Merry Christmas!

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I finished the sweater for dh just a moment ago!I had two remaining ends left to weave in, though the rest has been done for about a week... I don't know what I was thinking last week which enabled me to weave in all of the other ends and decide to leave two for "later", but "later" is here, the sweater is finished, and now I'm going to wrap it! I also bought some long sleeved crew neck shirts for dh to wear under it (white, black, and gray). Comparing it against a long-sleeved polo shirt, I think it will actually fit him, too.

DH is out with the boys buying groceries for an early Christmas Eve feast. Then we'll go to church this evening. Tomorrow we will go to the Ronald McDonald house and bring them some items from their "wish list", something which has become an annual tradition for us on Christmas Day. We are so thankful for our own healthy kids, so it is a small effort to help somebody else who might not be so fortunate right now.

In any case, I'd better get back to my gift wrapping, but I just wanted to pop in here to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)

Ha! Christmas knitting??

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Wow - I love your Subway mittens! Gorgeous colorway, and they'll be so practical too. I really hope this wool blend works for you. And congratulations on finishing your gift socks!

I'm a rather erratic Christmas knitter. I have had years when I planned ahead what I would knit, and years when it was all very spur of the moment. (Ah, my innocent first year when I learned to knit in November and decided to make mittens for my 6 nieces. Thank heavens a couple of them were still little - and I finished on Christmas Eve in the living room while everyone was eating in the dining room!) This one was one those years when I spent all of November and most of December under the impression that I wasn't going to do any Christmas knitting. (snort) Plenty of baby knitting going on.

(Baby knitting update - I whipped up a quick hat for a girl, in case that is what my niece has in the next few weeks. I had a boy hat in stock.....)


Anyway. I finished up my Tulip sweater for my youngest niece last week, and even wove in ends and blocked it. (Here's a picture - poor thing is teething and was all drippy that day!)


Ok, ok, this does relate to Christmas knitting. So, I was left with several wips, but (this is the key) NO PRESSING DEADLINES. Which is a dangerous position to be in during the month of December. I briefly flirted with the idea of making soap sweaters for my co-workers, but counted that up and it was 10, so I put that as a "probably not." I seriously decided to break out the Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine that I bought about 5 years ago and use stash yarn and leftovers to make a toddler blanket for my great-niece, who dearly covets one. Her birthday is..tomorrow, but I thought if I did the body on the machine, I could sew it up and embellish it in time. (Turns out I need to learn more about the machine. After the 5th try that either jumped off the machine or broke the yarn by the 6th row, I gave up on this idea.) Then I had several crazy thoughts of other quick projects for large groups of people....Lauren talked me down from several of those.

Last weekend, I planned to travel to visit my niece in Ohio (the one about to have a baby!) but the snowstorm that was predicted made that unwise. Left with an unexpected free weekend, I decided to spend the time knitting. I decided to see how many of the 10 soap sweaters I could do in 2 days.



The answer is 11! Isn't that wild? Most of them went pretty quickly, although the fair-isle took about 4 hours! I tried several versions getting that one started, but it was pretty fun.

See??


I'm going to post the pattern again using the magic loop method, which I've decided I prefer. I've made enough of them now that I know how big a "field" I have to work with for the "body." I really like using the pattern idea from the Tulip sweater where color changes are done with a row of seed stitch, which makes the pretty "lacy" color changes. It was fun to use yarns from previous projects - there is a "sock monkey" one, and the special one using the left over Dream-In-Color from the Tulip sweater. And I finally found something to do with my Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted Rainbow colorway - it doesn't pool in this project!!

So, I may try to whip up more of these before my family Christmas get-together, we'll see. I still have plenty of scrap yarn! Although- I have 3 pairs of socks that are getting holes, and so besides one more baby blanket, I really need to get cracking on socks for myself! And I need to get out the sewing machine to do some receiving blankets. Christmas cookies, shopping, getting ready for the party......

I'm probably done Christmas knitting!

