No sweater progress

I should have been working on hubby's sweater. However, there was this cute poncho pattern that called my niece's name (I'm doing the one on the left in case you couldn't tell):

Funny how that original 70s pattern would work now.

Then there was the seductive call of the lace siren:

This is the beginning of a flower basket something--I'll keep going until I run out of yarn.

Maybe I'll bring hubby's sweater on our trip to DC so I will work on it all weekend. Of course, I'm hoping Trillian will be up for some yarn shopping so in the end we will have to wait and see. hee hee.

Post-finishing lethargy

First, thank you for the lovely comments on the shawl. It definitely kicked my knitting arse but in the end, I totally want to do another lace project. I have some leftover yarn from the shawl (maybe enough to do a scarf) and another skein of the Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace in Gold Hill that is destined to be a lace something for me. Something else I learned from this, I think I like the rectangular stole shape better than the traditional triangle-shaped shawl. I may try to adapt the pattern from one of the beautiful shawls in Folk Shawls book I have.

After coming off the high from finishing the shawl, I haven't really felt like working on any of my current projects. I have reached the point in the Leo sweater where I have to start the armhole shaping so it has moved past its trance-like simple ribbing. I started a poncho for my niece but don't have the focus to follow the pattern (text only, no chart)--it has some cables and bobbles that I'll include in the next post.

Also, I never would have thought this, but working at the doggie daycare is exhausting. I haven't worked in a place where you barely have a chance to sit since my restaurant hostess days in college. The dogs are great but there is always so much to do to keep up with cleaning and keeping them from getting overly excited. However, this means that I will get to splurge on some really nice yarn in the near future. I'm thinking maybe some cashmere from ColourMart.

So much to tell

First, I finally felted Jessica #2. When I went to the craft store, they did not have the Paton's wool in the correct color so I went ahead and bought these funky acrylic handles. Before I got to the checkout, I passed the samples for discontinued fabric and picked up the paisley number for a couple of bucks. I'm thinking that I might try to line the purse with it. Of course, I don't sew and am not really sure how to go about it but it seemed like a good idea at the time. What do you think?



The last few days I have been obsessing over the snowdrop shawl. It is finally finished!

Fresh off the needles:


Blocking (that is a queen-sized bed for reference, I know the lighting is crappy but it was just amazing how much room it took):


In its fully-blocked glory:


My plan is to wrap it around some large bubble wrap before I put it in the mail to my MIL just so that it doesn't get any major creases.

On a random note, when I picked up Genny at the daycare last week the owner mentioned she was looking for part-time help. I said I was looking for something to do while I try to figure out my next career move. Today was my first day--not exactly glamorous (lots of cleaning up involved) or high-paying, but it was fun. Now I have extra yarn money. Woo-hoo!

Survived the visit

It seems quiet without my mom to keep me company. She cut her visit a little short so she could spend a couple of days with my uncle before leaving. I was originally miffed that she changed the plans but it was probably better in the end. I think she was bored here and we don't find the same things entertaining. Big surprise, right? All in all, it was a good visit and she didn't hate my dog. Thanks to all of you for the moral support.

In knitting news, I finished Jessica #2 and just need to felt it.

Notice anything missing from the picture?

Using what was left of the yarn for the I-cord handles, this is what I got (those are letter-sized manila folders in the background for reference):

That's right, not enough yarn to complete the project! I know what I did wrong too--I kept knitting with both strands of yarn when I picked up the Fun Fur yarn. In fact, the first time through, I didn't have enough yarn to finish the purse itself. I had to start the finish rows early. I'll either have to buy handles at the craft store or buy more wool to make the handles.

In my obsession with my mom coming, I forgot to show off my new knitting toys.

I got the swift using a 50%-off coupon (woo-hoo!) from Joann and the Embellish Knit was a gift for testing Katydid's pattern.

Just for fun:

You Are Animal

A complete lunatic, you're operating on 100% animal instincts. You thrive on uncontrolled energy, and you're downright scary. But you sure can beat a good drum. "Kill! Kill!"

