Green Things

Below is a book with many lovely patterns, all candidates for the yarn Blake gave me for my birthday.  Now the hard part.  Choose one.

The Ravelry Raglan is approaching the final curve.  I started the last sleeve.  A couple good days of knitting and it will be done.

Like most other places in the US, the weather has been very chaotic.  My daffodils have been trying to bloom for several weeks, but the cold is inhibiting them.  I had to resort to buying flowers to brighten a dreary spring.

Easter is next week.  Hopefully that will entice the weather to turn.  Just when I finish the sweater it will be too warm to wear.

Crazy Grandcat Lady

As usual, life around here has been busy.  Kristin had her spring break during the last week of February.  She and her boyfriend went on a cruise.  We watched her cat, Nala, for the week.  Nala is a very social animal.  I'm not sure she fully realizes she's not a human. She's also a couch hog.  She bit my toes to make room for herself on the couch.

It was nice having her around for the week.  I'm always sad when she has to leave.  She also does not like leaving.  She loves to roam our house, which is much bigger than Kristin's apartment.  Nala also does not enjoy car rides.  Whenever she sees Kristin packing a suitcase, she hides because she does not want to go in the car.

After Kristin left Trisha went to the pet store and adopted two cats.  

These two are litter mates, but they don't look it.  The female, Brie, is much smaller than the male, Bennie.  Trisha had a vet look at them.  The vet said they are at least 6 months old.  Because Trisha's roommates do not want the cats in the apartment, we are keeping these cats here until she moves into a new apartment in April.  They are being confined to one room for now since we are not home during the day.  Trisha took off for Europe shortly after adopting them.  Once she's home and can monitor them, we'll let them out of the room.  They are still very skittish around people.  I'm not sure if they will ever become as social as Nala.

We'll find out how all three cats do together in a couple weeks.  Kristin will be home for Easter and Trisha will not have her new apartment yet.  It might be a crazy weekend.

My birthday was this past week.  None of the kids were able to be here on the exact day.  Ed and I celebrated by going to a hockey game.  We had dinner beforehand at Gorden Biersch, where I enjoyed my favorite kind of beer.

After dinner we watched the Columbus Blue Jackets win their 5th straight game.

Between the first and second period Ed had a surprise for me on the Jumbotron.

On Tuesday, Blake was able to get home for the remainder of his spring break.  She brought me a lovely birthday present, two skeins of very, very soft alpaca.  I'll have to think of something special to make with these.

I drove Blake back to Cincinnati on Friday evening and then spent the night at a friend's.  After lunch yesterday I came home.  Trisha is getting home this evening.  I'll have a Welcome Home dinner for her tonight.  We'll get to hear all about her adventure.

I'm making progress on my Rhineback Raglan.  I finished the first sleeve last week.  I used the yarn remaining on that ball to add to the length of the body.  I am about to pick up for the last sleeve.  After that sleeve is complete, I'll try it on and see how much longer I want to make it.

I also did something I swore I wouldn't do; I bought yarn for another project.  I was visiting my favorite LYS last weekend.  I saw a sample of Daydreamer at the shop and fell in love.  I now have 3 skeins of Manos Serena set aside to make it.

I've probably said this before.  I just need more time to knit.  That pesky day job gets in the way!!

Sweater Confidence

Back in January I took a sewing class at a local shop.  It has been years since I've sewn anything for myself so I decided I might need a little professional guidance.  The pattern for the class was a raglan sweatshirt.  I chose contrasting lightweight knits.  

Despite my prior years of sewing, I did learn a few things from this class.  

First lesson was about the choice of fabrics.  The fabric was nice to work with, but now that they are together it looks like a kid's pajama top.  

Second lesson was about placing the neckband.  It had to be stretched to fit around the neck opening.  My mistake was that I also stretched the green fabric.  It is gathered but should not be.

I still have to put on the cuffs and and waistband.  That shouldn't take too long.  I just haven't made the time.

Last weekend we went down to Cincinnati to visit Blake.  He is part of the TedX committee at UC.  Their main event was Saturday afternoon.  I got some good knitting time in while on the car ride and during the 3 hours of Ted talks.

