It wasn’t ’til late — in fact, I believe the actual lightning strike occurred as I was arranging the silverware in the caddy while preparing the dishwasher for its maiden voyage.  "Hmmm," I thought, "a fork. What about a real fork? Fork. Meat. Done. Meathead. Done. Fork."  I remembered the sterling fork that Maddy recently wrapped ’round her wrist as a bracelet, and the lonely little fish fork (or whatever) in the drawer…

This really couldn’t have turned out any other way, could it?  Stick a fork in it, baby… IT’S DONE!

Not only did I borrow her fork bracelet, she was a good sport and modeled it on the hat, too.  She doesn’t look too pained, does she?  Maybe a little…  Sterling for dressy, a mix of silver and wood for everyday.  Ya think?

Some random Wednesday stuff, knitting first.

Are you sick of the Meathead yet?  How much blog mileage can a person get out of one goofy hat?  I haven’t come to any conclusions about the embellishment yet.  I did pull out the lucet and figured out how to make a cord and… okay, that’s pretty cool… not sure I can do that for very long, though.  My wrist, hand, and fingers aren’t taking to that repetitive pincher action much.  I will admit, as I looped along, that I pondered using the lucet as embellishment rather than as a tool to make the embellishment.  I still love it as a finely crafted tool, love the wood.  I’ll still probably use buttons and buckles as embellishment for said hat.

I finished the other front for the Coup d’Etat Cardigan and cast on for the back!  I love the pattern — it’s mostly a chart with minimal written instruction (just the particulars, mostly the numbers).  And I love how this cardigan is turning out — with both sleeves and both fronts out of the way already, I’m on the long home stretch!

Today we’ll be installing a new dishwasher.  The old one is now not only screaming louder with every load, but also leaking.  I bought, brought home, and installed the last one all by myself.  Yeah, don’t ask.  It was one of those periods in our relationship.  It really feels good to know that I can do something like that, though.  This time, I stopped and looked, hubby came and looked, too, hubby hauled one home, and later today I’ll play the role of lovely assistant handing over tools and aiming the flashlight.  Last time, I bought a fairly expensive dishwasher with a big name and stainless steel interior.  This time, well, it’s not quite the bottom of the line, but not much further up because, dammit, if a dishwasher is only going to last 4 or 5 years…

Blogging every day for a month is harder than it looks.  Is it hard because it’s November?  Hard because I threw down the gauntlet for myself at the last possible moment with barely a thought except, "Oh, I can do THAT!"?  That’s kind of how I agreed to quit smoking all those months ago — "Oh, I wanna do it, too!!  Can I?"  That turned out pretty well, I guess.  (Interesting news bit I saw yesterday, which of course I can’t find right now, about how cutting back doesn’t really help much to cut the risk of death from smoking.  I was a little surprised to read that in that study I’d have been classified as a "heavy smoker" at a pack a day.  I never, ever thought of myself as a heavy smoker!) Anyway, it’s been interesting.  I wish I could have spent more time on it and made more of a plan.  I’ve never been much for the blog planning.  It usually goes like this:  sit down, write, pop up and take a picture, sit down, insert picture, write a little more, linky-dinky-do, hit "post," refill coffee cup, check Bloglines.  I apologize for any lame of late.

I like to look at the blog list for NaBloPoMo, particularly the Ks.  There’s a fair number of knitters.  I like how I’m all KNITORIOUS, in all caps like that.  Heh.  The Zero Boss, also a NaBloPoMo-er, noticed and called me out in a post that I only recently discovered.  Then there’s the fun NaBloPoMo Randomizer!  We love the random in the blogosphere, don’t we?

One of my favorite Christmas songs is "It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and pretty much the only person who can really sing it as it should be sung is Andy Williams. Katie and I heard it on the radio on our way back from Chicago recently — on a Milwaukee radio station that plays Christmas year ’round.  It seemed a little early for that kind of thing but, well, is it?  You know, if they play it all year long…

I’m trying hard to keep the blinders on, to not be discouraged by holiday excess and idiocy — the shopping and over-the-top, Christmas-puke-all-over-front-lawn-in-lights decorating*, in particular.  A little thought and focus goes a long way.  I’m trying to keep my inner Grinch squelched — it almost feels like The Incredible Hulk, but not so beefy and with a little more fur.  Inundated with TV advertising for months already, watching the Christmas stuff fill the shelves fast on the heels of Back-to-School, ramping up to Black Friday and what was it that they dubbed last Monday with the internet shopping?  Only a few more weeks to go…  I’ve got to set a different internet home page because if I see one more story about what gifts the uber rich are giving/getting or one more car with a big red bow on top — along with the TomKatKidRockPamelaSueBritneyLanceBrangelinadonna crap that constitutes news these days, well, I’m sorry, is some of my green fur showing?  And THEN… I have a post in draft from long ago in which I ranted a bit about about the banking and credit card "industries."  What a scam.  Have you seen the catchy, new check card commercial — the well-oiled, musical, commerce machine brought to an abrupt and annoying halt by a customer who screws it all up by paying with cash?  Yeah, there’s no percentage on total transaction to be made by a financial institution with cash.

