Bryan’s dad is doing quite well. His ticker is moving right along with the new valve in place. He’s been up walking around the last two days. He looks quite healthy right now, especially for someone who had major heart surgery this past Monday. Thank you to all of your for your kind thoughts and prayers.

I’m a bit behind on my blogging, we’ve been seeing Bryan’s dad everyday after work lately.

Saturday, Bryan and I went to his sister’s house to visit his sister, our niece Paige and nephew Michael.

I gave the kids their bunnies and they liked them. Paige was so cute with her bunny. She was holding on to it when I first gave it to her.

This is a photo that I took without the flash and at first thought it would be a mess-up photo, but I really like the way it came out.

Michael was very proud of his bunny. (He’s also very proud of his adult teeth coming in. The story around the house is that Michael’s lost teeth are going to Paige, who is teething.)

Saturday evening, I finished my Leaf Cravat scarf (from Interweave Knits Winter 2002). I wore it for the first time today and got so many compliments on it.

I managed to use nearly one ball of yarn. Unfortunately, with about 1/2 an inch to go, I had to use the second ball of yarn that I had bought as a just in case. So I ended up using probably two yards of the second ball of yarn. Which means I have almost an entire ball of the alpaca. So I called up my sister and asked her if she would like the same scarf out of the same yarn. She said she loved the scarf and would like to have one. I told her it would probably be next fall before I finished it and she was fine with that.

I’m working to finish the Bonkers sock. As soon as I finish it, I have permission to start “A Good Bias” lace shrug for my sister. I am about 25 rows from the end of the second sock. Woowoo! Another pair of socks done. I only have 9 more pairs to go before I’ve completely used up my sock yarn stash.

On Monday while waiting for Bryan’s dad’s surgery to finish, I knit several rows on the Bonkers sock, but I knit a lot more on Hobo. I don’t remember the last time I was able to knit nearly 2 inches on Hobo in less than two hours. It’s on size 3 needles and normally takes an hour or so to knit at least 3/4 of an inch. I was afraid that all of my stitches would be really tight and uneven but they look like all of the other stitches. I don’t remember the last time I was able to knit so fast.

I joined the “A Good Bias” KAL. My second KAL in a month. I’ll be using the Rowan DK Soft that I have had in my stash for more than three years. M loves the color and loves the yarn, so it’s a perfect match, especially since I haven’t been able to figure out what sweater to make with it. I have two different dyelots since I bought it on clearance, so I’ll have to be sure to knit every other row with a different dyelot’s ball so that it’s not obvious that there are two different dyelots.

I just saw the Flash Your Stash thing today, but of course I rushed home took photos of my stash and am posting them as I write this.

You can view my stash on my yarn stash page. I didn’t think I had THAT much yarn until I started taking photos of it. When I deal with it in small batches I don’t feel like I have that much. I have an idea of what yarn I know I will never use and will probably end up selling before we move to our new place. The Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride stash is a bit large - oh, all of those felted bags that I was going to make for friends and family. Unfortunately, they were never made. I’m sure the yarn will get used some time in the future. Lamb’s Pride is such a great basic yarn to have around though. And without a stash, I wouldn’t be able to make “A Good Bias” lace shrug for M.

This weekend, I plan on finishing the Bonkers sock and start “A Good Bias” lace shrug for M.

I saw this opinion piece in the NY Times today.

Is it just me or does it drive everyone else nuts when people mention knitting and crochet in the same sentence as though it’s the same thing. I can see having an article on knitting - I love how people seem surprised that there are young people knitting and it’s such a NEW thing, but get your terminology straight.

Bryan’s dad had open heart surgery yesterday. It’s going to be a busy week. Yesterday during the surgery I am glad that I had my knitting, it helped to calm me while we were waiting in the surgical waiting room.

In bunny news, both Paige and Michael loved their bunnies. I have photos that I will post later in the week.

I must get ready for work. Have a good day.

Well, it looks like another sweater is going to kiss a frog soon. Glint has looked like this for two years.