;)

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter!)

This is NOT an iPod

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

It is so fun to hear what everybody is working on for Christmas gifts! Also, everybody sounds quite sane about the Christmas knitting this year, so I'm glad to hear there isn't too much of a frenzy going on right now. That reminds me, I still have to finish the sweater for dh.....which I'll do tonight, when he is at his choir rehearsal.

The last time we visited my mom and dad, as we were leaving, and before I could think about it and say, "Just wait one minute!", my dad put this into the back of our van:It is a reel-to-reel tape recorder/player which my dad purchased in the 1950's, and in addition to being the size of a suitcase, it weighs approximately 33 pounds -- definitely not something you'd stick in the pocket of your coat like, say, an iPod... He included a stack of tape reels, and told me that if I could figure out what was on the tapes, which ones were worth keeping, and which ones weren't, then it would make a **lot** of people happy. (I think what he really meant by that is, "Mom wants all of this cr*p out of the house.")

Seems like an easy enough task, except for the fact that the 33 pound recorder/player **doesn't** !! Turning it on yielded a big humming noise and a lit light bulb, but the mechanism which is supposed to advance the tape didn't. Now I am an electrical engineer, but 1950's tape recorder technology is something they didn't teach me in the 1980's, nor do I have the time or desire to really dig into it right now...

And so, I went to see Bob. After making several phone calls and web inquiries, it seemed like Bob would be able to help us out -- mainly because my schedule was so crazy with the class and the preschool and swimming lessons and being home when my son's bus returned him to us at the end of the day, and Bob was able to see us on a particular Thursday morning when we happened to have a free two hours. He had equipment which allowed us to determine what was on both sides of the tapes at the same time and which could filter out some of the tape quality issues, etc. And so, after going through five tapes, we turned this stack: into this:It includes recordings of one of my dad's bands (from more than 40 years ago), some of his very fine accordion playing, and a little musical show my siblings and I put together in 1976. I'll make a label and content sheet for it... and then this will be my Christmas gift to my dad, along with the broken 33 pound reel-to-reel tape recorder/player...unless one of our readers would like it, but I'm telling you, shipping would not be cheap...

More about gifts in my next post. I finished up shopping for all of my nieces and nephews and will share what I found which was either made in the USA and/or fair trade...but now I must go grocery shopping. Also, I'm planning on there being actual knitting content in my next post...

Have a great day!
Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)

Subway Mittens

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

This morning I went to the gym and I brought my ear phones instead of my chemistry binder. It felt weird... Great to have some time for others things; sad that I'll miss all of the people and the whole learning experience thing. (I'm not taking classes next semester; it will be my first semester in which I don't have to study since 2004. Now I'll have no excuse for a messy house.) And, you won't have to hear me blathering on about it any more!

Here is almost half of a pair of Subway Mittens (pattern from the winter issue of Interweave Knits). (Please pardon the crummy photo -- I'll get some better pictures when they are done.) I have the pocket 2/3 sewn in place, and the flap is done though not sewn in place. (Recall that I am a picky, picky "finisher", so it takes me forever to sew these pieces together...) Reading the article in the magazine, for some metro transportation systems, you can just leave the card in the mitten pocket and wave your hand in front of the sensor as you are admitted into the system. We don't have anything like that in Madison (yet), but I am planning ahead for next year when I am (hopefully) in grad school and I will keep my free bus pass in the little pocket -- I'll have to dig it out to slide it through the card reader on the bus, but it will be a handy place to keep it. Plus, a pocket on a mitten just looks cool... Also, I really didn't like the pointy tips at first, but now I think they look nice and they are so quick and easy. I chose the yarn because I thought it wouldn't irritate my hands: It is a wool/cotton blend, and generally my hands literally become raw in wool mittens, but I am cautiously optimistic that these are going to work out great! Very soft, though the warmth factor will be another critical test...

