Slow Going

I've been working on things, slowly but surely. Mostly this week I've been basking in the Harlotude. (Did you see my blog appearance? Squee! Not the most flattering picture of me ever taken, but still--squee!)

I'm rapidly losing interest in all three pairs of socks I have OTN. Luckily, I'm close to done with two of them. I'm over the heel on my Pentathlon sock (which is toe-up), and I'm about an inch from the toe of the second Second Work Sock (cuff down). Of course, I am no longer allowed to work on the Second Work Sock during second work, so I'm trying to chip away at it over my lunch hour at first work. I've also been crocheting on Abby's afghan. I worked on it last night, and I didn't quite get as much done as I had hoped, but it was for good reason--I took a break from crocheting to weave in ends on 5 squares that I had apparently decided to save for later, end-weaving wise. (Why did I do that? I was so good about weaving ends on the 176 squares I made for my smoking cessation afghan! What changed?) Anyway, I have slightly more than 2 squares to go, and then the finishing.

Speaking of afghans, some of my friends and I are on the planning committee for the 2008 Lexington Pride Festival. The biggest problem this year is the budget, so when we were brainstorming fundraising ideas, I had a thought--why not get the knitters involved? I proposed that we knit an afghan to raffle off to raise money. The knitters are awesome; everyone I've mentioned it to has been very enthusiastic. So I've been plotting. Ryan's latest charity project involved awareness ribbon dishcloths, so I've been thinking that the pride afghan should have one square with that motif in each color (all the colors of the rainbow, of course). (Note to self: Make sure this is okay with pattern designer.) Yesterday I finished the first square.

Silly red! It's so hard to photograph. The ribbon is in there, I promise. Squint.

This square is about 8 x 9, a respectable size. Next I plan to use a nice, sensitive scale to weigh both the square and the yarn remaining in the ball, to figure out how many squares of each color I can get. Then I'll figure out the overall pattern, and get the knitters involved! Right now I'm thinking about edging each square with black and adding a black border to the outside, making sort of a stained glass effect. I'm considering having everyone go nuts with stitch patterns for the squares--I think that the ribbons should be the only "pictures," but I like sampler afghans. I wonder, though, if plain squares would look more elegant--this isn't for me, after all, it's for a raffle. I'll get it figured out.

I've also jumped on the diet train with Samara this week. Two days down! I've been doing well with it, despite the fact this this is the worst possible week to start a diet. It's a week involving cravings for chocolate and all things fried, if you catch my drift. It helps that I like a lot of foods that are good for me. Still, though, if someone offered me some fried mac and cheese from TGI Friday's, I wouldn't say no.