She took a photography class at Lopez High this fall, and the results of that (plus a few others) can all be seen in her gallery. There are some absolutely amazing pics up there.

Plus! She’s on Ravelry. Knitting hats like a fiend.

It’s hard to believe we’re staring down the barrel of 16. Very hard to believe.

Also? She’s taller than I am now. Sigh.

But really. Go check our her photos and her stuff on Ravelry. I know they’re supposed to stop being adorable and become awful at some point, but she seems to have skipped that phase entirely. Whew!

I’m really having a hard time wrapping my head around that one. Where has all the time gone?

She’s still such a tiny little thing, but her feet are bigger than mine are now (woot! no more freshly-knit socks theft or borrowed shoes!), and she’s almost as tall as I am (really not saying much…). She’s brilliant and funny and beautiful (and crafty! – she totally asked for yarn and needles for her birthday, and is gearing up to make her first sweater), and definitely has a +2 in Perfectly Timed Platitudes and Sage Advice, which always makes me smile. I’m awfully proud of the chicklet.

And, unlike her parents, she’s photogenic. This is one of her school pictures from this past fall:

Fourteen. Amazing.

HA! Seems that yarn in that gauge is a might tricky to find (well, yarn that doesn’t SUCK at any rate), unless you’re willing to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for enough to make a sweater out of. GRRR.

After much searching, I ended up ordering some Peruvian Highland Chunky from Elann. Great color selection, crazy good price, and fast fast fast shipping. All well and good. The yarn showed up yesterday, and I busted out a skein to swatch.

Soft! Nice! Hmmm… Maybe not so wonderful.

For starters, it untwists as I knit, so I have to keep remembering to check and adjust the twist, which is a pain in the arse. Fine. Swatch done. Soft, nice. Into the basin to soak, onto the blocking foamy thing to block. I got up this morning and checked on it, and it was all dry, so I unpinned it and walked from the living room to the computer room, which is all of… 30 feet? And that includes a detour into the kitchen to pick up my coffee cup. While I walked that short short distance, I had folded the swatch in half and was rubbing it against itself to see how the abrasion resistance was.

30 feet, 90 seconds, GIANT SWATCH EATING PILLS. Almost as bad as the DB Cashmerino (and by this point, y’all *know* how I feel about Debbie Bliss yarns). See?

I have said many bad words, which I will not include here.

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?
GRRRRRRR. I really really really was hoping to not have to spend $120 on yarn for this project. Really I was.