Feel The Love

First of all, thank you everyone who commented yesterday to reassure me that yes, you can see my pictures.  I must have something wacky going on with my kindle.  I'm not completely inept with electronics.  I wouldn't say I know what I'm doing, but if given enough time (and access to google) I can usually figure things out.  I just don't have the energy to sort this out right now.  I'm hoping if I leave it alone it will mysteriously work itself out.  Lately this has also been my approach when I hear the children fighting.  Letting them work through it themselves is surprisingly effective.  Finger crossed my kindle responds to a little parental neglect as well my ten year old does.

So yesterday my knitting friend brought over her five year old daughter.  Our plan was to have my five year old daughter entertain her five year old daughter.  This would leave us free to knit.

It was a flawless plan.

My knitting friend is a very good friend indeed.

She showed up with 44 ounces of caffeinated goodness.

She knows the way to my heart.

She mentioned that she saw The Greatest pulling into the gas station as she was leaving.

Huh.

He was supposed to be working an off-duty job.  I'd just talked to him an hour before that and he said the job would probably run until three.

Five minutes later we were greeted with the sound of the garage door opening.

He had come home early to surprise me.

With 44 ounces off caffeinated goodness.

Bird was pretty sure I wouldn't sleep last night if I drank both of them.

I slept just fine.

Feel the love?

But that wasn't all.

In the mail tucked between the grocery fliers, the offers to refinance my home, and the bills, was a suspiciously thick envelope.

Inside was the cutest little tote bag.

My non-knitting sister-in-law said when she saw it she thought it would make the perfect knitting bag.

It does.  Don't you love the cute perfectly shaped pockets on the front?  I've already loaded it up with my current non-super seekrit wip (my orange Olive Basket), an emergency crochet hook, an emergency nail file, and emergency lip gloss.  (The nail file and lip gloss are crucial tools to my knitting process.  Don't underestimate the importance of a nail file.)

Does anyone else think my non-knitting sister-in-law should just give in and become a knitter?  She can already spot a good bag.

I'm off to do more souper seekrit knitting.

Technical Difficulties?

Just a quick check in.

Still super duper busy on the super duper seekrit test knit.

Have only had to rip back three inches of complicated color work once because I found an error in the pattern.

Could be worse.

Quick question for ya'll.

I was looking up some info on one of my old knits on my kindle, and all my pictures were little boxes with question marks.

Can you guys see my pictures?

I can see them fine on my computer but not my kindle.

So is it my kindle or my blog?

Thanks!

More Random Things

Happy Monday!

I don't know about you, but I think...

it might be time to throw my roses away.  Someone might have to come do it for me.  I don't have the heart to do it yet.

I am pleased to report that Sweet Pea and her zebra shawl...

are still very happy together.

I am also pleased to report I  have found another way to wear my fussy grown up sweater...

I know.  It is a terrible back lit picture.  Terrible.  But ignore the inferior photography (Sweet Pea can only do so much), and focus on the important things.  Focus on the sweater.  Doesn't it look fantastic sitting on the couch knitting!

Win!

That was me working on my very orange Olive Basket.

I am almost ready to split for the bodice.  I think the orange yarn is a much better fit for this pattern than the brown/white yarn.  Although it might turn out to be too drapey.  I haven't decided yet.

Speaking of sitting on the couch knitting.

My super seekret test knit is all ready to go.

The deadline is creeping up on me.

I'd better get knitting!

Neither Here Nor There

Busy Busy Day.

Grocery shopping.

Had to feed the children THREE times today.  What's up with that?

Haven't really seen The Greatest since Thursday.

Have resorted to communicating with him via the bathroom mirror.

Knit with my knitting peeps.

That last one was easily the highlight of my week.

Still haven't cast on for my knit picks project.

Or dried the towels in my washing machine.

Meh.

I'll do better tomorrow.

In the mean time, enjoy this little gem of a post I wrote back in September, but never got around to posting.

