Three things for Saturday:

1. My department chair drove me out to pick up my car when it was done yesterday.

My department chair listens to Def Leppard in her car.

I find that wonderfully humanizing. This is a person who, through no fault of her own (solely through my own perceptions) I find somewhat intimidating. She seems kind of like Superwoman to me.

And she listens to 80s hair-metal in her car. That makes me smile a little. It's kind of like finding out Wonder Woman has a weakness for egg-salad sandwiches, or that Superman likes to watch Bugs Bunny cartoons.

2. I was talking to my dad on the phone the other night, and mentioned my poison ivy, and he said, "Have you tried Foille on it?" Darn - I had forgotten that.

Foille ointment is something my family ALWAYS had on hand - it was the standard treatment for minor sunburns or for burns from cooking. I have a tube in my medicine cabinet - it's kind of hard to find, the last time I got it it had to be ordered online.

My dad learned about it, I think, from one of his students at field camp. It's awesome stuff - it totally kills the itching and the pain. It doesn't specifically say it can be used on poison ivy but it lists burns, scrapes, heat rash, and insect stings as things it can work on, and it didn't say NOT to put it on poison ivy, so I gave it a try. I actually slept better last night than I have all week.

I'm not sure why it's not more widespread - I don't know if it's been supplanted by the triple-antibiotic creams (which probably are contributing to the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria), or if it's because of the ingredients (benzocaine and benzyl alcohol), or if it's because it's kind of a gloppy mess (it's in a vegetable-oil base) and you have to wear an old long-sleeved t-shirt when you have it on your arms to avoid getting it everywhere. But it makes a heck of a lot of difference and my poison ivy finally looks like it's starting to heal up.

3. I have the most butt-kickingly awesome It Came From The Stash! ever. (Or at least, "ever," as far as my personal stash is concerned).

I had four skeins of Fantasy Naturelle cotton in a pretty white-yellow-peach variegation. I had originally bought it a couple years ago thinking I'd do a Clapotis - but this was before the amounts were updated on Clapotis, and I was short of the original too-short amount. (I have, if the skein bands are correct,560 yards - which is too little for most garments, especially for me. Even for a tank top if I wore tank tops). But I was looking at the Stitch and Bitch crochet book ("Happy Hooker") and I was looking at that big openwork shawl that was designed for Classic Elite Flash - also a cotton yarn, if one with slightly different appearence and properties. I was thinking, "Gee, I'd like to make that some time. Too bad I don't have any nice worsted-weight cotton on hand." And then I remembered the Fantasy Naturelle hanging out in the bottom of a bag in my stash. And I checked the amount - yeah, just under 600 yards as I remembered. Five hundred and sixty to be exact. And I realized it took 558 yards of the yarn for the stole.

I love it when a plan comes together < / Hannibal >

That delights me for several reasons:
First: I am getting to showcase a yarn I really like and wanted to use for a garment (my other option was to use it as a bag but meh. Bags I make often tend to get kind of beaten up. Especially light colored bags - they seem to attract smog and soot and stuff).

Second: I am going to get to make a pattern that intrigues me with no new yarn investment. That pleases the frugal part of me.

Third: I am getting to use up a purchase over which I was feeling considerable regret. I don't mind buying yarn for projects that are currently "HALFPINT" ("have a lovely fantasy project; I've no time) because I can convince myself that I will eventually get to it. But I don't like it when I've bought yarn for something and realized that either I don't have enough or that it won't work for what I had in mind. So it pleases the guilt-ridden part of me.

Fourth: I'm clearing something out of the stash that I didn't think I'd figure out anything to do with. I was actually thinking of offering the yarn in swap somewhere, even though I'm very fond of the colors, because I didn't have enough for anything for me. (I thought of doing baby sweaters but no one in my family or who is close-close to me is currently pregnant - at least no one that I could be reasonably assured that the resulting baby's complexion would look good in pale yellows, creams, and peaches. And I kind of hated just giving it away where I'd not see it again). And I didn't want to try and find more because of the whole mess of matching dyelots.