Rain, rain go away - it's February!

Well, after enduring single-digit temperatures early last week and then getting 4-5 inches of snow at the end of last week, we now have 40+ degree temps and rain! We had a thunderstorm last night (only at night when it can wake up the kids, of course) and rain and now we are getting more. The movie theater nearest our house had a large portion of it's parking lot under water at noon - I assume it's worse now. And the worse part of it all is it's February in the Midwest. We should be having fairly consistent cold temps with occasional (or lots of) snow. Can you say "Global Warming"?? The weather here in the past year or so has been so bizarre, I can't imagine how anyone could doubt the existing of global warming. There was flooding all around the area in January and it looks like more of the same might be coming again.

On a lighter note, there's new knitting! I finished a heavily-modified (construction-wise at least) version of Midnight Sky's Funky Vintage-Inspired Wrist Warmers. I used sock yarn left over from my Chain Link Socks, and I still have more left! I mainly worked on these when we were in Texas over the holidays. They are great for wearing while knitting in the evening after DH turns the heat down!


Cindy's Fingerless Mitts
Main Color: Cherrytree Hill Supersock Merino - Water colorway
Contrasting Color: Fortissima Socka - Black
Needles: US 2 dpns

I also have several new projects in the works. The Bristow cardigan by Melanie Gibbons (published on knitty.com) in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, Camel Heather colorway.


Here, in it's infancy, is the Shawl Back Shrug by Michelle Ciccariello. The pattern is a free download from elann.com


And finally, I cast on for the Victorian Lace Today Yahoo Group's 2008 KAL. I am making the Myrtle Leaf Shawl with Willow Border from Victorian Lace Today in Knit Picks Shadow, Grape Jelly colorway.


I have also been hard at work in the studio making some new art quilts. More on that later . . .

Starting the New Year Fresh

I'm not really sure how that's possible with all the unfinished projects I have lying around but I'm going to give it a whirl!

The Christmas trip to Texas went very well. The kids were wired the entire time - especially my son. They went non-stop, were up HOURS earlier than normal, up HOURS later than normal on several occasions, and were generally bouncing off the walls for 2+ weeks. Now that we are home we are all slowly getting back into the groove of life. The kids are catching up on (apparently) much needed sleep. They are sleeping in until 9:30-10:30am on non-school days. (I hope that extends into this weekend!)

Several Christmas present projects were finished but I, of course, don't have photos of the finished objects yet. I made the Large Rectangle with Center Diamond Pattern from Victorian Lace Today for my SIL (in-progress photo) using Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud lace weight yarn in the Autumn colorway.

I also made my MIL a variation of "Scarf with edging 21 and insertion 25 from The Knitted Lace Pattern Book, Thompson Bros., Kilmarnock, Scotland 1850" from Victorian Lace Today. I modified the borders to be smaller. It is worked in Sophie's Toes Sock Yarn in the Cranberry colorway. Yummmm!

I finished my first pair of socks for 2008! (Okay, I just had the foot of sock #2 to finish, geesh!)

They are Jane's Hedgerow socks by Jane Cochran from Knitter's Review. They are done in Needful Yarns Australian Merino in a grass green color (#1014) on US 2 dpns. Love the socks! Love the yarn! It's a bit thicker yarn so I needed part of a third ball to finish them up. Love the color! The green is flecked with other shades so it has more depth and character than a solid.

I have also cast on for the 2008 Victorian Lace Today knit-a-long. I am doing the Myrtle Leaf Shawl. I have cast on using Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in the Iris colorway but I am not sure if I want to use this yarn or not. I think I will work a second pattern repeat and then cast on with my other yarn possibility (Knit Picks Shadow in Grape Jelly) and see which effect I like best.

Can't Blog - Must Panic

Okay, the yearly "oh-my-God-we-are-leaving-for-Texas-tomorrow-and-nothing-is-done-HELP!" panic is firmly underway in our household. Blogging must wait!!

Happy Holidays!!!

Finished project!!

Early in the year I got a copy of Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby and immediately set about flagging the pages that had projects that I just HAD to make. Needless to say, there were quite a lot of things that I loved. I wanted a lace scarf to wear with my jean jacket and some of my turtle neck sweaters and decided that would be my first project. I had recently received my first few skeins of Sophie's Toes Sock Yarn from Emily Parson and I quickly cast on for the Bramble Leaf Scarf (page 98) in a particularly scrumptious semi-solid in the Deep Teal/Navy colorway from Emily's Layers of Color collection. The colors of the yarn are wonderful. It's mainly a midnight blue with shots of teal and even lavender in it. Yummy!
At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to use this heavier yarn (meaning not lace weight) for a lace scarf. I thought I liked it but couldn't decide. I kept on knitting. I got about half way though and discoved a mistake farther back. I wasn't feeling like tinking back to fix it (a difficult thing with lace if you aren't very careful - which I am usually not) so I put the project away for later. I picked it up again a month or so ago and fixed my mistake and finished it up. I love it and I LOVE the yarn weight with this scarf. I can't stop wearing it!

