It's a Girl!!!

Congratulations to my Uncle Rich and his wife Lorrie. They just adopted this beautiful girl. I am so thrilled for them; they've been wanting children for years. I don't know all the specifics, but I pretty sure that they've been trying since I was a kid. So, now, what to make for her? I've been having a blast the past week pouring over hundreds of patterns. Since I've only had the pleasure to knit for little boys as of yet, knitting for a girl gets me very excited. I'm allowed to use pink, purple and peach! Woot! Other than a pair of socks that I'm currently knitting myself, I've deemed that the next two weeks will be committed to finishing and charity knitting. My knitting basket, which now consumes the entire table it's on, needs a serious emptying. Let's just hope that I do not get distracted by some other "urgent" knit.

I Got Them!

And I love them!!! These gorgeous socks were waiting for me last night at the Post Office. They come from North Carolina made by Wendi. They're Denmark from Knitting on the Road. The colors awesome, I need more purple in my life. Wendi's so sweet, she also included some matchbox cars and a mini See and Say for the boys. Thank you, thank you! I just want to know what yarn she used, it's like butter. In other news, I finished the scarf from Hell. The stinkin' thing took two weeks to do! I guess what matters is that he loves it. So much that he has asked for another one in black. Ha! We'll have to find a different pattern this time. I went ahead and ordered the yarn for it from Discount Yarn Sale. He also wants black gloves for work, so I figure I'll use part of the bag. The rest will be sure to get used up sooner or later. I also got two bags of grey Woolease for his Basketweave Pullover. At $2.25 a ball, you can't beat the price. I was contemplating getting the Patons Merino that was used originally, but that won't work. My husband is worse with his clothes that Reilly is. I wouldn't dream of making him a sweater that couldn't go into the wash to remove all those food stains.

Striped Sweater

I finally finished Connor's sweater. Who knew that such a small and easy project would take over two months to complete. The neckband gave me some trouble. Originally I did a 2x2 rib with a kitchener b.o. It was too sloppy looking. Next I did a folded and hemmed 2x2. The ribbing ended up being too stretched out. I then settled on a 1x1 that was folded over. Much better even though it doesn't match the other ribbing. I don't care. I figure that it'll end up getting stretched as I put over his head so this is the best option. I made this hat for Royd last week in an afternoon. He picked out the pattern and the yarn. He loves it and has wore it every day(except when in his uniform). I got the pattern from the 2004 issue of Knit It. I think it's called Cool Caps-it's somewhere in here. I used Encore Worsted in Blue and Grey. Just so you know, this is his spot in the house. At any given time you can find him here--sitting in front of the tv, either watching it or playing PS2. The carpet underneath shows it too.

Fur Mein Socke Pal

Yes, the socks are done. Finally! All I have to say is, I hope that she likes them. I have never been soooo stressed out about a project before. The first sock's heel was knit three times and the toe twice. I'm still not 100% satisfied, but there's nothing wrong with them. I just wanted them to be perfect. The pattern is the Pretty Comfy sock and I did it in Elann's Esprit. I made these for myself last year and they remain one of my favorites. After sneaking around my pal's blog, I noticed that she didn't have any in this yarn and she said she was open to anything. So, it seemed like a good choice. Aahhhh! I've been sucked into the land of neverending ribbing! Send help! Royd vetoed the Irish Hiking Scarf. Although he loves cables, he felt it wasn't "masculine" for a scarf. Whatever. He wanted something that looked identical from the same side. So, here we are in 2x2. I hate doing scarves in this. It seems to take forever. Perhaps it's because I don't purl correctly and keep having to change hand positions. Maybe someday I'll figure it out and maybe someday I'll finish the blasted thing. No, I didn't forget about the gummies. We seem to be missing one of the packages. So, I put a normal sized bag in for comparison. The large ones are 1kg each and the small is 250gms. Please note that I do not eat gummies. I like the flavor but not the texture. Give me chocolate or a cookie any day.

My Feet Hurt

The hubster was granted a three day weekend after finishing his reintegration. So, with a little bit of money burning a hole in the debit card, we ended up doing some shopping. A lot of shopping. Saturday we ventured downtown to see if we couldn't find some yarn for his sweater. No luck there, but I did find some more sock yarn. After walking around for nearly two hours, we got hungry and headed to the E-Center (grocery store) to see what kind of goodies we could find. Let's just say that there was alot of chocolate bought. Sunday was clean-up day. I took the kids for a walk while Royd "attempted" to clean and organize his stuff. I'll have to finish up tomorrow while he's at work. Today we drove down to Wurzburg to explore some of the palaces and cathedrals. First stop was suppose to be the Residenz, a Baroque palace. We turned the wrong way and ended up on Alte Mainbrucke (Old Bridge) instead. This is a shot off of the bridge of Festung Marienberg (fortress). Too bad it was closed today. This is the actual bridge itself. There are statues of saints across the entire span. After we turned around to head back to the Residenz, we found the Marktplatz. This is the Marktplatz with a beautiful cathedral towering over it. At the bottom of the picture you can see the different vendors. They sell anything and everything to include kitchenware, pottery, clothing, and baskets to name a few. I happened upon a particular vendor that was selling handmade socks, felted slippers and hats. As I was admiring his work, a basket caught my eye. I just had to indulge: That's 400 yards of handspun blue and white sockenwolle. It's fate is to be a scarf for Royd and I'm thinking the maybe the Irish Hiking Scarf. Needless to say, we never quite got to the Residenz today. Next time. We ended up walking around and exploring the downtown. It's easily five times the size as ours. After five hours, and twenty five dollars worth of Gummi candies, we called it quits for the day. Oh, you want to see what twenty five dollars of Gummi's looks like? I'll indulge you next time.

Welcome Home

After several no-go's, Royd finally arrived last Friday at about 8pm. I of course, being the bad blogger that I am, forgot to take the camera with me. So, I snapped some pictures once we got home. The reason Connor's in his diaper is because Royd wanted to see how fat he had gotten. Connor is now know as "Pork Chop". Reilly is thrilled that his daddy is home. I think he's a bit worried that he will leave again, as he hangs onto him constantly. I'm also not allowed to do anything for him. I don't mind-it gives me a break! Obviously knitting has taken a back seat this past week. I have managed to finish the knitting on another sweater. It just needs a major blocking before seaming. I still haven't blocked the black cowl neck sweater-I keep forgetting. I also started the socks for my sock pal. They should be done in a few days. The good news is that Royd had finally agreed to let me knit him a sweater. After my first (scary) attempt to knit him one, he kept telling me that he didn't want one. I showed him what I've made since he's been gone and saw that I've improved greatly. So, this weekend we're going to go see if we can find a color that he likes. He picked that Basket Weave Pullover from Interweave Knits Fall 2004. He made my day when he said that he doesn't want the zipper. I'm dreading doing that because it requires sewing needles and thread. Hopefully now that things have started to settle around here, I can actually finish something and show it off!