Sometimes

...you just need chocolate for lunch.



And if that chocolate is wrapped in pastry, deep-fried, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and served with ice cream, so much the better.

Look, Joan! Flowers! (It officially hit 80 here yesterday.)



Baby sweater in the wild, with permission from Baby's papa.



(Bad color on Baby shows better color on sweater. He doesn't look like a tanning-bed accident in real life.)



(More natural coloration. I am not Pioneer Woman with Mad Photoshop Skillz.)

Additional randomness, I would like to tell you: if you are at all a plus-sized woman (which for the store in question means 14 or above, I think, and we will not comment on that at this time) and you have a hard time finding pants that fit, do please go right now to your nearest Lane Bryant and get yourself some Right Fit pants. I have THREE pairs of them, and I actually leave the store smiling, with a spring in my step, instead of either fuming or near tears, which is the usual. They redid their sizings so they are based not only on measurements, but proportion. Therefore, a woman with wide hips and thinner legs isn't trying to squeeze herself into the same size as a woman with a narrower waist and more booty. Refreshing, truly. I lurve them. Go buy them. Go tell your favorite store that everyone should have these options - even skinny stick women. (I would suggest that men have the right to nicely-fitting jeans too, but until they start making as many easy-care, attractive clothes for women as men get, I'm keeping mum.)

I am going to the lake this weekend and only packed four knitting projects. Is that enough?

Sock Madness (Ravelry link) starts soon and I can't wait.

And to complete the random, my wrist hurts.

D is for...

DONE!

My first ever completed adult-sized sweater.









(Note - my hair is wet, not greasy, and yes, I should have been standing up straight but I wasn't.)

Four Seasons Eyelet Cardigan, from Classic Elite City Park
Less than 16 full skeins of Classic Elite Four Seasons, 70% cotton/30% wool, in Blueberry
Knitpicks Options needles, mostly 4mm (US6), though I think I blew it and used a 7 for the back)
Started in September, 07; finished February 08
Buttons from Grandma's Spinning Wheel.

I love this cardigan, and I can't wait until it gets hot so I can wear it (in the office, where the AC is in the control of a horde of menopausal, hot-flashing women). When the Bug saw it yesterday, he said, "Wow, look at THAT!" Kinda made my whole day.

So. Very. Close.

Seams are sewn, buttons are installed.



I LOVE these buttons. (Click to embiggen.) It's a good thing, too, since they are sterling silver and were stupidly expensive (for buttons), but I think they look wonderful on the sweater and I couldn't be happier.

Except for one little thing.



Surgery is scheduled for this afternoon.

And a few Bug and sky pictures, because I have been remiss in my duties to tell you that my kid is the cutest ever.



Honkshu.



Neon frosting on face courtesy of Daddy.



Watching Mama with her sweater? BOR.ING.



Late sunset on eclipse day last week.

A whole week.

It just slipped on by. Nothing special happened, but it was all nice. I knitted, I sewed, I snuggled on the Bug, I enjoyed the sunshine, I enjoyed the rain when it got cold (yeah, a drop of 30 degrees overnight is cold no matter how you slice it).



It doesn't look that impressive in my little cell phone photos, but the clouds were covering most of the mountains and that snow level was down to 3000 feet. (I think my part of Tucson is 2000-2500, so it was close.) Thursday our high temp was at 3am, and our low was at noon. Heh.

Saturday we packed up and went to the lake. The little lot was green and soft and damp, a far cry from the usual hard pack that is my yard at home. The Bug had a grand time kicking weeds and running free and poking sticks in the mud, and I had a beer and some camnesia. There was knitting, a little stitching, and a lot of kicking back and watching the campfire. I wish I was still there now.

Lovin' the weekend

Oh yeah, this was a great weekend, and I have lots of photos of warm for Joan. I think I will figure out one of those mosaic thingies so you all don't die of the boredom. Note the wearing of shorts in these photos. In February.



Click to embiggen and see the individual stuff.

Here's the most telling image of our warm weekend, though. Most of it was spent like this:



Some other few random photos, since I have them now.



Year of the Hat, FO #1 (I call this my glamour shot.)
(Coronet, from Knitty, in Cascade 220 Paints, unknown colorway, 143 yds, 5mm needle)



The camel that followed me home.