Yesterday was a hard day for me.  I've got my migraines mostly under control.  But monsoons are my downfall.  I can not control the weather.  Unfortunaetly the weather controls me.  The change in barometric pressure when a storm rolls in does a number on my head.  And a huge storm rolled in Monday night.

Tuesday found me balled up on the couch, drinking fluids and taking pain relievers.  I felt crummy.

Migraines always make things feel more sharp.  Light is piercing.  Sounds are grating.  Smells hurt.  And I don't want anything to touch me.  I am grouchy, and the world is an ugly place.

My poor kids.

At bedtime I went into Bird and Sweet Pea's room to kiss them goodnight.

Every night for pretty much the past year Bird has "hidden" beneath her covers.  I yell at her to get in bed and pretend to be mad.  She throws her covers off with a big flourish and reveals that she has tricked me and been in bed the entire time.  Much giggling follows.

Only last night I was tired.  I hurt.  I just wanted the children to go to bed so I could go to bed.

Bird lay hidden beneath her covers giggling in anticipation.

"Bird I know you're there."

Coming out for air she looks vaguely disappointed.  "I wanted to scare you."

I hurt and really just wanted to go to bed.  I did not want to play games.  "Bird you hid every single night."

Big eyes with a big smile look up at me. "I want to scare you every single night."

In too much pain to be charmed by her sweet face, I just want everything to end.  "But you don't.  I always know you're there.  You never scare me."

I regretted the words the moment they left my lips.

Undaunted by what could have been a horrible turning point in her childhood "Can't you just pretend?" she grinned at me.

Yes baby.  I will always pretend with you.

Tonight I will carefully lay on her bed while I wait for her to come to bed, and pretend I don't realize I'm laying on her.

She still "hides" every single night.

I hope she never stops.

Procrastination

Why Mamma, you might be thinking to yourself, you should not be blogging.  Aren't you supposed to be working hard knitting, knitting, knitting on your test knit for Knit Picks?

You would not be wrong.

But you would be underestimating my ability to procrastinate when I am having a crisis of confidence.

My test knit is a beautiful piece of color work.

GORGEOUS!

My gauge swatch is quite possibly the most beautiful thing I have ever knit.

The actual object I am to be knitting is so much larger than a swatch.  So many more chances to screw it up.

I have to talk myself into believing I can do this.

I once knit a pair of pink and green knee high argyle socks for Knit Picks using traditional intarsia AND stranded knitting techniques.

They were amazing.

I'm not gonna lie.  I stared at that yarn just thinking about knitting it for about a week before I finally gained the courage to cast on.

Once I start knitting it will be just fine.

I just gotta talk myself into casting on.

In the mean time let me distract you with some fine knitting.

Last night, whilst I was thinking of knitting, you know, instead of actually knitting, I sewed some buttons onto a cardigan.

Nope, not on the brown sweater.  The brown sweater may be dead to me for a few more weeks.  The button betrayal of Wednesday was a low blow.  I am wounded to my core.

Instead I turned to that other sweater that needs buttons.

Pattern:  Division Cardigan

Yarn:  Malabrigo sock yarn, 3 skeins

Needles:  size 6, probably on my Addis

Modifications:  I knit this while on narcotics.  I could have followed the pattern exactly as written.  Or I could have looked at the picture and made the rest up as I went along.  Since the sweater fits-ish, and only has two sleeves, I'm gonna guess I followed the pattern as written.

Review:  I love this sweater.  This is my other Malabrigo sock yarn sweater, and I'm thinking I need to get adopted by some rich old guy who will soon die and leave me lots and lots of yarn money, or win the lottery so all my sweaters can now be knit in Malabrigo.  I bought this yarn at a Mother's Day sale where everything in the store was half off.  It was awesome.  The yarn store has since gone out of business.

Let us observe a moment of silence for the fallen.

I do love the shaded solid of this yarn.

