Happy Easter!

I happened on a blog this afternoon, with a terrific contest going and the prize is Malabrigo yarn! Check it out here. She wants me to let you know that my favorite flower is white roses.

A herd of place markers for Easter dinner have taken over my workroom! I had fun making these with the Accucut die system at work yesterday and then decorating them at home with chalk, ice stickles, glitter glue and Quickutz Blossom set letter dies. I had invited the girls from my work to come to Good Friday Service with me yesterday and all but one were able to join me. I was so blessed. In the afternoon, the boss let us have the key to the store so we could scrapbook to our heart's content at the class tables. I left around 5:30 p.m. but some of the die hards were going to be there well in the night ... you go girls!

I still had a ball of Malabrigo left over from making the fetching mitts, so thought I'd try out a Koolhaus hat for our s-i-l. He works outdoors in the wet and cold and as this is pure wool, thought it would keep him warm and dry. I've just started the decreases for the crown, so should be finished soon. The colour is Vuu ? and is a really dark green, with a bit of blue and lime in it. So soft! This is an interesting knit ... although I'm reading a lot online lately about how to knit a cable without a cable needle, I am using a cable needle as the yarn is so dark, I didn't want to chance on loosing a stitch. Plus, it's so ingrained, I don't know if I could make the change at this point. We'll see.

Blessings to you as we celebrate our risen Lord!

Onward and Upward ...

Further to my last entry ... well, after scrutinizing the pattern again, I finally found the error! On the back, after the decreases for the raglan, it says to then knit 21 rows of st. st. however, on the sleeve, it said to only knit 5 rows. So, after frogging (rip it, rip it) back to the end of the decreases, I added another 16 rows of st. st. to add up to 21 rows,and the sleeves are now the correct length ... thank you very much! Now all I have to do is sew them in and I'll be done like dinner.

We were babysitting last night and of course had to take some pics of our little cutie with both grandma ...

and grandpa ... who was whispering rude noises into E.than's ear, hence all the hilarity!

Although this cardigan has been completed and blogged about previously here, I hadn't got around to finding buttons for the closure. At first, I had thought I would want a toggle shaped button, but when I saw these ones, changed my mind.

I borrowed this pattern from a friend ... I believe it was in one of those little Vogue hardcover books ... it's called 'Baby Bunny Jacket' (I chose to omit the ears) and was designed by Darlene Hayes ... sorry, that's all the info I've got!

It's a size one, but I think that if we roll the sleeves up a bit, it may fit the baby sooner. His dad had a deja vu moment when he realized that he'd had a very similar hoodie as a child.

I was at Costco last week and discovered a huge bag of jerky treats for the dog that are made solely of duck. B.rinkley has food and environmental allergies, which often turns into hot spots and staff infection, so I have to be careful what he eats, particularly avoiding wheat products. I was really hoping that these treats would work, and that he'd like them. I didn't need to worry ... he blasts in the living room, glares pointedly at me, thumps me on the knee for good measure and then, when I asked him what he wanted, immediately starts heading for the kitchen. It's almost as though he's saying "come on mom ... I'll show ya!" He parked himself in front of the cupboard (he knew exactly where they were kept) and then pointed at it with his paw. My hubby couldn't believe it when I told him to 'watch', so he had to take a photo.

Warning: Annoyed Knitter on the Loose

Well, I have all but given up on my D.B. (not) embroidered cardigan (see last blog entry below) I completed both sleeves (again) this week, after exactly following the pattern, only to discover that the raglan on the sleeves is about 3" shorter than the corresponding back/front raglan. First, I tried to log on to the Debbie Bliss webpage, only to get an error message that said it was 'unavailable'. Then I went on to Ravelry to see if anyone was knitting this ... nope. Then, I googled D.B. to see if there were any comments elsewhere ... there were ... 16,500 of them, and not a one related to the pattern I was looking for. Can you imagine? 16,500 comments on the internet with regard to erratas in her patterns? Does she not bother with test knitters? What the heck is going on? Can you hear my frustration? Here we are, paying good money for patterns that are WRONG ... what's the deal with that? I may plan a revolt. Now, I need to rework the sleeves from the armhole cast-off and up. I'm not in the mood to be even looking at it right now, so have put it out of my mind until I come up with a suitable solution. In the meantime, I'm working on this:


The Icarus Shawl from Interweave Knits. I like a shawl with some substance to it ... not so it looks like a cobweb (although, some of those are very pretty), but with a bit of heft to it. I scored 4 balls of RYC Cash soft 4ply from Elann not long ago, and it's working beautifully. I'm only going to go as far as the 4 balls will take me, which means that I will likely remove a couple of the pattern repeats, before tackling the lace edging. That's fine with me, because I'd be just as happy with using it as a small shawl, or scarf.

I was blissfully watching TV in the evenings this past week and knitting, completely unaware that I'd messed up and had to 'frog' 2 evenings worth of knitting to correct the error ... double :P*********. Now, I'm back on track. This yarn is so soft and lovely to work with. I also picked some up in plum at the same time, initially thinking I'd use it for a baby 'February' sweater (e. zimmerman), but I'm thinking it would look fab in this pattern.

I have to tell you, I have the smartest dog. Last night, he came up to me to announce that it was bedtime and he wanted his treat, plus his last stroll around the garden. I looked at him and said, "wait 'til I finish my row". He plopped his butt down and sat there patiently, until he saw me put the knitting down and get up and then he bee-lined for the door ... amazing!

Here's my dear friend modeling the 'fetching mitts' I made her ... they fit perfectly and she loved them!