Where was I? Oh yeah, last Saturday. Now I’m a full week behind. [insert expletive here]

When we got home from Valleyfield our plan was to catch a movie. I’d wanted to see The Phantom of the Opera on Wed after the shiva, but I was nice and helped Yannick job hunt instead. So Sat he suggested we see Lemony Snickett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Unfortunately we got home too late to see the early show, and I wasn’t sure I’d be awake long enough for the late show. Fortunately one of my brothers called to see if we wanted to get together with he and his girlfriend (this would be the brother who’s NOT in Australia). They came over and brought Scene It, a dvd/board game. Bringing any kind of game over is very dangerous because Mike and I are very competitive. EXTREMELY competitive and like to prove we’re smarter than the other. You know the riddles that go something like “A man does blah blah blah, then blah blah, then blah blah happens. Why?” and you have to ask “yes” or “no” questions? We spent most of our family holiday dinners trying to outsmart the other in figuring out the answers. Oh, I’m sure other family members thought they were playing along too, but really it was just Michael v.s. Jennifer. We even transcended into the next level of riddles, simply “Blah blah blah happens. Why?” If you still don’t believe me, then listen to (read) this. In May 2003 we decided to put our pride on the line and really see who was smarter. We both spent many years doing puzzle books, the kind with crosswords and fill-ins, but also 100s of other kinds of insane brain torture based on manipulating the English language. I’m an English Lit major, and I’ve been reading since I was 2. Of course I’m smarter. He, as is often the case with 2nd oldest children in families of 4 children, thinks I’m wrong and he’s the best. We decided to put it to the test and went out on a special errand just for this purpose and bought 2 copies of the same puzzle book. We cut out the answer section and gave it to our mom for safe keeping, and the challenge was on. There were around 450 puzzles in that book. At our last check, I have between 50 and 60 left to complete (including any unfinished puzzles). He has somewhere around 130 remaining. Not satisfied that this proves I’m smarter, for Hanukah this year he bought us each another book. The big ones that are actually bound like a paperback. With 530+ freaking pages! 771 PUZZLES! So we slog our way through again. He thinks he’s winning because he has completed about 20 more puzzles than I have. I know I’m going to win because our strategies differ. He goes through the book and finds easy puzzles and whips through them. I start on page 1 and go through chronologically through, slogging through the hard ones as I get to them. I believe that by the time he finishes the easy ones he’ll have to struggle with the harder ones, while I’ll already have many of them done, and thus whip through the rest of the book more easily. We shall see…

In any case, all this means is that what for ordinary people is a fun night playing a board game, is really a competition between us. Sure, Yannick and Kristin were playing too…but really they weren’t. Really, it was, again, simply Michael v.s. Jennifer. I’m ashamed to say I don’t remember who won. It was either Mike or Yannick. Probably Mike. I know I was close. We started a second game and I was waaay in the lead, but then our supper arrived. I’m sure the only reason we never finished that game is ‘cus Mike knew it was mine to win. It really sucked that I didn’t get any knitting done Sat, but after the crochet bonanza, I wanted to give my hands a break.

Sunday Yannick and I meant to go for brunch then a movie, but woke up too late so we went straight to see Phantom. Yes, this is my justification as to why popcorn is a brunch food. Yes I’ve also rationalized it as snack food, breakfast food, and dinner food. Don’t argue with me. The movie, in a word, was breathtaking. Stunning. Gorgeous. Sets to die for. I think I started to cry when the opening music began to swell. (Don’t laugh, this is common with me. When I’d attend my sister’s dance or fashion shows I’d start to cry when the audience clapped at the start of the show. The rise in emotion always gets to me. Ok, everything gets to me.) Yannick, I’m sure, had a good laugh watching me move in my seat. He said he knew I was entranced because I actually put my bag down and there was still popcorn in it. All I know is that I started the movie sitting back in my chair and found myself at the end at the very edge of the seat, my hands folded on the low wall in front of me (we had the seats right over the entrance doors), my chin on the backs of my hands, mouth open. He told me afterwards I looked like the way he heard grandparents describe bringing their kids to see technicolor for the first time. Awestruck. He said that was a big part of why he enjoyed the movie: watching me. Yeah yeah, sounds sweet. He’s just not admitting that he was laughing at me behind his popcorn.

After the movie he dropped me off at home and went up north to help his parents out for a few days. I stayed here and went for dinner with Jackie and Kevin who had just returned from their honeymoon cruise and extra week in Florida, and Debbie. We borrowed Scene It from Mike, so once Julie and Rich showed up and we’d looked at the vacation photos, we played a few rounds. I won both games. Take that Mike!

