More blue sheep! In honor of my blue knitting blog, Inga from Hamburg sent me this terrific picture of an art installation she saw at a garden show.

I love it! These little guys are definitely finding a permanent home here at the blue blog. For now I'm letting them graze in the title banner and on a new button. What d'ya think?

My husband and the boys have just recovered from a brief but mean little cold bug. And finally I have succumbed. So it's sofa therapy for me: my favorite sick day film (Pride & Prejudice) in the VCR, wi-fi internet surfing, and some knitting between naps. I'm counting on the Advil high and my one still open nostril to hang on long enough to get me over the worst part.

So I go to Germany and visit the giant boardgaming fair and what is my favorite souvenir: this sheep shirt. The sheep is from a little card game called Attribute. We didn't buy the game, but I had to have the shirt!

And on my first visit to the knitting group after returning from vacation, fellow Knitsmith Kimberly gave me this cute sheep mug. A blue sheep for my blue knitblog. How cool!

Not that I'm collecting sheepy stuff or anything. Since we're on the subject, how much sheepy stuff is okay and when does too much sheepy become a little creepy?

For the second time in as many months a stranger has approached me during my normal 'pushing the kids around in the stroller' life and told me they recognize me from my blog. Okay, to be honest, they recognize the boys and then they recognize me. Still, pretty cool, huh? I guess I never thought about how many people in my area might happen upon my blog while surfing the net. But there are so many Boston-area knitbloggers, we could probably start a new hobby: blogger-spotting!

Also spotted this weekend:

I spy two kiddies wearing their fall vests. "Look ma, they still fit!"

And it's fall foliage time in New England, which of course means that the trees are losing their... buttons?!

I've been asked this question several times during the frenzied finishing fiesta of the last week (two more projects to go to finish the finishing!). Well, I don't know yet. The next project will have to be a good vacation project, since if I get my finishing all done, I'll have a pretty clean slate (except for the mondo poncho, which is too big and bulky to bring with me).

These are my current faves:

filly cardigan
Man, I want to start this so bad!

sooty mango
That's Mango in black, with sleeves. This would make for easy relax-and-chat-with-family knitting.

the blue sweater
I seem to be on a blue kick. And a three-quarter length sleeve kick. Hmm.... How about a blue three-quarter length sleeve sweater like this?

So what do you all think would make the best vacation project?

And judging from my current fantasies, these could be next up when I return:

leigh's sweater
Took the yarn for this stripey sweater off Leigh's hands when it didn't work out for her. Love the colors and the shaping. Mighty tempting.

snowy
Not sure why, but having just finished knitting the ladybug sweater, I'm really itching to start another fingering weight fair-isle! I'm nutty like that.

I guess it's only fitting. Blue blog, blue fingers. This is how my fingers looked after knitting up a couple of zipper facings for the ribby cardie (yes separate facings, I can't stand picking up stitches!). The blue dye in the Manos yarn really left its mark. I looked like one of my boys after eating a popsicle. Luckily Claudia (dye queen extraordinaire) was at Knitsmiths on Sunday when this happened to help. Apparently turquoise is hard to set. Who knew? And I need to give the yarn a little vinegar bath to set the color completely. Hmmm.

And since we're all about blue today, here's my latest kids chemo cap - a blue's clues joe hat!

I found these leftovers in my stash and the blues coordinated so well, it reminded me of the great colors in Joe's shirts. And I'm sure you remember what a kick I got out of the idea of making Joe sweaters for the boys some day. So, a Joe hat was born. I hope there's a little Joe fan at Children's Hospital who'll enjoy it.

One more reason to be blue today, this week is the one year anniversary of the blue blog. Wheee - what fun it's been! I'm proud to note that I finished the two major projects I was working on when I started blogging last year (native and elizabeth I). But I think I've most enjoyed the knit-alongs and getting to know so many others out there through knitting together with them.

I guess it's appropriate that the ribby will be my next finished project since it will be the blue blog's first blue sweater!

Anything blue to share?

