An Open Letter to Step2

Dear Step2,

To help Santa out, I ordered a kitchen from your web site weeks ago. Late Saturday night, I got notice from Santa that he wouldn't have time to assemble it and I'd have to step in for him. It's a kitchen, how hard can it be right? Step 1: Using a screwdriver..ok, got a screw driver here. Oh wait, it's the right kind but it doesn't fit into the tiny 2" deep hole. Grab the flashlight and make my way out to the shed. Mister didn't leave another one and FNJ is in bed. I give up and go to bed.

Sunday afternoon, Peanut's next door and I have procured the correct screwdriver type to get past Step 1. I would like to strongly suggest you change the wording contained in the tools needed section. I would remove the word "Optional" next to the drill. Using a screwdriver to place 8 - 2.5" screws in undrilled, heavy duty plastic sucks. And would it kill you to pre-drill the holes?? Step 4 states to slide the fridge door upper peg into recessed hole in the counter top and then into the hole in the cabinet. Please let your people know that a 2mm size hole in the counter top will not allow the 3/4" peg slide into it. And they forgot to recess it. Emergency call to FNJ and a sneaky mission over to their house for some impromptu routing solves the problem a hot knitting needle could not. 2 hours later and I finish with Step 38. Step 39 is to place the stickers. That can wait.

Christmas Eve, it takes Peanut a while to get to sleep and the kitchen is in the spare bedroom next to her room. At Midnight, I fall asleep. I awake in a panic at 1 a.m. Who knew it'd take 90 mins to correctly place 35 stickers? At 3 a.m., the bow is in place and the kitchen is waiting for the Princess to awaken.
Who knows when the pain in my wrist from using the screwdriver will go away. It might be a while before I can knit again, but it was all worth it. When I recount my great accomplishments of 2006 Assembling $150 Step2 kitchen with just a screwdriver on Christmas Eve will definitely be near the top of my list.

And this is proof that it was worth it all.

PS: You can just ignore that crazy message left on your customer service line on Christmas Eve after finding out the recessed hole was anything but that. It was nothing personal, you understand I'm sure.

We Saw Santa

This just might have to be our Christmas card this year.

It certainly embodies the spirit of the season!

Santa Baby

I always loved Madonna's version of Santa Baby. Seemed a good enough reason for a posting title.

I had my office holiday party last night. By far, the best I've ever been to. It was a Casino Night theme. The idea was that you were given $500 in chips and with that you could gamble or turn it right in for a raffle ticket. Each raffle ticket was $500. The big prize being a casino getaway weekend to Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort. My friend and I decided to pool our winnings and put all of our tickets towards winning this prize. She won and we're going!! I've never been on a weekend getaway and Lord knows I could sure use one to look forward to right now.

Santa's almost finished with his shopping for us this year. Funny thing, when the Mister's out of the Christmas budget, there's more of it to go around. Peanut is getting this. I can't wait for her to see it. Santa has brought me this and he still needs to pick up one of these. The bags are really, very nice. I think I'll get an awful lot of use out of them.

Good news is that we never go the flu from Mister. We had a 24 hr chicken pox scare this week. Peanut's been vacinated, but I've never had them. Turned out to just be a rash on Baby Nephew and not the pox.

I'm off today for Peanut's 3 year physical and we're going to try and visit Santa at the mall. This could be interesting for sure. Pictures coming soon, I promise!

Liquid Weather

I watch Ben Bailey on Channel 2 each morning. I think he's so cute! He just said we'll be having a lot of liquid weather the next few days and that sounds like a good post heading to me. I'll take liquid weather over frozen any day.

My super secret project has been revealed to the recipient, so I can talk about it here. I'm working on the Fibertrends Felted Clog pattern. For something that's supposed to work up quickly, I had a really hard time getting through the first one. I couldn't get gauge using US13s, so I went and got a pair of US15s. Would you believe I'm getting the same gauge with those as well? I don't get it. The thing is absolutely huge, so I just went with it. I'll deal with sizing issues while felting it. No pictures yet. Probably won't be until I finish the second one.

