Much better now...thanks

I realize now that blogging while under the weather is not a terribly inspired idea. Sorry for that last depressing outing. I am doing much better (flu has passed, ear infection is dissipating; and Zen and her dad are fine, too). Thank you so much for the kind comments, despite my negative post. Have you ever noticed that few men handle being ill very well? All three of us were sick, but my lovely husband was convinced that he was worse off than me, and I can't quite wrap my mind around this - I had the flu and an ear infection and he had just the flu. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that our flu symptoms were identical, yet somehow he was in worse shape than me (I know this because he told me). Nat's a terrific guy; I adore him and think he is a wonderful, perfect dad to ZEN, and a terrific husband to me. But the guy does not handle illness well. This must be the reason that only women can be pregnant.

Really, enough of the sickness now! Onto more exciting things, like milestones and yarn fun.



Our little girl is teaching herself to stand up! I am a typical, cliche mom who would prefer that she not stand, because that means she'll be walking, and there are so many troubles she'll find at that point! I know that's ridiculous, though, so I'm just trying to be excited about her milestone. And besides, when she can walk, I won't have to hold her in the yarn store - more hands available for yarn fondling fun!

In knitting news, I was on target to start Clue 2 of Secret of the Stole when I got sick, but this is Clue 1 done. I didn't block it at all, obviously. I am still a little unsure about the pattern. Clue 2 looked promising though. The double points don't bother me, but it seemed like a lot of stockinette stitch for a lace project. It appears to be opening up with Clue 2, so it will be worth moving forward with for now, at least.

In other fun news, I received yarn from my swap partner - I'm going to knit her a scarf out of yarn she sent. It's Paton's SWS (soy wool stripes). It's a single ply, and I think it will self stripe. It's really soft, so I'm excited to work with it. She very kindly offered some suggestions of scarf patterns she likes. I had planned to play with it this weekend, but the illness derailed that, so I hope to get to it this week. I sent some yarn to my swap partner to knit me a scarf, too. She's received it and said she's already started to lovingly pet it! I sent two colors, just in case she wanted options, and she said she's thinking either cables or fair isle! Holy cow - I got lucky with her, don't you think?

Finally, to get everyone in the Halloween spirit, here's ZEN, all oranged up and no place to go!

Breaking promises, and finishing stuff...

I am really struggling with the promise to myself that I would focus on the following until Christmas (or until all are done in time for Christmas):

1. Mom's sweater (I'm about 1/3 done with the back, which leaves the front and both sleeves, and the turtleneck);
2. Husband sweater (I'm about 1/2 done with the back, which leaves the front and both sleeves);
3. Secret of the Stole (just kicked off on Friday - progress pix below - but I'm through row 53);
4. Husband Socks (one done; one about 3 inches until I reach toe shaping, but I'm seriously stalled out on it);
5. Hats for Alex (done and sent off last week - yeah!). I forgot to take a picture, but it was a little yellow hat, that I hope will warm a needy baby well.


So, in the spirit of breaking promises to myself, I decided to contribute to Sockin' It To Maggie. Now, I don't think it should count against me, since it's for a good cause. And the mission resulted in my casting on the Coriolis sock from Cat Bordhi's new book. I don't have the book, yet, so I used the pattern from her Knitty Gritty appearance. I have to have this book now! I loved making this sock, despite making many mistakes. I think they were mostly well-hidden, though, so I feel comfortable giving the sock to Maggie. This was a two-day sock, something of a feat for my slow hands! The yarn is held doubled (ahhh...cozy socks - hope Maggie likes them toasty!), and they were knit on U.S. 6 needles!



Secret of the Stole kicked off last week. It's an interesting design so far, with two points at the beginning of the stole. I am through row 53. I think there are 83 rows in the first clue. I am pleased with my pace; I should finish Clue 1 by the time Clue 2 publishes on Friday. At that point, I will probably fall behind, as I did with Mystery Stole 3!

Speaking of secret stoles, I saw some progress pictures from Secret of Chrysopolis. I signed up for this one, but had shied away from it because it's authored in German. However, because it is so freakin' gorgeous, and because it is charted (yeah, universal language of knitters), and because there seem to be plenty of English speakers working on it, I am going to cast on... eventually. It will be a wonderful use of my ebony Sea Silk. Before I cast on for that, though, I think I might cast on for the Mystic Waters stole. I haven't decided on a yarn, yet. First clue posts October 24, so I have time.

