What a Week

Last week was... I don't even know. I think somehow the time/space continuum got a little wonky on me. It went so fast. So here's my attempt to re-cap. It was still spring break at school so the work schedule was definitely off (I think that's the main reason that I'm off on my conception of time). Tommy arrived home on Tuesday evening while I was at SnB, where, by the way, I sewed in the ends of the Hidcote Shawl!!!!! Happy dancing ensued! And then yesterday I went to Ellie's to block it. See the blob o' knitted lace?

Become the beautiful shawl that it is. Amazing what a good soak and some pins will do for knitting. Close-ups on the 3 different motifs:Once more, let me just say yay! I feel so very accomplished when I look at it all finished. The first major lace project I've ever finished - I don't count the Luna Moth Shawl because it's much smaller than this, and the pattern was the same throughout. But anyway, because I was finally done with the behemoth, I decided to continue along the Path of Finishing, and pulled out a project that hasn't seen daylight in many moons. The Mystic Waters Shawl.You might not be able to tell that anything's been done from that picture, but I assure you, I put on 20 rows, and am nearly done with Chart D. Very slow going, I now remember why it got put aside. The rows don't have any repeats within them, you have to look at the char from stitch 1 all the way across to the last stitch. Oi. Makes for a very wide chart. With the behemoth, stitch markers were placed every 20 or so stitches to mark out the repeat sections, and as it grew you got more repeats across, made it easier to just knit. With the MW, you don't have that luxury, yet. I think they start a few repeats in like 2 charts. So we shall plug along.

And just so we can get all the knitting out of the way, I picked up another hibernating project to work on during practice, the Rivendell sock. I ripped out the sock that I had - the one that was the second attempt and still too small, just to refresh your memory - and re-cast on with 3.25mm needles. Worked the cuff, and then switched to 3.0mm needles for the leg. And I am happy to report that it fits! Finally! So as of yesterday, I am through the gusset of the first sock. Happy dance.

I also got going on a market bag - I had this great idea to make a bunch to be beach bags for the vacation this year. This one, is the Monteagle Bag from Mason Dixon (the second book), with some KnitPicks CotLin yarn in the colorway, Surf. Very appropriate.I'm almost done with it, and sadly I'm thinking it's way smaller than I was hoping for. So the next bag will be a different pattern. I've got enough yarn to make 5 (maybe 6, since this one didn't take much). It looks like a blob of hot mess right now, but it's actually really cool. The different stitches are all kinda weird when you're doing them, but then look so cool when they're done.

So that's where the knitting stands. Onto the family bit now. So like I said, Tommy came home Tuesday, I hung out with him and his friend Jack that night for a little while. Wednesday, Paul and the boys came out for dinner (Mama Roberto's is so good, and so not WW friendly). Thursday was uneventful. Friday I met everyone at the Fish Fry after work, by everyone I mean Mom, Ellie, Tom, Paul and the family. Afterwards, we hit East Coast for some more WW unfriendly goodness, and then went to Willoughby Brewing Company with Jack and his girlfriend Jess. Good times ensued. And let me just say, that this has been the worst week for me since I've been on WW - too many points everywhere! Oh well, it was a special occasion.

Saturday, Aunt Ginny and Uncle Richard came over for the requested lasagna dinner, and Paul, Peggy and the boys stopped over after the Disney show they went to. The photos are pretty self explanatory.We got Tommy to put on his dress blues (we'd never seen him in them, so much photo taking took place).Notice that I was wearing my new November Ruffle. Love it.

We managed to have the whole family present briefly - even if it was via the internet. After everyone left, the fun really began. Because of his imminent deployment (he leaves for Afghanistan next Monday, but I don't want to think about that), Tommy brought home all of his fancy electronic stuff. So we are once again the cool house on the block. He showed us how to play Rock Band. Let me just say right now, I suck. I will need some serious practice. With the Wii as well, but that went a little better. And now for the fun stuff, Mom, Ellie and Tommy doing "Last Train to Clarksville". Good times!

Pleased to no end

I am ecstatic! Remember the Hidcote Shawl? Yeah, the behemoth of lace knitting? Well, here it is:

As of right now, it is exactly 3 rows and the bind off away from being off the the needles! Then it's just a matter of sewing in the ends and blocking it and this bad boy is done. I still can't believe it. I finally forced myself to pick it back up last week, knowing that I had just over a chart left to do. And I did a few marathon sessions with it, and tada!

The reason I picked it back up? I told myself that after the "green season" was done, I needed to pick up the UFO's and finish them. And I am. Example:

That's the November Ruffle. Done. Except for blocking (which will be done tonight). Yay me! Seriously, all this finishing is a bit nutty for me. This weekend was good for all things fibery though. Saturday was a Nora-thon on Lifetime. A few Nora Robert's movies and I get all kinds of things done:

That's the first of the Interlocking Leaves socks and the second bobbin of the Redwood Forest BFL finally done! Yay me again! Although, I am obviously not very good at equally dividing fiber as yet. Hmmm.

There was a little bit of starting that happened last week. After knitting with Meagan and Debi on Monday, I cast on for a little felted bag, the pattern was given to me verbally by Debi.

Doesn't look like much yet, but she made one for Meagan's birthday gift and it's adorable, and I want one too. So I'm using the Mauch Chunky (or as I like to call it, AKA Jim Thorpe) yarn that Meagan gave me for my birthday and some big needles and away we go.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with myself.

And so is Maddie, but then again, she's always pleased with herself.

