All I have for you is an almost FO....

I haven't been that productive, all I have for you is an almost FO and a few other in progress shots and some plans for the New Year. This could be a long post, so buckle down, get some hot cocoa and put up your feet. I've got a computer, pictures to post, a sleeping fiance, and a cat whacked out on catnip running around the apartment for entertainment so reader beware.

First off, Christmas, we do it at my Dad's because of my stepmother, and it's nice. This time the siblings came into town and therefore M and I spent the long weekend at the house so we didn't have to worry about the drinking and the driving and could spend more time with people. I got some spectacular gifts and we got a very nice gift certificate to a cooking class from that side of the parents. Awesome! Our Iron Chef (apple was the secret ingredient) themed dinner turned out very well, with all the teams covering their course of the meal exceptionally.

Now the knitting.

I worked on these that weekend and last night finished the second one to this point. They just need thumbs and the antique buttons I got in Concord center and the loop for the buttons. That's why they are an almost FO. They are for my stepmother, who is in Hawaii right now so she definitely does not need them except maybe to protect against air conditioning?

They do need thumbs, see? I made them using the standard mitten pattern from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns and modified them with a band of ribbing about an inch long where the fingers start and then picked up stitches along the top of the hand for the flap covering the fingers, casting on the necessary stitches for the bottom of the flap so that it could flip up and the bottom of the finger covering flap would not be attached to the rest of the bottom of the mitten. This is my first time working from a guide, not a patten per se and modifying it to my needs. I feel like I am growing as a knitter and getting to the point where I can knit what I want how I want it without being a slave to the pattern. It's a good feeling and so far did not bite me in the butt, I am sure it will at some point.

The underside, so you can see the ribbing and the gap between the bottom edge of the ribbing covering the palm and the flap for the fingers.Ahhhhh! Where is the thumb? I haven't gotten around to knitting those yet.
To see the flap better.

I also turned my first heel last night!!! It went from this:
To this!!! Ok, for those of you who are really observant, those are two different socks, and I have only turned the heel on one of them. This is one of those milestone steps for a knitter, the first heel and I did it. Yay! I still am not sure if sock knitting is for me though, it's been taking me forever to do these socks, mainly because of the restarting, reknitting, and so many other projects.
Here are the two socks side by side for comparison, the one on the left only has the heel flap and the one on the right has been turned.
My mom's Branching out Scarf is halfway done. Not far enough along for my taste.

The detail shot.
The next two projects will be hats. One for the fiance in black and one for the Dad in blue, red, and purple variegated Malabrigo just like my brothers. They have to wait for some other projects to be done however. My AFO's need to become FO's.

I also special ordered some Cascade Eco Wool in a cranberry color to make a Hemlock Ring Blanket. I am excited about that.

Here's the link to his post. http://brooklyntweed.blogspot.com/2007/08/hemlock-ring-blanket.html

If you do not read his blog, go, its beautiful and inspires me to make prettier knits.

I have to work tomorrow but not Tuesday so tomorrow night (New Years Eve) will be low key for us. What are your New Years Eve plans? I like to stay in with friends, but this year the friends we spent New Years Eve with last year are scattered (we were invited to go skiing with a few of them) so it will be just us. I am not a fan of going out for New Years-it seems like a forced good time with too much drinking every time. I'd much rather be with people who really mean something to me in a relaxed environment. New Years Eve out always smacks of people desperate to make that one night extra special and it's sort of sad.

However, whatever your plans, I hope you have a Happy New Year and Happy Knitting.

I have a plan for my 2008 yarn use and purchase I will share with you soon. Publicly acknowledging it will hold me to it hopefully and it is something I want to do, so it shouldn't be too hard. It means swearing off a large portion of the yarn available out there but that's ok with me too.

The Unbloggable is now Bloggable...

The hat is done and and has been gifted. I already posted it on ravelry because I know my little brother is not a member and probably never will be. It fits and he likes it and my Dad now wants one similar but in a blue/red/purple color scheme.

Details: Less than one skein of Malabrigo Malabrigo.
Frugal Knitting Haus: Classic Ribbed Hat http://www.cheapknittingpatterns.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=254
It now costs 99 cents but it was free when I downloaded it. Guess I better keep that copy.