So pretty, with very minimal pooling or striping.  I appreciate that.  This was one of those projects where I probably should have alternated the skeins, but I'm pretty sure I didn't do that.  Sometimes when you throw caution to the wind it does work out.

I love my long sleeves.

Super long sleeves make me happy.  They are the reason I started making my own sweaters

I love this sweater so much.  It is warmer than you think a sock yarn sweater would be.  It is super soft.  Not the slightest bit of itch.  Yes, I think I need a hundred more of these.  One in every color Malabrigo makes.

I can't decide if the sweater needs more ease.  It is very form fitted when worn closed.  Possibly unflatteringly form fitted. But let's be honest, I so very rarely close my cardigans. I think the close fit = a sleeker look when worn open.  But what if I decided I want to wear it closed?

I'm not going to lose sleep over the ease debate.  I've decided instead to toss and turn over the button fiasco of Thursday.

No not the one where I sewed buttons onto a cardigan only to discover the fronts don't line up.  No, this button fiasco involved spending an hour searching for eight suitable buttons only to decide that the only over priced buttons in the entire store that I thought might work, not loved, but determined would be adequate, were sold in a package of six.  And there was only one package.

Suck monkey.

Sacrifices would have to be made.

I decided that I would buy the six buttons now, and come back in a week or so when they were sure to have restocked.  But that meant my sweater with eight button holes

Would be missing some buttons in the interim.

I feel a little like a hobo missing buttons on my sweater.

And it turns out that despite testing the buttons in the store, the "adequate" buttons are in fact too small for the buttons holes, and they slip right out.  My cardigan wouldn't stay closed even if I wanted to close it.

Suck Monkey

So I must decide, do I want to find eight new overpriced blue buttons, or do I want to buy another card of too small buttons and sew the final two buttons on as a purely ornamental decoration?

I'll probably just walk around looking like a hobo in my button-missing cardigan until the end of time.  It is less complicated this way.

I'm sure me and my hobo cardigan will be very happy together.

I got out my tripod with the intention of taking these pictures with the timer setting on my camera.  Instead the pictures were taken by Sweet Pea standing on the piano bench to reach the camera on the tripod.  Her face was all wrinkled with concentration.  I wish I could have taken a picture of that.  Instead I could only laugh at how incredibly sweet she is.

Sweet Pea looked at the preview of this picture in the camera and declared it to be "Perfect."

Then she joined me in front of the camera.

The Greatest calls her my little mini-me.  She's way too cute for that.

Someday she is going to hate me for this picture.  Which means I am fulfilling all my contractual obligations as her mother.

Embarrassing photos = check.

Bad, Worse, And Ok-ish?

So the finishing work I was supposed to do yesterday?

It is best if we don't speak of it.  I would like to forever block the afternoon from my memory.

But since I likes to keep it real around here, I suppose I'll show you what happened.

The baby knitting?

I was trying to sew together some baby booties.  You knit six squares of garter stitch fabric and then seam them together and fold them like origami to make a pair of booties.

I don't know what I was thinking when I picked this pattern.  I hate seaming.  Just thinking about it raises my blood pressure.  Why oh why would I look at the countless patterns for booties on ravelry and think "hey, I need to knit the ones that require the most finishing work possible."  So far, the only explanation I can come up with is temporary insanity.  I am starting to wonder how often one can claim temporary insanity before it is just insanity:  nothing temporary about it.

After an hour of stitching, and un-stitching, and re-stitching, and un-stitching some more, they looked like this

My frustration level was high.  There may have been swearing involved.

I did the only reasonable thing a person can do under these circumstances.

I threw them in the trash.

I am not ashamed.

Babies rarely wear booties anyways.

Then I tried to sew buttons on my brown sweater.  Let us forget the fact that it took me an hour to find buttons for two sweaters.  Over priced buttons.  And I am still short two buttons for my blue sweaters.  I was at Jo Ann's.  I need to find a better place to buy buttons.