I got to the end of the ball of yarn I was knitting on the body of the Rhinebeck Raglan.  There are three balls of yarn left.  I pulled one out and began a sleeve.  Once this sleeve is done, I'll do the same with the other sleeve.  The remaining yarn will be used to finish the body.  I'm not sure how long it will be but I'm hoping it hits mid-hip.

Monday was Presidents Day.  Since I had off work I ran a few errands, including popping by my favorite LYS Knitting Temptations.  I have some money left from Christmas gifts so I bought myself yarn to make another sweater.  Rhinebeck Raglan is helping me with my sweater confidence.

These four beautiful skeins of Blue Sky Woolstok will one day become The Weekender.  I've been seeing the pattern mentioned a lot and its come up in Ravelry on the favorites list.  It looks like a comfy, cozy sweater.

One of my New Year's resolutions was to spin more.  I'm trying to get at least 30 minutes a week at my wheel.  I have some yak on there now.  Once that is spun and plied I'm going to try to make a gradient yarn out of one of these lovelies.  

It will take some careful planning.  I have the book Yarnitecture to help me.

What To Do During Winter

Winter isn't quite done with central Ohio yet.  Here's a view of the back deck on Wednesday morning.

  An Alberta clipper that was supposed to bring a dusting of snow to the area dumped over 4 inches on Wednesday.  A Level 2 snow emergency was declared.  Since the snow hit just at the morning rush hour, I decided to wait at home before trying to venture into the office.  Even with waiting 3 1/2 hours I had a challenging commute.  Since not everyone was of the same mind (to wait it out) the snow removal efforts were thwarted by too many cars on the road.  I did get into the office by 11 am.  Thankfully the afternoon commute was much easier.

While I waited at home, I finished January on my temperature gradient scarf.  I'm really happy with how it is turning out.  Before I begin February, I need to decide if I want to knit a few rows of black garter stitch to separate the months or just transition into the next month.

A couple of years ago one of my sisters gave me an unframed drawing of our great grandmother, Louisa Martin Wessel.  Patty has a framed drawing of our great grandfather hanging in her house and found this other drawing in our mom's basement.  She gave me the picture because I am named after our great grandmother. This past Christmas, Patty also gave me an antique frame that she had, thinking it would work for the drawing.  I finally got around to framing the picture.  It does look very nice in the frame.  Now I need to decide where to put it.

We believe the drawings were done shortly after the couple was married in 1883.  That would make the pictures about 135 years old.  The paper is very fragile and torn in spots.  You can see in the photo above a few white spots on her dress where the chalk/crayon came off.  Patty suggested I write Louisa's history and tuck it into the back of the frame.  That way when my children inherit the picture they will know a bit about her.

Speaking of my children, Trisha and her boyfriend convinced us and his parents to join them for dinner and ice skating.  It was a nice triple date, especially since none of us ended up seriously hurting ourselves.  Ed and I had gone on an ice skating date when we first started going out.  That was the last time he had been on skates.  I took the kids skating once about 15 years ago.  My balance wasn't the greatest, but it was a fun.

Today is a low key day.  It is cloudy and rainy.  I did a little spinning while watching a movie.  This is the yak fiber I bought a few years ago.  I'm anxious to get this spun and plied.  It will become a scarf of some kind, once I know the yardage.

I also wound the next mini-skein that will go onto my Hitchhiking Around Ohio scarf.  Next up is Lake Erie.  Here's how Hocking Hills is knitting up.

I've been knitting away on the Rhinebeck Raglan during our evening television viewing.  That is if I'm not too tired to pick up the needles.  The Olympics are on so there will be many hours over the next weeks spent on the sweater.

The Brioche scarf has also gotten a little attention lately.  I have the pattern memorized now, so it is an easy one to grab and crank out a few rows when I have some time.  My goal is to keep it fresh in my mind so that I don't have to relearn the pattern.

Now the rest of my day is going to progress very much like it has.  I may get dressed (yes, it is 2:00 in the afternoon and I am still in my pajamas)  and go for a walk outside.  According to the radar, the rain has taking a break for a few hours.