I've been away for a long time and the reason is that we've been sucked into the black hole of house-hunting. Yes, the prices are very high at the moment and yes, everybody is saying that the housing market is so overheated that It. Must. Crash. At. Any. Moment. That's what they said a year ago, and then the prices went up another ten per cent. So it's the worst possible moment to be looking for a new home, but we're fed up with our current apartment. The neighbours are noisy, the bugs are eating my wool and we need more space. So we went to the bank.
I'm sure we're not the first couple who got their nest egg by playing casino games and poker but we didn't want to take any chances, so we took extra care to remove any telltale signs before going to the bank. (You know, the Party Poker hats and the BetGameDay T-shirts.) We met the bank guy, he gave us the green light and off we went house-hunting.
Pretty soon I noticed certain things about me. I can be patience itself when I knit something (it's the process, not the product etc.). Unlike some people, I don't mind being short-stacked at a poker table and I very rarely go on tilt. But trying to find a new home for us is driving me bananas. Thank goodness going through the ads is fairly easy nowadays thanks to the Internet, but after that things get complicated. What kind of house are we looking for? And where? How far are we willing to move? Should we make an offer and if so, how much? And what about home inspections, renovations, bus routes and neighbours? The list goes on and on. Argh. We find it very curious that people are willing to make a snap decision after seeing the place only once. (Usually houses for sale are held open between 45 minutes and one hour, but sometimes it's just 30 minutes.) I guess that's overheated market for you. Of course, if we were to find our dream house we would be ready to make an offer right away, but it seems that the houses in our price range (we absolutely refuse to pay a ridiculous amount of money, we're only willing to pay a slightly ridiculous amount) always have a catch or two. So you have to be careful. We just heard of a friend who's going to court after having bought a house which turned out to be mouldy.
All in all I'm pretty stressed-out right now, so I've been trying to relax by knitting.
I finally got pictures of mom's scarf.

The pattern is Here and There Cables from Pam Allen's Scarf Style. The pattern is ingenious, it consists of six identical rows and one cable row so it's a perfect project whenever you need mindless knitting.
I used five balls of Online Linie 170 Kim (75% merino wool, 25% silk). The lady in the yarn shop said that it would turn out to be a luxurious scarf and she was right. I'm tempted to do one for myself, too.
Here is Aranmor's back (minus one shoulder).
Handsome, eh? Just looking at it makes me want to cast on for the front.
I've finished the back of Cable-trim Jacket and started the left front.
And I started the second Pomatomus sock.
I may have also started something else entirely. *cough, cough*
What is it about purple cables that is so soothing?
Much to Bettina's joy, our local pet store now sells Greenies.

She thinks they are very yummy. She also had her biannual checkup and everything is okay, or as okay you can expect with a 17 year old cat.
The sun is shining and I don't have a job deadline today. I think I'll do my blog rounds now for the first time in ages.