Labor day weekend has come, the last summer tank is done.
Boy, being a tank girl sure was fun!
There were striped tanks and plain tanks, boat necks and lace.
Some were knit along with friends and all at quite a pace.

Alas, with every seasons' change, the stash must be rearranged.
Summer cottons must away, while winter wools come out to play.
But wait, what's this? What do I find,
but two little knitting projects left behind.
This one has ladybugs all in a row,
and here's another giraffe jacket waiting to go.
Quick, make haste, don't delay!
Finish these sweaters right away.
'Cause fall won't wait
And these little guys are looking for their mates.

And now as sweater weather is drawing near,
I pause/pose in my tanks and what more do I hear?
Three-quarter length sleeves beckon to me
and it seems that a ribby has been reckoned (tee hee).
That makes four projects for semptember, you see.
And don't forget these two pipqueaks, silly!

Six projects to finish? Really so many!
Oh, if only it were October already!

(then I could start pinkie and teddy*!)

* - It's a secret! I simply cannot tell. If I even think about it, I'll have to start it right away.

I finally tackled a scripting problem I've been having on the blog with my cookies not remembering anyone's info on the comment screen. I'd tried several times to figure out what was wrong with the so-called "bake cookie" scripts, but frankly, what I don't know about cookies is A LOT! All I knew is that I couldn't ever get it to work for me. And I had almost convinced myself that I was the only one troubled by this little glitch, but then Marg let me know in my comments on Monday that she was having the same problem when visiting my blog. Alas, it seems the code was eating up all the cookie dough before it could be baked.

So I searched and tinkered, checked and rechecked, tried and retried, and rebuilt and finally, finally figured out the problem with the old oven here. Everything should be in working order and for the price of a comment, you too can enjoy a blue blog cookie. Yum!

Inspired by my virtual success, I decided to whip up a batch of cookes irl, as they say.

No, not from scratch! Seriously, what I don't know about baking cookies is a lot.

Yet another Boston area knitblogger made it to Knitsmiths this week: Shannon from La Gringa Tejadora . With Kerstin and Sandy getting to be regulars, that means we've taken over about 40% of the group. (Mwaahaaahaaa.) And both Shannon and Gina wore their newly finished ChicKamis!

In addition to seeing all the amazing things that the gals have recently finished, I always seem to pick up something cool at knitting group too. Last week, one of the Knitsmiths brought in some tweedy wool to give away. A lot of it. Plus, an almost finished sweater. Wool in need of a good home? How could I refuse? Only one little problem - this wool seems to have run into the smelly end of a few mothballs. Any tips on how to rid it of the odor? (I've already got a few Bounce dryer sheets in the bags with the wool!)

And in another clearing out the closet moment, Nancy brought in this little gem: a pouch of yarn! I'm embarrassed to admit how cool I think this is. It's OLD yarn from Bernat, but the yarn's not the really cool part. It's the bag, which is like a little bread bag. Check out the instructions for the pouch. And here's the hi-tech closure. It IS a bread bag! It's both hilarious and kind of clever. I love it!

Busy with the boys' birthday today. Won't be much knitting to report on tomorrow, but I'll be sure to share a bit of the cake with you all!

Had enough ta-da's for this week, so now it's time for some to-do's. I've got so many projects in finishing and planning stages (funny, not really anything on the needles!), that I need to take a moment to write them all down and get straight what order to tackle them all in.

1. finish the co. of minimono & co.- why did I stop work on that hat with just one earflap to go?
2. finish native - all those ends, ugh!
3. start the boys' pipsqueak sweaters - yeah, I already started, but I'm waiting for the rest of the yarn
4. start phildar top for next knitalong - I'm knitalong-less at the moment, oh no!
5. finish the second giranimals jacket - in case I'm feeling industrious
6. start working on the second bug sweater - in case I'm feeling really industrious
7. stop obsessing about the ribby cardie - wash swatch to test yarn and then let it go until August
8. and don't even think about cleo - you don't have the yarn for it, so don't even go there, girl!

