Yes I am alive. Thanks for asking.

You woke me for this?

Replatforming this website to a new software and new database is a much bigger chore than I thought. Perhaps I knew somewhere deep inside that it was going to be this big of a job which is why I put it off for so long. Turns out, procrastination doesn't make code write itself. Funny that one.

The whole project should be completed by the end of December and that's just fine -- a brand new year, a fresh new website. In the meantime, there's lots of holiday knitting going on at Chez Fur, scarves and hats and arm warmers are in various states of progress. Mixed in is the world's tiniest, cutest cardigan. One of the other artists I work with is about to become a first-time dad and all I want to do right now is knit baby sweaters.

Clothes for small people are so adorable! So perfect!

The patterns? Not so much perfect:

This is what a pattern looks like when I'm finished with it. (I'm knitting the Chunky Cardigan from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies.)

I'm excited about the new software and server for this site. Maybe it won't take eleventeen minutes to import a photo or publish an entry. Interestingly enough, movable type performs all actions with glacial slowness except for posting spam comments, which it seems to do with no delays at all. The craziest spam -- the stuff where people write entire manifestos of junk that seem like schizophrenic Shakespeare -- freak me out a little bit. I can't tell if the internet is haunted or if that is someone's job. Either way, it's always an ad for some penis drug. Wonder what the ROI is on that?

The Sobakowa can write a much better manifesto in her sleep:

I WAS sleeping and I WAS writing my manifesto and now I can't remember how I got on this pillow in the first place.