I started at the top of the button band and began sewing on my brown buttons.  I matched ribbing to ribbing and it was looking fantastic.  Then I got near the bottom of the button band.

Yeah, that's not going to work.  How does that even happen?  I guess I picked up a different number of stitches for each button band.  Suck monkey!

First the booties and now this?  There is only so much a knitter can take.  My frustration was at an all time high.  My vocabulary was decidedly not safe for blogs, or children, or civilization as a whole.  I had to remind myself that this was a hobby and supposed to be fun.

Let us all take a moment to laugh at that sentiment.

I then did the only thing there was to be done at times like these.  I carefully removed the six of nine buttons I had already sewn in place.  I placed them in a zip lock bag so they would not be lost.  I folded my sweaters and then I lovingly placed them in The Abyss.

And I cast on for something new.

That is the start of my new orange Olive Basket.  Second times the charm?  I am hoping the solid color will really bring out the gorgeous basketweave detail I am so in love with.  My gauge is off (yes I did do a tiny gauge swatch, but I didn't wash it or remember to check my row gauge, so don't get too excited) so I cast on for the smallest size hoping for something that fit.  I was most of the way through the cast on when I began to wonder if going down a needle size would have given me gauge.  But I had already almost finished casting on 205 stitches.  There was no turning back.  Lazy knitting wins again!

Before I cast on for my new BUTTONLESS sweater I did get to finish one thing.

Pattern:  Creature Comforts Cardi

Yarn:  Grey acrylic I salvaged from a thrifted Old Navy sweater

Needles:  Size 7 and Size 8 Addi Turbos.  and some size 7 dpns for the sleeve ribbing

Modifications:  I added a shawl collar using instructions from here.  I only seamed the side seams 11 inches.  I was only able to pick up 50 stitches for the arm ribbing, and I used size 7 dpns to knit the ribbing.  It was knit as a big rectangle, but taking the advice of countless ravelers, I blocked the bottom wider than the top.  It was a good call.

Review:

Don't get me wrong.  I love this sweater.  But this sweater does not love me.  This is a grown up's sweater.  A person who goes to museums and leasurely walks around.  A person who attends lectures and sits still for hours.  This is the sweater of a person who has lunch with friends at restaurants that have table cloths and silver wear.  This is not a sweater for a person who vacuums.  Or makes lunch.  Or attends a parent teacher conference and wrangles a 5 year old at the same time.  This sweater is fiddly to put on.  You have to set the collar just right.  Get too active and that fancy sweater looks like this.

But I love it anyways.  I want to pretend I can go to a museum and just walk around admiring things, not carrying fifty pounds of gear and a probably carrying a cranky five year old as well.  I want to pretend I could attend a lecture, or go to a restaurant with table cloths.   The reality is, this sweater will best be worn by me when I am sick and my plans for the day will include sitting on my couch and breathing.  But I will look fantastic sitting on the couch breathing.  It is so comfy.

It was a really interesting construction.  It has a metric ton of fabric.

I don't think I would ever knit a sweater with this shape again.  But it was fun experiment.

In other news my new needles arrived.

It is time to get working on the super seekrit Knit Picks test knit.  Life is so hard when one HAS to knit. Remember that vacuuming I mentioned earlier?  That was me preparing my house for a few days of neglect while I knit and knit and knit.  Any good suggestions for what to watch on Netflix?

So Fluffy I'm Going To Die!

It is a rare cold gloomy rainy day.

I love it!

Grey cold gloomy rainy days are so rare.  I am not going to waste this one.  I am going to make some hot chocolate, curl up on the couch with my favorite blanket, catch up on my Hulu queue (I hear they finally reveal who Henry's Father is) and do a little finishing work.

Ok, maybe a lot of finishing work.

A perfect day.

This grey cold gloomy rainy day is also a perfect day to brighten up with a newly blocked fluffy pink knit!