(And here's what the other list makers won't tell you.)

#1 and #3 are strong contenders to finish. #2 is a real wildcard; she might get out of the starting gate alright, but could come up lame. Even money on #4 and #5. #6 has an outside chance given good conditions, but #7 and #8 are longshots. Anyone care to do a little wagering?

Thanks to all those who sent birthday wishes. Sharing a birthday with the Declaration of Independence is a good cure for self-importance. But, with the help of hubby, I managed to treat myself to a relaxing and special day. I even received a few nifty, knitty gifties.

Hubby got me the tiny knitty tee, which I totally love. What fun! And I finished up my simply smooch tee, as a gift to myself. Nice and plain. Perfect for a hot day, watching the boys play by the fountain in the park.

And perhaps best of all, our landlord installed the air conditioner, making knitting during the hottest days possible again!

Anyone out there interested in a copy of the latest issue of Interweave Knits? Due to some mishaps at the post office regarding my change of address and the diligent work of the customer service department at Interweave Press, I now find myself with two copies of the magazine instead of none. Anyone up for a little trade?

It's their special occasion issue, which includes a pattern for a lacy little camisole that one of our Knitsmiths is making and a crazy article about a knitted wedding gown! And did you see the ad for that lovely 'how to knit' ribbon? Way cool. The perfect thing for wrapping up a little handknitted giftie! I managed to get my greedy little hands on some samples. No affiliation (and all that jazz), but in case you were wondering, here is the website listed for info on the ribbon. I'll be checking out the Massachusetts sources for sure!

(click on picture for close up)

So, any takers on the magazine (and maybe a little ribbon sample)? Email me with fun trade ideas!

Update: I'm already working out a trade for the mag. Now, if you have other cool trade ideas, let me know! I'm always up for a good trade.

Spent most of my free time yesterday making some little buttons for the current knit-alongs. Becky did such a good job on the Tank Girl button, I was a little intimidated to give it a try. But we can't have Becky making the Becky-wannabe button, now can we?!

In actual knitting news, I've cast on for the front of the wannabe sweater. Looks just like the cast on for the back (by George, I think she's got it!), so no new pictures today. Maybe when I separate for the neck!

First off today I thought I'd share a bit of what I saw and learned at the Granite State Knit-In on Saturday. I only took one picture (come on, you've seen ladies knit before!), which was from the Show and Tell portion of the afternoon. Several women came up and showed their fabulous lace and intarsia sweaters. Very impressive. But I got such a kick out of these women who all knitted the same hat and came up as a huge group that I had to take a picture. Funny!

Nancy Thomas, from Lion Brand, was the speaker. I wish I'd thought to tell her about how much we knitbloggers and Knitty readers are enjoying the Cotton Ease (and ask for a few more neutral, sophisticated colors, perhaps). She brought many examples of exquisite knitting from her trips to Bolivia and Peru and talked about her experiences in the professional knitting world. She also brought some free patterns for people to take home and I must say I am impressed at how Lion Brand is really trying to offer hip and young patterns and yarns. It's not just your grandma's yarn anymore!

I took a couple of brief classes and saw a demonstration of some cable techniques, like cabling without a needle (not so scary if you don't have too many stitches in the cable). In another class, I learned a new decrease (new to me, at least), which is the exact complement to a K2tog decrease. You have to try it, if you're looking for matching decreases for raglan shaping or something like that! What you do is slip the first stitch knitwise and the next purlwise. Then knit the two together, by inserting the left needle into the stitches from the right. I know, it seems weird, but here's the result (new decrease on the left and K2tog on the right). Cool, huh?

And at the very end of the day, I won some yarn in the big raffle: 10 balls of Classic Elite's Spotlight cotton in a sort of pale blue/green/gray color. It's very soft! I couldn't help pulling out one ball so I can start swatching. Like they always say - if life gives you yarn, make a sweater!