I gave it to him already because he is going to Hawaii soon for a few months to be the legislative aid to our cousin, a state representative in Hawaii. He won't need any wool hats there.

Happy Knitting!

Oh, this is what the second heavy snowfall in New England in four days looks like:

Things go on as they are...

The writers strike goes on....Silly execs, just give in already....

The world goes on as it is, overusing resources in the name of economic growth and wealth for the few.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7145608.stm

This result was no real change, "no real breakthrough." It was an agreement for agreement's sake and the US did not give in on specific cuts, which was what was holding up the agreement.

I go on knitting the hat that cannot be seen and the scarf that has already been updated.

I am participating in a swap from the knittinghelp forums in the New Year and also probably a mini knit a long among my knitting group on the hemlock ring blanket. I will also be doing hte surprise stole knit a long, but slowly, as well as my chuppah. Fun times. Also, a sweater for my sister. I have a lot of projects lined up and am excited about them.


One past project that turned out really well and as we can see, is well utilized by its recipient, is this scarf I knit almost a year ago for my stepfather. It's a simple basketweave pattern, with repeats of 5 stitches over about 25 stitches and 8 rows, repeated until you are out of yarn. You can see it below. My nieces were in these pictures, but I edited them out for the fact that you don't put pictures of kids on the internet unless they are your own. The first thing my eye went to was not my scarf, but I did notice it! Yay! I love seeing handknits get worn. I would definitely knit for Rick again because I know it will get used.

4 hours

It took me 4 hours to get home tonight. I left the office a little before 3 PM and got to the house a little after 7 PM. The vast majority was due to the snow and people's stupidity. How do people not realize that when you are at a light and people drive into the intersection and stop because of the cars in front of them and block your entire green light, you are allowed and obligated to do the same to them, not just sit there for 45 minutes and make everyone else in the world hate you and basically want to waterboard you.

Not that I advocate waterboarding in any shape or form. I think it is torture and unjustified.

Then I finally pulled into the driveway for my apartment complex, and drove all the way up, right to where the roundabout is and where I have to turn to get into the parking garage. I was already at my breaking point after 4 hours of sitting in the car for a trip that normally takes me 45 minutes. There is only so many times I can listed to the same guy on NPR talk about the baseball steroids report and give the exact same quote (I mean, they are playing the same segment every hour-the exact same segment) before I lose it. This GUY was blocking the roundabout-THE ONLY WAY TO GET TO THE GARAGE. I do what a normal, polite person would do, and roll down my window, and ask him and the plow to politely move. He ignores me. That is a poor way to treat anyone, and a really good way to piss me off, especially if you are a 50-ish something old man. I ask again, a little louder, "can you please move your car?" He ignores me mostly, but comes back halfway as if to say something, and goes back to talking to the guy. I ask again, nicely, using please. This was his last chance. He comes back, tells me there has been an accident, and goes back to talking to the guy. I ask him if his car is ok, and if it can move. His answer "Yes" and goes BACK TO THE TALK TO THE GUY. I ask him to move his car then please, and he IGNORES ME. By this time, there is a line of at least 3 other cars behind me. I get out of my car, and go and yell at him to move his car and he tells me to WAIT AND BE PATIENT AND POLITE.

EXCUSE ME?? Your car is fine, it can move, you are blocking the only way to the garage, which I told him, and therefore I told him to move his car before I called the police and reported him for blocking the only entry to the garage. He moved pretty quickly after that, but not after trying to tell me to be polite. I told him I was polite, I asked nicely three times, and he ignored me.

I really hate old men who think they can do whatever they want, and boss around young women. This guy was clearly one of them. I don't take that and no other young women should either. It's such an obnoxious and chauvinistic attitude. I understand you were in an accident, just move off to the side so you don't block everyone and do it when asked nicely. Then I won't be forced to put the smack down on you and your delusions of self importance.

On the plus side, I did spend some of the time with my car parked (literally in park) on the road knitting on my project. It can't be posted here but is a hat for my little brother.

Portland Visit

If you go to Portland, OR go to KnitPurl-a yarn store there. It's beautiful, and they are very helpful. It's centrally located downtown, is a beautiful space with big windows and hardwood floors and has a great selection of quality mass produced yarns, their own yarns, and hard to find yarns such as ShibuiKnits and Habu Yarns.

