Delayed Olympic Coverage

I took a late lunch on Friday and cast on for Branching Out at 2:15 p.m. It's my first lace project, so I struggled a bit with keeping my place in the pattern and the triple (or are they double?) decreases. I quickly worked through 8 repeats from Friday to Sunday morning. Sunday, I took a good look at the scarf. It just wasn't Olympic quality. I tried frogging (another first, I'm a notorious tinker) and that went well but it wasn't enough. I bit the bullet and frogged the whole thing. It was definitely the right decision. It's like night and day. The stitches are much more even and the decreases don't stand out as much. Another new skill that's come out of this is working from a chart. I've always found them so intimidating just looking at them. My short term memory is horrible and I've always thought it'd be too hard to remember all of the symbols. Well, after the frogging and restart I decided to give the chart a try. I love it! What a tremendous difference!! Of course, this is just a baby chart over 21 stitches and 5 rows but I might ready for something bigger when I'm done.

Mister and I swapped Valentine's presents last night. He gifted me a box of chocolates (Hershey's Pot of Gold - our tradition) and a gift certificate to The Knitting Den. The certificate came with the promise of a Saturday away. That's the priceless part of the gift! About 30 mins ago, a dozen long stem roses were delivered to my office. It's the first time in our 4.5 years together he's sent me flowers! All on his own.

Alecia from DetroitAreaKnitters Yahoo group is cleaning out her book stash. I'll be getting a copy of The Knitted Teddy Bear from her. I can't wait. I'm hoping to make something special for Peanut for Easter. Our LYS carries the Baby Alpaca Twist I'm using for Branching Out. I'd love to get that in a soft purple to make her a lovey.