And now, just some notes to our commenters (and I ALWAYS love hearing from you!):

Cindy G: The sock yarn I used was Trekking (75%wool, 25%nylon) and I love it!

Michele: Well, technically, I don't do a lot of "housework", so that helps with the schedule :-) We keep things picked up around here, though I have plenty of dust and dishes sitting around at any given time. I'm trying to teach the boys to take care of their own things -- their future wives will thank me! I'm so glad you have plenty of time to play now!! Thank you for your note!

Sus: You cracked me up with your comment about weaving ends in while in the driveway!

Well, my five year old and I are going to get going on some Christmas shopping this morning, for my nieces and nephews. Eventually I'd like to convince my family to do the alternative gift thing in which we all pool our gift money and give it to charities, though I suggested that a few years ago and it wasn't received very well. Maybe when the kids are all a little bit older, I'll try again with that idea. In the meantime, I'm going to try to buy either local or fair trade items. I'll let you know what I find.

Just a general question to everybody: How are you coming on your Christmas knitting?

Have a blessed day!
Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)

In the Nick of Time!

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

These are not just *any* socks. These, finished only one hour before I must leave and take them with me, are *gift socks* for one of my friends. (Well, full disclosure -- I still must weave in the yarn ends on the toes, but, "YAY!", they are going to be done!) Yes, done ON TIME, and I'm happy with how they turned out...and 50% of the gifts I'm knitting for Christmas are done now!(Really, my sock blockers aren't that pretty, but they do a nice job with the displaying of the socks!)

As my final chem2 exam is looming over me (test tomorrow night, scheduled from 5:30 until 9:30pm, though most students won't need that entire time), I'm starting to look around the house and mentally determine how I'll spend my first homework-free week since August. I must say, there are many possibilities to choose from. I suppose I ought to tackle the Christmas tasks, first. Then, there's just general home neglect -- lots of spider webs in the corners of the ceilings, still only a valence and a half sewn for the master bedroom windows, still the caulking re-do much needed around the tub in our main bathroom and some painting in there, and generally putting stuff away which I've only had a chance to "throw in a general direction" while I've been busy with other things. (The chemists among you will understand what I mean when I say that the delta entropy in my home since I began my class is a large, positive value. And, unfortunately, changing the delta entropy to a negative value is NOT a spontaneous process!) I can only imagine how glamorous all of these to-do items must sound, but I think it will be good for me to finally have time for these things, and I'll feel great checking things off my list. Plus, it will hopefully help lessen the loss I know I'll feel as my class finishes. I have a hard time when things end. I'm old and sappy that way...

Anyway, off to get ready for the kids' Sunday School Christmas Pageant. My seven year old is singing a solo, and because I'm his mom, of course I think that he's the most talented kid in the program! More soon, and I'll be posting more frequently! I bet you can hardly wait until I share my bathtub caulking experiences with you...

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)

Off the needles!

Greetings and Dear Laura:

I'm so excited for your Sapporo success - it's a wonderful sweater, and it FITS!! Always a bonus!

It's been even LONGER since my last post, and I've also been missing talking to you. I have tons of pictures, which means there is plenty to say. It all boils down to time. As usual.

I've been working overtime - 10 hours a week. My first thought was that those 10 hours had to come from somewhere - they can not come from sleep, and I prefer they not come from knitting or blogging time. While I have maintained a reasonable sleep schedule....well...knitting and blogging have suffered. But here are some pictures of what knitting (and knitting related activity!) I have managed

Most excitedly, the baby blanket I have been working on has gone from this:


to this!


It remains to be blocked, and very little of the 9 skeins of yarn remain.



The final 5 rows, about an hour and a half of knitting, took me a week to work into my schedule!

I also cast on this Tulip Sweater from a kit I purchased online last summer.



I am finishing up the first sleeve and I hope to get more knitting time in this weekend.



