Superbulky Grandpa

While I was posting my last blog entry, my husband was on the phone booking a cruise for our anniversary.  Later this year we will celebrate 28 years of marriage by taking a cruise from NYC up through New England, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  I hope the fall colors are out and we get to see the Aurora Borealis.  Thinking about the weather that we might encounter on the cruise, I decided I needed to make a special sweater for the trip.  Superbulky Grandpa had recently popped up in Ravelry so I gave it a look.  It seemed perfect for what I wanted, something to throw over a top and add a scarf if necessary.

Later in the day I went out to run some errands and stopped in the store to buy some yarn.  That evening I knit a gauge swatch.  The curious thing about the pattern is that it lists two different gauges.  Based upon the finished bust measurements, I should make the XL, but since my gauge matched the tighter gauge I decided I needed to do a little math to see if it would work out.  According to my calculations I decided I needed to knit the XXL.   Since this is a top down sweater, I figure I won't have long until I know if this was the right decision or not.

While I was out running errands that day, I also stopped into my favorite LYS.  The shop owner asked me if I would like a temporary part-time job to help her get ready for a special event she is having in June.  Of course I said "Yes!"  I have been helping her and her staff hank and tag hundreds of skeins of Manos.  Not surprisingly, I have loved every minute of my time there.  It is yarn heaven!!

May Didn't Get the Memo

April showers bring May flowers.

Yeah!  Right!  Sure!  When the showers don't stop at the end of April, they bring cold, damp, dreary May.  That's how the weather has been the first week of May in Ohio.  I am being a bit dramatic.  I do have flowers.  But I'm not sure if they will survive.  The weatherman mentioned the possibility of frost tonight.  And I may have jumped the gun and planted my tomatoes and peppers outside already.  Keeping my fingers crossed that they all make it through the night.

The dreary weather has been perfect for getting some sewing done, along with the fact that Blake is now home for the summer and has been borrowing my car quite a bit.  Last Saturday I worked on a few quilting projects.

First, I made the April and May blocks for my groups' Block of the Month.   The patterns come in two sizes, crib and twin, so I decided that I'd do one of each.  The April block is a four-patch and the May is a modified nine-patch.

The crib size quilt is going to be made out of pastels.

The twin size is going to be made out of bold colors.

After those were complete, I pulled out the pieces for Blake's quilt, which I never finished.  I now have the top complete and have to decide about the quilting.  I can't decide if I want to do it myself or contract it out.  My hesitation with doing it myself is because I seem to always have trouble with yarn tension.  I want the quilting to be stippling, but I have never mastered that technique.

He heads back to school in August.  I'll give myself this month of May to think about what I want to do.  Maybe I'll muster up some courage.