Also, a small knitterly PSA: A few weeks ago the Bug broke one of the cables in my options set. I emailed and asked what I should do, and customer service asked for the cable length that had broken and promptly sent me a replacement SET (TWO cables, the way they normally sell them, and four end caps) free of charge. Based on that, I'll still be recommending the Options sets to anyone who asks (or who gives me the opportunity to proselytize on the needles' virtues).

C is for.... converting Ceige!

Yes, it's true, I think we have a fledgling knitter on our hands.



She texted me to say that already her knitting made her happy and it calmed her down after her homework was frustrating her. There was a threat from her SO to put her on a yarn budget. When the baby ripped out her needle and broke the yarn, she just picked up the stitches again and started with the working yarn. I think she's finding her way into the fold. HOORAY!

My own knitting was less successful yesterday. While trying to sew in my cardigan sleeves, I realized I have to reknit the sleeve caps AGAIN. This meant learning how to "calculate" sleeve caps and write up some notes and do some math. I think if I can do these caps successfully I will be able to design my own sleeve caps in the future, which will make me happy. (I can do the math to adjust other patterns to my size, but the sleeve caps always throw me.) I even found a little free program that allows me to create my own graph paper based on my row and stitch gauge. How excellent is that? (If you are interested, it's here. Scroll to the bottom to download the program. FWIW, I did it last night and have seen no ill effects or malware on my system, but I haven't checked it extensively. Caveat emptor, and all that.)

Ice on the car

and greenery on the ground.



Can you see the eensy leaves? It was darn cold (for here) when I took that picture, but the tiny leaves are so happy. It's almost spring planting season 'round these parts.

And courtesy of KMKat:

Your English Skills:

Grammar: 100% Punctuation: 100% Vocabulary: 100% Spelling: 80%

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

Thay dint tell me wich wurd I spelt rong.

Yesterday I went for knit night and starting the seaming of my cardigan. Given the amount of chatter that went on, I only got the two shoulder seams done, and I was happy to get that much finished. Maybe tonight I will get a sleeve set in.

And also, HOORAY! Today is the first day in WEEKS that I have been able to breathe through at least one nostril on a consistent basis! This of course means that I am due for a big fat head cold in, oh, about a week. Sigh.

ETA: remember Ceige (scroll to the bottom), the recipient of your knitterly mojo? She took a knitting class last night and this morning I received the following text: "I keep wanting to pull my knitting out of my bag to practice but I need to finish my school work first. I think I'm in trouble." WOOHOO!

B is for Bleargh.

Don't you think that should be a town name in Ireland somewhere?
No, alas, it is just bleargh. We skipped the Disneyland trip in favor of recovering from double-pneumonia (DH), processing a lovely head cold (me) and being a giant poop (the Bug). There was as little movement as possible, though it IS hard to rest when one's son thinks one is a jungle gym (or worse, in DH's case, that his lap is a trampoline. I guess Bug will be an only child now.)
The rest of the weekend was spent alternately keeping the child out of the bag of rice - nothing says fun times like broadcasting rice throughout the house - and knitting. I finished the pieces of the eyelet cardigan and sortof blocked them, and I started on the first of the Year of the Hat hats. It is actually coming out quite nicely in the yarn I posted last week. I just have the decreases left to do and all will be well until I have to think about pattern and yarn for February's hat. I think I will start seaming my cardigan tonight - it got darn chilly out there, and rainy to boot, and my ONE cardigan (store bought! oh the shame) is falling apart. Too bad I don't have one more day of weekend - I could probably have it mostly done if I did.
Sadly, no pictures since I spent my days lying about, drinking tea and Airborne and using copious tissues, and listening to the DH cough. It's true, B is also for Bad Bad Blogger. Mebbe tomorrow there will be enough light for some pictures.

PS - I also signed up for Sock Madness 2! Jo, are you ready?

Lene The Mighty Trivia Warrior

All hail Lene. Lene is all that is good and pure and wonderful in this crazy world. Lene is wise, I am naive. Lene is brilliant, I am stupid. Lene is fast, I am slow. Lene is the grand winner of last month's trivia contest, I am only #8.
All hail Lene.
Your socks are in progress.
And you are going DOWN this month.