There has also been yarn-store action since last I posted. You don't know how sorry I was to miss the fall open-house at Blackberry Ridge, especially since I was in Kenosha that weekend!! SO close!! But my trip was barely a day-and-a-half long, and so there was simply not time for the additional driving. I consoled myself by visiting the LYS in Kenosha, Fiddlehead Yarns. I made my first visit to that store last summer, and my main disappointment was in the lack of interesting sock yarn. Well, that has been remedied!

They had several nice hand-dyed sock yarns, including one I'd never seen....Araucania sock yarn. I loved the colorways, and once I got home I really wished I had chosen it! In the end, I chose a sport-weight Lorna's Laces, and since I had to wait a bit for my ride, I cast on right there! I've got a couple of inches done, but I've decided to switch to a different pattern, so frogging is in the future for this project.



I have a few other yarn store pictures - on our annual after-Thanksgiving shopping trip, I went to Cottage Knits in Columbus IN. I noticed online that they had moved to a new location and I was really excited when I saw it. It is a very cute "cottage" and they've done a great job of turning it into a yarn store.

There is plenty of room for yarn, a cozy room with a fireplace and comfortable chairs to just knit and visit. There's also a nice big classroom! I picked up some Collinette Jitterbug sock yarn.


And finally, we are getting a new yarn store here in Fort Wayne! Knitting Off Broadway will be opening Dec 28th. It's located just off Broadway - a couple of blocks from the GE plant! They had a little "preview" last Friday, a "Bare-Walls Trunk Show" of some sweater kits they will carry. Knitting at Lunch and I went down on our lunch break to check it out - there was some excitement, I can tell you!! The shop is cute, altho a little small. Can't wait to see it decked out in new yarn!


I'll close with a picture from my niece's baby shower from last October - I like to call it "what I'm knitting for!" One of these babies was born 2 days later, one is due before Christmas, and the last in March.

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter!)

It's been a while...

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

Thank you all so much for the wonderful feedback regarding the Saporro! I really love the sweater, and every time I wear it, I'm motivated to make another Dale pattern. Then I consider what else is going on in my life right now, including other yarn in my stash, and I return to reality...

It's been TOO LONG since my last post, and I've missed you! Things will be winding down in two weeks, but in the meantime, I have a big test tomorrow (which explains why I decided to post today, instead of studying...), and a final exam in two weeks (watch for **even more** knitting activity). Things are going well, though continue to be very busy. I may be pathetic, because I love this chem2 class. My professor is great, the material is interesting, and when you put those two things together, I don't mind the huge amount of work it is.

...sort of like knitting that way..... Here's a huge amount of stockinette:Yes -- The Alpaca Vee, Christmas gift for my dh, finished circumference of 48", is finished except for three things:
Knitting the vee-neck band
Sewing the underarm holes
Weaving in the ends

I have it blocking now, and will probably finish it this week. I am hoping that the upper arms aren't too snug, though I blocked it out to a dimension which should be fine, but I always worry a little bit until the moment of truth when dh is actually wearing it. It's plain by my standards, but I think he'll like it that way...

That's the major Christmas knitting, and I must say that finishing it early in December is so much better than last year, when the big gift sweater wasn't finished until December 24th, the same day it was given away...

Secondary Christmas knitting is a pair of socks, though those are on the home stretch, too. Apparently, what it really takes to get my knitting mojo going is having homework lurking in the background, so it becomes more than just knitting. It is **procrastination**....

Anyway, I also made a pair of Subway Mittens (from the Winter 2007 Interweave), but I gave them away without taking a picture of them. I've started another pair, however, for myself, using a merino/cotton blend. I'm playing around with some different yarns to see if I can find anything that has wool in it which doesn't make my hands itch. This particular yarn shows some promise. More on these as they progress...

In other news, I took my five year old to his swimming lesson this morning, and while I was sitting on a bench knitting, I noticed a man on the other side of the pool who looked just like my Physiology professor from two years ago. After my son's lesson was over, I walked right by the man, and he was looking at me as though he might know me, too, so I called him by name, and it was him! Never in my life was I more glad that **I wasn't** wearing a swim suit... In any case, always fun to chat with former teachers.

