didja miss me?

It's not like I went anywhere (okay, I spent the weekend at the cottage, but I have been around since then). I took a couple of days off, leading into to tomorrow's Canada Day Holiday, but, like most working Mom's, when I take two days off, i spend then running around, doing more things than one person should really be doing in two days. My husband doesn't get it. He gets home and wonders "just what did you do all day?" I restrained myself from smacking him upside the head, because he just doesn't get it. He doesn't understand how much work is entailed in keeping a house and family functioning. He thinks going to the cottage is throwing some clothes in a bag and off we go. No thought to how the food and other stuff get there. Oh well. I knew this when I married him, and 17 years+ later I'm still around, so it's not a battle worth fighting.

Anyhoo, other than gathering everything we need for this weekend's big work weekend (we are kicking out all extraneous family members (i.e. parents), from the cottage, and are inviting 6 guys up to lay the subfloor and new flooring for the basement up there. They plan on completing it by Sunday morning, while still getting in lots of fishing and poker. Me? I'm making meals, ensuring everyone is fed and beered, and keeping two 10 year olds amused during the times they are not helping. I am so looking forward to this flooring, it's not funny - it will double the usable space at the cottage, making it easier to be around some members of the extended family. And after that's done, we take on the bathroom renos here at home.

But... that's not the main reason for this post - modelled shots of the silver grey merino cardigan are!

How I plan to wear it most of the time: The buttons: and of course, the shoes I bought on sale that match it perfectly! I love these shoes, but they are not "standing around for cocktails" shoes, they are "sitting down for dinner" shoes. (note my normal footwear in the corner there...)

If I'm not online tomorrow -

HAPPY CANADA DAY ALL!

I should clean myself up more often...

(Don't read into that title more than I mean - I shower daily and have pretty high hygiene standards.) What I mean is my attire. Our office is casual. Not just Friday casual, 5 day a week casual. Jeans and a t-shirt are pretty normal attire around here. This time of year I live in capri pants and casual tops, but yesterday, I decided to mix it up a bit. Skirt, top, little eyelet jacket, and these: mmm, big girl shoes...today I'm back to denim capris and a silk sleeveless top. But what really made dressing up worthwhile were the compliments! I could not believe how many people commented on what I was wearing - men, women, co-workers, management. Guess I have to look for more skirts in the closet...

I love it when a plan comes together...

This really pleases me. Not just the sweater, though I am quite pleased with it, but the whole thing. The idea of using this yarn for a cardigan (I had originally thought of a shawl or something with it), the way the seed stitch (my most hated stitch) was SOOOOO worth it, for the texture accents, and generally, the way I just started knitting with a vague idea in mind, and it worked.

(Wow. sorry for the fuzziness. I blame my brain, not the camera). I finished it in the car on the way to the cottage Friday night, and blocked it out on Sunday night when we got home. I didn't do a full block - I just sprayed the edges with water and kind of patted them out to lie flat.

Once I get buttons, I will get a modelled shot (possibly on me, probably on the dress form). But I'm looking forward to the fall, and wearing this with a black skirt, white blouse and great silvery grey shoes I bought a while ago. (I knew I would find a need for them...)

After finishing this, I did a little work on the chunky brown and blue cardigan, and picked up a long-neglected Montego Bay scarf in a wool-silk laceweight, but most of the weekend was taken up with getting the dock extension in, getting the ski-boat in, tending the gardens, and meeting the new neighbours (they're really nice). I've got an interesting couple of weeks ahead - some owed time off coming in fits and starts (a couple of afternoons off here, a day or two off there), so there will be time spent with my kid as he gets out of school, (we're planning on a few batches of strawberry jam), and time at the cottage (more gardens to plant, and lazing about to do).

But this was a pretty good start to my week.

so close...

