touch this one. Oh my! Amazing, super-silky softness. And though it is even less "me" than the red-and-black one, I didn't hesitate a minute before picking it up and taking it home. Which is why you will soon be seeing this look in cat-on-the-bed photos from now on.

Yes, tiger stripes. Interestingly, it isn't "constructed" exactly the same as the other one. That one is, by feel, one blanket with different material on each side, while this one feels like two blankets attached at the edges. You can see in that picture how the top "slid" to the side when I got off the bed. Not that I care. If you could only touch it, you would understand. It was so hard to get out of bed and leave it to go to work the first morning.

Next, snack stories one and two
On the same trip to Building 19, I found a little snack that I brought in to work.

That they felt the need to say both "bitesize" and "mini" tickled my funny bone. It amused me further when I noticed the language they used to describe the contents; I knew at once that this wasn't American.

For a country with such an obesity problem, we do not like to admit that fat is involved with cookies! Vegetable fat coating, indeed. One of my coworkers admitted that she wished I hadn't pointed it out to her ... but she still ate some. They were really good.

Tomorrow I'm bringing in haystacks. I went to search my blog records for previous mentions of them, and found that when I blogged about them two years ago, I didn't even mention their name! True, they are Christmas candies to me, but come on, ccr, haystacks! As I said in that entry, you can make them any size you want, but I think that it's nice, if you're bringing them for a group, to have them in something like a mini-muffin liner, and when you're offering them to those who haven't had them before, might as well make them small, so it's a bite to try.

Thus, I found these (at Building 19):

And are they small! It's a pain to fill them, to be honest, but they're nice and tidy.

I made some yesterday, and took them to a Latke Party (since they are, in truth, nondenominational). And I made more today, for taking to work tomorrow. (And do I ever need to stop eating them now, ergh. They're so addictive. Get on the bike, already.)

Then, the state of knitting, finished and started
I'm sure you all recall the knitting problem I mentioned recently, running out of yarn, and trying to decide how to handle it, so let me update you now. I had planned to go with option 2, but after letting it sit for a few days (and longer than I had intended, given the migraine weekend*), I went with option 3 after all.
*I wish my life had not taught me to build extra time into schedules for time lost to migraines, but unfortunately I've learned that one pretty thoroughly.

Just going with the gut, and that was what felt right. Here it is, blocking:

You can see that ends are not identical. Oh well.

Now, do you realize what it means, that this is done? I could start a knitting project for myself! Yay for selfish knitting. I mean, I've got socks going, duh, but it will be fun to work on something bigger. I pondered deeply about what's next, particularly given all that I've got going on in the next few weeks, which means that I don't want to challenge myself too much, and also taking into account plane knitting (which may end up being socks, but there's contemplation to be done). So many choices!

In the end, though, as I showed yesterday, I picked up that splurge mink yarn from Rhinebeck and cast on. I have three repeats done now.

I'm loving it. And lace is practically as good as socks, in terms of portability, so it should make fine plane knitting. Less than two weeks to Christmas travel!