Some Catching Up

Wow, so it's been a while since I blogged. Sorry - for those of you that read this and actually want to know what's going on. I had pictures ready to go for another post after the Maddie one, but I was overcome by the evil sinus infection that I've been fighting for a month. It's all good now, I've got antibiotic horse pills. I guess that means I'll kinda do two posts in one.

So what's happened in the last week and a half? Officially, basketball season ended last Tuesday and Wednesday. And I haven't really gotten much knitting done, the illness kinda took over for a few days there, as well as the basketball.

Before the last post I had the Ireland socks done. They're amazing and I can't wait to wear them tomorrow (BTW, I've figured out how to guarantee nice weather in March, knit a bunch of woolen things for a specific day, and it'll end up being 60 degrees, like they're predicting for tomorrow).

You saw the state of Kaylee's sweater last time (bad kitty!), and last night, I FINALLY sewed in the ends to finish it while watching TAR (SPOILER, but not about the outcome of the episode - Phil in his skivvies!). Yay it's done! I have to admit that I got to the point where I really really really didn't want to knit it anymore. And then when I forced myself to, there was a bump, but I kept going, I resisted the urge to rip, as I usually would, and just kept knitting. And it's adorable.

Granted Miss Kaylee probably won't get to wear it tomorrow, maybe next year I'll knit her a (eek!) cotton one, and it'll snow. I can't win.

That officially concludes our green knitting season for 2009! Onto other stuff. As soon as I was done with the Ireland Socks, I cast on for a new pair. It's the Interlocking Leaves pattern from the fall Knitty, in some Smooshy called "November Muse". Once again, I'm a bit in love with the Smooshy. It's working so amazing perfectly with the pattern. So here was the sock for the last post:

And here it is now:

It grew a bit in the interim. I'm about to turn the heel, if that gives you any idea as to where I'm at, for you knitting muggles, that means I've basically got the foot done. A close up on the pattern:

Gives you an idea of the color too. It's mostly a russet-y brown, with little splashes of purple and orange and green and red - just beautiful.

I started another quick little project before the last post, some Mitered Mittens by Elizabeth Zimmermann using my handspun.

Of course, they've since been finished (a really quick easy and fun knit). And I love how the handspun looks, this is the first use of wheel spun handspun for me! And they're perfect!Finally, this weekend I picked up the long neglected November Ruffle. After a misstep (the cord on my needle popped right out of the metal end), I got the last few inches of stockinette done, and last night I started the ruffle. Big excitement! 15 inches is A LOT of stockinette. And now that there are more than 300 stitches it's A LOT of stitches. But it's easy knitting for the rest of the way so it should go quickly.See the nice black and white blob?! Hard to tell that the knitting is going around 3 sides.

If you look close enough, you can see the difference. Mostly because the ruffle gets knit in with a bigger needle. Yay! I'll have it done just in time for the warm weather!

The Usual Shenanigans

It's a good day. Why is it a good day? Anyone who knows me, knows that Monday is not my favorite day of the week, but I make an exception every once in a while. Like today. Here's why. Let's start with Saturday. It started not so wonderfully - it rained, sometimes poured, for the entire Homecoming game. But we won. Happiness and elation though, later in the day after Iwas dry and warm again, when Notre Dame took it to Michigan.

Liz and I had decided, based on the weather radar map, that we weren't going to the Indians game. Of course, watching the little on TV that we did, it didn't rain at all. Stupid weather channel. But we had a good time at home anyway, ordered some Mama Roberto's, had a visit from Bridget and Kaylee, went and got some Coldstone. Mmmm Coldstone. Proceeded to watch OSU get embarassed by USC. I'm not an Ohio State fan, but there are two teams that I will absolutely root against, USC and Michigan. I am a fan of whoever those two teams are playing any given Saturday. Oh well. The Indians lost, btw.

Yesterday, was Mason's first birthday party. The pictures will speak for themselves. And let's just say, my nephews are very very similar in their love of cake.
Getting close to the downward spiral at this point....
And there it is. That's the money shot. What's even funnier, is that he kept doing this. To heck with these hands, let's cut out the middle man. Seriously, you do not want to get in between Mason and his food. Trust me.See what I mean? Even with a fork, Elliott can't stay neat with cake. So we had some cake shenanigans. More was to come though...

Onto THE game. That's right Steelers-Browns v. 1 2008. Ellie decided that we needed to "get our game face on". Need I say more?
Yep, game face = eye black strips and powder puff hair. And it was all downhill from there...

Note the intensity on Ellie's face. Click the picture to make it bigger for full effect.Check out that stiff arm. Yeah, we're that crazy. But look how cute we can be.
Yeah, crazy game day shenanigans, that's just how we roll. But the main reason that today is a good day... STEELERS WIN!!! It may not have been pretty, and I'm sure that I'm going to hear about how the Browns were robbed, and some elaborate conspiracy theory that would have had the Browns winning when I go to work later, but the bottom line is, Steelers win the 10th straight game against the Browns. Woot!

And because this is a knitting blog. I'll show you my knitting from yesterday. I started yet another Christmas present. So this will probably be the only photo you see of it until after it's gifted. It's using Hill Country Yarn's Superfine Superwash sock yarn in "Salmon".
And because I couldn't be knitting something orange while the the Steelers were playing the Browns, I pulled out the long neglected November Ruffle. Perfect football knitting. Got several inches done on it, and have several more to go before I get to the ruffle part.
Here's a pic trying to convey the scope of the piece. Doesn't really do it though. Oh well, when it's done and off the needles you'll understand.
See, 11.5 inches done. I think I have to get to 15 before the ruffle?! Have to dig out the pattern to be sure.
Don't you just love the tweedy effect? Can you tell I do? And the lusciousness of the alpaca....