Monday: stayed home and vegged. Did a bunch of paperwork for the dog sweaters which I’ll cover in greater detail in another post. Started Dog Sweater A and finished the back.

Tuesday: Finished underpanel of Dog Sweater A, among other, non-knitting things (read: puzzles). Went to see The Aviator with Yannick’s mom after work, then drove her to B’s.

Wednesday: Seamed underpanel to back. leaving the armholes open. I’m going to take this moment to say how much I enjoy mattress stitching. Yes, when I have to do it I tend to stall, but once I actually sit down and start doing it I LOVE how it comes together invisibly. And if I do a good job and end up with what looks like continuous stitches, I’m thrilled! Ok, enough geeking now. I got very proud of my excellent seaming and got cocky and decided to weave in my ends. Then our bookkeeper comes in to work for a bit and I show her the tube-like thing I’ve created (no ribbing or cuffs or anything yet). She asks what it is. Rather than tell her, I take out the book I’ve gotten the pattern from, and show her the picture of the finished product. Or rather, that’s what I wanted to do. What I actually did was take one look at the finished product and smack myself in the forehead for being cocky and weaving in my ends. See, the back is pretty much a rectangle with a slightly tapered bottom. The underpanel is a modified triangle. You start at the point and work down to the width, leaving those sts on a holder. I had seamed the underpanel in place with the holder at the top, ready to use those live sts in the neck ribbing. I’d even cut a piece of yarn from the other end of the skein for the seaming to avoid another end to weave in, since the ball was still attached to the sts on the holder. Well, the picture CLEARLY shows the underpanel coming to a point under the chin. I’d seamed it in UPSIDE DOWN. Does anyone remember me being cocky and weaving in all my ends? Yeah, I left fixing that for Thursday.

Thursday: I fixed that. Not happy, especially since I wanted to reduce bulky seams so I untwisted the 3 plies of the yarn and wove each in individually. At least I managed to undo it all without cutting into either of the knitted pieces, so I didn’t have to reknit anything. I was so annoyed that I didn’t do any more knitting for the day. I got home, read with Yannick for a bit, then went to bed.

Friday: I picked up all the sts for the collar and did 3″ in 1×1 rib using brown, the underpanel color, then bound off. When I got home I remembered that I also wanted to use the brown to make the back of another sweater which would have a pink underpanel and cuffs. I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough brown to do both, and remembered I’d planned to do the cuffs/ribbing of the first one in the blue since that was the only sweater using the blue. So I promptly undid my bind off and frogged all 3″ of 1×1 brown rib. *sigh* Is this sweater whipping by or what? Went to dinner with Julie and Rich, came home, and was asleep by 11:00.

Saturday (today): reason I was asleep by 11:00 last night? Had to be at the hairdresser for 7:30 this morning. Touched up my hair color and trimmed the ends and bangs. Now I can see and don’t look like a sheep dog peeking through long, thick bangs anymore. Actually got progress on the sweater without making a mistake: picked up and knit the collar (again) in blue and did the 3″ in 1×1 rib, and picked up both the armholes and did their ribs too. Now I just have the bottom rib and it’s done. I’m a little confused though…I weighed the yarn after doing the back and it weighed 65g of the original 100. This means the back took me 35g and I can figure out the yardage based on the total yards given. I weighed it again after doing the neck collar and it was 55g, so I assumed the collar took 10g. But then I weighed it after doing the armhole ribs and it weighed 50g, thus taking 5g to make. I don’t understand how 2 5row rounds of 24 sts is half the amount when the collar was 21 rounds of 52 sts. Whatever. I just like the fact that the fruit store next to my work lets me use their precision scale. 😉

Now I’m all caught up and off to dinner at Jack Astor’s with Jackie and Kevin, and maybe seeing Julie and Rich later. And I’ll fill in about the dog sweaters tomorrow. ‘Night!