I bought everything for the clogs from The Knitting Den. I'm not sure as to how I feel about the place. It's quaint as it's in an old house...but I certainly don't get a warm or welcoming feeling when I go there. It takes a while for anyone to recognize you're there and the layout of the place can make browsing difficult. They have a huge table in the pass through room to the back rooms. If there are people sitting at the table, you're not getting into the back rooms. And the sock yarns are on the walls behind the table. I took Peanut in there to get the new needles. It was her first time. We talked at length in the car about not touching and sticking close to me. I cannot tell you how good she was in that store. She asked me about touching each ball of yarn and waited for me to pull it out for her. Her hands were clean, so I didn't see any issue with it. I also let her pick out a skein of sock yarn for herself, so we did buy something she looked at. There were several ladies at the table and the two owners. No one acknowledged our existence there until one of the owners rung me up. And it's like that all the time. It would have been nice if they'd said hello or asked if we need any help. If I'm dropping $80 on supplies at their store, it'd be nice to feel welcome there. They are the closest but not the only LYS in the area. There's the one in Plymouth that I don't care for and I'd never, ever take Peanut in there. There's also the Whitmore Lake Yarn Company, but they're small and don't carry as much. Knitting Neighborhood is great, but they're a bit of a drive. I guess I shouldn't complain as some knitters don't even have an LYS.

Jennifer at Busy Hands Yarn is closing up shop. She has some really great deals on what she has left. If you get a minute, stop by and see if you can help her clean out the store's stash.

There's a lot going on, but not much I can talk about here. Mostly work stuff and a recent health change. Nothing new with Mister other than he's recently become a chatty cathy on the phone with me. I've been taking advantage of my new camera phone and the free month of net access. Here are a few new photos:

Happy Birthday Princess Peanut

XOXO,
Mom

She came...We saw...It kicked ass!!

I did make it down to see the Harlot yesterday in Ann Arbor. My dear friend, Moshel met me at the 'Rents house where I deposited Peanut for the day. We enjoyed a fabulous lunch at Connor O'Neil's. Too hot for a beer, though. Never thought I'd say that...but it was damn hot yesterday. I now understand when people say the heat was "oppressive". We made our way over to the library about 1:00 p.m. We arrived about 1:10 and found seats in the back row of the room. Just a word of caution, if you do open the Library's elevator doors mid floor "passengers will be trapped". I love that. No beating around the bush there! (Sorry about the photo, I know it's hard to read)

They eventually added two more rows of chairs and then shut down the room about 20 mins after we got there. While we waited, Moshel cast on a dishcloth with the yarn & needles I brought to gift her. Moshel's a sometimes knitter. She does a great job with lovely fun fur scarves.

The dishcloth was Grandma's Favorite so it was easy enough for her to pick and do, but helped her learn a basic increase and decrease. Dear Moshel is moving to Tucson in six weeks or so, so it was only fitting she was using the Fiesta colorway. She worked diligently on the cloth during the talk and cast off while we were waiting for the book signing line to die down. Now she has a commemorative Harlot cloth to move with her. I will miss her dearly. She's the only one of my friends who doesn't totally make fun of the knitting. She does poke fun, but it's all good hearted. Let's hear it for vacation trips to Tucson! (Anyone else think of Road Rules and want to call is "Tuck-son" when you see it? Season 1 maybe?)

Oy. I finally got to the Harlot at 5:30. She was well worth waiting for. She signed my book and I got this great photo. She is nothing short of fabulous. I am in love with her voice. I could listen to her speak for hours. Seriously need her to voice some books on tape. Here she is signing my book. I just love this photo because it kind of sums up the day.

I lived one of her stories once I got back to the 'Rents. My gram asked what I'd gone to today. I said "An author lecture." She replied with, "Oh what kind of books?" I had a hard time not grinning when I said, "Knitting books." "OH! Knitting books? Did you learn a lot?" "Um, no...it's not that kind of knitting book. It's knitting humor." Then she gave me that look.

