Punished for my indiscretion

Over the Memorial Day weekend, instead of taking the nice, lazy 3-day weekend and working on Valpuri, I got seriously distracted by lace. I worked a bit on the Butterfly dress and started a Print O' the Wave stole. I've been loving every minute of it. But then midweek while gathering things for my Wednesday knitting lunch with friends at work, I pulled Valpuri back out. I was feeling guilty for not working on it and decided that as much as I'd love to totally immerse myself in lace knitting again, I better get Valpuri done. I worked Friday night while sitting on the deck until it got too dark to see the stitches clearly. I worked on it Saturday morning at Dancer's recital practice (which was 1 1/2 hours behind schedule!!!) Sunday morning it was in the home stretch for the front and realized I SCREWED UP!! I was supposed to decrease one stitch EVERY row for 12 rows at the neck opening. I did every other row!!! CRAP!! I've frogged it back to the beginning of the neck opening but I think I've got the two sides out of alignment. Tonight I'll try to sit with it and try to figure it out. Hopefully it will forgive me for brief liaison with others.

Confirmed

VBGirl was confirmed Friday night. My sister, Nancy, was her sponsor. It was a very nice ceremony. In this blurry picture, Bishop Campbell is annointing her with the chrism.


Here's VBGirl and Nancy after the ceremony. Notice the shiny forehead


VBGirl, Dancer, and Nancy's girls. Aren't they beautiful


I've finished the back of Valpuri. I need to count the number of rows because the neckshaping on the front is dependent on the row count rather than a measurement


Here's the front as it stands right now. I need to attach two separate skeins because the front opening starts with the next row. I'm thinking about making the sleeves a bit longer than called for in the pattern. We'll see. I might be anxious to get this project completed so I can move on to the next one. My neice and her husband found out they are having a boy, so I have to start working on something for the little guy.

Valpuri Progress

Here is the latest progress on Valpuri. Going is slow, but I'm getting there. This piece measures 11 1/4" from the bottom. At 14" I will begin the armholes. Each repeat of the pattern is slightly less than 2 1/2". I figure when I'm finished with the next repeat, I'll be ready to start the armholes.

This pattern was written to work the front and back separately. I decided to work the body in the round because I absolutely hate seaming. Plus I can knit faster when I don't have to switch between knit and purl rows. I get a rhythm going in the round. Once I get to the armholes I'll separate the front and back. The sleeves are knit separately also and then seamed to the body. If I had taken the time to sit and think through the process, I probably could have figured out how to do this pattern in the round and top down. But, I wasn't feeling that creative.

I'm home from work today because of back spasms. Since I can't do any house work (Oh darn!! ;)] and have to sit, alternately applying hot and cold compresses, what better way to spend the day than knitting. My hope is to get to the armholes and then complete the back.

Spring continues to be extremely beautiful this year. Last year we had an early spring freeze that killed off most of the blooms and leaf buds. Although it has gotten quite cool some nights, we haven't had a deep freeze this year. Everything seems a to be compensating for last year. All, except my daffodils. Only about 10% of them bloomed this year. I'm not sure why, but I'll fertilize this year and hope for a better output next spring.

Here are some of the beautiful sites outside my door today.

A new maple tree growing in my flower bed. I'm going to transplant it to a pot. When it is big enough, it will be added to our yard somewhere.



The flowering crab apple by the front curb.



BIG difference from 7 weeks ago!



Here's a close-up of one of the branches. I think I'll make this the background on my computer.



Something decided to sleep on one of my day lilies. My guess it was a duck. Ed and I watched a pair of mallards stroll through the yard last Sunday.



And finally, not necessarily the most beautiful (note the crappy lawn), but one that makes me happy nonetheless. A 'For Sale' sign in the front yard of the house next door. I won't go into the many reasons I won't be sad to see these people move away. My only hope is that they move far enough away that their feral children will not be able to attend the same school as mine.