Finally, speaking of making sweaters, people are still joining the knitalongs. I'm really excited that so many of us are getting together to knit and share our progress. Everyone is still welcome, so if you're interested, just let me know. And speaking of Knitty, until I was perusing the new issue (and old archives) yesterday, I had totally forgotten that the cover pattern two issues ago is a sweater very similar to the Becky sweater. If there is anyone out there who wanted to join the wannabe knitalong but had trouble finding the old Phildar pattern, check out Marc. And be sure to check out the new Knitty anyway. 'Cause Knitty rules!

No real post today, since I'm off to the Granite State Knit-In for the day with some fellow knitsmithers. I'll leave you with this great picture of B, enjoying some fun in the fountain on his first day post-cast!

A little delay in posting today. We were totally down for a day here while they finally got our internet service up and running. And now that we're back online, I don't have any real knitting progress to report, because I had a wee accident with the fabric shears while working on my latest sewing project.

Little boo boo, big bandage, and just like that I was a thumb down and falling behind on my knitting. So while others (LoobyLou, Kerrie) are already finished, my Pagan waits enviously.

I've been known to cheat sometimes and post pictures of a finished project even though it still has six or twenty ends dangling around on the inside. Well, this time I was very good and did all the ends for sweetness before posting it. Don't really know how it happened, but I got on a little finishing kick and did all the ends for sweetness and brown butter in a couple of days. And speaking of brown butter, I've just begun working on the borders, slowly but surely bringing this project to a close.

I did cheat a little though with the sweetness pictures. Well, only the second one. It's actually not from my video camera at all, but from my new digital camera that my oh so generous husband gave me for mother's day just in the nick of time. What a guy! And he got to do this to the old one. Here's to what Kathy once said about appreciating the boy in the man!

A while ago I was dismayed at my lack of progress on my growing number of unfinished knitting projects and wrote a little knitting ditty about knitting pretty shitty. But now, despite still having a mound of unfinished projects, I am really loving my knitting. These summer projects are cool and (relatively) quick. The colors are fun and then there's the incredible knitalongs that are coming up. I also have much more space in our bedroom to store and (more importantly) see all my knitting. I particularly love this little table with my all season's cotton and cotton glace stash and my current projects waiting to be finished. It just makes me happy to see them sitting there so invitingly. I've been so inspired that I'm almost done with my sweetness tank! (Stay tuned for the finished product rendered in crappy images by my video camera.)

No progress pictures today. I am sorry to say that my digital camera is no more. It only manages to turn on and take black pictures now. I guess I ran the thing into the ground. Or perhaps I let it fall on the ground a few times too many! What ever the reason, it's a goner. Now I've got to contend with no internet connection and no camera for the knitalongs. Poop.

Despite not being able to photographically record my progress or get to the computer to blog about it, I have been knitting. I finished the body of sweetness up to the yoke and did the side seams for my husband's vest. Maybe I can finish one of these two by next week before the knitalongs begin. I'm in no rush though. I've decided to relax through the summer knitting. The yarn won't go bad if I don't get something done. I can make it next year. And the pressure's really off to start on the boys' summer shirts, since I can only get giant short-sleeved t-shirts over B's cast!

To do by next Thursday:

• Figure out how to use video camera to take knitting pictures.


• Call in miracle and get RCN to install our phone/cable/modem. (That's right, we've also got no phone or access to Nick Jr!)


• Finish either brown butter or sweetness (ugh, all those ends!)


• Decide on stripes for Pagan and do some swatching already.


• Find time in day to at least check blogs of fellow knit-alongers!

Have a good weekend everyone. And if I don't get a chance to blog before then, happy mothers day to all you moms out there!

Well, we started moving. I even schlepped the yarn stash over to its new home by my new sewing table. But then this happened. And I've got an emergency root canal this afternoon. Oh, and happy birthday to my husband! Brown butter's gonna be a bit late.

