tax (return) evasion

I always aim to file my tax return by my birthday in October. And then I promise myself it really will get done by Christmas. Inevitably I end up filing at the very last minute in January (oops). It's the absolute prime example of my worst habit - crashing procrastination - and it's the sole reason I get so productively engrossed in other things at around about this time of year.

So October came and went, predictably. And now with Christmas looming I'm knitting prodigiously all of a sudden, the latest finished item being the Christmas Zooey for The Boss. Super cute.

It was supposed to have some sort of ruffles up the front, but by the time I had added the button bands, hidden about two dozen tails, and added the buttons, I felt like the fabric had been tortured enough. Do you ever feel that way? That you've made beautiful soft sections, blocked them to razor-edged perfection, but then when it comes to the finishing it feels like torturing and contorting your lovely fabric into bumpy seams and knotty lumps under the armpits? No? Ah well, just me and my ham fists.

Anyway, moving swiftly on (so that I don't have time to think about, far less fill out, the forms for you-know-what). I've so admired Ginny's little girls in their cap-sleeved tops that I've decided to see if I can get one of those finished for the Christmas break too, using some yarn that should have everything going for it. Rowan Purelife Revive in Pink Granite is speckled, textured, made from recycled garments, and is all-round gorgeous. Unfortunately it's hand-achingly awful to knit with due to it being a lot like pretty string. But I've got four balls that cost a fortune about two years ago and I'm determined to use them up (more items have been started and frogged in this dreadful, gorgeous stuff than I care to admit), so the cap-sleeved sweater is it. I've never knitted anything in the round before and can't stand the string... what could possibly go wrong? Well I've just cast on for the fourth time. Watch this space...

Regarding books for Yarn Along this week, I'm still struggling with Jefferey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot and its lack of chapters. But someone in my book group back in Scotland just chose I don't know how she does it by Allison Pearson, which looks like a nice bit of light (hopefully chapter-full) holiday reading. I think I'd better save it for the airplane, because I've really got to get this tax return done.

Happy St Andrew's Day quines.