diff --git a/include/pit/iters.h b/include/pit/iters.h
index e3dad4b..a2e7b58 100644
--- a/include/pit/iters.h
+++ b/include/pit/iters.h
@@ -72,19 +72,37 @@ namespace pit{
             return *this;
         }
     };
-
+    
+    // Allocator could be generic on just * with + and += using a stack buf and the istream getline method but lazy
     template<class CharT, class Traits = std::char_traits<CharT>, class Allocator = std::allocator<CharT>>
     class basic_stream_split {
         bool ended;
-        std::basic_istream<CharT, Traits> stream;
-
+        std::basic_istream<CharT, Traits>& stream;
+        CharT delim;
         public:
+        // there's no reason to specify the ending argument unless you want to manually construct the .end state of this iterator
+        basic_stream_split(std::basic_istream<CharT, Traits>& stream, CharT delim, bool ending=false): stream(stream), ended(ending), delim(delim){}
         bool operator==(basic_stream_split const& rhs){
             return this->ended == rhs;
         }
-        // todo: +,-, +=, -=, *
+        std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Allocator> operator*(){
+            std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Allocator> s;
+            std::getline(this->stream, s, this->delim);
+            return s;
+        }
+        // can't do -, or -= there's no reasonable way to undo istream reads
+        // can't do + without storing a line
+        void operator+=(std::size_t rhs){
+            std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Allocator> s;
+            for(size_t i =0;i<rhs-1;i++)std::getline(this->stream, s, this->delim);
+            return *this;
+        }
     };
-
     using stream_split = basic_stream_split<char>;
     using wstream_split = basic_stream_split<wchar_t>;
+
+    template<class CharT, class Traits = std::char_traits<CharT>, class Allocator = std::allocator<CharT>>
+    basic_stream_split<CharT,Traits, Allocator> split_stream(std::basic_istream<CharT, Traits>& stream){
+        
+    }
 }