Pattern:  Just A Whisper Wrap/Scarf

Yarn:  Anny Blatt Fils, 2 skeins

Needles:  size 10.5 circular needles, the crummy ones you buy at Wal-Mart

Modifications:  I used a smaller needle than the pattern called for (because I don't own the right size needles.  Lazy knitting wins again!).  I think I increased to 45 stitches to compensate, but I don't remember, and I didn't put it in my rav notes.  Bad blogger.  I had less yarn than the pattern called for, so my entire scarf is only 82-ish inches long from tip to tip.  It is 46-ish inches in the middle section.

Review:  I think my scarf came out perfect.

Can't say the same for my self portrait.  Some day I will figure it out.  Until then I will continue to subject you to bad bathroom mirror photos.  I apologize in advance.

My conditioning wash didn't take out all the mohair itch.  But it did bring it down to an acceptable level.  It is always nice to be able to wear a scarf without wanting to claw all the skin off your neck.  People tend to give you a wide berth when you walk around scratching in public.

Admit it, this scarf is just to pink and fluffy to resist.

Adventures in Photography

Every winter I knit a sweater that becomes my go-to sweater for the season.  The pattern, the yarn choice, the color, the knitting, it all just clicks in place to become the perfect sweater.  Previous favorites have included my Whisper Cardigan, my Contented Cardigan, and my Aidez Cardigan (which never made the blog, but feel free to follow the Rav link if you can.  it is a pretty fantastic sweater).

This year my favorite sweater (so far) is hands down my Walpole Cardigan. Remember, that cardigan I started back in December, and never mentioned again.

I did indeed finish it, and I've been wearing it pretty much non stop ever since. It goes with jeans.  It goes with jammies.  It is pretty much a perfect sweater.

Today seemed like as good a day as any to finally get some pictures of it.  After all, I took a shower this morning, and my hair was especially clean.  I smell really good too, but since this is a blog in the interwebs, you'll just have to take my word for it.  But seriously, I smell amazing.  You wish you could hug me just so you could smell me.  Sweet Pea has been hugging me all day.

My plans to take a picture ran into the usual snag.

I suck with a self timer.

I got this.

(although my hair looks kinda fab, so blurry isn't all bad)

And this.

(although my legs look especially slender so it isn't all bad.)

And this.

(this one?  I got nothing.  It is bad all around)

Frustrated, I turned to my eight year old.  Why Bird?  The child who broke my very expensive camera the last time I handed it to her?  She happened to be the closest child.  And I momentarily forgot about the broken camera in a fit of insanity and desperation.  And in her defense, she isn't four years old any more.

She was beyond ecstatic to be handed the long forbidden camera.  Infected with shutter fever, she took roughly two dozen pictures.  They all look like this.

I like to imagine the blurry is caused by the waves of my good smell wafting from my body.

In despair I turned to my five year old who was begging "Let me try, let me try!"

I am going to need A LOT of chocolate to help me come to term with the reality that her pictures were better than mine.

I finally settled for an un-modeled hanger photo.

Pattern:  Walpole

Yarn:  Schoeller + Stahl, Elena, 9 skeins

Needles:  Size 5 Addi Turbos, and probably some size 5 dpns, maybe my bamboo ones if I found the missing one from the set, which I don't remember doing, so maybe not...

Modification:  I did a custom size, since my gauge was not even close to the pattern gauge.  There are detailed notes on my rav project page.

Review:  This sweater is every bit as cuddly as I hoped it would be.  I knit it with a polyester linen blend.  It was rather stiff after blocking, but has gotten progressively softer with each wearing.  Like cotton would.  It did block in crazy ways.  It grew longer.  I made the sleeves long, but now they are crazy long.   Which is ok, because I kinda love the crazy long sleeves.  It also shrunk width wise.  So the sweater doesn't have as much ease as I originally intended.  It would be nice with another two inches of ease, but the lack there of doesn't detract from my love.