After leaving the Harlot, Moshel and I ventured to chocolate dipped sea foam. Am I the only person totally in love with this stuff? Unfortunately, they don't sell it by the piece. My attempt to describe what sea foam candy is to Moshel peaked her interest...the lovely lady at Kilwin's said enough to seal the deal. "It's the base we use for peanut brittle that's pumped full of air and then dipped in chocolate." $7 later, we had a bag. Moshel is hooked. Good thing since she sprung for the bag. We enjoyed a piece on our way back to Main to visit Busy Hands.

This was my first visit to Busy Hands. They have a really nice store, but I didn't feel like there was a large selection of yarn. Fabulous selection of INOX needles. The owner was a lovely woman. All of the non-sale yarn was 20% off in honor of Stephanie's visit. I picked up three skeins of Grignasco Strong sock yarn for $16. Asuper duper pink is for Peanut and a Strong Print blue faux fairisle is for the Mister. It's really soft. I'm considering going back to get enough of the solid color for a shawl. I could probably get enough for under $30. Really cool thing about Busy Hands? Open on SUNDAYS! Totally viable to take Mister & Peanut down for frozen custard and then slip away to the shop. And Ann Arbor has free parking on Sundays. Genius.

I had mentioned previously that the lovely, Erin was to accompany us on our Harlot journey. I'm so sad to say that Erin fell under the weather just before time to leave her house. Erin, you were dearly missed and certainly not forgotten. I'm not saying any more than that.

Here's a photo of Peanut once we pulled into the drive. It's a 13 min drive from the Rents house to ours. I'd have to say based on how deeply asleep she was, she had a fabulous time.

5 hrs 12 mins and counting...

At this very moment, the Harlot is somewhere in the same area code as me. Well, that's assuming she flew in last night. Let's assume that. She'll be at the Ann Arbor District Library downtown at 2:30. I called and they suggested we show up at least an hour early as they expect a large crowd. They're even simulcast it into their "Board Room" for the overflow crowd. Peanut will be spending the day with her beloved Great Grandma. She's incredibly excited about that. I'm incredibly excited that my clapotis KAL 'net friend, Erin and I will be enjoying the Harlot together. It's our first meet up after several months (and one KAL - which she's finished) of email being exchanged. The camera is charged. The memory card newly formatted and functional. Photos will be posted.

Erin asked me on Friday what I was going to knit. I never thought about it before. I'd considered what to wear because it's going to be freakin' hot! but not what to knit. This weekend I contemplated many things...a new sock for mister..a dishcloth or bib..the anniversary cardi swatch...mini-clap scarf...nothing seemed right. The one thing that deserves to go is clappy. She's the most beautifully thing I've knit to date (well, knitting). She is my summer project and Erin will be there with her finished clappy. So, that's it. No matter that it's going to be in the mid-90s with an insane heat index today. Giant clappy is going to see the Harlot. It's only right.

Mary asked how Peanut's enjoying school. To say Peanut loves school would be a severe understatement. This is how I found her at 6:30 on her second day of school. She'd been like that for 45 mins. I moved her to her bed without her waking up and she slept there for another 90 mins.
School is her favorite place to be second to Great-Grandma's. It's definitely brought out the girly girl in her. She now refers to herself as a "I a pincess" and babies her Pooh Bear. As I'm writing this, she's "cooking" dinner for her friend Josh. We bought her the kitchen when she was 14 months old and she's never really shown much interest in it until now. Each Friday she brings home her art work for the day with a note explaining what their theme had been. She loves to sit down with us and go through it all to talk it over. We're also noticing a very positive change in her behavior. It might just be an up in the roller coaster of toddler emotions, but I'll take it. She's been a real joy and so much fun the last few weeks.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not, but Peanut is in love with dirt. Not just a standard kid love for it, but absolutely infatuated in love with it. One of her teachers mentioned to Mister that while on the playground she had scooped up handful and was petting it as if it were a tiny kitten. She came over to Miss Amanda and announced "I love pretty dirt!" and walked away. We've recently switched her to a booster seat from a car seat. She can now see more. They're building a new Speedway in town and had huge mounds of dirt on the lot. Out of the back seat I hear "Mommy, mommmmyyy!! Look at all the PRETTY dirt!!" as we passed it. A few days ago, we found her "washing" her face in a dirt patch in the yard. Maybe she'll be the Princess of Dirt?