Pardon me, I’ve been awake since about 4:00 a.m., tossed and turned and tried to get back to sleep until about 5:30 a.m., when I gave up and got up.  It’s my frickin’ day off today, too.  I should be sleeping in.

Well, and because it is Christmas and I do have to engage in commerce, I’m trying to do it well.  St. Nick treats have already been purchased from a local confectioner.  I used my always-seems-like-play-money PayPal money (that doesn’t sound very fiscally responsible, does it — and this is money that "costs" also)  to purchase the You Grow Girl 2007 Calendar as a gift — this looks absolutely fabulous and I can’t wait to see it — and also (finally!) Stranded Color Knitting, which may or may not be a gift.

One more thing.  I was reading at Norma’s today, then Mama Cate’s, then I saw at Carole’s later, too, all about this guy named Scott with a project who needs us to write about and link to the project and also ping.  I’m all about that.  Love showin’ what knitters can do.

*ETA:   What I mean by… well, really, it’s not excessive so much as "excessive."  God, I loved (probably more than I should) the house that was all over the internet last year with the lights and the music and it was synchronized and flashy and sparkly and loud — and there was some substance, at least some creativity and know-how, some thought.  It’s the yards with the hyperflashing tree over here, the light-up nativity scene over there, why not Snow White & Her Seven down over there, the walkway lined with light-up candy canes, the spotlight(s) shining on the wooden cutout santa, sleigh & reindeer (the light shining right through two neighbors’ yards and into my front window, besides!), the two angels next to the carollers and Rudolph and the Grinch and the light-up, blow-up drummer boy and the thingamajig and every other light-up and/or musicalmajig that would fit into the cart at the store.  You know?  That kind of excessive!  ; )  Don’t worry, I won’t be calling the homeowners’ assocation.  I do understand that one woman’s tacky is another’s Taj Mahal.

I thought to use buttons and buckles for the Meathead embellishment, but exactly how is still a mystery to me.  I sifted through the button collection and found a few likely suspects — I found more than anticipated, actually.  It’s all been sitting there like that on the kitchen table, waiting for the inspiration to strike.

On a whim, I invited my sister Karen to visit this weekend.  She’ll be bringing her boys — and her quilting.  I need to clean my house!

I finished the Mango Moon Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf before the pre-game show was over yesterday, wrapped it ’round someone’s neck for a photo, and emailed it off to Norma for the Red Scarf Project blog.  It turned out to be a great little scarf — definitely not the warmest, but very cute and it made me very happy while knitting it to think of it possibly making someone else very happy to wear it.  ; )

I can’t believe it was over two years ago that I answered Larissa’s call for Meatheads.  It’s so weird to write about, refer to, and link back to things like that on my very own blog, when two years ago I barely knew what a blog was and now I’ve written over 800 posts (and counting) of my own.  Blogging has brought a richness and an awareness, an unbelievable camraderie and (even more incredible) real, live, actual friends… but I digress.  It was a no-brainer, when I read about Larissa’s new Meathead project, that I had to join up.  I picked up some Lamb’s Pride Bulky at Iris last week and used it up to knit up two hats yesterday.  Is there a quicker hat to be knit?  The first was on US15 needles and turned out small (may be given to Mack), the second was on US17 and may find it’s way into a box with those red mittens.  I still need to embellish — that’s the challenging part for me — and post before the end of the KAL on Thursday.

Mittens heading to New York!  I actually found more singles than pairs in my mitten pile, but also this pair of unfinished handknit ones — I’ve only a thumb seam to do and they’re finished.

It’s Monday, the Packers are in Seattle tonight, you know where I’ll be.

Thanks for the nice comments on Mack’s stocking!  I thought I’d post a photo for scale — the thing’s about as tall as he is!  I’m so happy that it went home with him yesterday.

Birdsong requested a photo of the Mango Moon scarf for the Red Scarf Project that I’m Knitting Unto Others in a comment wherein she also said, basically, that she’d be prayin’ for me as I ride shotgun with Madeleine, a greenhorn behind the wheel.  Well, there’s the progress on the scarf up there — I plan to finish that off today during football — and there’s a photo of Maddy driving me around.  She got a little time in on residential streets, country roads, and the highway, and executed a Y-turn (with help because my suggestion was rather ill-timed).  She also parked at the grocery store and I don’t think I’ve ever parked so far from the door before in my life!

Hm, something seems familiar in that scarf photo…  Look what’s back for a tweaking — it’s Shirley Shrugs!!  Did I mention that one side was a wee bit longer than the other?  I need to fix that.  I also need to shorten the underarm seams a bit, as Mom finds it a little too tight right now.  She’ll try it that way for a while, but said she might possibly have me un-do the seams altogether so she could wear it as a shawl.  ; )  I really wouldn’t mind that at all — I think it makes a wonderful, warm shawl.  I plan to post more details about my pattern modifications, particularly the short row shoulders.

Last night, I went to the movies!  Casino Royale… it was great!  It was the perfect movie for my mood and very, very well done.