OH! I forgot to mention the absolute cutest thing! A few weeks ago, all 4 of B’s kids slept over at our house. That would be Alex-8, Nicholas-7, Justin-almost 4, and William-16 months. It was a very fun and exhausting night, and we all had a great time. The reason I bring it up here is that while I was making popcorn for us to have while watching a movie, Nick saw the Knitting Muse doll holding her knitting needles. He turned to me and asked “Do you know how to do this?” I asked, “What, knit?” He says yes. I say yes. He asks “Can you show me how to make a scarf?” I, stunned, ask “You want me to teach you how to knit?” He says yes. I ask “Where have you seen knitting before?” He says he saw his grandmother (dad’s side, not my MIL) do it. So I told him I’d show him tomorrow after breakfast. He made me promise and shake on it that I wouldn’t forget. And wouldn’t you know, when I tucked them all into bed he asked me if I still remembered my promise. The next day things were a little busy after breakfast, but just before lunch time I went downstairs with 2 sets of straight needles, 2 bright colors of acrylic yarn and 10 sts cast on already. He was playing Zelda on GameCube with his older brother. I said “Hey Nick, ready to learn to knit?” and I SWEAR he threw down the controller, started to grin and said “YES!”

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So now I’m on to Saturday, right? Geez, if I don’t finish catching up soon I’ll be recapping every day instead of just posting!

So Saturday we got up barely in time to make it to Valleyfield by 12:00/12:30. Ok, we made it there for 1:00 but everyone knows Yannick runs on YST (Yannick Standard Time), so no one was all that surprised. I brought the gifts for the babies and Justin, all in little gift bags with a tag on the outside that had the care info (wash/dry machine, low heat, delicate cycle). I put the tags on their own little thread so they could be taken off the bag and kept. First I gave Isabelle hers for little 4 week old Maya. She took out the pink/yellow dress with dainty bootie/slippers and right away asked “You didn’t make this, did you?” She seemed to really like it, and said Maya would look great in it. I told her I made it sized for 1 year so she’d be able to wear it during the summer when we all get together again. (The cousins are on Yannick’s dad’s side of the family, and we get together with them on New Year’s Day and Easter every year, plus more often for big celebrations like milestone birthdays, etc…) I then gave the pink and blue onesies and booties to Catherine for her 5 or 6 month old twins Beatrice and Thomas. She couldn’t believe they were handmade AND machine washable. They both seemed surprised that I went to the trouble of making them stuff (uh..by “they” I mean the mommies, not the twins). Then I gave B (Brigitte, Yannick’s sister) the sweater for Justin. He was too busy running around as 4 year olds are wont to do, so she said he’d try it on another time.

I’m running late for work, so more later tonight…or tomorrow….

So where was I? Oh yes, Tuesday and my little crochet hook adventure.

Wednesday I finished the front of the baby girl pink outfit and her booties. All that remained was throwing the suckers in the wash. I did put some clear elastic around the leg openings of the pink onesie once the snaps were sewn on. I waited to do the elastic in the blue one ‘cus I wanted to enlarge it by at least 1″ all around with a good blocking and didn’t want the elastic to get stretched out of shape. I would have kept working Wednesday night but we had a shiva to go to and then when I got home I helped Yannick online job hunting. I know, I know. I’m so nice putting everyone ahead of my own deadlines. 🙂

Thursday I was on to baby #3’s outfit. The yoke front and back of the dress were just simple little shapes of single crochet, all in a very pale pink. I had both of those done by 5pm and spend the rest of the evening working on the skirt part. It was composed of a 7 row pattern repeat with eyelets, so every 7 rows I switched from the pink to a very pale yellow. Yes, for those of you counting that gives me more ends to weave in later. Did I mention there were 21 reps around the skirt? I stayed up until I finished the skirt, leaving the sewing of the skirt to the yokes for Friday when I’d have a desk to work at. By the time I went to bed it was 1am and I realized I’d crocheted at least 12 hrs a day each day since Tuesday. Ok, I didn’t realize it right away. It was the intense pain and burning sensation in my hands and my fingers shrinking into claws that gave it away. I’d taken a Tylenol 1 around 11 but it didn’t help. At 1, right before getting into bed I ran my hands under cold water, yet still when Yannick got home 20 mins later he said my hands were hot to the touch. I’d better be able to knit or I will seriously hurt someone.