Sunny Saturday

It looks like spring might finally be making an appearance this weekend. It rained all day yesterday and a bit more overnight. We didn't, however, get the thunderstorms that were predicted. I haven't been outside yet, but the skies are clearing and it looks like it may end up quite nice. The last prediction I saw for today (from yesterday morning) said it would hit the upper 50s today and mid 60s tomorrow. I'm hoping it warms a bit more today so that the whole weekend is nice.

VBGirl has a volleyball tournament this weekend out of town. However, her friend's mom offered to take her with them so we don't have to go. I feel a little guilty about not going to watch, but my turn to provide transportation will be next week. Given the nice weather predicted for this weekend, I'll make the most of having free time.

Progress on Valpuri has been slowed this week due to several factors: return to work, return to school for the kids (and homework), evening activities every night, and a very painful bout of carpal tunnel syndrome in my left hand/arm. I've been able to get relief from the CTS, but I'm going to have to make sure I don't overdo things again. Here's a picture of the progress:



The color is pretty accurate in this photo. I'm starting to get a little worried about the size, however. It seems a bit too small for me. The pattern is a close fitted garment, and versions others have made on Ravelry have been form fitted. I hope once I block it that it is okay. Since I'm working botton up, I could add a few stitched as I get to the bust line. [Also, it wouldn't hurt if I lost a few pounds ;)]

Life's Been Crazy!!

The past couple weeks have been extremely hectic at home and at work.

At work, I'm working on a fast-paced 120-day project to evaluate an ERP suite to replace my company's core financial systems. Pretty important stuff. As one of key technical leads, my job at the moment is to see that the functional users who have been tasked with gathering requirements actually bring back requirements, not wish-list items or tasks. For the unfamiliar, a requirements states 'What' is needed and is traceable back to a regulation, contractual requirement, a business need, etc. If that 'requirements' is a 'How', then it is a task. If it can't be traced back to one of the items above, it is a wish. My job, therefore, is to be the requirements police as my boss states it. I actually prefer requirements bitch, but he doesn't feel others in the company will see the humor in that like I do.

At home, life has been filled with tutoring my son with his reading comprehension, attempting to fix our home computer, and dealing with a dead refrigerator.

Dash has been having trouble with his reading comprehension. I've talked to several tutors, but the only one that is taking students at this point is one I don't feel too comfortable with. There is only one quarter left to the school year. I've gone to an educational store and purchased several practice books for him. I also found a book that was recommended by several educational websites on a technique to improve your child's reading comprehension. We're working through all this now. Dash is a very smart kid. I think his problem is he picks up on certain details and misses the main idea. He's a good 'think outside of the box' kind of guy, which will help him tremendously later in life. But in the 4th grade, the teachers want conventional thinkers.

Outlook Express has been misbehaving on our home computer. Something happened to cause an error about the Address book getting deleted. I originally thought it was a virus. I spent all last Sunday (about 6 hours!!) rebuilding the computer, which seemed to fix the issue. Then, Monday night, Dancer told me that the error has come back. With a little investigation on the internet, I saw that the possible cause is a patch from Microsoft. I've tried several things to fix the issue, but the problem remains. I'm not a happy camper!!

Tuesday night after failing to fix the computer (I did not rebuild it yet again), one of the kids mentions that the milk in the refrigerator is warm. Sure enough, it doesn't feel as cold as normal. I cranked up the setting, thinking that the kids have just been in there too much or left the door slightly ajar. Wednesday evening, it was still warm so I pulled the beast out from the wall and vacuumed the coils. That didn't do the trick, so Thursday Ed and I spent the evening shopping for a new refrigerator. Since we'll be gone next week, we decided to wait until today to order the new one. A friend loaned us a small, dorm-size refrigerator for milk and eggs. That'll get us through until next Saturday.

The kids are on Spring Break for the next week. We're going to go to DC and explore the museums and monuments. I'm excited. Dash and Dancer are also, but VBGirl is complaining that it isn't a beach. I plan on making major progress on Valpuri, which
I'm doing as a knit-along with a friend from Ravelry. Here's my starting photos:


Valpuri ribbing


Valpuri swatch