I finished a blanket on the USM for our neighbor to give as a shower gift. It's 44"x39" so it's a pretty good size for him to grow in to. I'm really pleased with how it came out. I used Caron One Pound, which I wouldn't normally do for a baby but figured I'd give it a try. It washed up very nicely and you can tell with a few more washings, it'll be pretty soft and durable. I did a crochet edge to it. It's pretty obvious my crochet skills need some help. The neighbor was thrilled with it and her sister would now like one for a coworker. Probably a slippery slope but I'm saving up to buy a custom bowling ball, so I'll take what I can get.

For those interested:
KP3 Caron One Pound in Fisherman and a gray/blue color (lost the ball band)
Using a closed edge CO, CO over 160 needles with MC (blue)
K 30 rows. Switch to CC (fisherman/cream) for 20 rows.
Repeat until RC = 230.
BO using the latch tool BO method.
I then folded it in half and whipped stitched it together.
It then took a trip through the washer & dryer.
I took out the stitching and did a single crochet border changing colors to match the stripes.

Attack of the Giant Clapotis

I'm exactly halfway through clappy. As of now, with 6 dropped stitches...she's a whopping 26" x 38". I'm guessing she'll be 30" x 72" when finished. I'm ok with that. I was reading Big Girl Knits and it suggested larger shawl sizes for those of us on the fluffy side of things. The Garbo of my knitting projects has stepped out of the shadows and allow herself to be photographed. Here she is lounging on the back of the couch. The colors aren't really true. She's much more rich than what's shown. It's almost like she was caught out in a baseball cap with no makeup. When she's all finished, I'll be sure to do a red carpet worthy photo shoot.


Here's DBO. It's measuring 7". I can only imagine it'll grow when blocked. The color is much deeper and more purple than it's showing here. Our halogen lamp really skews the colors when combined with the flash.

Shelagh is my new lunch knitting. I haven't started it, but I am working on a decent sized gauge swatch. I also want to wash it to see if the yarn will soften up a bit. I certainly hope so or it'll go back on ebay. I like the lace pattern. I could do without the ptbl, but I'll live. No photos of as of yet.

Resurrection

I am insanely happy to report the USM survived a not too recent fall from the dining room table when Peanut's head stood up into the board it's clamped to. 100 rows of a striped cream and blue baby blanket are currently hanging from it. It's a shower gift for the our neighbor to give to her cousin on the 31st. I'd been putting it off because I didn't want to know for sure if the USM was really broken from it's fall. All is well. Let's move on.

No new knitting photos. To make up for it, here are some family photos:
Mister & Peanut on their way to the pool.

Mister's new tattoo.

Peanut's first day of day care school.

Hola!

Not a whole lot to update you on. I'm inches from the end of my 2nd skein for clappy. The 3rd is just waiting to be wound. Man, I need a ball winder. I do have an Amazon gift cert and I've heard there's a way to shop Joann.com through Amazon, so maybe that'll work. I've completed a few more repeats on DBO. It's probably 5" or so long. I adore the cashmere yarn I'm using for it. I got it from Elann.com. It's their Baby Cashmere. It's a cashmere/alpaca/merino blend. I'm hoping they'll get some again. I'd love to buy enough to do a shawl. I've decided I enjoy fingering weight, but anything thinner is too much. Not sure what I'll do with that beautiful blue lace weight I bought. Maybe someday I'll be able to deal with knitting with thread.

