I was gonna post a picture of the sleeves-in-progress but my camera's battery pooped out, so it's going to have to recharge before I can. Hopefully the sleeves will go fairly quickly; I have to do at least eight repeats of the pattern before doing the sleeve cap. (I'm going to try the sleeves on at various points...I'm not going to trust the length they give in the pattern - I've learned that I must have proportionally short arms because the sleeves on many of my knits - and many of the RTW clothes I buy - are a little long on me).

I'm itching again to start something new. I'm contemplating starting Rosedale, which I have had Kureyon for in the stash since, oh, last summer or so. I want something kind of simple to knit - lots of stockinette, something I can knit while reading. (Yeah, I know, it has that intarsia panel, but even that's not that hard.)

I think the fact that it's been colder these past few weeks than any previous winter before is enhancing my desire to make sweaters. (Wouldn't it be funny if the predictions for global warming were a little wrong and our winters got COLDER? I'd not complain about that...)

I also LIKE making sweaters now. When I first got back to knitting, I was all, meh, that's a lot of work to do. But after having made a few sweaters - and realizing how much nicer they are than any but the most expensive purchased sweaters (seriously: even a couple fairly expensive L.L. Bean wool sweaters I have are scratch-city compared to the alpaca blends or the other carefully-chosen wools I've used), I like wearing them. And I have to admit that the feeling of pride and accomplishment upon finishing a sweater and trying it on and going "I made this" is priceless.

***

It was probably good having a Super Bowl party for the Youth Group. (We hosted it down at church: I didn't want to have to clean up/move breakables to the degree it would take to make my living room usable - and besides, my living room IS pretty small). There were a few tense moments trying to tune in CBS - the church of course does not have cable and tv reception is always iffy here. But fortunately moving up to the Youth Room (higher in the building) got us reasonable reception.

Unfortunately, some of the kids got bored just as I was getting interested in the game (early in the 3rd quarter) and my co-leader and I spent much of the rest of the game exhorting people to either sit and watch or QUIETLY play a board game.

One thing that frustrates me about football - and I know it's just how the game works, but it still frustrates me: there is an hour of "active" play (4, 15 minute quarters), but it can take 3 hours for a big televised game. I wasn't all that impressed with most of the famed commercials, and I truly wish CBS wouldn't do "Focus on Peyton Manning!" or "Focus on Tank Johnson!" (they didn't actually do him but he's the only Bears player I really know the name of, and NOT for a good reason. They probably should not have let the guy play, just out of principle.) I wish they'd do less of the filler junk and do the game quicker.

And, alas, I did not get to see Prince; halftime was when I was making snacks for the kids (and besides, I think most of them went to play air hockey and stuff. I guess Prince is "old people's music" now.). I heard he was pretty good so I'm sort of sad I missed it.

Of the commercials, I liked the dog one. And some of the Coca-cola ones were kind of nice. The Snickers one (with the two mechanics) was a little squicky, especially in a room full of adolescent boys (to whom "gay" is used as an insult), as was the Chevy one with the guys dancing in their underwear.

And I admit laughing at (although it's one of those "I'm probably going to hell a little bit for laughing at people who are struggling to learn English" ones) the ESL class one about how to ask for a Budweiser.