Didn't get any knitting done yesterday night, since I was running around from store to store trying to find a matchbox car for the boys. We went out in the morning to get more matchbox cars - as we seem to have some sort of matchbox car black hole somewhere in our home - and I bought what turned out to be a mega cool garbage truck and an apparently lame-o fire tanker. The boys ended up having a huge meltdown at home after fighting over the garbage truck and I felt so bad about it that I was determined to find a second one, so each of them can have his own. Heck, they're only 84¢!

While we were out in the morning buying the crisis-inducing matchbox cars, I picked up a skein of Lion Brand's Cotton Ease. There are so many knitbloggers making Sitcom Chic and saying good things about this yarn that I thought I should check it out. I'm all about cotton now, so finding an inexpensive cotton yarn that I like would be a good thing. But no playing with the new yarn until I make some progress on brown butter. This evening, I'm sitting down in my chair and am not getting up until I've got a few more inches done. Unless of course the black hole sucks up one of the garbage trucks.

Good news first. My web host had a backup of my blog's database (yes, I'll be keeping my own backup from now on!), and was able to restore everything to where it was about two weeks ago. And I managed to transfer over the newer entries so they weren't lost. What a relief!

Bad news. While all this was happening, some of you visited the blog and left nice comments, which have been lost during this process. Please feel free to share your comments again, or write new ones. I miss knowing that you all stopped by! Let me know if you have any problems accessing the site, archives or comments. Thanks!

OK, blue blog back online and fully operational.

Bad news first. It looks like I'm going to have to delete and reinstall my blogging software. Ugh! My webhost did something last week that caused some database corruption and I'm losing more data every day. At this point, I'm having to do my archives by hand. Double ugh! The reinstall is going to be a huge job, since I've got several blogs each with its own templates, configuration and archiving systems. Triple ugh! I can see that there will be very little knitting going on this weekend.

Good news. I'm working on the yoke of the all season's tank and it's looking great. I can't wait to wear it! And for all of you who aren't yet tired of seeing pics of the boys: here they are at the marathon yesterday.

This little guy's name is Flame and I got him in my last kinder surprise egg. Seems kind of appropriate as the outrage continues over THE article.

the article (not to be confused with this article)

Bonne Marie's response
the Curmudgeon speaks
girlreaction reacts
not so swift, says Amber

What do I think? Well... hmmm.... sorry to say that I just can't get really worked up over this one. I think some of her derision for the recent trendiness of knitting is legitimate. There are young women (not any of us, I'm sure) who have picked up the hobby as a whim and will make a couple of scarves and never knit again, and frankly I'm a little tired of everyone celebrating their new acceptance of the craft. But I would blame Martha Stewart and her ilk for yuppifying knitting more than the recession or any nesting "urge". That said, however, I don't feel a need to distance myself from accusations of domesticity, especially when they come from someone so obviously concerned about separating herself from all things domestic. Sounds more like her issues than mine.

Hello, I'm almost four skeins worth of lovely Cascade 220 left over from the boys' mutssjaals. What shall I be? A matching mommy mutssjaal? Maybe some neato sideways gloves and a coordinating hat? How 'bout a fun purse. I've heard that Cascade 220 felts up real nice (thanks to Rob!), so what about a Suki bag? Or fuzzy feet for the whole family? Any other ideas?

Okay, that was the sweaters. Just as I don't get excited in the same way about knitting socks and hats like I do about knitting sweaters, I couldn't motivate myself to inventory my "other" stash while still dreaming of all those sweaters-to-be.

But now, I'm ready. Here's the small stuff, in descending order of length of time stuffed under bed.

group a
• lorna's laces sock yarn for me
• regia sock yarn for me
• regia crazy colors leftover yarn waiting to become socks to match the crazy continental!

Except for the crazy colors yarn, I'm not sure I even like this sock yarn anymore.

group b
• regia sock yarn abandoned after quest to turn all remaining yarn from the boys' vests into matching socks
• 100g skein of regia sock yarn for even more baby socks

And since buying all this sock yarn, I've learned that I don't really enjoy knitting socks all that much.

group c
• phildar polaire to make mittens to match my blue hat
• more phildar polaire, but in brown for my brown hat

These two have a really good chance of getting started soon, although, an abrubt (and unlikely) end to this winter we're having could postpone any hats or mittens for a while.