Not a stitch has been worked in those two years on this sweater. I think it’s a matter of tastes changing and like Moth Heaven mentioned the other day, for some strange reason I thought the sweater would look just as cute on me as it did on the model. What was I thinking? It is a cute sweater but I don’t think the wide horizontal stripes are going to flatter my figure in any way. So now I’m going to do narrow horizontal stripes, so it will look more like a combination of these two sweaters.

I’ll still use the gold Lurex Shimmer for the edging around the bottom of the sweater for the ruffles and then maybe around the neck. I don’t think I’ll use the Lurex along the button band. Yeah, I have a new sweater to look forward to.

With Glint kissing a frog, that makes two sweaters that have been kissed by frogs in the last two months. Petula kissed a frog in January. Now I have Linen Drape yarn and Kid Silk Haze to add to the stash to be used on future projects.

I’m so proud of myself after three attempts, I finally have a short-row heel without holes. Persistence really works, especially when it’s something that seems to be so elusive. So I am finally able to work on the cuff. I’ll work on it tomorrow in the car on the way to Bryan’s sister’s house and back. I may soon have another new pair of socks. Who knew that I could finish two pairs of socks that I’ve had sitting for almost three years within a few months. Funny how I want to start another pair of socks as soon as I finish these.

The Leaf Cravat scarf is coming along fabulously. This afternoon, I worked several inches of the scarf. I now only have two more lace pattern repeats before I do the second leaf. I hope to finish it this weekend. It would be such an accomplishment to finish the Leaf Cravat scarf and the socks this weekend. Then I would be able to start on the Bias Lace Shrug for my sister and concentrate on my spinning again. Polly, the spindle, is getting restless.

In bunny news, yet another bunny has joined the family. I started a bunny yesterday for my nephew Michael and finished it this afternoon.

Tomorrow Bunny and her new friend will travel with Bryan and I to their new home in western Illinois. We are going to see our niece Paige, our nephew Michael, Bryan’s sister and her husband.

I finished Bunny last night. I knitted her second leg and attached her head to her body. She now feels like a true girl bunny. Her head is fully attached and she has been dreaming of playing in lush, green grass all day. It’s still a bit chilly in western Illinois, her new home, so I think she’ll probably need a little pink scarf to keep her warm until Spring truly arrives. I can’t wait to give her to my niece.

I figured since I’m giving Bunny to Paige and Paige’s cousin, Michael, is staying with Paige’s family that Michael needs a bunny too. I started the HeartStrings bunny today at lunch. I finished knitting the square and the ears this evening and will do all of the sewing tomorrow night.

Also tonight, I finally figured out the short-row heels for the Bonkers sock. I gave up on trying to close the gaps using the yarn over method of doing short rows. I tried twice last night using the article on short-rows that was in the Winter 2004 edition of Interweave Knits. Then I decided forget the yarn over method, I’ll try the wrapped stitches method. Lo and behold, there are no holes in my short rows! After I worked all of the wrapped stitches I had no clue how to pick up the wraps. So after a lovely Yahoo search, I found the article on knitty.com. Wendy’s article and pattern helped me out immensely. I have realized after nearly finishing all of the short-rows and picking up the wraps and wrapped stitches that I actually twisted the stitches for the purl stitches, they look fine, but probably not the best idea as the stitches stick out a bit on the side.

In other knitting news, I’m coming along nicely with the Leaf Cravat scarf from the Winter 2002 Interweave Knits. I think I’m almost half way through the middle part of the scarf.

I seem to be one of the lucky ones. I picked up the Yarn Harlot’s new book, At Knits End. It’s great. I showed it to my class tonight and they all wanted to see it. It’s definitely true Yarn Harlot humor. I had to read a few things to Bryan. I love the passage on the SABLE (Stash Acquistion Beyond Life Expectancy), not that any of us will admit that we ever have that much of a stash. I feel pretty fine with the size of my stash, but I’m sure it will grow ever so slightly as the years pass.

I’ve been so obsessed with bunnies and the heel on the Bonkers sock this week that I thought about spinning once this week. I got out my roving and put my spindle on the coffee table but I didn’t do any spinning. Since next week is spring break for my Thursday knitting class, I’ll make a point to do some spinning that night. I have a lot of plied yarn that needs a bath, so maybe I’ll do that this weekend.

