Where Do I Begin?

This is a very serious question. Really, I'm not sure. There has been so much going on, and I have no idea how to dive in. Do I update all together right now? Parts for a few days until I'm caught up? Divide into categories...finished objects, knitting events (yes, there were events--for reals), knitting friends' updates, yarn footage? I have always been a fan of the old chronological format, but I don't know if I can work from that far back.

Any suggestions? No? Well, then I think I'm going to go with stuff I'm excited about and can still remember. And maybe I'll work back a little bit. Okay? Okay.

First off, I will share that a while ago (yeah, maybe around the time that I suddenly stopped blogging completely?) we got some scary news. Brian had a routine physical and blood work and we got some bad results. So we did the whole series of tests. We did the worrying, and the speculating, and the general-freak-out-ing. Good times. But in the end, all is fine and he's back to normal. Stop wondering if I "could be any more vague", because that's what I would be thinking, and just chalk it up to me respecting Brian's privacy on this very public forum. You guys get it, right? So he's all set and back to normal, and that is why I didn't call, didn't write.

I'll be honest, too--he's been all right for a week or two, but I sort of fell out of the blogging habit. It wasn't part of my routine any more, and I was having a hard time fitting it in, you know? But I missed it. A lot. So here I am...

Now that that's out of the way, I have lots to share. Some things I finished since we last spoke:

The Shibui Knits baby sweater I was working on. Love it!





I still have to add a ribbon to the top of each side of the front so it can be closed, but that will depend on the particular baby who is receiving it. When I know who's getting it, I'll go and pick some ribbon out. I think I'd love some pink for a girl, though. This turned out so pretty, and I would totally make it again. Next time, I would pick up the stitches for the sleeves from the first half of the sleeve, instead of casting them on, so I don't have to seam under the arms. Not my favorite thing, seaming garter stitch. No idea how to do it, so I just winged it. I think it's o.k., though.

My first Umbilical Cord Hat from the Stitch 'n Bitch book:





It's in some leftover Knitpicks Swish (worsted) in Red Pepper, and I finished it in one night I believe. Kind of a long time ago, but I remember because I was SO excited to finish so quickly! Cute, right? Newborn size. I'll have to remember this one the next time someone has a baby, because it's a cinch.

The Scrappy Scarf:

This one was fun. I took some scraps I had from Elena's Baby Blanket and Brian's scarf and just went to town.



These are some different colors of Berroco Ultra Alpaca. I cast on horizontally--not sure how many stitches, maybe 240 or so. And I picked up a different color for every row. And I just left the ends hanging and made fringe at the end. It was about 5 feet long, or a little more. I believe it was girl-sized, but it was long enough that I would wear it for sure. Very fun, and it was mindless. I love the way it turned out. It ended up maybe 4 inches wide.



This picture gives you the idea. It wasn't finished yet, but it is now. Unfortunately I never took a shot of the FO. Trust me, it was cute.

What were the hat and scarf for? They were charity donations...for...the Pawsox Stitch 'n Pitch!! Yeah, someone from Ravelry (OTKate) organized a stitch and pitch for us in Pawtucket, at McCoy Stadium last Saturday night. About 150 of us met up to watch the Red Sox farming team! We had prizes (no, I didn't win) and goodie bags and lots of fun. The game the night before was called on account of rain, so we watched a double-header: the original game and the makeup game from the night before. Wicked good time.

I don't really have any pictures because my camera died about 10 seconds after I pulled it out of my bag. Irritating. If you belong to Ravelry, you can check out the Pawsox group here and the group page has a picture of my SIL Maura, myself, and Krista. Maura took some pictures, but I don't have them yet. I'll try to do something about that.

Funny story about the Ravelry picture. The three of us are at the game, and things are just starting up. We've got out knitting out and we're getting into the groove, talking and having a good time. A nice gentleman from a few rows down asks us if we would just all smile for a quick picture. But of course! We'd be happy to! We all smile and he takes the shot. We're not thinking about it...we just keep knitting and talking. I watch the man walk away. Like away, away. You know, to another section. Seriously. So I ask them who that guy was and did they notice that he just sort of walked away. At first, we'd assumed he was with our group, but now we were wondering if he was just some nice man who saw three young ladies knitting at a baseball game and couldn't resist taking a picture. Perhaps for his blog, even? Then we didn't see him again for a long time. We looked. In the end, we did see him with our group again, so we didn't worry about it. The next day, Krista called and told Brian to make me go on Ravelry and see the group page. And there it was, the picture from the nice man. I cracked up.