I hope this finds you well, and I know it finds you busy -- you're a knitter, after all, and Christmas is only 21 days away!

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)

I didn't believe it would happen...but...

...Sapporo is FINISHED! (Yes, I'm shouting!)Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Here are some photos...This next one was taken outside of the coffee room which is now part of Lakeside Fibers. Have I taken you there since they added their big room in the back? Nice place to knit, do homework, have a steamer and cherry/almond cookie, and visit with friends....AND, they open really early, so I can go there right after I drop off my five year old at preschool... Photo taken by Caryn, who is in my chemistry class, and who is also a "cool" (okay, I'm dating myself) knitter! Yes, the finishing is finished. It is just the thing to wear tonight, when we go to a Lutefisk dinner. Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)

Oops!

I am sorry for the mix-up, but I mentioned in my last post that the Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill open house is tomorrow, and that is INCORRECT! It is next weekend! Details can be found here. (You may have to scroll down the page just a bit.....)

Laura

Catching up

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

All of my morning activities (Moms' Club, then meeting my dh for lunch) were canceled for today, so I have an unexpected entire morning in which my five year old and I may putter around the house catching up on things.

I cannot keep track of all of the babies going on by you! Somebody needs to check the water... Very Exciting!!!

The last time I posted was before Halloween, so here is a recap of that:Yes, that is a dinosaur, and a knight, and a pumpkin which dh carved like a cat, which is actually much less complicated than the original request/drawing we were given for that pumpkin... I suppose it is good that our children think we can handle such complicated things, though I hope they're not too disappointed as they realize more and more every day that parents are so very human.....
My five year old and I go grocery shopping every Tuesday, and when we got our groceries home this past Tuesday, he asked me, "What can I do for you, Mom?" It's a question he's been asking me a lot lately, and I'm not sure why (it might have something to do with things he may be learning in Sunday School??), but it's very endearing. And so, I asked him to put the toilet paper away in the cabinet under the sink in the master bathroom. I now share with you that I have a phobia about running out of toilet paper, so I always have a toilet paper stash... And so, my son commented that there was already one full pack plus one roll already in there. And, here is what I found later in the day, after he'd put the new pack away, too:Now I chuckle every time I open up that cabinet...

I had my midterm exam in chemistry yesterday, and my mistakes on the test revealed themselves to me in my head as I was driving home from the test, so I decided it best to not think about it too much more until I get the whole thing back this afternoon to assess if there was any real damage. It's amazing how much knitting I was able to accomplish prior to the test, when I was supposed to be studying for it...

So, in the category of "How close can a sweater be to finished without being actually finished," I give you Sapporo, with the zipper completely sewn in, half of the neckband sewn down, and only one sleeve hem to sew down in order to call this a wrap:Apparently, even a looming test is not enough to motivate me to actually finish the "finishing" work, even though it will probably only take me an hour more...

...and so, I also share the alpaca vee with you, miles and miles of stockinette. One hank of yarn made a "tube" for the body which was 48 inches around and 15 inches long, so I'm confident I'll have plenty of yarn to finish this. (I started with two pounds; it will probably take me about 1.5 pounds to make this sweater.) The first sleeve and body are now "attached" to each other; the second sleeve has about five more rounds to go before it can then can be "attached" to the rest of the assembly, too, and then the pattern will actually involve **decreases** and **vee neck shaping**. Yes, I'll have to think just a little bit on this one, though I have to say, I do enjoy the not thinking part very much, because it makes for great portable knitting, and I don't get messed up when I'm having a conversation with somebody at Knit Night at the Sow's Ear (I'll take you there the next time you're in town).

Speaking of Knit Night at the Sow's Ear, though they have much more temptation after the expansion of their yarn area, I managed to leave with only a magazine......which I really like, because, you know, I like the more traditional patterns, and there are 22 "timeless styles" to choose from in here.

