Sausage rolls are made, potato-ham-cheese bake for tomorrow's brunch is assembled. Next I make sausage stuffing, and then I go get ready to go to a party. When we come home, I wrap Pete's presents.

Yay productivity? I'm also tormenting Pete with my choices in holiday music: first it was John Denver and the Muppets, and now it's the Haunted Mansion Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, here's a totally awesome flashmob (for anyone who didn't see it on GSHT):

[link]

Glad to hear it, Jessica! I was pretty sure that's what would happen, but it's nice to hear from the voice of experience, as it were.

I swear I've been productive today, but no one would be able to tell by looking at the results. So it goes. I can see the difference, because I'm all calibrated to the Before status.

Ohmygod! Did you all read Linda Holmes's post about enthusiasm and learning to avoid narrowcasting? My favorite part:

Fall in love with things. Try things; dislike some of them. Love people who love things you can't imagine loving. Be thirsty and brave. Accept that if narrowcasting really is the future, considering what you don't love to be a threat to what you do is a fool's errand that will exhaust you and require you to police the joys of others in a way that will distract you from your own.

So worth a read: [link]

Pie crust failure #1: inadequately floured equipment. Reassembled zombie style in smaller pan.

Pie crust failure #2: too small, fell down the edges of pan on oven. Discarded.

Pie crust attempt #3: in progress.

Connie, I don't know of any good web resources, I tried to learn using various videos but finally gave up and learned with someone.

There are a lot of projects that are just knit or purl or alternate rows of knit and purl. It took me a while but if I can look I can see the difference between the knit and purl, but mostly I found I have to finish a row before I put something down. Or write down on the pattern (or piece of paper) which stitch I left off on. I

Oh, dear. I just glanced at my bag of dark-chocolate covered coffee beans and thought, very clearly, "Come to me, my precious." I may have A Problem.

Only if it failed to obey.

Hey, BT! Merry Christmas!

Only if it failed to obey.

I had to give them a transportation assist, as dark-chocolate-covered coffee beans do not yet have self-mobility, but in the end they bowed to my wishes.

mostly I found I have to finish a row before I put something down.

This is what I do. I usually mark one of my needles so that I can tell by which one I'm working off of whether I'm on the "right" or "wrong" side of the pattern, because I usually can't tell by looking unless I've got a lot already done and it's all the same.

I don't know any web resources, but I have had good luck picking up How to Knit books meant for, like, middle school age maybe - the pictures and instructions are nice and clear, so I can use those as references for more cryptic patterns, or if I just don't remember how to, oh, cast on or something, as I fairly frequently forget basic stuff. And there's an iPad app I quite like "Knitting and Crocheting HD"