I started my new knitting project today with the baby alpaca yarn I bought on Sunday. The yarn is pretty and delightfully soft. I cannot screw up, though, because it does not unknit or unravel well.

The gauge is off a bit row-wise, but I think I may just add rows instead of pulling it out and starting over. No one will notice if I don’t tell — and you won’t blab, will you?

Knitting has made me more philosophical about mistakes. Some people pull their stitching out if they don’t think it’s perfect. I figure if the error’s not glaringly obvious, no one will notice but me. Knitting a huge project on deadline just makes you realize there are very few reasons to panic.

Another realization after working on the quilt for six months: it’s a joy to knit smaller projects. Progress is quick and satisfaction almost immediate. Tonight I managed to clear off the couch (finally!), watch Commander in Chief, and still knit 2 1/2 inches. Two and a half inches! That’s an eighth or so of the project!

Would that all my endeavors move that quickly!

For cat-related humor: Stuff On My Cat

Today is a clear and beautiful Election Day, at least on the Eastern seaboard. If you have an election in your area and are able to vote, please don’t forget to do so. Remember — if you can vote and don’t, you don’t get to complain later on.

D.C. has no election today and is already gearing up for 2006, when we will elect a new mayor and possibly a new council chair. Frankly, I think it’s a little early to start worrying about people who will make promises, but who, generally, don’t have the authority do follow through on them. (Congress technically runs D.C. — and does it poorly.)

So from my point of view, election day cannot end soon enough. Our airwaves have been inundated with ads from Virginia, where the election for governor turned ugly two months ago (the campaigns for attorney general and for lieutenant governor didn’t turn ugly until more recently). We came home from England to smear ads on both sides of the table and plenty of money to run them during every commercial break on every channel on regular tv. Frankly, given the nasty campaigning the two of them have been doing, I don’t think either one deserves to be governor.

In my former home of Middletown, Conn., the mayor is up for re-election. The Republican candidate is the strongest in a decade and the current mayor has experienced some bumps in the last six months. But, by and large, I think she has Middletown’s best interests at heart and the city has prospered under her control. Perhaps a hard-fought election will get the creativity flowing again.

In my hometown of Wallingford, Conn., the mayoral race is an interesting one. The mayor of the last two decades — Bill Dickinson — is being challenged by Jim Vumbaco, town council chairman and the son of the last Democratic mayor. Expansion has run rampant and Wallingford has lost any charm it once held. Dickinson served the town well for a number of years, but in the last decade I’ve thought that his opinions have stagnated. The town could use some fresh blood before the town becomes one huge strip mall surrounded by condo complexes and McMansions.

The living room is starting to resemble its previous state (or, at least, a clean version of its previous state). Tonight I was able to exercise and then did some more rearranging. The couch still needs to be tackled, but I have found important things, like my Dance, Dance Revolution game.

We’re keeping Christmas in mind as we put the room back together so we won’t have to do major rearranging when we bring the tree in. Hopefully once we get everything in order we will just need to do minor tidying before our tree-trimming party the first Sunday in December.

It’s been a lovely weekend. Yesterday, we went out to the Quaker craft sale where I did a little Christmas shopping (and a little me shopping, too) and then strolled down to Georgetown for a while. We spent a fun evening with Susan and phillip, who cooked us a yummy dinner of chicken, rice, and spinach.

Today after an hour-long stroll through a sunny farmers’ market, Rudi headed out to Virginia to stump for a House of Delegates candidate, while my bike and I hopped Metro to head up to Bethesda. I bought some new yarn (baby alpaca — so soft!), ate a pumpkin pie ice cream cone (yum!), and rode home through a yellow elm twilight.

Tonight we’re catching up on The West Wing, doing some cleaning (our apartment may all move back into the Burrow and I may find my couch again tonight!), and eating something yummy Rudi is going to cook.

All in all — a really nice weekend.

[Update: All our possessionas are back in the Burrow and the entertainment center has been reassembled. The couch hasn’t been cleared and I’m calling it a night. Tomorrow is soon enough for targeting other sections of the living room.]

Today is Friday, so it’s time to round up and start thinking about the weekend.

Things I will definitely do:
Go to the farmers’ market
Watch Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Bring my belongings back in from the entryway
Do laundry
Find my couch
Watch two episodes of The West Wing (last week’s on tape and this week’s live episode)
Wash dishes
Go to the Quaker Fall Festival to look for Christmas presents

Things I would like to do:
Go to Eastern Market
Buy yarn
Make applesauce
Start a new knitting project
Go see the simulcast of the Kennedy Center’s production of Porgy and Bess on the Mall
Make bread
Spend time outside

Things I do not want to do, but may do anyway:
Go stump for a House of Delegates candidate in Virginia

Things I will not do:
Set the alarm
Go anywhere that’s more than an hour from my home