Also, go to Powell's, a great independent bookstore the entire size of a city block. You can spend hours there.

Also, go to the Original House of Pancakes and order a Dutch Baby. They are delicious and won't cry at all, unlike the rest of the babies I saw last weekend.

We got into Portland and dropped the boys off at my brother's house and went wedding dress shopping. I learned a lot, such as that I can wear a strapless wedding dress and that I look best in A-line dresses that emphasize my waist. There were about 10 women there, and it was very helpful.

Then we went back to my brothers for wine and cheese and hanging out and there were so many babies, since all of his friends have had kids. Every single one of them had a kid in tow, except him, and my sister and her husband. Both our step sibs have kids now.

Saturday, M and I went to go meet with the rabbi who is doing our wedding, a very old friend of the family. Then we went to watch the Oregon-Oregon State game at the step-brother's and there was much taunting, where the step-sis (Beaver) and step-bro (Duck) taunted each other.

Then we went back to the Moms house and had our Thanksgiving dinner.

Sunday we went to the Original House and then yarn shopping when my Mom got me all the yarn I previously posted. Then I got M and we went to Powell's and then home for dinner, packing, and hanging out and we left the next day.

It was a fun weekend!

This weekend we went to West Hartford for a Hannukah party and then to the Patriots game today, it was so cold!

It's so nice to be home.

I might have a trial tomorrow!

Vacation/Travel Yarn!

My Mom got me some delicious yarn from KnitPurl in Portland, OR for my birthday (a pretty late present). Here it all is!






Here is my Branching Out Scarf for my mom. I think it is so pretty, I will probably make one for me with the Tapestry in the Blue colorway but maybe with a different lace stitch.


Happy Hannukah and Happy Knitting!
Tales of Portland will come this weekend!

Baby Blanket Madness!

I finished it!!!!!



It took me some breakneck couple of knitting weeks only on this, but I did it! I finished this baby blanket at breakneck speed and everyone liked it. You can't really see the eyelet rows in this picture but they are there. Maybe in this bigger picture you might be able to see them.

I don't love the yarn, but it was washable and relatively inexpensive, both pluses for this project.

I really like this pattern for baby blankets. It went quickly and was easy and the row of eyelets (K1, (yo-K2tog)repeat until end of row, K1) really made the blanket. Next time I would add a border in the middle stripe color, but I didn't have time for that.

It's really wide. I cast on 180 stitches and would only do 120 or 150 next time and make it longer. I used worsted weight yarn and size 8 KnitPicks Options needles.



I'll tell all of you about the fabulous yarn store I went into Portland, OR tomorrow and also about the rest of the trip. It was so fabulous and my wonderful mother bought me some fabulous yarn there as a late birthday present! yay! The yarn is just delicious.

I am now getting to knit on some more fun projects. I'm still working on the Jaywalkers and am working on the Branching Out Scarf still in Rowan Tapestry. I've got about 40 more rows (4 pattern repeats ) than this picture shows. It's definitely not knitting group knitting, too complicated. It's for my Mom and I think she likes it.

Happy Knitting and more news tomorrow or Friday!

Generic Baby Blanket

This is what I have been working on exclusively for the past week and a half basically.


It's turning out to be a pretty wide baby blanket. However, I think it is going to be very pretty. You can't see the detail in this picture, which is one eyelet row two complete rows(RS and WS knit) before every color change. It's a simple K2tog, yo repeat all the way across. It's enough detail to make it more interesting than straight garter stitch all the way across, but not enough eyelets to be constantly catching on little baby fingers. Yay! Furthermore, I am close to getting the 4th skein done, and then I will only have one to go. Yippee! I am bored with this, but it is a worthwhile knit.

My kitty is in the closet. He really likes my bags. He spends more time in Michael's lap than mine. I think he just needs to come out already.


Happy Knitting!

Happy Turkey Day!

Gobble! Gobble!

I'm on Chappaquiddick again, with the family this time. Yummy food awaits.

Happy knitting!

Knitting? Blah!

So, you ask me, what happens when you forget about a baby of importance?

