waiting...

I've got a long post written, awaiting some familial approval before I can post it, but I thought I'd write and share my excitement that I just bought some beautiful yarn for a beautiful, top secret, super hush hush gift that I will be knitting this summer as part of the Amazing Lace. I cannot wait until it comes... I want to touch it, rub it against my face, ooogle it over and over, and, most importantly, knit something gorgeous with it. Excitement bubbles... I can't wait until I can share for real.

In the meantime, I participated in somewhat local politics last night by heading out to Letcher County, Kentucky (where I'd say I spend 75% of my time) for a little debate. The candidates for magistrate (or some of them, anyhow) duked it out in rhetoric last night and I went to catch the action. To be honest, it wasn't the most exciting debate ever. This was probably due to a combination of the following: 1) I sat in the back (so as not to get on camera -- the beekeeper et. al. were filming), and it was sometimes hard to hear; 2) so many candidates did not show up, so the heated debate between multiple candidates running in the same district was kept to a minimum; 3) hearing stagnant and rote answers (with the exception of a few firey candidates) to the same questions over and over was, honestly, boring. These were big and important questions, like how people feel about putting a prison in Letcher County (for those of you who don't know, building prisons and importing inmates is big business in Appalachia right now... talk about economic development. Ha!), whether there should be a decrease on the carrying weight limit of coal trucks (who regularly overload and then drive 60 mph on windy, two-lane back country roads -- this is why my car insurance is more expensive in rural southwest Virginia than it was in West Philadelphia), whether the new candidates will support the recently imposed ban on smoking in public buildings (people here consider this a rights issue -- as in their right to smoke while eating and shopping over my right to breathe... sorry to all who smoke, but I feel pretty strongly about this), and whether there is a viable solution to the (environmentally destructive and morally questionable) practice of strip mining. Most answered so blandly as to not answer. Some answered in a way I found so morally egregious, it made me angry, and few, very very few, answered with balls and social consciousness. I guess this is politics. And it's always interesting to watch it happen at the local level.

To spin this back around to knitting content, I did get a significant amount (four inches) done on the back of Orangina at the meeting. I hope to plough away and maybe, just maybe, have her done by the end of next week. That would involve some pretty serious dedication and, like Laura, I've been having a problem with knitting mojo recently. Things aren't working out, or I'm just not excited about them. I've lost some steam with these sock projects, stacking up and up and up (five, count them, five pairs of socks on the needle, and no motivation to finish any of them). This is why I'm doing the happy dance for this yarn just recently ordered. It's got inspiration written all over its lovely, silky self!

Meanwhile, I flatfoot...