A rainy Monday.

The weekend was cold, rainy and blustery. I hibernated inside, in front of the warm fireplace, with a hot cup of tea and my knitting. I am so pleased that I have finished the front of the Aran Lace and am now working my way diligently up the right sleeve. Yes, indeed, this sweater has a specific left and right sleeve. That'll be interesting when I sew this puppy together.

Saturday evening we watched the movie Top Gun. (My daughter is currently reviewing all Tom Cruise movies.) This was followed by Ghost, with Patrick Swaze and Demi Moore. Ooh-la-la. I had forgotten what a great movie it was.

To top off a rainy, wet weekend my husband and I accompanied some good friends to Amis du Jazz in Sonya. We listened to a nice trio, consisting of a string bass, an electric guitar and a saxophone. The sax. player was an hour late as he was having difficulties finding the venue. Can't blame him -- Sonya is very small.

So today I wake up with a raging sinus head-ache, and listening to the wind and rain. Bleah. What to do? After doing some housewifely cleaning, I sat down with the spindle and wool I acquired at the Waterloo Knitter's Fair.


So it isn't perfectly-spun yarn. But it is my first effort, and I'm proud. I can see spinning up enough yarn to make a scarf. I can see myself having a lot of fun with this. Possibly way too much fun with this. Is it possible that one can be way too addicted to having fun with fiber? Is a 7-foot by 20-foot knitting/sewing/weaving room going to be too small for me?

We'll just have to wait and see.

What have I been doing?

While there is a lot of knitting happening around here, there aren't many photos. Why is that? Well, it seems that I have been watching too much television and not enough knitting. I have knit up, ripped out, knit up, and ripped out the progress on my Aran Lace sweater. At this point, I have finally completed the back and have the front as far as the neckline. Whew! Hopefully pictures will follow soon. Assuming I can keep my rows straight and not have to knit backwards again.

Over the weekend, we attended a family wedding in Michigan. Here is the happy couple – my "baby" brother Andy and his honey, Sabrina.

They've been dating for longer than many folks stay married, so we think there's a good chance this marriage will last.

Since I've been unable to get the blasted "Hello" from Picasa to send more than one picture at a time, you'll just have to wait to see the pic. of my three good looking brothers. Sorry 'bout that.

Another Monday

Yes, indeed. We have survived a weekend and once again it's Monday. And what do we have here?


We have a back and the beginnings of a front of the Aran Lace sweater. And LOTS of yarn.

I was worried that I would run short of yarn. And since I purchased this yarn on closeout and with no clear idea what pattern I would be using, there was none to be found at any of the Lewiscraft stores to which I have access. So I looked until I found a pattern which seemed to use just the right amount of yarn.

After I started knitting, I began to get nervous. The picture in the pattern indicates that this is a longish sweater, so I decided to make it 38 rows shorter than the pattern specified. I did the math ... selected my ending row ... and finished the back of the sweater. Complete with neckline shaping. Then I started the front.

Now ... I will only say that I was watching "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" when I made these decisions, and I was distracted. If I had been paying attention, I would have realized that I had plenty of yarn. Lotsa yarn, in fact. The back took less than half of the first ball of yarn. And there is very little neckline edging. If I can make the front and back out of one ball of yarn, surely to goodness I can complete the two sleeves out of the second, right?

I will be carefully unraveling the bind-off stitches and making the sweater as specified in the pattern.

Sheesh. Is my face red, or what?!