Was it worth all the drama? Hell yes. I haven't even blocked it yet, but it's still great. (And no, I will never wear it with hot pink pants.)

Next on the agenda: the Sunkist Cardigan with Moda Dea Prima in white. I guess mine will be a Snowball Cardigan, then...this stuff is incredibly fluffy. (And no, I am not a novelty yarn devotee, but I wanted white yarn, and this one called to me from the bins--plus I got it mad cheap because it is presumably being discontinued or re-marketed.) I'm still in math mode, making modifications to the pattern as per my measurements and the swatch; but this will be a quickie, I think. And if I like the way it comes out, I may disassemble my Hug shrug and make one out of the recycled black boucle. (Overlong belled sleeves are just not practical for me, however much I envy them on other people. And truth be told, the Hug is not very flattering on me--there's always lots of shirt bunching in the chestal region. Enough about me and my boobage, though.) And after that--wait for it--possibly my first pair of socks. Except I only wear socks with sneakers, so I'd have to make them for someone. And I want to use that now-ubiquitous blue sport weight from the above-pictured sweater (still eight ounces left!). So does anybody want a pair of baby-blue acrylic socks??

(Sidebar: I just realized that I've made three patterns from the Warm '04 issue of Magknits, and in quantity. I've made three Hug shrugs, two Sophie bags (and more to come--great pattern!) and multiple Sprout hats for multiple little ones. Feelin' the Magknits love over here!)

In non-fiber news, we finally have a stove. It happened over two weeks ago, but I think I neglected to mention that one of the electric burners on our stove literally blew up while we were using it, sending a tiny spray of molten metal shooting out in all directions and punching a hole clear through our very nice stock pot. And this was not the first time, either. We had an ancient GE stove with push buttons for the burners--quite vogue in like, the '60s, I'm sure, but kind of scary now, particularly because they only worked on one setting of the five--medium high. (Simmering is kind of impossible here.) So obviously there has been a problem with a heat sensor or something for some time. We should've pushed for a new oven when the first burner went, but instead the landlord just had that coil replaced. Anyway, Mark called the management company the next day, and received word later on that we were definitely going to get a new stove. A week passes. Mark calls the management company again, and they ask him, "How do you like your new stove?" "Umm...we haven't received it yet." Turns out their contractor had a family emergency and took a whole week off, then our oven was on backorder when he finally did get to it. Would've been nice if he'd actually let the management know, right?? So anyway, after fifteen days of no stove--I refused to use the damn thing again--we finally got it yesterday. But then as I was cooking dinner (yay!) the power went off. For two hours. Well, at least dinner tonight will be really quick...