Answer: You buy some wool and acrylic yarn very fast and start a garter stitch baby blanket which bores you to tears. So much so that you would rather do anything, anything else, including be stuck into one of those medieval torture device suits of armor with spikes so that you die a slow death from infection of the piercing of your internal organs.

I head to Portland on the 30th to visit the West Coast family and the second! baby of import is there, as are the parents. This baby belongs to Jamie and Senna. Jamie is my brother's best friend from high school and was E's roommate for a bit as well. I like them and hopefully will like their baby, so here is the baby blanket. I added a row of eyelets right before the color change to spice it up a little, but really, it's boring. Cast on 180 stitches and knit, throwing in a row of yo, k2 tog three rows before the color change.

I know for a fact that neither Jamie nor Senna have ever been in the same room as a pastel, hence the darker but pretty colors. This was day 3 of the knitting on this, it's slooooow.



This is much more exciting: Branching Out from Knitty. It's an easy 10 row repeat lace pattern and is really pretty. Most of the ones I have seen on ravelry are made with solid yarn, but I love, love, love Rowan Tapestry and so I am using this. It's for my Mom most likely, if she likes it. Otherwise, I'm keeping this baby! This will NOT be done in time for Portland, due to the aforementioned boring baby knitting.



Happy knitting and Happy Thanksgiving (early)! I am off to Chappaquiddick sometime on Wednesday. Hopefully we get out early and I can catch a ride down with the Dad and the little sister.

Nervous...

My 93 year old grandpa is in the hospital with a possible heart attack/possible congestive heart failure. Nothing like that news in an e-mail to give you a good punch to the gut.

On top of that, last night, on the way home from work via Trader Joe's, I was sitting in traffic waiting to get on the 95 and some stupid girl didn't realize that when traffic is stopped you can't just drive right into the car in front of you and so she banged into my car hard enough to make my head go forward pretty good, give me a good shock, but not enough to cause damage to my car (I think).

Close calls scare me.

Is there a third heading my way?

I have a sentence review hearing this morning trying not to get a Judge send my client (who has been mostly in compliance) back to jail for 5 months. He is the sole support for his baby momma and five month old son. I don't want this to be close at all.

Designing my Chuppah...

I've picked out all the lace patterns for the Chuppah project. I have about 22 months to complete it. I just need to photocopy the stitches, do some number crunching and pick out the order of stitch patterns. I'll post a progress shot as soon as I have any.

Oh, you want to know about the baby sweater?
I am ashamed to say, it made it off the needles at the party, thanks to us going to see La Boheme the night before. It was wrapped up and put in the present with the other goodies, and the recipient, a knitter and my cousin, was very understanding. We're both going to be at my father's house on Chappy for Thanksgiving, so I'll give it her then, and she will still be pregnant.

Yippee!

No pictures, but I now have these handy dandy ravelry progress bars on my blog. They link to ravelry, so you can only use the links they also are if you have a ravelry account!

If you do, I'm Knitting Defender on there!

Happy Knitting!

Baby Knitting Galore!!!

It's been pretty much baby knitting all the time a la maison du Newbie Knitter.

I have two baby sweaters in the works, one for a shower on Saturday for my cousin. Guess which one it is!


Sweater 1

Sweater 2

That's right! It's Sweater 2! Bob, give the lady a prize!


Can I get it done on time? Only time will tell! Stay tuned for further updates.

In other news, I was sworn into the New Hampshire state bar today. I am now an Esquire! be afraid!

I used to love these English muffin pizzas as a kid. Now, with yummy organic english muffins and goat cheese makes this a fabulous and easy grown up dinner.

The kitty shot! He's all happy doing his kitty yoga a la Wendyknits cat.

We!!! Passed the Bar!!

My fiance, M, and I both passed the Massachusetts bar exam! We got the results today.

Happy Belated Halloween! I passed out candy, but in our apartment building we only got 4-5 groups of kids, so I have a lot of candy left over.

I was Cleopatra, as you can see below, and M was Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox.



I only have the sleeves and finishing on the baby cardigan for my step-niece, Madeline. Yay!

I have another one of these to knit for my cousin's baby shower on the 10th.

Victory!

I am very happy. GO SOX!

Sorry to all the true Rockies fans out there, but they had an amazing run and they can hold their heads up high for what they did!

