Of Chicken Guts,Twitchy Fingers, and Imaginary Friends

Since I had today off and Madman is feeling more mobile, we butchered a couple of chickens this morning. They were some of our remaining meat birds that had gotten a reprieve when Madman slagged his knee, due to the fact that neither one of us was capable of carrying a madly-flapping well-over-10lb bird*. These are some big honkin' chickens at this point. Picture a blimp with feathers. Picture a blimp with feathers taking 5 minutes to turn around 180 degrees, with little tiny shuffling steps. Big honkin' chickens.
One is in the freezer and the other is in the oven. Full of stuffing. The house is starting to smell really good...

The twitchy fingers are due to this:


I soooo want to cast on. This very minute. Like in now. If I could type and cast on at the same time, I'd have needles in hand.
(I'm still trying to decide if I want to let my innate stubbornness win and finish the Frosted Ferns that I've started (and tinked and knit and tinked) or if I should let my sensible side reign and just chuck the whole project out the window.)
The Great and Powerful Cookie took pity on me as I beat my head on the chartless Niebling and passed along a Niebling that is less likely to land me in the Loony Bin.
She's one of my very favorite Imaginary Friends... (I was once trying to explain to my mother about friends that I'd made on the internet, whom I've never met in person, and she said "So, basically they're your imaginary friends then." Never argue with your mother. (You won't win, anyway))

*These birds dressed out to over 10lbs. Picture a small turkey. We have no idea what they weighed before we removed all the unnecessary bits...

Okay, there's a reason I never do math after 5 o'clock...

So, it was bothering me - that yardage on my merino laceweight seemed low. It was late when I was counting and multiplying and dividing. (My niddy-noddy yields 5 feet per turn. This would be convenient if I was doing all my figuring in feet. Unfortunately, I need yards. Thus enters Math.)
The last batch I counted as I was niddy-noddying, I wrote down as 103 turns. Upon recounting tonight, I found that I actually had 201 turns. (Obviously I can't even count after 5pm, let alone do math...)
So, if that was my only error, I actually have 1010 yards. (I'm not going back and trying to count the big skein. I had 405 turns by my first count. I'm willing to accept that as a final answer.)

Anyway, that's better. Much happier now. I want a shawl. Maybe Aeolian or Laminaria. Or maybe one I haven't even seen yet...
After all, my heart belongs to Maplewing. I spun my orange laceweight for it. As soon as I can summon the oomph to cast on all 78 bazillion stitches...

Still hanging in there

Almost a week, and I'm still getting these huge cravings out of nowhere... One moment I'm fine, and the next it's INEEDNEEDNEEDACIGARETTENOWWWWWWWWWWW, and I would sell my soul for a Camel. Five or ten minutes later, I'm fine again. Until the next time.
At least it isn't that constant craving anymore. It's hard to justify living longer if it involves feeling that bad...

I cast on Maplewing Tuesday. I've started row 3. At this rate, I'm going to be knitting this shawl for months... (A true win in the entertainment per yarn-dollar ratio.) I should pick up speed once I'm a little further along and can read the lace. Right now, there isn't enough to puzzle out where I am, so I'm compulsively counting and recounting each section, and hoping for the best.

Day 4 - Still grumbling, but not quite so homicidal...

Still craving, but maybe not as bad. I keep telling myself that this is not forever - it will go away Eventually. Damn. Soon, I hope...

I do know one thing - I'm never going to smoke again, because I never want to go through this again.

Think happy thoughts for me, eh?

And the good news is, I finished the Snowflake hat! Ends woven, and all. So now I can cast on something new!! I've started winding (by hand) the laceweight for Maplewing. Or maybe Aeolian. I'm still dithering.
Hey, with all the money we're saving on cigarettes, I can afford another skein of laceweight! Woohoo!! Aeolian AND Maplewing!
And maybe another Swallowtail.
I've got these twitchy fingers - fiddley lace-knitting sounds just right!