This past Monday it was beautiful and mid 70's. I was able to go outside during lunch and knit in my hiding spot. Stupid me. I mentioned it to the work knitting group on Tuesday and told them how to get there. Now they will probably be joining me. Don't get me wrong. I like them, but I like my solitude too. It is rare to be downtown and able to enjoy the sun alone.

Friday I looked out my window at lunch and saw a live chess match. The chess pieces were children in paper crowns and capes. They looked like they were having a lot of fun.

I quickly took the photo. My mom was down from Alpena and we going to lunch at Clara's.




New sock started yesterday. I use a simple pattern, but socks seem to be knitting faster than when I first started. Finishing a pair of socks in about a week? Crazy.
My pinwheel sweater is coming along. The body is complete and am now on the sleeves. I really love the crocheted lacing!


Meg knitting in public on gorgeous afternoon this week. Meg, T and I are getting ready to see The Yarn Harlot tomorrow in Ann Arbor. We have plans to find the Fairy Doors while we are there. Meg is knitting a bag for her books, and T has pointy sticks with a yarn blob.

Meg is wearing the sleeveless sweater that she made. (It is the white sweater on the left.) I think this is her third knitted item. She did a great job!

She is cruising on the bag. She is knitting it in bright pink with a fuzzy orange band at the top of the bag.



I have a hat that I made to give towards the collection that the Yarn Harlot gathers at each event. She in turn donates them to a local charity. The hat design is from Rae. I love that it is doubled around the headband area to keep ears nice and warm. I don't like the wind blowing in my ears. I saw the design earlier and wanted to try it. When I was in her shop she was out of the pattern, but she had it available to download from her website after purchasing.

Today was the big egg hunt in the local park. T was looking for eggs even after the other kids had sat down and started opening their eggs. I had to call her back. :-)

My prize

I was the fortunate recipient of a wonderful prize from a little contest at one my favorite blogs, Stumbling Over Chaos. I chose the denim hand painted yarn as my prize. Chris not only sent it via priority mail, she also included several goodies - chocolate, pretty sticky notes, needle point covers, and the world's coolest Pez dispenser (See the fuzzy sheep? That is the dispenser. No plastic ugly head on this one!) Thank you, Chris!

It always amazes me how generous knitters are. The prize is more than enough, and yet they always come up with the neatest extras to add to gifts/prizes. I just don't have the creativity to wow a recipient.

Top down

Ram-niss convinced me to purchase a new camera. He says that the best way to have to old one show up is to buy a new one. I know that cameras are not a necessity, but I felt lost without it. I don't take pictures all the time, but it is more of an appendage. I have to choose to not take pictures so that I can enjoy an event instead of viewing everything through a little eye piece.

Part of what was holding me back was remembering how much I paid for my missing camera. It just makes me sick to know it is gone. The new one has more gadgets and gizmos and cheaper. It is small and I do like it a lot. The advantage is now it fits in a pocket, knitting bag,... All my other cameras over the years had to have their own carry case. This in turn made it easy to accidentally leave behind somewhere.

Weather finally seems to be perking up here. While playing with my new camera I took a view outside my office window. See? Green! Lovely green. The results of morning thunderstorms.

This is my raglan sweater that I knitted top down. I followed the general ideas from the Necessary Sweater that I knitted at the beginning of the year. Since it was an experiment I just used stash yarn. AND you will see that I tapered it in at the waist. Because the bottom band is long the sweater starts to add back in the stitches during the band. I was able to do this and not have it come out crappy! (see photo on the left)

Yeah, me!





These are my socks that I finished in about a week. Love them, though I did not choose to wear these with my raglan sweater to work. I know, I know - some of you would.

Next you will see the pinwheel sweater from www.elann.com. I really like it. Unusual for me I bought the light weight wool yarn that the pattern called for, in a different color. I thought this would take a while, but it seems to be knitting up pretty quick. My guess is that it will slow down when start putting on the many rows of crocheted lace that is added to the body and sleeves.

Have a great weekend!

Postcard

This came in the mail today.



On the back it says, "Greetings! Having a great time. Please keep in touch, I am in cyberspace at Tiger's Travels. Lick and purr, Tiger."

Where is Tiger?

What a week it has been. Over the weekend we noticed that we hadn't seen Tiger for a couple of days. We waited out the weekend thinking he was trapped in a garage somewhere. Monday came we called animal control and visited the neighbors that set traps to catch cats wandering through their yards (and then they call animal control. ... and yes, I personally think they are too anal for my taste. They think cats should be on chains or kept indoors. I agree with the indoors part, but some cats just want to be outside, and who has time to chase a cat that is sitting right in the middle under one of your cars only to go to the opposite side of where you are while you are trying to get to work, school, anywhere... ahem. Sorry ranting). No, they hadn't seen him either.

So here we are missing cat, missing camera and missing money from the bank account (which the bank now has credited back to us). Then the fog slowly lifted from Ram-niss and my head. The light bulb turned on. Tiger isn't missing. He has taken Ram-niss' debit card and the camera and has gone on a vacation. February was too much for him, and March wasn't looking any better. With each passing day it looks like Tiger isn't returning - but I feel a Tiger Travel Blog coming on.