And coming up next week: a few good leftovers in search of projects. Can you help them?

My stash has gotten out of control. I've had moments where I fear that there are projects under my bed that I have completely forgotten about. I desperately needed to inventory everything. So here goes...

works in progress (projected finish date)

• S's giranimals jacket, only needs finishing (march)
• greensleeves, back and sleeves complete (march)
• B's bugs sweater, just begun (april)
• hubby's brown butter vest, half of back finished (may)
• mom's native sweater, a ways away (august)

projects in waiting (projected start date)

• leftovers vest - I've claimed the leftovers from giranimals for myself! (soon)
• iona - my next Starmore (dare I start this when greensleeves is finished?)
• rebecca tank - in all seasons cotton (summer)
• linen drape top - long time stash member awaiting parole (summer)
• stripey cotton glace cardigan - can you tell I've been saving up summer projects?! (summer)
• boys' hamish vests - from A Season's Tale (late summer)
• boys' nursery sweaters - from Double Knits (fall)
• the blue sweater - every blue blog needs a blue sweater (fall)
• blue tweed - what to do with this (???)

really, really want to make (projected moment of weakness)

• one amazing sweater for me from poetry in stitches or norsk strikkedesign or more sweaters (winter)
• joe sweaters for the boys (winter, as long as they still like Blue's Clues)
• pipsqueaks sweaters for the boys (spring 2004)

Okay, let me just say that I'm not proud of the number of projects here. All written out it's actually kind of horrifying. But blogging about my on-going projects has so far really helped me make steady progress on them, so I'm hoping that keeping this list here will help me in my goal to make all these wonderful things. And maybe one of you is thinking about the same project? Knit-along anyone?

Don't you just love Knitty?! Issue #3, and they just keep getting better. I will have to knit one of the cherries with something in my stash. And I think it would be great fun to size down janda and make it for my boys. There are so many great patterns this time, but my favorite thing about Knitty is the fact that Amy does such a great job of having some witty knitty projects in each issue. First there was vegan fox, then those nosewarmers and this time dim sum. Too cool!

My apologies to the authors of Knitting Pretty (a lovely little book for beginning knitters), but I just can't muster pretty right now. I'm knitting pissy, is what I'm doing.

February finishing month has taken it's toll on me. I'm very glad to have finished the projects that I did, but I still don't feel really successful, since I barely made any progress on native. And then there's giranimals II (the wrath of giranimals!), which has annoyed me so much that even though I've put it away, I still feel like I'm knitting shitty.

I'm also a little concerned that this blog has become kind of whiny in the last week, while the (admittedly self-imposed) pressure was on and the problems were plentiful. Thanks to everyone for all of your knitting pity and sorry about that! So as not to become a real knitting bitty, I'm officially putting aside all my remaining goals and deadlines and returning to knitting simplicity.

Thus ends my finishing adventure. Knitting tally: two baby sweaters completed (bugs I and giranimals I); one UFO finished (elizabeth III); next UFO identified (giranimals II); greensleeves begun. Knitting folly: thinking I might get native done, and buying yarn for another Starmore sweater.

My goals for March and beyond: knitting ready, knitting steady, knitting witty, knitting giddy, knitting jolly, and someday knitting it-all-y!

Warm fuzzies = making progress on a project. And the stockinette therapy from the night before last brought me almost to the armhole openings on the back of my husband's vest. Daria wrote yesterday about that moment when the rows of stitches start to become a fabric before your eyes and how rewarding that is. It happened and it was good.

Warm fuzzies = cute animal faces on baby clothes. And here's a sneak peek at the giraffe on the first giranimals jacket. I'm almost done!!

Warm fuzzies = yarn arriving in the mail. And yesterday the rest of the Phildar Legende came that I need to make the second giranimals jacket. As I was needing some soothing, I cast right on and finished the ribbing on the back! Ooohh, alpaca.

