No clever title today.

I was THISCLOSE to getting a new car this week. The insurance appraiser that came out to look at my car told me that if there had been any more damage to it, they would have just written it off as totaled and given me the value to put toward a new car. That was such a strange statement to me. The word "totaled" brings to mind a car damaged and mangled beyond repair. Mine still works fine, it's just that the left blinker is smashed out and the hood and bumper are dented quite a bit. The issue is that I drive a car that's 12 years old and has nearly 265k miles on it (you gotta love them Toyotas!), so the cost of repairs is coming awfully close to the value of the car. As much as a new car would be nice, I'm glad that I can keep this one--it's all paid for! Not that they would have given me much toward a new car anyway.

On the knitting front, I finished the socks for my brother last night. I think they look pretty good, if I do say so myself!

I immediately cast on for my Sockapalooza socks, but I wasn't really happy with how it was looking. On my lunch hour, I ran over to Magpie Yarn (which isn't too far from where I work) and browsed their sock yarn selection. I decided to try some of Crystal Palace Yarn's Panda Wool, which is a blend of bamboo, wool, and nylon. So far, I LOVE IT! Normally, I go for yarn that is more "squishy" like Koigu or Cherry Tree Hill, but I'm pleased with this yarn. It feels nice when I knit with it, and the resulting fabric is soft--much more so than you'd imagine just feeling it in a ball. It's knitting up nicely in the Vog On lace pattern and the colors are beautiful, although not as loud as they look in the photo below. The colorway is called "Red Cinnamon" and it's got red and orange and brown and magenta in it. It reminds me a lot of the colors of the leaves in fall. I might have to go back and snag a couple of balls for myself.

(Sorry about the crummy indoor lighting--I'm too lazy to photograph them when there's actually DAYLIGHT!)

One thing to know about this yarn, however: gauge is going to be misleading. You might be spot on for your gauge swatch, but go down a size or two anyway because the resulting fabric is really stretchy.