Thank God it's out of here!

The "Princess" sweater for KnitPicks is done and out of here - and I can't tell you how happy I am that this beast is done and out of my house! This is me wearing it before I had to desecrate it with a gajillion buttons
and after. This picture is taken on the floor - and I had to resist the urge to stomp it into oblivion. (Kyle picked out the buttons again - and when an 11 year old thinks that it's silly to cover it with buttons for no apparent reason, that really tells you something). I love the yarn - it's the new Main Line cotton/wool blend - but the Sally Melville pattern was really bizarre (and it had a rather large errata sheet that I didn't discover until I was already well past that part...and I had to rip out 6" of intarsia).

I'm going to go sit and knit on a sock.

Love my mailman! Intarsia? Not so much

Look what my mailman brought today!!Ebony Holz and Stein needles!! 5.0mm and 5.5mm 31" circulars, and 2.5 mm double points! Woohoo!!

It fought the good fight, but the front of the Princess Sweater for KnitPicks is done. I'm 3/4 of the way up one sleeve - more pictures later. Kyle and I are going to pick out the buttons tomorrow and/or Saturday - this sweater is going to need between 25 and 40 buttons for decoration. (I know, I know - don't look at me that way - it's Sally Melville's idea, not mine) Yes, it does look rather short; the sleeves have a wide saddle at the top which will add quite a bit of length to the body. If all goes well, it will be at the UPS store and on its way to KnitPicks Monday adfternoon.

New sweater!!

Remember this? Well...here's the picture from the upcoming KnitPicks catalog! It's on their website now - the catalogs are supposed to go out within the next week! I'm really, really happy with the way this one was photographed - the model is lovely!! Here's my progress on the front of the Princess sweater. I love the yarn, and the back was a breeze, but this seater is most decidedly NOT fun to knit! 3 balls of yarn and 2 bobbins - yuck! I'm desperately fighting urges to throw it out the nearest window. This is actually from about 4 hours ago - I'm getting ready to start decreasing for the armholes now.

We went to the hunting expo in Columbus (much, much better than the one at the IX Center in Cleveland - none of those stupid flea market-type vendors) and then we decided to go to the Columbus Zoo. It was a very nice zoo - the cold kept the crowds to a bare minimum.

This is Holly the Manatee, munching on lettuce. :-)

Really beautiful clams in the main aquarium

We just thought this guy in the manatee tank was funny - we called him "The Little Old Man" fish

Now I have to gear myself towards getting ready to go back to school tomorrow - blech!

heading out!

Going to Columbus to the Turkey and Deer Expo. Back on Sunday!

Yep, still here!!

This is the back of the next sweater that I'm knitting for KnitPicks. I have one more inch until I bind it off. The yarn came yesterday afternoon - their new Main Line cotton/wool blend. It's really nice yarn; the stitch definition is wonderful! There may or may not be an issue with the 3 colors that they sent me and the placement of those colors. Until I hear back from them, hopefully on Monday, I'm going to set it aside. Sooooo....I started a sock. Froehlich Wolle Special Blauband. I really, really like this sock yarn, and the little card of nylon reinforcement yarn for the heels and toes is a great bonus. You can't tell from the picture, but I'm putting baby "cables" down the leg (they're just right twists, but we'll call them cables).

I also decided that Queen Matilda had been neglected long enough, so I started carding. Tatjana sent me a ball of beautiful dark caramel colored roving, and I had a bag of qiviut that I picked up at the Great Lakes Fiber Festival two years ago. It's a one ounce bag, it's rather jumbled, but it was only $10 and I have a great set of hand cards! :-) I made up a bunch of rolags, (I eyeballed the percentages; I *think* it's about 80% wool, 20 % qiviut) and started spinning:

Don't mind the dust on Queen Matilda - I told you she had been neglected! She seems to have forgiven me, though! I'm debating now whether to spin another bobbin of this wonderful blend, or ply this with a bobbin of buffalo that I already have spun.

I accomplished quite a bit, considering that I spent yesterday at the Cleveland Clinic for Dad's neurologist appointment, and 3 hours with Kyle at Laser Tag today (well - he played laser tag; I went to Borders). I found these for Kelson: yes, that's Harry Potter and the Philsopher's Stone, The Cat in the Hat, and Green Eggs and Ham....in Latin! He's in Latin II this year (as a 13 year old!!) and he really got a kick out of these. He gets extra credit points for bringing things like this into class, too, so that's a bonus. :-)

In the "I have weird pets" category, I present Rambo. Rambo has decided that he really, really likes the bathtub. If you don't shut the door all of the way, he will force it open, jump into the tub and cry at you until you turn on the water.Of course, if you *do* shut the door all of the way, he complains - loudly - and you will hear lots of thumping noises as he throws himself at the door. This is the same cat who will stick his paws into whatever glass you have sitting next to your chair so he can lick his paw and taste it. His favorite right now seems to be Kevin's beer. We've learned not to leave glasses of anything unattended...

Mini Shedir

Finished! I had Kyle try it on and it's a tad short for his 11 year old head, so it should fit Emily just fine. Now it just needs to be washed and blocked to even out the lumpy stitches.



I'm going to get this to my sister this weekend, so she can get it to Emily. According to my sister, Emily's scalp is burned from the radiation, and the tumor has caused her to go completely blind. The blindness is probably irreversible; they're going to start teaching her Braille.

There is an account set up for Emily and her family at US Bank - if you could find it in your heart to help in any way, please call here.

Cabling as fast as I can

A woman who works for my sister has a little girl named Emily. Emily is 5 years old, and she is fighting for her life right now. She has recently lost all of her hair as the chemo for her brain tumor is wracking her body. I have never met Emily or her mother, but she needs chemo caps. I have a skein of Rowan Calmer in a beautiful pale purple, and I'm knitting Shedir for her. U.S. Bank in Elyria (where my sister and Emily's mom work) is sponsoring a spaghetti dinner to raise money later this month, and my goal is to have this in her hands and on her head well before then.

The sweater can wait.