A Good Week

The boys took advantage of a "warm" day and, along with the neighbor boy, played with their Easter gift from Grandma.

Chez Mayhem entered the Digital Age!

Well, as well as we can.

The Mister used his coupon to pick up a Digital Converter for our poor little analog TV.

And guess what? The active antenna that we had for the tv, boosts the digital signal, too! Woot! Saves us another 40-70 bucks! And we get twice as many channels as we did before. (Funny, still nothing on worth watching.) And the reception is crazy good. As in, looks like we have cable hooked up. Wow. Except when an airplane goes over or the clouds are real low. Then it is a little buggy. Nothin's perfect. LOL.

Productivity!

I finished the Cobblestone. This is the crappy picture that I took of it. Funny, I was upset with the Mister when I started it and upset when I finished, too. Poor Mister, so maligned.

This was done in Tatamy Tweed Worsted in the walnut color. I added 2 (TWO!!) inches to the sleeves (both of them!!) and to the torso(!!). It fits him fabulously.

I have decided, however, that it is most flattering to have a saddle shoulder for my Mister's sweaters. From now on, (unless I change my mind) that is what I am going to make.

Moving on...

What was the real motivation to finish Cobblestone so quickly (Feb 26-March 28)?

I needed the needles to make my sweater.

This, which will be my 'February Sweater'.

I ordered the yarn (Patons Classic Wool Tweed, paprika) in February, and I swear it seemed so much brighter than it does now.

Either way, I love it.

And I ordered it here, the nicest lady and good prices to boot.

Isn't that a pretty picture of the sleeve that I frogged. Yes, frogged. I made several errors. The least of which involves me not being able to read. la-la-la. Ribbit. Ribbit.

But I started over and am much happier and reading the pattern, this time.

I don't know if I will post again this week. The Extravaganza is on Friday and there are bound to be loose ends and such to occupy my time.

Hope your week is sunny!

Speaking of Birthdays

So, my SIL was making me feel old.
Well, she is certainly older than me. She brought her gift from the Easter Bunny with her when she came to dinner. This was her gift.
This was huge when I was a kid. HUGE! In fact, with my birthday money when I turned 11 (eleven!!) I bought this album. Yes, I said ALBUM! ack. How cool is it that it is remastered and put onto cd 25 years later. (24 years from when I bought it.) OMG. It is bad enough that the "oldies" station plays 80's music, to actually say out loud that 1983 was 25 years ago is just cruel.
All that said. I cannot help but turn it up loud and sing along and dance, dance, dance. Much to the chagrin of my 7 (almost 8) year old son. OMG! How did I get a 7 year old son?!?!? He is practically asking for the keys to the car!!
Oh, funny, Celtic Queen and I saw a coffee mug today that said, "I refuse to admit that I am over 30, even though that makes my kids illegitimate!"
Ok, I am feeling it today. Only the shock and awe part, really. I still feel 25 inside. Oh, there is that 25 again! Make it stop!

All I Want

For my Birthday

The Mister is about ready to cancel my subscription to Budget Travel.

This is what I want for my Birthday. Bad. Really Bad.

Sure, I am not denying that the relentlessly dreary months of February and March have taken their toll. But in all ways, on any day, Italy would be a welcome relief.

I promise, I have been really good this year. Or, at least, not as bad as I could have been.

I promise I will be really, really good for the next year.

Where's my passport?

I think I have another year before it expires.

Where's my phrase book?

I... know... it... is here.... somewhere... under all that... yarn...

Oh, come on... pleeeeeease?

Red Roving, Red Roving

INBA talked me into some red roving. He was looking to steal more of my Northern Lights, so I let him talk me into some Kraemer red roving. It is a little weird, I wonder if it is meant for needle felting or if there is even a difference in preparations... do you know?

All I know is that it is really tough for him to use with his drop spindle. And I know that I don't want to share my other bag of Northern Lights- Toffee!

The plan (at the moment) is to buy a fleece at Maryland Sheep and Wool (I paid for my bus ticket on Wednesday!!) that he and I can prepare and spin over the summer. He wants to dye some... Red! How did you guess? Which is fine, I think it will be a great project for us.
And some progress on the cobblestone. I have almost 2 sleeves done and another inch or two of the body to go. And, if the Mister didn't have such long arms and a long torso, I would have joined everything up by now! The joy and curse of custom creations.
I am really pleased with the pattern and with the yarn. The pictures don't do the color justice. It is a really warm and tweedy brown.

I finished the Fire On The Mountain socks.
I am frogging the gull wings in the crocus yarn.
I am itching to start another project, I am just not sure which one gets to go next!
Who feels lucky?

Perfect

Did you know that March 20th is Sweater Day? So good for so many reasons.

Know Who Your Friends Are

Wow, this weekend I sure found out who mine are. Big thanks to Laurie for helping me this weekend. I am sorry that she over did her limits in doing so. I am hurting still, too. I need a couple of more friends!
I organized a bake-sale breakfast for my church after the Sunday morning masses. Saturday I spent the day with Laurie (not even a member of our parish!!) and a few other ladies baking cinnamon rolls and bread and sticky buns for the event. We raised some money for the building fund and encouraged some fellowship, so it was a success.
Not much in the way of knitting going on. The Cobblestone has another inch on it, working a heel flap on the Fire on the Mountain socks, still debating how I feel about the gull wing pattern, wanting to cast on a shawl, but haven't finished MS3 yet.

Bits of sunshine are appearing, maybe I will become more inspired soon.

Optomists

Well, can you hear me laughing?

It takes a man to write an article like this about a man doing a study about that.

If I can sum up for you... Women have been saying for years (decades, centuries, I would venture) that there is nothing sexier than a man doing the dishes. And a man does a study that links the amount of housework a man does to getting more sex and it makes the national news wire. I am rolling on the floor laughing. DUH!!

On to Optomism

The remnants of a snow man.I told you that I saw robins!
The painful optomism of the Daffodils.
It was 30 degrees this morning.

But spring is indeed coming. It shows up every year. And the groundhog said that we have 2 more weeks, at least, until it does, again.

Until then... I am going to go show the Mister this article and how much nicer his life could be if he cleaned the bathroom.

Some Sun

Here is my travel sock. Fire on the Mountain, STR lightweight.

I am a good bit further on the leg of the second sock. I think the patterning is going to be different on the second sock, but I haven't pulled them out to compare, yet. hmm.

This is Cobblestone. The Tatamy Tweed Worsted is Walnut color. A nice rich, warm brown. I guess a little too much sun isn't a good thing... only for my pictures.

And my February Bag. So named because I needed some color and this will be my go-to bag for February... and March, seeing that the sunshine was a big tease and it is just as dark as ever, today.

The bag is a Lazy Girl Designs Towne Purse.

It has a ton of pockets and their construction techniques get all the raw edges encased and leaves it neat and tidy.

Spring?

There are 10 robins, 2 cardinals (one male- the brightest red you ever saw, one female) and a woodpecker in my back yard at this very moment.
I don't think the robins ever left this year. I saw a whole bunch of them over by the post office a couple of weeks ago after a big bout of snow. And they are fat, they haven't starved for hanging around.
It was more than 60 degrees and sunny all day today. Good-bye February! Hello, March!
I took some pictures this morning in the gorgeous sunlight... but will have to post later, I am going out to dinner with another mom! Can you stand it? Of course, I am making dinner for the brood before I go. One cannot ask too much. :)