Happy Knitting and Soxalicious Halloween!

THE KNITTING


The baby blanket, only needs ends woven in.
The baby sweater. It's going.


The Jaywalker socks, going slowly.


THE YARNS

Jaeger Matchmaker, on sale, I love this color.
100% cashmere laceweight, 4 balls this big of it. Yes. Lace heaven.
Rowan Tapestry. I love all the colors of this yarn. I am thinking lacey scarf.

Misti Alpaca lace. Seriously gorgeous color.



THE NON KNITTING

First off, 3-0. That says it all.
Second off, get rid of the towels Colorado fans. You are now down 3-0 in the World Series. You had a good run, but you are mostly bandwagon fans and should be ashamed of yourselves. Just sit back and admire the Red Sox, who have fans who have followed them all season, if not for years or their entire lives. You are not a Rockies fan, you are a Broncos fan. I lived in Colorado for five years (including one in Denver) and I know the truth and you aren't fooling me, especially with the lack of Rockies gear and the new hats. I guess this is the guantlet being thrown down against you bandwagon fans. Be a real fan or not at all, but don't pretend.

I guess the first thing didn't say it all.

I have been very productive lately in all sorts of different ways.

Yesterday I got a new computer and a Halloween costume. I don't have the new computer set up yet, but it is a MacBook 13inch, the white version with the combo drive. I never use my superdrive so I did not get it on this computer. I am excited to open it up later and set it up.

I was Cleopatra for Halloween and I think it was a great costume especially because I got my hair cut yesterday too and they straightened my hair. The straight didn't really last, but ok. My hair just wants to be curly.



I made some more pizza dough and we had homemade pizzas last night as well before the party/game watching extravaganza. The dough came out so much better this time, I use the recipe from klosekraft's blog. I added the olive oil at the end this time and it worked out great. I also dissolved the yeast in the water and it worked great.

I made pumpkin cookies for the party, and I will post pictures on the next update.

The kitty in one of my drawers. He will not use his cat bed with the handknit blanket but he loves my drawer!

Happy Knitting and Happy Halloween and Happy World Series.

Birthday Calculator and some baby blanket progress...

I made some progress on the baby blanket, another repeat down, and hopefully one more complete repeat tonight during the Sox game. I should be knitting socks, but I want to have this blanket done! I decided to do more repeats because I have the yarn-4 more skeins and can still use some of that for a baby hat and booties even if I knit more on the blanket. I am cautiously optimistic about another World Series victory for the Red Sox. My fenway picture for my office came and is going up on the wall today! yay!

I am also officially graduate and college debt free today.

I joined a lace KAL as well because I like knitting lace, I have been missing it since I finished the Grandma Anne Vine Shawl Wrap.

It's the Mystic Waters KAL and can be found here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mysticwatersKAL/

I ordered some yarn from handpaintedyarn.com in the lace weight for it. It's the Azul Francia. I think it will be gorgeous. I stopped by Ew'll Love It and picked up some blue yarn for it because as much as I searched yesterday I could not remember handpaintedyarn.com but wouldn't you know that as soon as I bought other yarn I found the site. I will use the laceweight I bought for a shawl of my own design I think. It's a beautiful light blue color perfect for something that draws inspiration from fluffy clouds and the pale spring sky.



