Weekend Away

The upcoming months are going to be crazy.  November and December are usually extra busy in any year, with the holidays and birthdays for Trisha and Blake.  But this year it's going to be extra busy for a variety of reasons. Next week my husband is having shoulder replacement surgery.  I started my new job this week.  Trisha and Craig's postponed wedding celebration is in December.  Kristin bought a house and will be moving in the next month or so.

So, before we dove into all of those events, Ed and I decided to get away for a quick weekend trip to Florida.  Normally when we go to Orlando we stay at a Sheraton resort east of the Disney property.  This time Ed wanted to check out another resort, a Hilton resort in Kissimmee.

We flew down on Friday morning, getting a direct flight on Allegiant.  What we didn't realize, though, is that Allegiant didn't fly into the main Orlando airport, but Orlando Sanford airport.  It was an hour drive from the airport to the resort.

We got to the resort early afternoon.  After we ate lunch we changed into are bathing suits and relaxed by the pool for the rest of the day.

Saturday we drove onto the Disney property and went to what used to be called Downtown Disney.  Now it is called Disney Springs and is at least 3 times larger than what it was last time we were there.  It was an extremely hot, humid afternoon and I didn't enjoy walking around in the crowds.  So we headed back to the hotel and the pool.

Overnight a cold front blew through so Sunday was much more pleasant.  Another afternoon by the pool was in order.

Monday we woke in the middle of the night, drove back to the airport and caught a 6:00 am flight back home.  The above picture was taken halfway through the flight somewhere probably over Georgia or South Carolina.

After we got home Ed logged into work and I crawled into bed.  I napped for a couple hours with Squeaks next to my feet.  She really missed me us.  Shortly after I woke up I got a phone call from my vendor telling me that the contract that I've been waiting 7 months for had been signed and I could start work on Tuesday.

Now that I'm working, my knitting productivity is going to drop.  I finished the Cozy Cardigan this week while finishing binge-watching Shameless.  It's upstairs blocking on Blake's bed.  I still need to find buttons for the front.  I have a couple shawls on the needles.  One is a good mindless knit, but the other has sections that require some attention.  I want to cast on another sweater, but need to decide which one to grab from the stash.  Pictures of all discussed here will follow.

Intense Kitty Stare

This is the look of a cat intensely watching a stink bug crawl along the top of the wall.  Since the weather has cooled off we have been invaded by stink bugs.  I found one burrowed in a stack of fabric I had in the sewing room.  Yuck!  I don't let Squeaks catch them if I can help it.  I'm worried that if she were to eat one she'd get sick.  She has a sensitive stomach as it is.  Don't need those nasty things to aggravate her.

A little over a month ago I sent out a text to my husband and children asking them what they wanted me to make them for Christmas.  No one responded so I decided for myself.  I already have a quilt top done for Blake.  I'll finish that for him.   I'll post a picture once I get it finished.

 I found a pattern that I thought Kristin would like.  It's called Dusky Mountains from Connecting Threads.  I'm hoping since it is a modern quilt design that she'll like it.   I finished the top.  Now I need to buy the batting, backing and binding fabric.  I can't decide if I want to quilt this myself at home or rent some time on a long-arm machine at a local fabric store.

Trisha and Craig aren't getting a quilt.  That is because Trisha is making one herself.  Actually, she has sewn the squares of one and has asked me to put them together into the top.

But I am making them an afghan.  It's a corner to corner crochet pattern called Stacked Triangle by Living the Craft Life.  I'm using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in worsted weight.  I added one extra column to each triangle to make it just a wee bit bigger.  I'm hoping it will be big enough that both of them can snuggle under it while watching television.

Squeaks approves of my choice of yarn.  She was upstairs when I spread the afghan out on the living room floor.  As soon as I did, she came running down and pounced on it.  My friend has been telling me that I need to make her a cat couch. If I do I'll probably use Wool of the Andes since she seems to like it so much.

In the meantime I'll make her a little blanket out of the leftovers from a cardigan I'm working one.  She really loves this yarn.  It is a wool-mohair mix.  

The pattern is Cozy Cardigan by Lis Barsuglia-Madsen of Heirlooms.  I'm using Bulky - 2 Ply from Yarn Hygge in colorway Cache Lake.  It is knitting up very fast and I should have a finished sweater in a week or two.  Just need to find some buttons.  

Because of the variegation of the yarn, I was getting some bad pooling on the sleeves.  The one of the right was the first sleeve that I knit.  I decided to do helical knitting on the second, starting at the point where the pooling started.  As you can see in the top photo, it yielded a one-row stripe, but I liked that much better than the pooling.  I am already imagining how I will style this with a my skinny jeans and a black long-sleeve t-shirt.