Friday I attached the skirt to both yoke parts adding little gathers to the skirt, and then sc’d around the armholes and neckline. I did the sc in yellow so it tied in the yellow of the skirt. Then I wrestled with a decision. (It took 3 tries, but I won) Because Mother A had Babies 1 & 2 and got 2 outfits, the pink and blue onesies and booties, I wanted to make Mother B a slightly more complicated outfit for Baby 3 to compensate for the time spent on Babies 1 & 2. Unfortunately time got in the way and I knew that with only Friday afternoon remaining (I did have New Year’s Eve plans) and a deadline of Saturday morning to wash, dry and wrap all gifts for a Saturday afternoon gifting, there was no way I’d be able to squeeze in over 100 rounds of sc. Had it been double or triple, maybe. But sc is just too small and tight. Plus my hands still hurt. So I compromised and found in my pattern book a cute pair of booties/slippers that were very feminine and dainty. They turned out cute but without shape, but a little bit of the clear elastic turned them into adorable little flowery slippers, perfect for the dress. I finished those at work and came home to finish weaving in all the ends for Justin’s hooded sweater. When I say I went down to the wire…. I finished weaving, sewing on 7 buttons and threw it and the other outfits into the wash for a 6 minute delicate cycle. I used the 6 minutes to change and throw on some makeup, and by the time I was laying out the outfits to dry (and stuffing the booties with plastic to make a cute shape) Julie and Rich arrived to start the night. WHEW!

New Year’s Eve was spent at Hymie’s restaurant with Yannick, Julie, Rich, Debbie and Gregg. Jackie and Kevin would have been there had they not been in Florida resting up after their honeymoon cruise. I was designated driver and got free sodas all night, and the dinner was soooooo good! It became a definate “go back” restaurant. (Yannick and I already have about 3 or 4 places on the “don’t ever go back” list, but I’ll get into those another time). We all picked from the special table d’hote and I had an appetizer of grilled jumbo garlic shrimp, a chicken and broccoli potage (soup), and for the main course a 6oz filet mignon served with grilled veggies, a stuffed potato (yes, I actually asked the waiter what it was “stuffed” with), and 5 extremely jumbo garlic shrimp. It was SOOOOOOOOO GOOD! The table d’hote came with dessert too and we all had some freshly made cheese cake that was absolutely sinful. We stayed at the restaurant long enough that they gave out noisemakers and hats and champagne for the New Year’s toast. The only weird part of the night was that the restaurant is owned by the family of a friend of ours, and he was working that night and served us from time to time. I mean, it was cool having him there, that’s how I got the free sodas. But still, Julie and I found it odd to be served by Jason. We kept wanting to ask him to pull up a chair and hang out. After dinner everyone came over for drinks and then when Debbie and Gregg left, the other 4 of us played a rousing game of spades. Yes, a very risky, thrilling New Year’s was had by all.

….more later…or tomorrow….

Ok long time no post and I’m really sorry but hopefully it can be understood. It was a) the week between Xmas and New Year’s, and b) I was working like mad to finish 4 outfits. Forgive me?

I almost killed my hands, but everything is DONE! No joke, I crocheted for upwards of 12 hours a day between Tuesday and Friday to complete/start/finish the 3 baby outfits, and then I still had to finish sewing in all the ends of the hooded sweater I’d finished seaming on Monday, plus sew on the buttons.

Progress report:

Monday: go to class to have Nicole show me properly how to backstitch the sides of the pockets. She was very impressed with the invisibilty of my side seams (really invisible, even with a bunch of stripes. When I showed Yannick I said “find the seam” and he says “what seam?”). Come home and spend all evening untwisting each end and individually weaving in the 3 resulting plys to reduce bulk.

Tuesday: go to work alone and work on baby boy blue outfit. Couldn’t figure out why I had a size 4 cro hk in the ziplock when the patt called for G and my G hk says (G/4.25mm) on it. Used new hk to finish last rem thing- the ribbing for bootie # 2. Attached said ribbing to bootie base. Held it against old bootie. No way. Undid weaving and seaming and undid bootie to redo with cro hk 4.00mm. Couldn’t figure out why I’d used the wrong size hk. Finished bootie # 2 and started baby girl pink outfit. Started crocheting with G/4.25 hk and think “oh no! When I started these outfits in September and switched outfits, I’d made a complete onesie but it was at least 3″ smaller than stated. Realized late that I’d switched projects but not checked the yarn, and I’d cro’d a dk wt patt w/ fingering. So now I must have forgotten to switch hks!” I plan to block the hell out of the blue outfit to make it fit, but do pink outfit correct size. I manage to finish the entire back of baby pink outfit, and 1/2 of front. Later I check the book and realize I’d used my 4.00 hk ‘cus their conversion table shows that a “G” hk is 4.00 mm. I hate errata.