At least he's not blogging somewhere about these huge dorks at the ball game who were *gasp* actually knitting in public! Not that I really care, but it's one less thing to think about. Many thanks to Kate for a great event. We're already planning for next year.

Well, that's enough for right now. There will be more coming. For now, I have to get some stuff together for my knitting class at WEBS tomorrow. This is my first knitting class ever, and I'm pretty excited. The teacher is a well-known sock knitter...any guesses?

Lots of Fun, Lots of Knitting

Whew! Much has happened since I last posted, including lots of knitting (as promised). Let's get right into it, shall we? Right before I fell off the face of the Earth the posts became scarce, I was preparing for a girls' weekend. There was lots to do, and I put most of it off until the last minute. Naturally, I didn't end up finding time to update the blog right before I left. And you know I thought about posting while I was away, but I didn't have a spare moment, really. OK, maybe I did have a couple of moments--but it was a girls' weekend, so those were MY moments, if you will. Aw, I knew you'd understand.


Every year, I partake in a big scrapbooking weekend in Cape Cod. I know, scrapbooking is a little cliche, but seeing as I'm a mother in the 21st century, I believe I am in fact obliged to do so, if I'm not mistaken. Truth be told, I do enjoy it. So every spring, my CM consultant organizes a special weekend for all of us crazy scrappin' fools and we stay on the Cape at the Old Sea Pines Inn in Brewster. This year, I roomed with Krista and boy-oh-boy, did we have the ticket. Best room in the house, as far as I could tell.



We had a huge bathroom, separate bedroom, and this lovely living room. Lots of seating, so we planned to knit quite a bit, and a fireplace, too! Sweet. We even had a kitchen area to boot.



Krista was kind enough to bring along her coffeemaker, which was a huge bonus. Perhaps she was only trying to ensure that I'd have my morning coffee fix, thus protecting herself and all her limbs? Maybe. She does know me pretty well. The girl even remembered filters, the coffee itself, sugar and yummy creamer. We had all the necessities...



Um, things may have gotten a little bit out of hand. Yeah.

Much fun was had, though. This was my fourth year at the Cape, and usually I am all business. I want to make progress on my albums. I'm prepared and ready to go. I get up early for breakfast and get right to scrappin'. I stay up late cropping and pasting, etc. And I get home exhausted, but with lots to show for my efforts. This year, I didn't want to be exhausted. You know what I mean? I thought, it's a girls' weekend, and I always spend it working like a dog! What's with that? So this year, I had other priorities. Mostly, I just wanted to have a lot of fun, make some progress, maybe knit a bit.

I did meet my goal of fun. I didn't scrap like a crazy person (thought I did get twenty or so pages done, which is awesome) and I enjoyed myself. If I wanted a break, I took one. If I didn't want to set an alarm for breakfast, I didn't. I had a huge migraine on Friday night and I didn't worry about "getting stuff done", I just hit the hay early so I'd feel better. By the way, best decision all weekend. Krista and I enjoyed coffee in the morning together and sat around in our living room telling stories and laughing. I enjoyed several meals out, without any short people crying or whining or needing food cut up. Krista and I made Cosmos (seriously, the girl is *prepared*) Saturday night and just got silly and crazy.

We did not knit, which was sad, but we had fun. I enjoyed my weekend, my sleep, my quiet and my "girl talk". Yeah, like the kind you used to have in the dorms late at night with your girlfriends? When you were all kind of tipsy and just blabbing away? When you were afraid someone was going to knock on the door because you were all making way too much noise and it was like 2:30 in the morning? That kind. And it rocked.

I came back refreshed. Oh, yeah.

And it was a good thing, too. You should have seen the house when I got back.

Just kidding...thanks, Brian.



Ps. I didn't really get to much of the knitting progress, but here's a shot of the baby sweater I've been working on. It'll have to tide you over, and I'll show you more next post. I cast on for some socks for Spencer and a charity project. Pics are coming.