Wanna see something else crazy?

The twisted ribbing on the sleeves does not hold it's shape.

It doesn't pull in, it is stretched out. Which isn't a problem per se, it just something that is.

But the twisted rib on the collar?

It didn't stretch out like I blocked it.  It pulls in, much like the sleeve ribbing ought to do.

Weird.

Being a polyester linen blend it isn't the warmest of sweaters, but it will carry me through spring, through the cool summer nights, through fall, and into the beginning of next winter.  Where I will then knit a new favorite sweater.

So there it is.  My absolute favorite sweater of the winter (so far.)

In other new I went button shopping today.

Oh my arch nemesis buttons.

But that is a story for another day.

Monday Morning Soul Searching

Once upon a time a fluffy pink scarf was knit.

It was the fluffiest pinkiest (why yes that is a real word that I just made up) scarf in all the land.

But the poor fluffy scarf needed a bath.

There was surprising little interest in giving the pink scarf a bath.

So it took up residence in a corner of the kitchen.  An out of the way corner where it could watch the world come and go, yet live in safety without fear of being splashed by food.

A squishy grey cabled sweater was happily knit.  That was until it was discovered that the sweater would need blocked mid-project.

It joined the scarf on the counter.

A tiny baby sweater was knit (causing only a tiny piece of my soul to die).

And it too found a home on the kitchen counter.

Followed quickly by the matching hat.  (I'd just like to take a moment to point out, those baby knits were in fact knit well before the last minute.  Go Me!)

When reflecting upon one's life and the choices one makes, one might come to discover my kitchen counter isn't big enough for these shenanigans.

And that is how they all came to be blocked.

(blocking photo complete with a growing zombie hoard for excitement  because blocking bowl photos are boring.)

Oh The Blissful Silence

There is a little girl under that quilt.

Watching Netflix.

With a stolen Kindle Fire.

Giggling.

Because she thinks she is getting away with it.

Because I don't see the power cord.

Or hear Blues Clues.

Quietest morning EVER.

Adventures In Lazy Knitting

Remember my towels that were in the washer?  And my whites that were in the dryer?

Yeah, they're still there.

Laundry fail.

On the bright side I spent all that time I could have been folding whites and drying towels finishing my fluffy pink knit.

My goal was to use as much of the yarn as humanly possible.

I think I succeeded.

The yarn is super itchy.  I'm hoping I can get some of that out with a conditioning wash.  But you've already heard how the laundry is going.  So the scarf just sits and waits on my kitchen counter.  I think it is happy there. 

In other news, The Greatest, I love him, but he is not so romantic.  He can be very romantic on occassion.  But usually he is not a fan of the romantic gesture.  Valentine's Day is just a normal day around here.  

Except today he brought me doughnuts

And roses.

Heart shaped doughnuts and Intuition Roses.  The man knows the way to my heart.  I had him pick up a new light for his wood working shop while he was making our daily run to Wal-Mart for milk, cause I'm super romantic like that.  

Back to the knitting, cause I am supposed to be a knitting blog.

Or so I've heard.  

With my pink fluff off the needles I had to pick a new project to work on.  Choices choices choices.  I could dip into the Abyss and rescue some poor UFO.  But I don't want to.  I don't have a good excuse.  I just don't want to. I have a test knit for Knit Picks to knit.  But I had to order new needles (hooray for me!) and they haven't come yet(boo for slow shipping).  I have baby knitting for up coming baby showers.  But I need yarn for one, which is kind of a convenient excuse since I don't really have the heart to knit baby things right now anyways.  Those tiny precious knits will be knit at the last minute, and I still have plenty of time before the last minute.

What's a girl to do?

Cast on for a Creature Comforts cardigan of course.   This particular cardigan is more of an open front shrug featuring a cabled leaf panel on the back and a distinct lack of buttons.  This is especially good since buttons and I aren't currently seeing one another.  It's not me, its the buttons.

