I know I went on and on a while back about knitting selfishly. I really hope that one day I can achieve purely selfish knitting. but for now, I just don't think I have the discipline to do it. it's going to take a lot more training. and we've already established that I'm probably too lazy for training of any kind.

I don't know what it is, but I feel so compelled to knit things for other people all the time. like all the time. constantly. maybe because I feel like it gives me some sort of purpose in life. I noticed all my languishing FOs are all for myself or for isa. poor isa! I love the idea of knitting for her, but I have really poor follow-through. I hope she doesn't feel too neglected.

so the fetching you see above is actually for my mom. her birthday is coming up in a few weeks. I actually started this one weeks ago, but then got distracted by orangina. and then poncherello. and then the dinos and the socks... fetching was not originally intended to be a birthday gift. they were supposed to be a 'just cuz' summertime gift since I never make anything for my mom either. oh, the slacking is never ending around here!

anyhow, this is a very gratifying knit purely for the speed. I could probably crank the second one out tonight if I really tried, actually. you know what was weird, tho? as I was knitting last night, I was pulling yarn from the middle of the ball and it got all stuck, so I figured it just got wound around itself as yarn is prone to doing, so I gave it a few good tugs, but to no avail. so I ended up pulling out a chunk and trying to detangle it. and what did I find?two little pieces of yarn just crammed into the middle! what is this? what are these for? why are they here? are they considered part of the yardage of this ball? if they are, I'm a little concerned, since the pattern uses an entire ball of debbie bliss cashmerino aran, which has two yards more than the knitpicks andean silk that I'm using. I was already paranoid about not having enough yarn, so to make myself feel a little better, I did one less row in the hand part and another row less after the final cable row. I also did a regular bind-off instead of the picot bind-off the pattern wanted me to (which I didn't really like anyway). I really really hope I have enough for the second one... oh, the paranoia!