…more tomorrow…or later…

• snowman display – craft (link to come)
• baby sundress – crochet (Ravelry)
• baby booties – crochet (Ravelry)
• pink onesies and booties – crochet (Ravelry)
• blue onesies and booties – crochet (Ravelry)
• mom’s booga bag – knit (Ravelry)
• dad’s thrummed mittens – knit (Ravelry)
• trish’s pig – crochet (Ravelry)
• justin’s hoodie – knit (Ravelry)
• mini cardigan – knit (Ravelry)
• bubbie reta’s fancy scarf – knit (Ravelry)
• hallowe’en display – painting (link to come)
• yannick’s “fair isle” socks – knit (Ravelry)
• standing girl doll – crochet (Ravelry)
• lying down boy doll – crochet (Ravelry)
• sitting boy doll – crochet (Ravelry)
• store decor – craft (link to come)
• summer window – craft (link to come)
• rat bed – crochet (Ravelry)
• bunny cup holder/rat bed – crochet (Ravelry)
• eyelash scarf – knit (Ravelry)
• cable purse – knit (Ravelry)
• gina’s scarf – knit (link to come) (Ravelry)

First on the list for today is brunch, since it’s Sunday and Yannick and I always brunch on Sunday. Just our little way of making time for each other since he’s absentee most of the rest of the week, or we have plans with other people. I think today is a Boccaccino’s day, and I’m jonesing for my first cup of tea. (I almost wrote “cuppa tea”. I don’t know why.)

When we get home he’s going to clean the house. I get to work on the sweater. Every time he needs to clean the house I get to work on knitting or crocheting. This is actually more fair than it seems. A) He LOVES to clean. Neat Freak doesn’t even begin to come close. B) The sweater is for his godson. C) (for the other times) lately the knitting/crocheting I’ve been doing has been for gifts from the two of us or specifically for his family. His share of the gift is buying the yarn. My share is doing all the work. That trumps clean-up day, any day. 🙂

The sweater, last seen looking like this:

has since had some work done. The hood seams were joined and I picked up sts around the hood for a ribbed band. I also picked up and ribbed a few rows on each side of the front for the button band and button hole band. I followed the advice of Nicole, knitting teacher extraordinaire, to k the first 2 rows of the bands to create a “backstitched” look. It just makes them look more polished, and I really like the effect.

Today’s plan: seam the sleeves and underarms, sew on the buttons (really nice “old” looking wood ones) and do any other finishing so that by tomorrow morning’s class all there is left to do is seam the sides of the pockets. I’d copied a cool technique from Nicole by picking up sts for the pockets right from the ribbing and working up to the length of the pocket, then continuing in the body so the top and bottom of pocket are worked right in. She says we’ll just backstitch the sides down..but I want her to show me the best way so I’ll be bringing this to class tomorrow. And hopefully by next Saturday Justin will be the best dressed 3-and-three-quarters year old in town!

First on the list for today is brunch, since it’s Sunday and Yannick and I always brunch on Sunday. Just our little way of making time for each other since he’s absentee most of the rest of the week, or we have plans with other people. I think today is a Boccaccino’s day, and I’m jonesing for my first cup of tea. (I almost wrote “cuppa tea”. I don’t know why.)

When we get home he’s going to clean the house. I get to work on the sweater. Every time he needs to clean the house I get to work on knitting or crocheting. This is actually more fair than it seems. A) He LOVES to clean. Neat Freak doesn’t even begin to come close. B) The sweater is for his godson. C) (for the other times) lately the knitting/crocheting I’ve been doing has been for gifts from the two of us or specifically for his family. His share of the gift is buying the yarn. My share is doing all the work. That trumps clean-up day, any day. 🙂

The sweater, last seen looking like this:

has since had some work done. The hood seams were joined and I picked up sts around the hood for a ribbed band. I also picked up and ribbed a few rows on each side of the front for the button band and button hole band. I followed the advice of Nicole, knitting teacher extraordinaire, to k the first 2 rows of the bands to create a “backstitched” look. It just makes them look more polished, and I really like the effect.

Today’s plan: seam the sleeves and underarms, sew on the buttons (really nice “old” looking wood ones) and do any other finishing so that by tomorrow morning’s class all there is left to do is seam the sides of the pockets. I’d copied a cool technique from Nicole by picking up sts for the pockets right from the ribbing and working up to the length of the pocket, then continuing in the body so the top and bottom of pocket are worked right in. She says we’ll just backstitch the sides down..but I want her to show me the best way so I’ll be bringing this to class tomorrow. And hopefully by next Saturday Justin will be the best dressed 3-and-three-quarters year old in town!

First on the list for today is brunch, since it’s Sunday and Yannick and I always brunch on Sunday. Just our little way of making time for each other since he’s absentee most of the rest of the week, or we have plans with other people. I think today is a Boccaccino’s day, and I’m jonesing for my first cup of tea. (I almost wrote “cuppa tea”. I don’t know why.)