Warm fuzzies = going to the yarn store. And so I went and visited all the lovely yarns at a good yarn and even bought a few of the fuzziest for a little friend. And for myself, I got these neat little sweater shaped double-pointed needle holders. Funny, huh?

Warm fuzzies = seeing my boys in their handmade sweaters. And since I still decide what they wear, I put their stripey vests on them yesterday. Cute, cute!

I couldn't help participating in ChicKnits' Monday Morning Mirth.

Meet Cap'n Swee'pea! Be afraid, be very afraid. Oh, and bring extra wipes!

Here's where you can build your own wrestler/superhero. And check out the one Squib made!

Wow, both of my active projects are approaching the finishing stage. I finally finished the giraffe pocket for giranimals jacket #1 and managed to knit the small button band side of the asymmetrical front, which leaves only the large front panel to be knit. And the final steek has been cut on the first Dale bug sweater! I've begun binding off the shoulders to attach the sleeves. It's my first time using the three-needle bind off and I love, love, love it!

And now that I think about it, I've still got two old, long-neglected projects, native and elizabeth III, which are slowly becoming official unfinished objects. They will never get done if I don't somehow force myself to pick them up again, rip what's gone wrong, knit what's left and sew 'em up! So with all this finishing to be done and since all the other months seem to be dedicated to starting, I'm going to try to make February all about finishing. Here goes nothing: no new projects until these are done.

Exceptions: (You didn't really believe that up there did you?) I already started brown butter on Wednesday, therefore it's not really a new project and I could work on that. And technically speaking, the on-going giranimals and Dale bugs projects entail two sweaters each, so starting giranimals 2 or the second Dale bug sweater would also be kosher. But besides that no new projects. Come on people, that's still tough! That means no fuzzy feet felt-along for me. No Charlotte. No big, slouchy cardigan. No greensleeves. And no, no, no buying yarn for that as of yet undiscovered perfect project that I just know will turn up in a week or two.

I haven't done too much knitting since my last post, mostly just thinking about what to tackle next. After finishing the back of the first of the giranimal tweed jackets, I thought about starting the front. Logical, right? But then I took a look at the pattern for the front pieces. If you look at the picture, you see that front is asymmetrical, with two different sized front panels each with raglan shaping and a sweet little curve near the neck. In addition to the giraffe motif, the unique style is what really made me want to make the jackets. But, the directions are a little complicated with lots of 'while doing these decreases, also on left side do this and at x cm start doing this other thing...'. Yikes! I've been a little too sleep deprived to be working my way through that right now. So, I thought I would just start on a sleeve instead (the colors are pretty accurate this time!). Besides, I really wanted to get to that chartreuse accent color. It looked so scrumptuous in the bag!

I'm thinking about trying the armhole steeks on the bug sweater this afternoon, that is, if the boys can take a nice long nap for me. And I've also been thinking about this yarn that I got from the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless in trade for lots of acrylics. I'm daydreaming about another Phildar sweater, this one a nice big slouchy cardigan.

We've reached maximum visitor capacity here at home, so I'm not getting any knitting done. I'll even be missing the Knitsmiths this afternoon, which I almost never do. I hope to get back into some evening knitting next week and then I should have more to report on. Until then, I'll leave you with a little photo of the boys from last March, wearing jackets and booties knitted by some of my husband's relatives.

I got some more yarn. Okay, okay, I know. But...

First, fellow Knitsmith, Dava, gave me a big, beautiful skein of purple yarn to go with the green tweed I got at our yarn swap. They complement each other perfectly! I love it! In exchange I'll be giving her some leftover Lamb's Pride. She's going to make a real cool sweater out of scraps of different colored Lamb's Pride. I think it's gonna be sort of like the magic ball idea that I've heard Kaffe Fassett has used.