The Harlot's coming to Ann Arbor on the 30th. My dear friend, Michele and I plan to attend. Michele's moving to Arizona in August, so it's good to get some quality time in before she leaves. We don't see each other nearly enough as it is and she's only 40 mins away now. Michele tries to humor me with the knitting and has even done a few scarves and bunnies herself. I'm hoping she'll enjoy it as much as I know I will. I recently reread Secret Life again. For some reason, I can't find At Knit's End. I've gone through most of Knitting Rules. It's good, but not my favorite. I can't wait to see her.

Well, the Mister's home and Peanut's wearing more of her dinner than she ate. Off to the bath with her. Thanks for checking in!

Um, yeah..Hi!

Gosh, has it really been three weeks since my last post. I'm so sorry. Who knows if anyone is still checking in on me.

We've had another daycare shake up. Peanut starts at the new center on Monday full time. The poor kid is so confused on where she's going and who's taking care of her. She spent last week with my grandparents and had a total blast. The said she was "a joy to have". Yes, my demon child "a joy to have"!! My grandparents are 78 & 79, so I was a bit worried about her unleashing the devil on them. My gram insisted on taking her and finally told me "Janette Elaine, I raised 7 of my own kids. I'm sure I can handle yours." As always, she was right. Peanut had a try-out day at the center on Wednesday and did quite well. She's very excited to go back to "school" on Monday. It's a bit of sticker shock for our family, but it's what's best for Miss Peanut. Mister and I discussed that it's tighten the financial belt time, so my yarn diet is a permanent one.

Our anniversary was Wednesday. Mister has an appointment for a tattoo this afternoon. That's my gift to him. I took matters into my own hands and bought my own anniversary gift. It was no surprise that he hadn't thought about it and was relieved I'd done it for him. I won 18 skeins of a wool/acrylic/nylon blend on ebay. It'll be used to make Shelagh for me. It's a lovely dark mauve color and it's for me. I also picked up a skein of blueberry sock yarn from Laura along with some lovely stitch markers. Do I need more sock yarn? Um, no. Did I justify it as a way to support Laura's quest? I sure do. Anything I can do to help her out.

Clapotis is coming along. I'm very near the end of the second ball. I'm going to measure it once I'm there to find out how long it should be when I'm all finished. I added a few extra repeats in the increase section, so it's quite a bit wider than the original pattern. I'm ok with that. I just don't want it to be too short. I'm worried it's going to be a square rather than a rectangle. I haven't knit a stitch on double branching out in a while. With all that's been going on in the JB house, lace knitting isn't possible.

Pepper's had some more insane vet bills recently. We're hoping we're finished for a while. We did have her shaved for the summer. She was pretty mad about it to say the least. We doubled over with laughter each time she'd come into the room the first few days after. She refused to come near me for four days. I guess she blamed me for it since I took her to and from the vet. With her hair now short, we can see that she has an insane hanging belly that swings while she walks. It looks as if she's had 30 litters of kittens in her life, but has never had even 1. I don't know why they call it a "Lion cut". She looked more like a poodle. I think she appreciated it the first really warm day we had. She seemed to be much more comfortable. Her coat is growing back in quite nicely and we won't have to shave her again until next summer.

Have No Fear, I'm Still Here

I am so sorry for neglecting my blog recently. Peanut is still having good days and bad. Then we have the real rollercoaster days where she smiles and then attempts to poke your eye out with an American Flag balloon. Ah, the holidays. I really do appreciate everyone's comments. Thanks so much for taking time out of your day to drop me a note.

I'm still knitting, but not a whole lot. I'm yards from finishing the first skein for Clapotis. I'm getting ready to go into the straight rows. I have 2 1/2 repeats done on DBO (Double Branching Out). It really is pretty. My USM took a hit onto the floor. I have yet to attempt to put it back together. Right now, I'd rather live in denial that there's anything wrong with it.