My Birthday Calculator (http://www.paulsadowski.org/BirthDay.asp) results:
20 October 1980
Your date of conception was on or about 28 January 1980 which was a Monday.
You were born on a Mondayunder the astrological sign Libra.Your Life path number is 3.Your fortune cookie reads: Fame, riches and romance are yours for the asking. Life Path Compatibility:You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 3, 6 & 9.You should get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 1, 2, 5 & 11.You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 4, 7, 8 & 22.The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2444532.5.The golden number for 1980 is 5.The epact number for 1980 is 13.The year 1980 was a leap year.Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 2/16/1980 and ending 2/4/1981.You were born in the Chinese year of the Monkey.Your Native American Zodiac sign is Raven; your plant is Ivy.You were born in the Egyptian month of Choiach, the fourth month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil).Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 10 Heshvan 5741.Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 11 Heshvan 5741.
The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.18.7.6.8 which is12 baktun 18 katun 7 tun 6 uinal 8 kin
The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Monday, 10 Dhi'l-Hijjih 1400 (1400-12-10).
The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 6 April 1980.The date of Orthodox Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 6 April 1980.The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on your birth year was Wednesday 20 February 1980.The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of your birth was Sunday 25 May 1980.The date of Whisuntide in the year of your birth was Sunday 1 June 1980.The date of Rosh Hashanah in the year of your birth was Thursday, 11 September 1980.The date of Passover in the year of your birth was Tuesday, 1 April 1980.The date of Mardi Gras on your birth year was Tuesday 19 February 1980. As of 10/24/2007 8:52:06 AM EDTYou are 27 years old.You are 324 months old.You are 1,409 weeks old.You are 9,865 days old.You are 236,768 hours old.You are 14,206,132 minutes old.You are 852,367,926 seconds old.Celebrities who share your birthday:
Snoop Dogg (1972)
Dann Gillen (1967)
Viggo Mortensen (1958)
Tom Petty (1950)
Jerry Orbach (1935)
Mickey Mantle (1931)
Art Buchwald (1925)
Fayard Nicholas (1914)
Bela Lugosi (1882)
Charles Ives (1874)
Arthur Rimbaud (1854)
Christopher Wren (1632)Top songs of 1980
Lady by Kenny Rogers
Upside Down by Diana Ross
Call Me by Blondie
Starting Over by John Lennon
Another Brick In the Wall by Pink Floyd
Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen
Rock with You by Michael Jackson
Magic by Olivia Newton-John
Funkytown by Lipps, Inc.
Another One Bites the Dust by QueenYour age is the equivalent of a dog that is 3.86105675146771 years old. (Life's just a big chewy bone for you!)Your lucky day is Friday.Your lucky number is 6.Your ruling planet(s) is Venus.Your lucky dates are 6th, 15th, 24th.Your opposition sign is Aries.Your opposition number(s) is 9.
Today is not one of your lucky days!
There are 362 days till your next birthdayon which your cake will have 28 candles.Those 28 candles produce 28 BTUs,or 7,056 calories of heat (that's only 7.0560 food Calories!) .You can boil 3.20 US ounces of water with that many candles.
In 1980 there were approximately 3.6 million births in the US.In 1980 the US population was approximately 226,545,805 people, 64.0 persons per square mile.In 1980 in the US there were 2,406,708 marriages (10.6%) and 1,182,000 divorces (5.2%)In 1980 in the US there were approximately 1,990,000 deaths (8.8 per 1000)In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds.In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.In 1980 the population of Australia was approximately 14,807,370.In 1980 there were approximately 225,527 births in Australia.In 1980 in Australia there were approximately 109,240 marriages and 39,257 divorces.In 1980 in Australia there were approximately 108,695 deaths.Your birthstone is Tourmaline -->The Mystical properties of Tourmaline
Pink Tourmaline promotes female balance and protection. Green Toumaline promotes male balance.Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)
Opal, JasperYour birth tree is
Maple, Independence of Mind
No ordinary person, full imagination and originality, shy and reserved, ambitious, proud, self-respect, hungers for new experiences, sometimes nervous, many complexes, good memory, learns easily, complicated love life, wants to impress.There are 62 days till Christmas 2007!There are 75 days till Orthodox Christmas!The moon's phase on the day you wereborn was waxing gibbous. Copyright © 2006 Paul R. Sadowski (http://www.paulsadowski.com)

Birthdaylicious!

I am now 27! Yesterday was very birthdaylicious.

It started with presents at midnight.

M got me these two books I asked for.



(I saved these images to my computer before loading them here)


The night before we went and met M's Mom and sister for dinner at the crepe place. A yummy crepe filled with goat cheese and artichoke hearts and other goodies went into my belly. Then M's mom and sister gave me this!



Very helpful in the future with all the yummy Malabrigo I plan on knitting with. I think my brother might be providing with a yarn swift sometime in the near future because I told him yesterday that if he had no idea what to get me, that would be great, and he could ask M what they are. I just sent that same brother a handknit hat and scarf and if he actually gets me a yarn swift there will be more handknit items going his way. I am not above bribery.