When we get home he’s going to clean the house. I get to work on the sweater. Every time he needs to clean the house I get to work on knitting or crocheting. This is actually more fair than it seems. A) He LOVES to clean. Neat Freak doesn’t even begin to come close. B) The sweater is for his godson. C) (for the other times) lately the knitting/crocheting I’ve been doing has been for gifts from the two of us or specifically for his family. His share of the gift is buying the yarn. My share is doing all the work. That trumps clean-up day, any day. 🙂

The sweater, last seen looking like this:

has since had some work done. The hood seams were joined and I picked up sts around the hood for a ribbed band. I also picked up and ribbed a few rows on each side of the front for the button band and button hole band. I followed the advice of Nicole, knitting teacher extraordinaire, to k the first 2 rows of the bands to create a “backstitched” look. It just makes them look more polished, and I really like the effect.

Today’s plan: seam the sleeves and underarms, sew on the buttons (really nice “old” looking wood ones) and do any other finishing so that by tomorrow morning’s class all there is left to do is seam the sides of the pockets. I’d copied a cool technique from Nicole by picking up sts for the pockets right from the ribbing and working up to the length of the pocket, then continuing in the body so the top and bottom of pocket are worked right in. She says we’ll just backstitch the sides down..but I want her to show me the best way so I’ll be bringing this to class tomorrow. And hopefully by next Saturday Justin will be the best dressed 3-and-three-quarters year old in town!

First on the list for today is brunch, since it’s Sunday and Yannick and I always brunch on Sunday. Just our little way of making time for each other since he’s absentee most of the rest of the week, or we have plans with other people. I think today is a Boccaccino’s day, and I’m jonesing for my first cup of tea. (I almost wrote “cuppa tea”. I don’t know why.)

When we get home he’s going to clean the house. I get to work on the sweater. Every time he needs to clean the house I get to work on knitting or crocheting. This is actually more fair than it seems. A) He LOVES to clean. Neat Freak doesn’t even begin to come close. B) The sweater is for his godson. C) (for the other times) lately the knitting/crocheting I’ve been doing has been for gifts from the two of us or specifically for his family. His share of the gift is buying the yarn. My share is doing all the work. That trumps clean-up day, any day. 🙂

The sweater, last seen looking like this:

has since had some work done. The hood seams were joined and I picked up sts around the hood for a ribbed band. I also picked up and ribbed a few rows on each side of the front for the button band and button hole band. I followed the advice of Nicole, knitting teacher extraordinaire, to k the first 2 rows of the bands to create a “backstitched” look. It just makes them look more polished, and I really like the effect.

Today’s plan: seam the sleeves and underarms, sew on the buttons (really nice “old” looking wood ones) and do any other finishing so that by tomorrow morning’s class all there is left to do is seam the sides of the pockets. I’d copied a cool technique from Nicole by picking up sts for the pockets right from the ribbing and working up to the length of the pocket, then continuing in the body so the top and bottom of pocket are worked right in. She says we’ll just backstitch the sides down..but I want her to show me the best way so I’ll be bringing this to class tomorrow. And hopefully by next Saturday Justin will be the best dressed 3-and-three-quarters year old in town!

I owe a big apology to anyone who actually reads this blog. I haven’t posted regularly in at least 2 weeks, and I’m really, really sorry. I actually come up with great blog ideas and posts when I’m at work, now if only we had internet access I’d be able to post. (Actually, I’d just be happy if we had call waiting).

I am slowly slugging along on all my required knitting. I managed to secretly finish Yannick’s “Fair Isle” socks and gave them to him for Christmas. The Regia MultiEffekt yarns work up so nicely when knitting- but get SO SOFT once washed! I couldn’t stop rubbing them when wrapping the gift. Now I can’t wait to make my pair…eventually. I still have to do the second thrummed sock, and then he’s out of the way.

I also finished the button band on Justin’s Hooded Sweater so I will be seaming that tomorrow and/or in my Monday morning class. I’d like that to be done to be gifted on Jan 1st when we get together for New Year’s.

Luckily I’m alone at work this coming week so I can get the crocheting on the 3 baby outfits done to be gifted Jan 1st too…and then BOOM I start making doggie samples. I picked up a bunch of yarns to work them up, and I’m really excited to start. I hope it doesn’t take too long to make each sweater, ‘cus I really want to try each of them, like now!

I also need to update my FOs and WIPs on this site…and upload all the pics. *sigh* Can I put in a request for more hours/day?