The Muppet Personality Test

Quick post

OK, it was totally worth the money to take Genny to the doggie daycare place for the day. I was able to bring my mom to the house show her around without the pressure of doing the human-dog introduction. We picked the dog up together where the owner was able to mediate the meeting. My mom was very scared of my dog and didn't even want to get out of the car at first. It helped to have someone help me with the two of them. By the end of the evening, my mom was voluntarily petting Genny. I think this might work out after all.

There's still the issue of taking my mom all sorts of different places, but I think I can get her to take it easy for at least one day. I might even see if she wants to learn to knit. Then I might be able to talk her into driving out 45min. to hit the yarn store. Things are looking good. :-)

Is it too frilly?

I woke up on Friday morning with this awful feeling that MIL wasn't going to like the edging. Why? Because it might be too frilly for her taste. MIL is a bold, liberal, feminist artist. The edging is cute, delicate, and possibly even "girly". This is a woman who objected to icing on the red velvet cheesecake (c'mon, who doesn't like cream cheese frosting?). She's a no-nonsense kind of gal who doesn't like excess. So there I was, certain that I had just wasted 24+ hours on creating an edging that she was going to hate. Before I subjected myself to any more knitting on the shawl, I sent here these pics to see what she thought of it so far. (I'm almost done with side #1.)









Well, I didn't get a chance to talk with her but the message via hubby was "keep knitting." That's good, right? Just another 24 hours or so of knitting, some more time for washing and blocking, and then all done. Of course, there will be no time for that this week. Why? Because my mom is coming for a visit.

Now, no one in my family has ever come to see me for more than a weekend at a time since I left for college. In fact, when my mom helped me drive across country to move to Texas, she stayed for all of one whole day before hopping a plane back to NYC. When I lived in DC, a mere 5-hour drive, I had to practically beg my parents to come see me. (They came together all of one time in the five years I lived there and spent one night.) They often coaxed me into coming to see them because it was so much "less effort" for just me to travel vs. the two of them.

Well, after bugging my mom to come visit, she finally decided to take me up on it. Did I mention that she decided this last Monday? In fact, she originally wanted to fly out on Thurs. to spend the week. (Yes, she is staying a full week.) My mom will have to be entertained while she is here so there will be no time for knitting from charts. I'll probably be able to work on hubby's sweater and continue work on Jessica #2. Here's what I did while we watched Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit.



I'm more than a little stressed about how the trip will go. Mostly because there's lots she wants to do while she's here and because of the dog. My mom doesn't like dogs and my dog has serious anxiety with new people. Yeah, that will be fun. If you don't hear from me again by the end of next week, send chocolate/yarn/kleenex.

Chugging Along

Well, after trying a couple of more times to follow the lace pattern for the edging backwards, I gave up. I still think it would work but since I didn't redo the chart, I kept screwing it up. So, in the end I broke the yarn (not about to pick up all those stitches again) and started the edging from the correct side. Here's the progress to date:


 

Every couple of repeats, I miss a stitch somewhere and have to rip back but at least I can tell where I missed the stitch now that I've been working on it a while. You can't tell from the picture, but I've gotten about 2/3 of the way down the first side.

Since its lace and not blocked, it doesn't look too impressive right now but I have high hopes for it. When I talked with MIL yesterday, she asked how her shawl was coming along. What I have so far has taken all of season one of Xena: Warrior Princess and the first half of season two. I'm thinking I might be able to justify buying the next couple of seasons as a way to finish the rest. As an aside, since I'm not actually watching most of the episodes, I have realized that the musical selections for this show are really good.

When I can't keep the pattern straight or I actually want to watch what is on TV, I go back to the Leo. Here's the progress:


 


 

It's about 10 inches now. I've got about another 6 inches before I start the arm shaping. I wish now that I had thought to convert this pattern to knit in the round but I haven't done that before and I wimped out. However, I bought some LB Wool Ease in Guava (discontinued color, got it on ebay) that will be my experimental yarn. I'm hoping to use it for my very own Ribby Cardi. I figure if I mess something up, its just for me so there is no pressure to get it right the first time.