We've had some serious day care shake ups in the last few weeks. I bit the bullet and visited a center close to our house. Don't worry, Peanuts insane devil behavior wasn't the cause of either of the shake ups. I called a couple of centers and this one was the one I felt best about after the call. Bonus is that it happened to be the cheapest, by a lot. Yeah, imagine my surprise when I begin my tour with the director and we figure out that we had 10th grade (for me, 12th for him) Algebra class together. I hadn't seen the guy in 14 years (oh man, I just figured that out..oy I feel old) and would never, ever have picked him out on the street. I adored him in highschool. Not in the "I want to go out with you" adored him either. He was funny and sweet. You always knew you'd get a sincere reaction from him and it makes perfect sense that he's running a daycare center. Peanut will be attending once the current situation runs out or come Tuesday after Labor Day, whichever comes first. She's always been in home day care, so I was feeling pretty sad about it but after the tour...she's going to love it! She went on the tour with me and keeps asking when she's going to school. She's been dragging around her new lunch box yelling at the cat, "I go to school!!!!" I can't help but think this scene won't be repeated too much more in the future, so I'm enjoying it now.

Amby suggested previously that we employ a squirt bottle to help with Peanut's behavior issues. I think this is a fabulous idea. However, the kid takes over any hose running water that she finds and promptly holds it over her head. Doesn't care that it's freezing or that she's fully dressed. She adores water. I'd think the squirt bottle might be better used for a reward. Hey, that might be something to consider. Thanks Amby! You may have just saved us thousands of dollars we would have spent on chocolate and gummy bears.

The Devil and IKEA

IKEA opens near our house on Wednesday, June 7th. Yeah, not going anywhere near it for at least two weeks. The radio commercials are announcing that people can begin lining up to get in on Monday, June 5th. I understand IKEA is supposed to be an amazing experience, but I think I'm a little over camping out for things. Good luck to everyone that will be going, though.

I do believe the Devil has decided our house is his new vacation home. Our sweet little Peanut went from a smiling, chubby, blonde toddler to a spitting, biting, pooh-smearing nightmare in the last two weeks. Lord help us. Not a whole lot of knitting has been going on while the battle of wills has been taking place. I can tell you we now have liquor in the fridge and I'm not afraid to use it. We're taking all suggestions. Offer them up if you've got them. She's 2 1/2 and I don't know that we'll all make it to 3.

On the knitting front...Erin and I started our mini KAL on the Friday or Memorial Day weekend. I have 13 dropped stitches so far. I'm going to keep increasing until the first skein runs out. Then I figure two skeins for the straight rows and then the last skein for the decrease. That's the plan so far. I also have two repeats done on my Amazing Lace partner, double Branching Out. Photos to come soon, I promise. The Baby Cashmere yarn is fabulous.

I'm off to dinner with our friend & neighbor for her birthday. It's just the ladies/moms going, so it should be nice and quiet.

7x7

7 Things to do before I die
Visit Ireland
See Paris at night
Raise a confident, proud, considerate daughter
Find a knitting group close to home
Take a cruise
Have another baby
Be a grandma

7 Things I cannot do
Drive a stick shift
Plumb a house (Mister can!)
Cut a straight line
Fix the car
Reach high shelves
Eat or smell Chef Boy R D products

7 Things that attract me to my husband
His fuzzy head
The way he says "oh" when he's wrong
The way he sticks out his tongue when he's concentrating on something
He's snuggly
He makes me laugh
He may not always get it right, but he tries.
He cries at movies, his favorite being Titanic

7 Books I love
She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb
The Mysts of Avalon - Zimmer
All of the Yarn Harlot books
Love You Forever
The Carl books
Catcher In the Rye
There's a Monster At the End of This Book

7 Things I say
Seriously?
That's awesome
Totally
This is Janette...
That's cool/That's not cool
I love you to the moon and the stars and all the way back again
I think not

7 Movies I love
The Village
Lake Placid/Deep Blue Sea/Anaconda - any animal gone wild or disaster movie. I love them!
Circle of Friends
Sliding Doors
The Shawshank Redemption
Sixteen Candles
Legends of the Fall

7 People to tag
I grabbed this from Carie who posted it with a note to take it and post it only if you'd like to. I think I'll do the same.