Stay tuned.

Where the (bleep) is my camera?

No photos today. Probably not a huge deal for anyone, though annoying me - I can't find my camera. I get spoiled with phones - if you can't fine them, just call them. Can't call the camera. Drats.

Striped sweater is almost done. I have to go back to the first sleeve and add about an inch and a half to it. Easy enough. Red socks are complete. I will be making T a pair next.

Yarn for Ram-niss' Avast sweater from knitty.com has been purchased at our LYS. She had to close down her shop when the downtown coffee shop closed. So for a while she will be operating out of the house until she can find a store that is willing to carve out a corner and let her operate in there. Ram-niss' sweater won't be started till later this year. I have a neat one waiting in the wings. My palms are itching to get started on Pinwheel Sweater from elann.com. I have nice caramel yarn just calling my name.

This week Son announced his first girlfriend and had his first official date. (Rules in the house are not girlfriend/boyfriend till you turn 16. Basically so I don't have to hear about it. They can have friends that are girls and friends that are boys till then.) Son was goofy giddy all week. I was surprised that he would actually share his feelings with us. It was cute. After a few days of this I was informed that he needed to find a job. Girlfriends cost money. (Son is a saver. Not tight with his money, but it doesn't burn a hole in his pocket.) He keeps telling me that he hopes I like L's parents. I really don't care. How am I suppose to take them as a couple as 'serious'? He is 16. Nice that her parents are teachers at the Middle School. At least this means that they have an education.

This weekend while dragging Son to band festival, every stinking time I wanted to get out/in the driveway, we had to go and knock on the neighbor's door. They were blocking with their huge truck. Looks like they were leaving the rental next door. Is it because we called the cops on them the previous weekend? Doubtful. Hmm... they won't be missed.

Also this weekend we were notified by the fraud division of our bank that Ram-niss' card has been buying things from Chicago to Georgia. Meanwhile our account is in the red by several hundred dollars. There is no dispute by the bank on those not being our charges - but - we don't have access to the several hundred dollars that were in there. Meanwhile I have a few bills that are suppose to be paid with it. I am hoping that they work it out so that we can pay them on time. We do have another bank account that we put smaller amounts in. How I wish it would have been that one. Oh, well.

Also this weekend (Really, it was a slow weekend.) I have cleaned out a room in the basement (family members reading this: it is mom's darkroom) to be my room. Crafts, framing, sewing, knitting and hopefully once again watercolors... A place where I can start something and leave it and come back to it. The dining room table is good for quick projects, but I have found that I want to do other things that require more time. The room is now completely empty. I have to clean off dried chemicals off of the counter and the base of the legs. Then I will paint the counter and put linoleum along the top. I want a nice surface that won't snag yarn and cloth. Although I want to paint over the fake wood panel walls to brighten it up down there - I am not sure I want to spend the time on it.

Meanwhile - where is my camera? I am running out of places to look for it.

Happy Birthday!

C is now 5. These next few months are one birthday after another. Just when you make it through Christmas - all the little ones just start tumbling in. We had Gracie, Chloe, Alex (today), Mo (tomorrow), Grammy Jean, and Breanna rounding off the beginning of April. Then we take a breath and May brings another round. As far as my sis and I figured we are left without a celebration in October and November.

This is the start of a turtleneck sweater similar to my Necessary Sweater. This time I am knitting from the top down. I have about 5 different references that I am using. (There are different techniques in each one that I like, none of them have everything in them. This will either turn out great or be fugly.) I am just using stash yarn for the experiment. This was started earlier in the week and has already been ripped back once to the neck band.


I have restarted my sock with smaller needles and less stitches in the cast-on. Much happy with the color pooling on this one.









T's dress is almost done. I only need to sew on the buttons. I also have all the pieces done for a matching purse. I want to line the little purse in case she actually puts something in it. No real rush at this moment since she will wear it for Easter.






This is a Blue Lagoon blanket for someone who is expecting baby #2. I have about 10" left. Hopefully I will have enough lavender and/or lime green to make some little socks to go with it. We don't know if she is having a boy or girl.

I love this blanket and wouldn't mind a larger one for me. BUT it is all garter stitch. If it wasn't for the color changes every few row it would be extremely boring. AND there are many ends that have to be weaved in. (bleh.)

On the catwalk

Here is the dapper little T modeling his sporty red Trellis sweater from Knitty.com. This Cinco de Mayo baby was able to finally fit into his gift made by Aunt Ewe-niss just in time for the sub-zero freeze that hit Wisconsin earlier this year. Thanks, Bro for the picture! He is sure growing up handsome. :-) Must take after his mom...

I have the silly song, I'm too sexy by Right Said Fred in my head.

...I'm too sexy for my shirt too sexy for my shirt
So sexy it hurts
And I'm too sexy for Milan too sexy for Milan
New York and Japan

And I'm too sexy for your party
Too sexy for your party
No way I'm disco dancing

I'm a model you know what I mean
And I do my little turn on the catwalk
Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah
I do my little turn on the catwalk...

Though there is no air of discontent with T around - only fun. This little guy will soon be one!