One more note -- Open house at Blackberry Ridge Wool Mill this Saturday, just sayin'....

Well, time to catch up on some other things now... I hope you are having a great day!

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)

Blue Tea and Seven things....

Greetings & Dear Laura:

Ok, I'm going to catch up a couple of tags from RPW. First is the Blue Tea meme. It was started by a lady who has a blog called Blue Tea. (Thus the name!) According to the original poster, the rules for this meme are: “Devise a list of 5-10 courses you would take to fix your life. It’s more fun to be in classes with friends, so include one class from the person who tagged you that you’d also like to take. Tag five.”


1. HTML - This class sounds like something I'd like to know, since I had to have Lauren explain to me that I wasn't trying to figure out "bracket language" for my blog but HTML! This will be the class I take with Lora, who tagged me.
2. Cutting - You know, I watch lots of shows on the Food Network, and they all just whoosh away and have beautifully chopped food and NOT chopped fingers....I'd like to learn how to do that! Chop, mince, julienne, slice, dice....all of it.
3. Drawing - I'd love to be able to draw and I'm really bad at it. I don't know if a class would help, but it would be worth a shot.
4. Film making - my digital camera takes 15-minute video clips. I took some video of a project my dad and brothers worked on and then used my mac to put it together with music and stills to do a short movie - that was so fun and I'd love to do more and know what I was doing!
5. Photography - I did take a class years ago, but I'd like to go beyond that. I see such beautiful photography on blogs and wish mine was as nice.

Hmm, I notice that all of my classes are for skills that I would like to have, nothing about THINKING type courses. Also a big emphasis on creativity. I don't think my list would have looked anything like this even 5 years ago, so I'm bemused by the change. And while I'm sure I could benefit from courses in things like housekeeping and personal finance....it just doesn't appeal to me. Now if one of those organizational tv shows wants to come and toss out my stuff and organize what's left, I'm up for that, as long as I don't have to do all the work! Oh - and I didn't list any knitting classes because it's a given that I'll sign up for most any knitting class, even if I think I know how to do it! (Looking back at the instructions, I see I was supposed to choose classes to "fix my life" while I chose classes I'd like to take. Someone can analyze that slip for me....) ;)

Also a while back I was tagged for this...7 Things About Me.

1. I can drive a stick-shift. My dad wouldn't let me drive an automatic transmission until I could shift to his satisfaction. In fact, my primary car was a stick shift for almost 20 years. I can also drive and shift a semi truck or farm tractor. Shifting bicycles or motorcycles baffles me.
2. Also thanks to my father, I can diagram and explain the difference between a gasoline engine and a diesel engine.
3. 20 years ago (when I had turned 28 for the FIRST time) I took a trip to visit a friend in Finland and a friend in Austria. I've always felt that the boldest thing I've ever done was climbing on a train in Stockholm with a plan to meet Ingrid in Innsbruck, Austria on New Years Eve at around 8:00 pm. And I didn't speak a word of Swedish or German. (Well, I knew church words in German. However, the need to mention the Trinity never actually came up....) Heady stuff for a farm-girl from Indiana.
4. I don't like peanuts or peanut butter, but I do like Reeces Peanutbutter Cups. (It's not as strange as my brother, who likes peanuts, but not peanut butter!)
5. I plan to go parasailing on my 50th birthday.
6. I sang in at least one choir from the time I was in 3rd grade until about 5 years ago (a span of about 35 years.) I loved it and couldn't imagine ever not doing it. Until I found that I just didn't want to anymore. Now I can't imagine wanting to again. It's weird.
7. According to my grandmother, she and Loretta Lynn's grandmother were cousins and used to play together as children. And my dad has a coal mine, so I'm a coal miner's daughter too.

There. If you haven't done these yet, consider yourself tagged!!!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

All about babies......

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Well, the last week has been all about babies - and that's always good! (Caution - long post, very little knitting content!)