I’ll post photos of Paige and Bunny, and Michael and his bunny after we see them on Saturday.

I should hop on off to bed. Have a good weekend.

I forgot to publish this last night, I’ve dated it March 23 since that’s the day it was originally written.

I had one of those days where I wanted to be home knitting. I couldn’t concentrate and felt very tired all day. At lunch, I was able to knit 2 lace pattern repeats on the Lace Cravat scarf. It’s coming along very nicely, considering that I never work on it while I’m at home. It’s a project that I always have in my purse and work on at lunch or in the car. I have 18 inches of the main scarf done, I need a total of about 36 inches then I’ll do another leaf at the end.

I was on someone’s website today and there was a stop stealing bandwidth button. I realized what it meant and I sincerely have to apologize to those of you that I had images linked to from your site and I didn’t even realize what I was doing. I have since moved those two images to my own server.

In Bunny news, she now possesses two arms and one leg. Her second leg will be knit tonight and sewn on. I hope by tomorrow her head will be fully attached so that she can dream about her days of hopping around in the rural part of western Illinois with my niece Paige. I can’t wait to see Paige’s reaction to Bunny on Saturday. I will have photos to post on Sunday after our trip. I haven’t seen Paige since Christmas time. I know she’s grown a lot, we can see that from the photos that Bryan’s sister send to us. We also get to see our nephew, Michael. I haven’t seen him with the scarf that I made him yet. I know he was proud of it as he told it for show & tell. Oh, to be a first grader.

Yesterday, I knit a lot on the Bonkers sock. At lunch, I finished the toe increases and started on the foot. I didn’t realize how quickly the foot was going until I counted the rows this morning. I’m ready to start the heel short rows. I have a small foot, which is really working to my advance in this case. I’ve given myself permission after I finish the Bonkers sock and the Leaf Cravat scarf, I’m going to start the Bias Lace Shrug for my sister from the Spring 2005 Interweave Knits. I don’t know how quickly it will go but it will be a new project.

I’m starting to feel a bit bogged down with the projects I have going right now. The Crazy Green sweater is coming along fine (I will post new photos soon), but I thought it would go quicker. (Here I go again, wanting instant gratification from a sweater knit on size 3 needles. I’ve only been working on it for a little over a month.) I surprised myself the other day when I measured and realized that I’m about an inch and a half from shaping for the armholes. It may be ten rows per inch and seem to be going slowly but when I stop measuring every time I work on it, it seems to grow without my thinking too much about it.I think the front will go quicker because now I have a “pattern” down when it comes to changing the yarns. The darks seem to go in waves, there will be a wave of dark greens and then it will all lighten up for a bit and then move into the dark greens again. It’s really cool how the colors are working out, especially when I’m using eight different yarns to create this sweater. I was originally making the sweater from a Regia Inspiration pattern where I recalculated all of the numbers to match my gauge and decided that it would be best to consult the Sweater Wizard before moving on to the armholes. The Sweater Wizard actually helped me confirm that my recalculations in some places were correct and in some others were not, so I’m now working the sweater from the Sweater Wizard pattern. One great thing about the Sweater Wizard is that it helped me redesign the sleeves. I have short arms and sometimes my sleeve increases are less then lovely because I end up trying to fit everything in to a shorter distance.

One thought on my wanting instant gratification from my projects. I have some projects that I’ve literally been working on since before I met Bryan and I would eventually like to finish, but they are all on small needles or in the case of the Barbara shawl it’s an intricate lace pattern.

I feel so famous right now. Jessica Hutchison, who designed the Bunny pattern, emailed me today. I just had to share that with you. Bunny is starting to feel a bit more complete. She has an arm attached and needs to have her second arm attached. I will knit and attach her legs probably tomorrow night. I’ll post a new photo of her after her arm has been attached. Unfortunately, her head won’t be attached to her body until all of her limbs are attached.

This afternoon after lunch, I actually worked on something else for a while. I finished the decreases for the Bonkers sock and now I’m knitting on the foot!

Must run, I’m off to teach tonight.