I'm on the final 10 rows of the seed stitch border of the silver grey merino cardigan. The nice thing about the top down construction is, once I finish these rows, I'm DONE! (Except for blocking. and buttons.) No seams, and because I wet spliced the yarn ends, no fiddly ends to sew in.
this one shows the colour a bit better. And yes, the CHICKS RULE sticker is one of ours - sadly discontinued...
Now, I should wrap this up this week, if all goes well, which means I have to find some cottage knitting for the weekend. There's the brown and blue cardigan, but it's chunky wool + summer = not very comfortable. It will still come for evening knitting, since there are only the two fronts to complete. But I need beach knitting! Maybe a sock, maybe some lace, maybe this, I haven't yet decided. (I'd make the Berrocco Bell with some excellent hemp or linen I have lying around - and tons of fabric to co-ordinate).

Then again, I'm not sure how much time I'll have to knit this weekend. We are undertaking the summer of renovation - both at home and the cottage. The cottage is getting a new basement subfloor and flooring - we had a bit of a flood this winter, and sadly, the orange shag carpeting had to be ripped up and replaced. Surprisingly, we had a tough time finding replacement orange shag carpeting, especially any with that lovely "been around for ever and been wet a few times" aroma. So subflooring and laminate it is. Being my husband's family cottage, there are other people involved, so that's always fun. We are going ahead with the plans, and hoping the siblings pitch in. Some won't, some might, but whatever. Hubby and I are hoping to buy the place from the parents, so it's an investment in our future. And yes, we have a lawyer and accountant sort of involved, and the parents and siblings are aware. Unfortunately, it will probably still be messy, but I'm doing the Scarlett O'Hara thing and thinking about that tomorrow.
We are also doing some reno at home. At first it was just going to be the main floor powder room (we lucked into a great new-to-us sink and toilet), and I have been scoping out tile and wall finishes. But my husband came up with the "since we're doing one, why not update all three bathrooms?" line. And since we were well into our third bottle of wine with guests, I agreed. All I'm asking for is one functioning toilet, sink and shower at all times.

We'll see.

Lucky's at it again...

LuckyCanuck has come through for me again! I had nothing for today, and the week was looking a little light as far as content, but I find this in my inbox this morning! Thanks Lucky, I owe you one!

Her comments:

"Crafted myself a pink double-strand necklace out of more of those glass faceted beads I get on Queen. I added two chunky glass frosted heart pendants on the shorter strand, and then a bigger foil glass heart on the bottom. I threw on some crystals on some head pins and jump rings and attached. This probably cost me maybe $20 in materials??

I love these glass beads. Incredibly sparkly and so many colours, you can't choose. Might try something in red next time, maybe another in navy blue."

why I was late for work...

(click to embiggen - there's a whole whack of geese across the street!)

... and this was just a sampling of the number of geese that were wandering around the road. I would have taken more pictures, but there were quite a few cars lined up behind me, so I thought I'd get going once I was able.

Surprise!

(now there's an original post title - I'm sure anyone's who's knit this has said the same thing...)

Whatever - the Baby Surprise Jacket is complete. I bought the yarn on Tuesday night, started the sweater Wednesday, and finished it Sunday night while I watched the Tony Awards. ( Man, I love Broadway...) Monday, I went to Fabricland, got buttons, sewed them on and sewed the seams, and done! Well in advance of the 25th (the last day of school around here). Now all I have to do is wrap it (and the other teacher gift), make a couple of cards, and I'm done for another year.

My son picked out the buttons - he figured that if an infant saw bumblebees early, maybe they wouldn't scare him/her later on. Hard to fight with that kind of logic. Plus, they're just too darn cute!

a sweater? really?

Yup - this is how the Baby Surprise Sweater looks, fresh off the needles. I just have to sew it up, possibly edge it, and add buttons.

Stay tuned...

and monogamy flies out the window yet again...

The NSN* sweater was progressing quite nicely. both sleeves done, just the body to do - simple stockinette, with a wee seed stitch border - stupid proof knitting, great for TV watching, son's baseball games and other mindless pursuits.Then the end of the school year snuck up on me, and thoughts of gifts for the teachers came up. One was easy - My son did a Rocks and Minerals presentation for his gifted lass, and I was there to watch. He brought in some of my bracelets (the knitted stone ones and the Swarovski crystal ones) as examples of what you can do with rocks and minerals. The teacher absolutely fell in love with one of the crystal bracelets, so she's getting that as a thank you gift.

