(courtesy of Craftzine): It's like the Snuggie, only gone very wrong.

(And here is a question for those who are happily coupled: are "smittens"* and the like - the "smitten" being apparently the most viable of these things - actually appealing, or do they seem a bit like the proverbial ball and chain? I know they would to me. And it seems entirely possible to me to hold hands while wearing gloves or mittens - true, there is not the skin-to-skin contact, but it's also practical in the sense that if you come up to a lightpost- or wind up in a crowd - you can break contact without fumbling. (Though I have ALSO had the experience of seeing couples walking hand in hand and expecting crowds to flow around them. Because, apparently, they are people around whom the universe revolves)

(*Those are those double-sized mittens so two people can hold hands inside of it. Yes, it's called a "smitten." Tonstant Weader fwowed up.)

***
No, I really didn't get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

***
I have come to the conclusion that the crazy dreams I have are NOT the result of stress on the job, but pollen. Fracking pollen. Because I've been having them this week, and the only unusual factor is that the trees are all doing what trees do in the spring.

I will say that whatever part of my reasonable mind that stays alert during these things, it does a decent job. It seems that when a dream gets too oppressive or uncomfortable, that part of my brain goes, "OK, gotta put a stop to this now" and it throws in some bizarre random thing that doesn't fit and it makes the dreaming part of my mind go, "Wait....WHAT?" and then I wake up shortly after.

Last night it was a box of Lucky Charms. In the middle of a dystopian-future dream. Magically delicious, indeed.

***

I'm still thinking about "next projects" as I continue to knit the sleeves. Here's a totally-out-of-left-field one - I have about 12 ounces of handspun (not by me; I bought it from Yarn Again a couple years ago) in Monet colors in my stash. Because I do not think well in "ounces" (being used to calculating sweater needs in yardage), I had been afraid of using it. But when looking through my Green Mountain Yarns pattern book, there is a pattern for something called the Artisan Vest (a very simple ribbed vest with moss stitch between the ribs) that seems to require 10 ounces of wool in my size.

(And yes, that it's wool is important; different fibers have different weights-to-yardage. That's why 200 grams of Sirdar Snuggly would have been enough to make 3 unicorns when the pattern claimed that 200 grams of a wool-cashmere blend would make one. And that's also why I'm not so much in love with the idea of specifying weights required rather than yardages.)

So I might wind that yarn off and do that vest next - it would be nice to use something that's been "hibernating" for a long time.

I'm also thinking about the VIP Cardigan from the Best of Interweave Knits book. I have yarn in-stash for it. (Seriously, I need to do a yarn-buying moratorium so I can use up some of the wonderful stuff I've bought first). It's a lovely honey color, purchased because I bought a set of really darling sweet buttons in the shape of little bees - they are sort of a bronzed-looking metal (they are not "cartoony" bees; they are more Napoleonic bees).

Then again, reading the instructions for the sweater make me twitch a little: "Because of differences in the row gauge, work a short row every 20 rows of the smocking pattern." Oh, I know what that means, and I can see what I'd have to do, but the level of concentration required that that implies makes me very worried for my ability to complete the sweater.