We went to walk around Newburyport after M brought me Dunkin Donuts coffee and a breakfast sandwich for breakfast. Dunkin Donuts anything is the way to a New England girls heart.

Newburyport is an adorable town. The downtown is filled with great shops, bakeries, cafes, and an awesome knitting store. The name is a Loom with a View and they are at 31R Pleasant Street, it's basically a little brick alley right off Pleasant Street. Their number is 978-463-YARN and they have a website, aloomwithaview.com but the woman told me it is bare bones at this point. They have comfy chairs, a clean bathroom for customers, a decent selection of yarn and spinning equipment and looms for sale. I highly recommend it. They also offered to wind my Malabrigo for me without prompting and then checked to see if it would be enough for my brother's hat, and then did not attempt to sell me another ball when I will not need it. I would go back to Newburyport and this store in a second. While we were there M got into a conversation with some other new knitters that went basically like this:

Woman One: If you are going to be sitting in our comfy chairs for knitters, you need to knit as well!

M: I do knit!

Woman One and Two: Whhhhhhhhaaaaattttttt?

Then they talked about why he knits, knittinghelp.com, and other good things in the knitting world.

I missed most of this, but would have loved to see it!

I got the aforementioned Malabrigo there (below) and two skeins of Lambs Pride Bulky to start an afghan in a pattern I found in a Treasury of Knitting Patterns Book One.



M also got a bottle of white vino we discovered at a gourmet food store to go with the chicken picatta he made me last night! No pictures of that, I gobbled it up because I love capers, lemon and breaded chicken together so much. The wine was consumed and silliness commenced.

We also purchased some cake for later which was delicious. Oh my god. You almost did not get a picture of that because I was halfway through it before I remembered to snap one. It was from some cafe type coffee bar place on Pleasant Street in Newburyport across the street (on the other side) from the yarn store. GO NOW!

We had a funny exchange there.

Me: Can you recommend one of these two cakes over the other?

Woman: I couldn't tell you because I can't eat chocolate.

Me: Oh, I'm sorry.

Why not just say you don't know? I feel for this woman, it must be a horrible life. I have my own food issues (dairy) that makes life a little harder, but chocolate? What kind of a world do we live in when people cannot have chocolate?

This was so good. It's peanut butter and chocolate cake with lots of yummy chocolate frosting and peanut butter cups on top. Delicious.
Then we went for a walk in Maudsley State Park in Newburyport to see the foliage. It was pretty, but not the spectacular colors I am seeing on my drive on Route 3 to Nashua during the week.

They were having some sort of haunted walk in part of the park but we just walked around. We ran into some people on horseback and one small stretch of the haunted walk.

We also saw all this prettiness:

We stopped at a farm on the way home and fed some goats. Their tongues felt pretty funny and they were eating thistle! M fed them the paper bag the feed came in. They semi-fought over the bag, ripping it out of the others mouths! A paper bag people. I bet they really do eat tin cans. There were cute little ones and we could feed those just by holding the feed lower. Some of the bigger ones got fed for their pure effort of standing up so high. There was this one old billygoat that kept wheezing. Poor guy, he probably has lumbago or something.

Then we came home and M made me yummy dinner and we watched the Sox win and ate the above cake.

There was a lot of petting of this creature:
There was some knitting of the afghan. 210 stitches a row!

This shows the color better.
I will be knitting on this tonight after dinner, hopefully watching my beloved Sox win Game 7!
Just to prove that there has been knitting! My first Jaywalker, almost to the heel. No dropped stitches this third time around, no pattern being off by one stitch. I am going to put in a lifeline before I begin the heel, as well as knitting the leg portion of the second sock before I attempt the heel. That way there will be less chance of the dreaded SSS. I did most of this at a CLE on Friday on DWI's. That is continuing legal education on driving while intoxicated for the non legal people. I still paid attention, but my mind didn't wander to make up stories about the people I don't know there because this was just enough to keep me focused.

Baby blanket progress! The baby this is for is now 9 days old! It's getting close to completion, this is either the last repeat or there might be one or two more, depending on my thoughts about the size. I think I will find an easier pattern that doesn't require so much attention for the next blanket because there are some mistakes in this one that bother me. It's only in two rows, but still! The perfectionist in me is offended.

That's all for now!

Happy Knitting!