I decided we hadn’t played the spin up the iPod game in a while, so here are the ten songs my music player thought you’d like to hear:

1. “Splendid Isolation” — Warren Zevon
2. “Whole Wide World” — Wreckless Eric
3. “Lawyers, Guns, and Money” — Warren Zevon (hmmm… I have been in a Warren mood recently, but it seems odd that my iPod picked up on it, don’t you think?) (Also, don’t you think that this would make a (sadly) appropriate tagline for D.C.? Although maybe more in the ’80s than today. Maybe now we’d substitute “Overpriced Condos” for “Money.”)
4. “Rescue” — Lucinda Williams
5. “The Whole World Round” — RedBird
6. “Cowboy Singer” — Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer
7. “Cross of Flowers” — Jeffrey Foucault
8. “Wide Open Spaces” — Dixie Chicks
9. “Mary Blaize” — Kate Rusby
10. “Little Earthquakes” — Carrie Newcomer

Can’t you imagine the movie that accompanies this soundtrack?

What does your music player think we’d like to hear?

In case you were wondering, my Christmas knitting is done. (I hope.)

I reknit Gramma’s beret while up in Connecticut and left it blocking on a plate in the kitchen. I hope it fits better than it did the first time, when it was simultaneously too big and too small. (I know!) Since I was fighting the clock (and the cabbie who was waiting patiently in the driveway for five minutes unbeknownst to us), I didn’t put the cute little stem on and I didn’t snap pictures. Hopefully when Mum gets home, she will a) report back as to whether it actually fit and b) snap a picture for me (particularly if it fits this time around).

These pictures are from the first time I knit the hat. As you can see, we suffered a sad loss during the knitting process. Luckily, I learned from the mistake and used a metal size US0 to help me with the K3togs this time. It slowed down my progress, but all my needles are still intact.

Also done are Mum’s Monkeys:

I believe that it’s Posh Yarn Saskia in Serendipity (a cotton/silk/cashmere blend), although the eBay seller I bought it from listed it as Lucia in Highland. A bit splitty, which is no surprise with cotton-based yarn, but otherwise quite nice. It had a particularly nice hand, and the colorway worked well in the Monkey pattern.