Last Wednesday, we picked up my niece Jessica from the airport - she'd flown in from Austin. Yes, it was odd that we didn't recognize her right away, since it has only been 5 months since we've seen her. I have to say in our defense that in those 5 months she's gotten glasses and gotten 5 months pregnant. She's rounder than she used to be!!!

Thursday my parents drove up from Kentucky, and my youngest brother brought his 5-month-old daughter over for supper, which was a lot of fun. (That's how it is when mom & dad are home. My brothers and their families are over for meals and visits and its lots of fun and I love it and I get NOTHING done the whole time. Yay!!) Friday my nephew Zach showed up on his way home to California from the east coast. Since Drew is also home from California right now, it meant that the whole family was actually home at the same time for the first time since Jess's wedding last May.

Saturday was Jessica's baby shower. Somehow between Friday night and Saturday afternoon, I managed to sew 7 baby receiving blankets. These have become my favorite baby gift to give! I simply purchase 1.25 yards of flannel and turn a hem all the way around. They have such cute fabrics, and moms love them because they are heavier and larger than receiving blankets that you buy. Since we know that Jessica is having a girl (Josephine!) I got to pick out 3 girly fabrics for her shower gift. I also made an extra 4 (2 neutral, 1 girl and 1 boy) for her sister Amanda, since at the time I didn't know what her new baby would be.



We got a great picture (I'll post a copy when I can) of my 3 oldest nieces - Amanda due 10/29, Amber due in January and Jessica due in March. (Amanda & Jessica are sisters and Amber is their cousin.)

(Did you know that I don't like to sew really? That's the downside of these blankets. I have to sew. I decided to try a fusible webbing for turning the hems under and then sewing, avoiding the tedious process of pinning all that hem. Really, ironing all that hem under twice and fusing the webbing was pretty much as tedious! And even tho I followed the directions and used a pressing cloth, the bottom of my iron got all gooey. Tip: Mr. Clean Magic Eraser cleans that right off!)

Sunday after church my mom and I took my 3-year-old great-niece Grace along to Walmart and ran some other errands. She is so much fun - I especially love hearing her talk to/about my dad "Grandpa Ed." (His name is Ned!) She has somehow not noticed that N yet! Sunday evening I enjoyed a lovely dinner with RPW's family, celebrating my Godson's 11th birthday - check out her post for pictures of how he's grown!!

Which brings us to Monday, when Amanda gave birth to Whitney Lyne! She's a beauty, 8 lbs 2 oz. Both mother and baby are doing well, and may come home today. Whitney got 3 of the receiving blankets (not the rockets!) and 2 hats, the Louisa Harding angora and the 3rd Fetching Inspired Hat that I made from Debbie Bliss Cashmerino.




(I cast it on Sunday evening and finished it last night!) (That closes out the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in cream that I used to make Grace's baptismal gown 3 years ago - so that's some stash busted!)

Whew. So, back to the regularly scheduled knitting.



It's still baby knitting, of course, but it's all good!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

How to be a better speller...

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I'm scrambling to show you something knitting related, so here is a sock, all done except for the bind-off....the first of two socks in this pair.... This pair of socks is one of two gifts which I am trying to finish before Christmas so that they may be gifted at that time. It's not exactly an impressive goal in terms of "Christmas knitting", especially considering what others all around me in cyberspace knit during this time of the year. Even so, I'm not sure I'm going to be done with either gift on time...

And, a close-up of the button on my little sock knitting bag, given to me by another knitter, found in Minnesota:
My seven year old has been corresponding with Grandpa via e-mail the past couple of months. Yesterday, I observed him as he was working on a note and adding a PS, then PSS, then PSSS (not sure that he knows exactly what these mean, and actually, I thought the sequence was more PS, then PPS, then PPPS, etc. -- but I'm sure Grandpa doesn't care). It bothers my little guy when there is a red squiggly line underneath words indicating that they aren't spelled correctly, and I watched as he highlighted each of these PS, PSS, and PSSS terms individually, and one at a time managed to "add to dictionary". Voila', the words are spelled correctly, the offensive squiggles gone. I don't know how he figured out how to do this, though we subsequently had a discussion about how in real life, you can't just make words how you want them...and that putting them into your own personal dictionary doesn't actually mean they are now spelled correctly... Anyway, I can understand why his teachers have told me that he is a "problem solver"...