Lace knitting is really addictive. The lace yarn is so gorgeous, and the patterns are stunning! I love the secret KAL's because it's so nice to get the pattern piecemeal - I feel like I can keep up. My friend Laura mentioned this the other night when we got together to knit, and I realized that she had summed it up perfectly. Hopefully this new addiction won't keep me from knitting from Victorian Lace Today, though!

I have pictures of the oh-so-cute finished Tulip sweater, finally! As tempting as it was, this ridiculous 90-degree-weather-in-October prevented me from stuffing ZEN in it for a photo shoot.


I made the matching hat from a design I found on Mistress Stash Enhancer's blog. I love that name, and the pattern was great, too, so she definitely has the Zen...Cats...Yarn approval.

And as this blog post comes to an end, we should all note that I blogged without a single ZEN picture! Perhaps I'm becoming a slightly less obnoxious mom? Or maybe I just don't have any good pictures because she's under the weather? I suspect that mentioning her at all means that I'm still an all-out obnoxious mom. I'll work on that, I swear. I would be remiss to end this without some gratuitous cute picture, so we'll leave it up to Sunny, who tonight rediscovered her cat bed (sadly, she also discovered the Tulips sweater, and decided it was a perfect cat bed, too - no pix of that, though).

Secret of the Stole and other updates

It looks like lots of people are signing up for Secret of the Stole http://www.islandzephyr.com/blogs/nauticalknitter/2007/08/23/secret-of-the-stole/. I had a lot of fun with Mystery Stole 3 (OK, I admit it, I'm still having fun, but the thing will be finished in a week or two, I swear! I'm on row 131 of the wing!). I have joined the Secret of the Stole KAL. I think I'm going to use Fearless Fibers laceweight yarn (pictured).

In other news, are you all listening to the Stash and Burn podcast http://www.stashandburn.com/? They had a one skein challenge a couple weeks back. I sort of figured that I wouldn't participate, because I have too many other things on the needles, and I'm really trying to focus! Well, I finished a project that I think qualifies (it took 1 1/2 skeins, but it will count in my heart, if nothing else). And of course, there's a story that goes along with its creation...

My non-knitter sister came to visit for Labor Day. She arrived on a Friday, and planned to stay through Monday. On Saturday evening, she mentioned that she was going to a wedding the next weekend, and she needed a wrap for her dress. Where, she asked, could we go buy one? Well, I was working on MS3 at the time, and I put the needles down and said, I suspect you could have asked your knitting sister to make one for you. She sort of turned her nose up and said "I don't want a knitted wrap. I want something pretty." Hello, is that a challenge?!?

My husband was sitting across the room from us, and upon hearing her remark, put down the newspaper he was reading so he could fully take in my response (them's fightin' words in my house!). I kept my furor in check, and instead pulled a few books off the shelves, Victorian Lace Today, Lace Style, and the Vogue Accessorize book. I made her thumb through them, and tell me about all of the pretty things she saw. Well, of course, she saw bunches. The problem was that she was leaving in 36 hours, and I needed to use stash yarn. I ended up using a pattern stitch from 200 ripple stitches, and knitting it with Fiesta La Boheme and size 15 needles. The picture shows it blocking. If I had more time, I would have made it a little longer, and possibly added width. She'll be wearing it tomorrow, and I hope she'll get a picture. I told her if she meets a guy at the wedding, and they get married, she has to let me knit her a wedding stole. She agreed.
I am editing this to add that my sister just called to tell me she was at Nordstrom, and saw a shawl (I was prepared for her to say that she decided to buy one and not wear mine!). Anyway, she was all excited, because it looked similar to the one I had made her, and it was $72, so she felt like she got quite the deal with my little gift!

I have a little more than 1/2 a skein of the La Boheme left. I think I am going to combine it with another skein of La Boheme in a cranberry color, and experiment with the Chevron scarf everyone raves about. I'm hoping my library has the book. We shall see...

Oops! I nearly forgot the obligatory ZEN photo... She's thinking about eating her ruby slippers. Admit it - if you had ruby slippers, you'd eat them, too!