What I'm Knitting Now

So guys, I have scary news. To meet my goal of being finished with the cardigan by the stroke of midnight on February the first, I must have finished the second sleeve, the back and left shoulder, have picked up the stitches along the sides and created a button band, blocked the piece, sewn it together, and attached the buttons by a week from Sunday. That is ten days. Here's what it looks like.



(Does that back look a little...wide...to you? It fits me loosely when I've wrapped it around me, but I'm scared that once it's been blocked it will be HUGE!)
Now, I calculate that it will take a total of four days to block/seam the thing (blocking can take a while), plus I'll probably need the only spare mattress in our house on Friday the 29th, which means I can't block it there (I suppose I could block it somewhere else, but I can't imagine where at this point in time). I could, if absolutely necessary, make it two days , so I would pin it for blocking Saturday morning when the mattress can be reclaimed, put in under a fan, and take it off Sunday and seam that whole day. What do you guys think? Is that a plausible finishing up plan?
On to the next problem. Where do I get eleven awesome matching, wooden buttons of a biggish size? Anyone? Ask your family, your friends, yourselves! I have NO idea!
Even assuming that I can get all of my finishing up in two days, that still only leaves me eight knitting days left. The cardigan body is under house arrest because it is much too big to be toted around for knitting now, so the second sleeve is my out of house knitting. Here's where the problem lies. I got over three inches of sleeve done out of the house today. I know, you're thinking, "That sounds pretty good. How's that a problem, Gardiner?" Here's how! This means I only need five major out of house knitting days, right? I have seven, I'll probably have the sleeve cast off on Sunday, because it's my major out of house knitting day(It still doesn't sound like a problem, does it?). Well, that leaves me five more out of house days. With no really good, cardigan-related out of house project, and with the deadline looming so close, it looks like I'll be forced to bring the entire body with me to school every day next week to finish...which kind of sucks. In a perfect world, I will have finished the shoulder and already picked up the side seams by Monday, but that won't happen, which means that I will be doing lots of fiddly bits to and from school...this sucks. Any tips from my knitter readers on how to transport large, fiddly projects to and fro?

Anyway, I DO actually have other projects on the needles right now. Remember the blanket and sock? They've been getting neglected this month. As has this little morsel I started in December.



Now, the coloring is a little off, because this glove is actually a bit lighter (though I wish it was this dark because then I might wear it). So far, this glove has no owner (that is not an invitation to ask for it, I might have an owner in mind).

So, that's what I have on the needles right now. To put things in perspective I thought I might show you guys something.
I have a lot of yarn.



See that smaller, opaque bag? That's the bag of yarn that I have a plan for...that other bag? It's yarn that a) I once had a plan for, but forgot/gave up on b) was given to me and does not yet have a plan, or c) I bought because it was pretty/soft/cool even though I had no real plan for it. That's quite a large amount of yarn I don't know what to do with...

On a final and totally unrelated note, my mother is absolutely hysterical.



This car has been sitting in front of our house for a couple of weeks now, unmoved. It has been slightly blocking our driveway, so yesterday my mother decided to take action by making this sign.



(Here's a close up so you can read the smaller writing at the bottom.)



She then placed said sign on the car, though no sooner had she done so than it's owner shows up to tell her that its battery has died, and he will push it out of the way for us. Though her sign worked, my mom was rather disappointed that most of the world did not get to behold its glory. She then insisted on going outside for a photoshoot with her sign, so that I might blog the occasion.



Thing to be grateful for today: Learning that I've been doing the tree pose in yoga wrong for seven years.