Then, a representative of Boston Healthcare for the Homeless stopped by at Knitsmiths on Sunday and offered us some wool yarn that had been donated to the shelter in exchange for acrylic yarn. Many of the women who come there crochet and the shelter offers them yarn to make themselves afghans and warm stuff. They can't really use genuine wool, since they need something which requires very little care. So I went to Michael's and picked up some nice looking Red Heart and Lion Brand to exchange for 10 balls of this Irish tweedy wool.

And as you know, I went to Wild & Wooly to check out their winter clearance sale. They had some wonderful yarn there, but I was good. I was sooooo tempted though. They had some beautiful Cash Iroha from Noro (25% off!!), but I rather reasonably explained to myself that a cashmere/silk blend is perhaps not ideal for a mother of two toddlers. Then there was the Sisik from Dale that I kept coming back to, but my conscience told me that I already have two projects worth of tweedy wool wedged under the bed as it is, so I resisted. There was also a little bag of Pinguoin yarn in assorted pale pinks and reds, just enough for to make a beautiful sweater for a little girl, which I don't have, so there was no justifying that. And when I found some boy colors I recalled that this year is already booked as far as sweaters for the boys is concerned. But as KnitDad so succinctly wrote in the comments yesterday, "like, what's the point" if you're not going to buy anything? Right on, Larry! So I bought this luscious all season's cotton to make this little number from the new Rebecca.

That's not too bad, right? It seems that I was just good enough that the server gods have forgiven me for whatever offence it was that caused them to shut me down for a day and I'm fully-operational here again. Whoopee!

Hello?

Anyone out there?

I hope you all can see me, 'cause I haven't been able to access my website at all today. I seem to be in the same predicament that Ivete was when she was in Brazil. This sucks! Thankfully, my (wonderful, amazing, super-hero of a) husband managed to rig up a system where I can update, so I'll just continue to post as if nothing were wrong and hope that it's making its way out onto the web.

Luckily, I seem to be able to view every other possible website out there. So for as long as this auto-blackout continues, I will have to console myself by getting to know all of you out there in the knitbloggers ring and beyond. Say hi in the comments (and reassure me that things are hunky-dorey as far as you can see) and I'll be sure to swing on by your site and say hi back. Deal?!

So, you remember my description of the real blue room, right? (Check out the sidebar here if not.) Quick summary: childhood home in the 1970's, tacky colored carpet everywhere, blue (and I mean blue) guest room. Well, I just happened to find this old picture of me at about four or five years old sitting in the blue room. The carpet's not in the picture, but I suspect that the wallpaper is enough to give you the idea. Of course the chair is also blue. No wonder we just called it the blue room!

And you know what I'm sitting next to? My mom tells me that was the sewing machine! It's a drop-in cabinet thingie. I vaguely remember us having a sewing machine, but I don't remember my mother sewing often and I had no idea that the machine used to be in that room. How neat that out of some strange childhood fondness for it, I just happened to pick the blue room to "house" my knitting web pages (I was even planning on adding a page or two when I start sewing) and that was where the sewing machine was in our house. Cool.

My mother also tells me that my grandmother knit. This is news to me. She had rheumatoid arthritis and had stopped knitting before my time. My mother says she still has the last sweater that she made somewhere. It's nice to know that I'm carrying on this hobby of hers, even though she couldn't teach me. And one of my great aunts (she'll be getting one of the hotties) is a wonderful sewer. I hope that when I start sewing, I can do her proud. So there's actually quite a bit of tradition behind my taking up knitting and sewing. Not bad for someone who learned to knit at thirty from friends and books and is just taking up sewing. Must be in the genes somewhere.

My in-laws are coming from Germany to visit for couple of weeks and so I got to thinking about that side of the family tree as well. My husband's grandparents had a beautiful old sewing machine that they brought to Germany from Hungary after the war and they apparently also kept the whole family well supplied with knitted socks. And his grandmother on the other side was a professional seamstress. I'm looking forward to getting a few sewing tips from my mother-in-law. Maybe she can help me get over my fear of the sewing machine and help me make my first stitches. Daughter/mother-in-law bonding over needlework. A new tradition perhaps.