His regular teacher was something else - I try to stay away from "coffee mug-bath salts" type of gifts, opting usually for wine or gift card route. (we also buy books for the school library that the kids "give" to the teacher, who then turns around and gives it to the school library - a great idea.)

I see the teachers enough through the year to get a read on their likes and dislikes. But this teacher is pregnant and due in July, so wine didn't seem appropriate. (You can see where this is going, can't you? You'd think I would have clued in a bit faster, and not waited until June to do something, right?)
Meet the beginning of the Baby Surprise Jacket. Believe it or not, I've never made one of these before, and so far, it seems to be the right kind of knitting for my life right now - garter stitch, with a few decreases and increases tossed in for interest. I'm using Naturally's Magic Garden Buttons Yarns, a superwash DK weight. I don't want to give her a hand wash only sweater, and I refuse to put acrylic any where near ANY baby, so superwash or cotton was the way to go, and I loved the gender neutralness of this green.

*the sweater formerly known and the silver grey merino cardigan, has been rechristened the NSN Sweater, for Nancy and Susan's Nightmare. I'm making this sweater off the top of my head - no pattern. I cast on enough stitches for a neckline, and increased on raglan seams until it fit around the arms, then decreased the arms every 10 stitches (because 10 was easy to remember), and am now doing the body. Nancy and Susan both cringed in horror when I said there was no pattern. Nancy and Susan both like patterns. A lot. Enough that the thought of changing a pattern, let along knitting without one, makes them cringe in horror.

My mission is to change them.

as always, a great evening

Fiona Ellis is wonderful. A simple, but so very true statement. Last night Fiona again visited the York Region Knitting Guild, and treated us to a trunk show of the samples from "Inspired Fair Isle Knitting", as well as a talk on colour and inspiration and where to find it.

I'll never look at a movie the same way, I can tell you!

It was a packed house: (no surprise), and Fiona talked and answered all questions. I was helping her with the trunk show, so there are no individual pictures, but here's one of the pile of goodies we got to see and touch. (pretty sure they are all here, although I wanted to take "Glowing" home with me. Yummy.)

Dinner first was a hoot, with conversations that I really can't repeat here - thankfully the other patrons at the restaurant didn't mind the outburst of laughter.

All in all, a wonderful evening - a much needed break from routine, and Fiona, when your next book is ready, please come back! (Or before the next book - we'd love to see you again).

And one of my favourite projects from last night (other than EVERYTHING Fiona showed), was this bag from Leah. Quite fitting considering a plastic bag will now cost you 5 cents...

bad blogger...

I'm a bad blogger. I haven't updated on ANYTHING, knit or otherwise. Probably because I haven't DONE anything, knit or otherwise. (well, I have, but I'd like to think I keep some parts of my life to myself...)

I actually have been knitting on the silver grey merino cardigan. It's like sock knitting - lightweight enough to carry around with me and knit on at times through out the day. Both sleeves are done, so, I'm working on the body - endless rows of stockinette with a flash of seed stitch at each end, just to keep me on my toes.

The brown and blue feather and fan cardigan is still hanging around, however, it's heavy, and big, and not something that appeals to me at this time of year - it will get done, hopefully sooner rather than later, but it's just a priority right now.

I'm getting the itch to knit on some socks again, but none of the ones currently on the needles appeal to me, so I might have to cast on some new ones. I'm not sure that these have anything to do with it, but they just might... (KnitPicks needles, in the prettiest colours... posing on my basil plants that are taking off, as is the rest of my garden - all the rain last week was good for something...)

I should have something interesting this week - Fiona Ellis is coming to our Guild meeting tomorrow night, and that's always a highlight. The one downside is that I will not be picking her up - Monika gets that honour - I'm going to miss that hour's drive - chit chatting and getting so much insight into her mind, and how her designs evolve, but I do get dinner with her as well as the meeting! I'll try not to have camnesia tomorrow...