I cast on with my favorite cast on, the cabled cast on, and knit an inch and a half of ribbing.  I then began to look at the pattern and the construction of the cardigan a little more closely.  Probably should have done that before I cast on, but that would have been the smart thing to do. I can't do that.

I discovered the entire cardigan is knit as one big square, then the sides are seamed together causing the cast on and the bind off to smoosh up against one another.  There was going to be a great big noticible difference between the cast on and bind off.  The OCD in me was going crazy at the thought.

So I frogged my inch and a half.

I googled how to get the cast on and the bind off to match.  The wisdom of the internet told me the cabled cast on was a perfect match for the regular stitch over stitch bind off.  

I beg to differ.

Seven different sites told me this was true.  I began to wonder if I was doing the cabled cast on wrong, so I looked it up.

Nope, I'm doing it right.

The internet and I will just have to agree to disagree that the cabled cast on matches a traditional bind off.

Ravelry pattern notes suggested to me that I should just use a provisional cast on and then knit all the ribbing at once at the end.  But that would have meant getting off the couch and finding waste yarn.  Then I would have to block with the provisional cast on still in place.  Then seam, then knit the ribbing.

That felt like too much work.

More googling told me the tubular cast on was virtually indistinguishable from the tubular bind off.  But  I don't know how to knit a tubular cast on or bind off.  I'd have to learn a new technique, and it looked like this technique might involve waste yarn, and we've already established that my butt was not getting off the couch to get yarn that was no more than 20 feet away from.  Plus, I didn't want to learn.  That's what smart people do, and we've already established I can not do the smart thing.

An hour later, the lazy in me beat up the OCD in me and I cast on with a cabled cast on and knit an inch and a half of ribbing, creating a piece of knitting identical to what I had previously frogged.  I feel very "meh" about the entire ordeal.

I was going to knit the set in pockets, but it involved waste yarn, and I wouldn't really use the pockets.  So the lazy in me didn't do that either.  Plus, when I got to the part where I should have added pockets, I forgot.

But cast-on fiasco and Pocketgate 2013 aside

I think it is coming along swimmingly.

I can't wait for the kids to go to bed so I can eat my other doughnut in peace, admire my roses and knit some more leaves.  Plus The Greatest is working so I'll be able to turn off Phineas and Ferb and watch whatever trashy TV I want.

Happy Valentine's Day to me indeed!

Another Christmas Sweater

Dinner is in the crock pot.  Towels are in the washer.  Whites are in the dryer.  Lesson is planned for tonight's class.  Bad dog is cuddled on the couch with my sick child.

Such a bad dog.

I think it is time to sit and make some more progress on my fluffy pink knit.

This yarn isn't as soft as it looks.  I'm hoping we can fix that with a post knit conditioning bath *fingers crossed*

That's all I've got today.

What a boring blog.

Good thing I've got more knitting to show off!  Allow me to present Bird's Weasley Sweater.

Pattern:  Playful Citrus

Yarn:  Recycled Pink Cotton

Needles:  Size 4 Addi Turbos

Modifications:  I left off the ties on the arm.  I like them, but Bird didn't want them.

Review:  Such a cute little sweater.  This is a design from my other favorite little girl knit wear designer.  Her designs are little girl appropriate, and her patterns are very well written.

See the cute little details like the eyelets on the sleeves.

And the shaping decreases on the back.

Notice how Bird has already managed to get a green spot of dry erase marker smack dab in the middle of her back.  I've washed it twice and can't get it out.

Kids.

It is the perfect sweater for a sick little girl to wear while sipping peppermint tea.

Or resting on the couch.

Bird loves this sweater and would wear it every day if I'd let her.  I'm such a mean Mom, making her take it off to wash it every few days.  I think her favorite part is the color.

It matches her hair.

What can I say?  Bird believes in pink.