I made a few modifications to the published pattern. Instead of the French Trellis border I used a shorter border, the narrow point border on page 183 of the book. Also, I only worked the center bramble leaf insertion one time instead of the two repeats called for in the pattern. I worked the bramble leaf insertion chart a total of 36 times.
I only had one skein of the yarn and I needed to make sure I had enough, so I made an overall smaller scarf. I'm glad I did because the yarn weight might have made the scarf more heavy than I would have liked if it had been bigger.

Halloween aftermath

Well, Halloween is over and done and a good time was had by all. Both the good little witch (or is she a cat - depends on who you ask) and the Jedi master Trick-or-Treated until Mommy dropped. Actually, Mommy's ears got really cold and she finally called an end to the festivities in order to thaw them out properly.

The witch costume was recycled from last year - at daughter's request (yeah!). I made the Jedi robe this year. I think it is going to get a lot of use.

I have done quite a bit of sewing during the past month. I finished two nighties for Shel. Both are made of fleece.



Next up, a Christmas party dress for Shelby. She picked out the fabric herself. She's partial to purple and pink and she loves glitzy.


Now I've got to go pack. We're off to Chicago for the weekend.

You Know You're a Mom When . . .

. . . you find out you don't know ANYTHING at all! Here are some of the things I have recently discovered I don't know.
(1) I don't know how to drive. I used to pride myself on the fact that I was a pretty darn good driver. I don't panic in ice and snow. I can get myself out of some interesting ice/snow/skidding types of situations with little to no adrenaline rush at all. The hubby even complemented me once on what a good job I did smoothly avoiding a car sliding around on the icy road in front of us (it was ice, no braking allowed). A driving complement from the hubby is tantamount to winning major driving awards - so I felt really good about that. However, now I find out from the four-year-olds that I can't drive myself out of a wet paper bag.
Munchkins: "Mom, the light is red!"
Me: "No it's not."
Munchkins: "Mom, you just went through a red light!!"
Me: "No I didn't! That red light was for the other lanes. I had a green arrow."
Munchkins: "It was red! We saw it!"
Me: "Okay, never mind."

Munchkins: "Mom, the light is yellow. You need to slow down."
Me: "It's a flashing yellow light on a sign saying a traffic light is coming up."
Munchkins: "Yellow light means slow down!"
Me: "Yeah, never mind."

Munchkin: "Mom, I want to drive home from school today. Give me the keys."
(Enough said.)

(2) I don't even know where we live, let alone how to get us there.
Munchkins: "Mom, this isn't the way home!"
Me: "How do you know? You're only four and can't drive."
Munchkins: "This is the wrong way. We have to go the other way."
Me: "We can get home this way too."
Munchkins: "No we can't!"
Me: "Okay, never mind."

(3) I am either really bad at coordinating outfits or I am color-blind.
Me: "Shelby, those aren't the pants I put out for you to wear. Please change them."
Shelby: "But these are green and they match my green shirt!"
Me: "Change those pants!"
(Shelby is wearing what appears to ME to be an olive green shirt with bright grass green springtime pants. Apparently I can't distinguish the colors correctly because she sees nothing wrong with this.)

Being a Mom must mean that I just get dumber every day.

Since I mentioned the Illinois Jaguar Club in my previous post I thought I would include a picture of my hubby's pride and joy. She is affectionately known as the "other woman".

Back from the Wilds of Southern Indiana!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. The unfortunate wish expressed in my last post came true - Shelby finally got sick. So the "whinies" turned into a cold after all. Be careful what you wish for! Anyway, I think we are on the upside now and everyone seems to be feeling much better. Appetites have returned which is always a good sign.

This past weekend our good friends Tom and Dar from Chicago came to visit.

We all took a trip down to southern Indiana to scope out a driving route for an overnight trip the Illinois Jaguar Club is planning for the spring. It has been pretty dry here in Indiana this summer (and early fall) so we were not expecting the fall colors to be very good. We were very pleasantly surprised! While not as spectacular as they could have been, the trees did look great. There is still a lot of green around since our weather has been very warm up until the last week or so.

We also saw some covered bridges like the Bean Blossom Bridge near the town of Bean Blossom. This one is really cool because you can still drive through it. Some are closed now.

We didn't really go very far but when you are scoping out routes for a driving event you wander around over a lot of curvy, hilly backroads even though you don't cover a lot of distance. The kids endured being stuck in the car for the better part of two days (quite graciously, I might add).

The parents, however, suffered a bit more. You have to admit that the fiftieth time you hear a song or phrase repeated your brain tends to go a bit numb. Actually, the numbness isn't so bad, it's the searing pain that proceeds it that is a bit difficult to stand! At least we all now know the words to the "Wonder Pets" (Nick Jr. kid's show) theme song. Thank God for small favors, huh?

On Saturday night we stayed in a really cool old inn in Columbus, IN called The Columbus Inn. Of course, not being fully in blog mode yet I neglected to take any pictures of my own.

On the knitting side of life, I am currently working on Jane's Hedgerow Socks in Needful Yarns Australian Merino in the lime-green colorway (#1024).