Days of Yarn and Roses

Has it really been 10 days since my last post? Gosh, where is May going? I have one FO and two WIPs to prove I've been working on them and not just talking about them. First up is the round dishcloth. It's done back and forth and then sewn into a circle with a single seam. It was a super easy pattern that I now have committed to memory. The next is my progress so far on Sisters. The color is completely washed out here. It's a much deeper purple.

Here's the Larry Scarf and Pepper. It's coming along. I've been using a safety pin to mark where I start to prove to myself I've made progress on it.

This is the Max yarn from Lisa. Heaven is spun into every inch of this yarn. The color is a bit more saturated than this pic shows. We' have rain for a week, so it's been hard to get a good picture with natural light. The ball I wound myself by hand. Who knew Mister being a plumber would come in handy when looking for something to wind it onto. The 1/2" copper pipe was absolutely perfect to use. I think he was kind of excited to contribute to the process. The second picture is my practice Clapotis scarf using green Cascade Sierra. It's wonderful in it's own right. This is the first center pull ball I wound by hand. I'm quite proud of my new accomplishment. Who needs a ball winder & swift when you've got 8" of copper pipe? I really can't say enough about the Max yarn. If you ever have the chance to get some, definitely do. You won't regret it.

To end this post, I give you gratuitous Peanut photos. She worked hard on personalizing the cards she gave on Mother's Day. She picked out 2 dozen pink roses for me and wants nothing to do but touch and smell them every chance she gets. I also got a kickin' new crockpot. The last one is her on the way home from my Grandparents' house on Sunday. She played hard stomping through every mud puddle she could find.

Sweet, Sweet Sunday

Saturday is my favorite day of the week because I know I have another day to sleep in and hang out with the family before going back to work. Sundays hold a special place in my heart too. They tend to be low key around the JB household. Sunday is the day most likely for us to spend in our jammies. It's the day we try to get the most housework done for the coming week. It's amazing how messy this house gets in just a few days. Oy.

I've decided to join The Amazing Lace. I'm calling up my friend Branching Out to be my partner. She was faithful through the Olympics, I know I can count on her again. I have some beautiful cashmere blend yarn in a purple shade that was bought to be Branching Out. I had planned on working on it this summer in anticipation of my Aunt's birthday, so why not? It should be interesting.

As I mentioned before, Erin and I are doing our own KAL for Clapotis. I think we're the last knitters on Earth to not have tried this pattern. We decided to go with yarn from LisaKnit. I chose Shade Garden in the Max yarn. This will be something for me, so it's special in many ways.

30 years and 1 day...

...doesn't feel much different than 29 years and 364 days. I didn't expect it would. Mister went out and got me a Costco cake and we celebrated with the neighbors. My good friend, Jennifer took me to Champp's for lunch. They changed their menu again, so it was kind of a bummer. The company was wonderful, though. My friend, Michele was thoughtful enough to send me a great card a gift card for Michael's. I really want to do Reid for Peanut and they do carry the Paton's Grace for it.

We did WalkAmerica on Sunday. Team Lainey raised $555. Not too shabby! We had 8 walkers, 1 rider and 2 dogs. It was a perfect day for a walk. We finished in better time than last year and I wasn't exhausted by the end. Guess the walking we've been doing has helped. Here's our team:

Erin and I decided on a yarn for Clapotis. It's really beautiful. I can't wait to see it in person. Full details at a later time.

We're into May and that brings a new color for Project Spectrum. It's green. Lovely, green. I have a skein of Cascade Sierra in a beautiful green color that I haven't quite found something to do with it. It's my goal this month to make it into something wonderful. Holler if you have a great 1 skein pattern. Maybe Peanut needs a green teddy bear? Or a shrug or something. Who knows?

That's it from here. I have photos of my knitting, but they're on the camera. I have proof that I've started Sisters and that the Larry scarf is getting longer. It's in the homestretch people and not an orange minute too soon.

29 years 364 days

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