In other news, I had a chemistry quiz yesterday and I think I may have come close to fulfilling the adage, "If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail." I gave myself the week off from studying, and now feel fortunate that we are going to be able to drop our two lowest quiz grades this semester.....

Kids have off from school today, and we have lots to do around the house, so I haven't had to do a whole lot of "peace-keeping" so far... I hope this finds you having a nice day. Also, have a great weekend!

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)

Happy Mole Day!

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

6.02x10**23 atoms or molecules -- Happy Mole Day!! I never even realized that this basic tenet of chemistry actually had its own day, but my chemistry professor brought in cookies yesterday for all of his students in celebration of today, 10/23, so I pass along my great joy to you as I say, Happy Mole Day!

Thank you for sending me your extra copy of Vogue's 25th Anniversary issue! It arrived yesterday, and as you've said, there is nothing more fun than receiving an unexpected package in the mail! Thank you so much! I'm very much enjoying reading through it!
My seven year old was clearly jealous of my package, and my five year old immediately started squishing/popping the plastic air bubbles inside of the bubble/mailing envelope (which was so pretty in all of its floral glory -- very fun)!

I've been sewing and knitting when I can, and have a few things to share with you. First, my five year old saw this paw print fabric and has been asking for a "fleece jacket with a zipper" for a few months, so I got busy on that.(Okay, so he's wearing his pajamas in these photos, but just so you know, when he wears the jacket outside, he actually has real pants on...)

I've also been pushing to finish Sapporo. The lower hem is sewn in place, complete with "zip cord". The front plackets are done and the zipper has been officially sewn into place, though I still will hem stitch around the edges of it to hold it in place better and keep the lower part of it from flapping around (since my zipper ended up being and inch or two longer than the opening for it). I followed the directions in the tutorial on our sidebar for sewing it into place. I still must fold down the neckband and sew it into place. Pictures of the finished sweater, "right side out", in my next post. Here is a snapshot of the finishing which shows the sleeve where it is attached to the sweater, with facing sewn down over the raw cut edge where the sleeve was placed into the body of the sweater.
"Take Two" of the Christmas sweater for my DH is well under way. I totally ripped out the body, because the hem at the lower edge just wasn't going to lie flat, and started again with ribbing. Now I'm about ten inches along (needs to be about 17 before I add the sleeves and start knitting the raglan yoke), and this is probably about 500 yards of yarn knit into the body so far. These hanks of alpaca yarn are great, because they are about 600 yards each, so there aren't going to be very many ends to weave in when the knitting is done -- a very stark contrast from my Sapporo (which has very laborious finishing). Still not certain this will be done before Christmas, since I only work on it when DH isn't around. It's the project I most enjoy knitting these days, even though it is a sea of stockinette -- I think because there seems to be a lot of other stuff going on this fall, and it is nice to just pick something up to knit which requires absolutely no thought. When I make another sweater for DH someday, however, I think I will make sure to select yarn which may be knit on needles larger than size three...

I'm "decorating" in the loosest sense of the word, making fleece pillow covers for the pillows on our (very old) couch. So far, only one is completed, so of course my kids now argue about who gets to sit by the pillow having the soft apple cover on it... I might have the second one done just in time to replace them with pillow covers which are more in the spirit of Christmas. Pattern/instructions are from Nancy Cornwell's books on sewing fleece.

I've been sewing Halloween costumes, too, and will share those in another post. For now, it's back to Tuesday chores. Tuesday is really my only day "off", so now I must go make gold while the sun is shining (if by "making gold", I mean "do laundry, sort paperwork, scrub things"...)...

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)