It’s been study, study, study here, hence the lack of posting.

Friday the kids celebrated St-Patrick’s Day at daycare, since most of the kids missed Thursday as they had a field trip to the Cabane à Sucre (Sugar Shack).  They all dressed in green, ate a green lunch, and came home covered in green stickers  and face paint.

Jakob was very happy with his crown and wore it all night, telling everyone that it had “shamrocks” on it.

Henri was just happy, as usual.

Once the kids were in bed Yannick and I studied before crashing early.

Saturday my inlaws picked Jakob up so he could spend the weekend up north with them and Yannick’s 4 nephews, and  had a fun, lazy day alone with Henri.  That night was more studying, though we did get a chance to clear up another episode or two of Supernatural from the DVR.

Sunday morning Yannick took Henri grocery shopping.  He’s often gone with just Jakob, or with both boys, but he doesn’t usually get a lot of alone time with Henri, so it was nice for the two of them.  While they were gone I had the house to myself, so what did I do?  Studied!

I really wanted to knit.  And I REALLY wanted to nap.  But we have a test to be done by the latest March 28th, which we are planning to do today (Monday).  And then our online midterm is due no later than April 10th, and our in-person midterm is on April 17th.  And my surgery is going to be April 4th, and I know I’ll miss out on studying that week…so I have no choice but to get the time in now while I can.

We both studied while Henri slept in the afternoon, and then had a little family get together for my cousin’s 30th birthday.  It was a lot of fun, especially since we got to see my cousin’s daughter, who is almost a year old.

We got home a bit past bedtime so Henri went down right away, and then we watched more Supernatural while waiting for Jakob to get home.  Yannick studies at Tim Horton’s and he just couldn’t bear to leave without getting to make sure Jakob got home safely.  (He did).  🙂

I’d finished my studying in the afternoon and planned to wait until  Monday to do my test, so while Yannick was out I knit.

Or rather…I ripped.

The band on my Featherweight cardi was about 3″ wide, and I ripped it out, completely, right to (and including) the pick-up-and-knit row.

I’ve been really torn about this silly band/collar.  I love the look on the front, where the collar comes down flat  over the shoulders and down the fronts.  But I hate how it looks in the back of the neck, where the same 4-6″ that make up the front are either standing up right into my hair, or fold down like a shirt collar, but then that makes the fronts fold over.  I debated for a long time about what to do.  I really wanted to keep the bands in stockinette stitch, though I know that means I’ll have to knit longer, because of the rolling.  And the longer I knit, the longer the collar will be in the back.  I was thinking about doing them in 1×1 ribbing to avoid the curl, but I like the look of the stockinette stitch better.

In the end I decided to just follow the pattern and knit the band in stockinette and just go with it.  I picked up all the sts and knit since the aborted surgery 2 weeks ago, and then last night I tried it on.

Ugh.  The fronts were lovely.  I could tell I really wanted them wider, maybe about 6″ wide.  I didn’t mind the curling because I’d wear it open anyways, and if I  really wanted the bands to stay open I can use a shawl pin.  But the back neck?  No way.  Held up by hand it was already in my hair, and if I let go it curled into a tight sausage at my nape.  I’d also followed the pattern directions to pick up 2 sts for every 3 around, so the top of the back pouched where it met with the band.  (In hindsight this was silly, as at the back the stockinette of the body flows right up into the neck, and should have the same amount of stitches.  Same thing for the tops of each sleeve).

Forget it.  I ripped the whole thing.

I’ve come up with a solution I think will work.  I want the fronts to drape and be blousey, but only from the shoulders in the front, down.  So I’m going to mark the center of the neck and work short rows up and down one  side until I have it the width I want.  I’m playing with it in Excel to see how wide I can get it without it looking silly.  Then I’ll work one row completely around to pick up the wraps, and  then work back up the other side so they’ll match.

I think it will work, and after I do my test, I’ll get started.