Blankets Away...

It's done! It's done, it's done, it's done! Finally! It took forever, but I am finally ready to mail out the blanket I made for my friend's new baby. (Okay, new in October, but still small enough for the blanket.)



It's still not perfect, not by any stretch, but I think I made fewer mistakes this time. It's much more of a rectangle than the last one, although somehow it ended up being wider than it is long. Not sure how I managed that one. And again, I managed an entire row when I either knit instead of perled or vice versa.



The colors don't show up very well in the pictures. The yarn (Red Heart Baby Clouds in Tutti-Fruiti and White Swirl) is marbled with soft colors - pink, yellow, green, pale blue and lavender. And the blanket is very snuggly and soft - it got even softer when I washed it.



Now all I have to do is get it in the mail...

Special picture bonus: my lovely dining room table.

Knitting On My Mind...

I talked to my friend T today, and she mentioned that her daughter, the lovely P, is 6 months old now. How quickly time flies. And between that, and dumping all the pictures off my camera and onto my shiny new laptop, it occurred to me that I could start posting pictures of things I said months and months ago that I would.

So, here's the blanket that I knitted for P and also a picture of her using it. I lucked out - the yarn I bought exactly matched the colors of the nursery, in spite of my having only seen it once, several weeks before. Go me!



And without further ado, my first (and so far, only) completed knitting project - there's tons of mistakes in it, but they're hard to see in the pictures.



I'm about a third of the way done with another blanket, this one for my best friend's second daughter, due in October. It's been so hot and humid here that it's been hard to work up with will to do anything under a bunch of hot yarn. Hopefully I'll manage shortly. I'll, one of these days, post pictures of this one too.

Happy stitching all!

At Least I'm Not Bored...

The knitting class is going well. It's kind of hypnotic. My hat is going to be a bit bigger than I planned. I just clickity-clicked my way to a hat that will probably end up fitting my father. I'm sure he'll love the dainty pastels. Hopefully the next one will fit the toddler that I had in mind when I started it. And I'm working on a handbag too, but my front loading washing machine is too "gentle" to felt woolens so I may need to revisit the laundrymat after all.

I have no idea what is going on at work, but things are CRAZED! I was there well past 8pm 3 nights last week... and I'm still not completely caught up. Gah! My trip to Mexico is approaching - so hopefully my picture taking will be slightly more successful. I'm told that one of the suppliers is organizing a VIP trip to the pyramids near Mexico City so I'm seriously looking forward to that - any excuse to actually see something of the country is very cool.

My dining room is done. Yay! Now for the rest of the house... I did haul back the bottom half of my entertainment center when I went home for Labor Day. Really, it's getting there! Actually, it'll probably be done in... about 6 more months when I blow this popsicle stand.

Holy crap, did the drive home SUCK. It takes 12 hours. Urg. I'm getting old - that long in a car does NOT appeal the way it used to, and now I'm getting sore if I sit still anywhere near that long. And just a hint? In West Virginia, on 77? Yeah, if you need gas, avoid the stops within 15 or 20 miles of that Tamarack place 'cause they jack up the prices to seriously $0.30/gallon higher than the other gas stations. Damn tourist traps.

Speaking of old... I just got something for my 15 year high school class reunion. With typical mad planning skills, they've given all of us about 3 weeks notice to arrange to be there. *headdesk* I'm probably going to be wandering about the wilds of Mexico. Ah well, if I really actually liked those people, I'd probably still be talking to them.

And, my half hour at the library is up. *sigh* Must get computer, must get computer... it does help with the whole rambling on forever thing though.

Later!

Knit, Perl...

I've signed up for a knitting class, to begin next Tuesday. This should be entertaining for all. The store is called "Weavers Webb" and I'm afraid it is going to be terribly appropriate 'cause I can totally see myself getting so snarled into yarn that I require assistance to escape.

My best friend's mom tried to teach me to crochet. Yeah, not so much. I may or may not have mentioned this before, but I'm just a touch (okay, pretty much completely) OCD. This is especially true, as it turns out, when I'm trying to get all those stiches the same size. After several weeks of effort, I had a strip of yarn about the size of an average bookmark - but every stitch exactly matched the ones before. So I kinda gave that up as a lost cause. Can you even imagine how many years an afgan would take me?!? Hopefully, knitting will be a bit more of something I can do without losing my mind.

In other news, my company finally came through with the washer and dryer that I was promised in April. Holy crap. The washer spins at 1200 rpms. I live in an OLD house, and my laundry room is directly above my kitchen. For the first load, by the time it hit spin, I was making dinner. I thought I was being attacked by helicopters. OMG. The whole house was shaking. Things were kind of jumping around on the counters. And this is a well-balanced machine! My clothes will be clean, but my house may not survive.

Ooh, speaking of well-balanced machines, I need to go to the store and pick up the stuff to make an apple pie. That was one guy's price for hauling the units in and installing them for me. I totally got the better end of that deal, 'cause the washer in particular is HEAVY. They had to get it up the steps to the porch, into the house, up the stairs (with a landing and a 90 degree turn in the middle) then down a hallway, left turn, down another hallway, right turn into the laundry room. Then getting it level on my hilly floors - which required specially made coasters. The other guy hasn't told me what he wants yet. I'm afraid that I may be making a specialty cake for his brand-new granddaughter. Well, at least I'll actually use all that cool stuff from the Wilton Tent Sale...

Speaking of my weakness in shopping... I went to an auction with a friend the other day. I was really good, really. But... *hangs head* I bought another table. It's a sickness. It's so pretty! It's solid cherry. (Why am I never attracted to light weight things? Why must they always be really freaking heavy??) And it's a drop leaf or butterfly or something or other table. The two sides go nearly to the floor, and when you put them up, there are legs that fold out to stabilize them. Very cool. But, I now have like five dining room sized tables. *sigh* Uh oh, my half an hour is over. More adventures from the auction and the other things I've been into later.