Erica’s Blog

OK, knitting gals out there, I need your advice.  I’m seriously leaning toward knitting a lace stole as my Knitting Olympics project.  I’m not finding a pattern that speaks to me, so I’m thinking of…designing my own!  I have my trusty Treasury of Knitting Patterns, and here’s what I’m thinking.  PLEASE, please, let me know if you think this would work!

Rectangular stole with these patterns working from outside toward the middle (each pattern is only one repeat):

• 3-stitch garter stitch border
• Ploughed acre (p. 192)
• 4 stitches st. st.
• Pique lace (p. 201, picture on p. 200)
• 4 stitches st. st.
• Trellis shell (p. 210)
• 4 stitches st. st.
• Lace diamond chain (p. 222) = center

What do you think?  I calculate this as coming out to 118 stitches.  I’d be using KnitPicks Shadow in the color Vineyard.  What size needles should I use?  Will this come out wide enough for a stole or too wide?  If it’s too narrow, I’ll probably add another repeat of the pique lace on each side or a second repeat of the lace diamond chain in the middle.  Would all these patterns look good together?  It would certainly be a challenge for me, that’s for sure!

Please, please, I need input on this!

 OK, I’m hyperventilating with excitement here.  Hubby’s attitude about this trip is amazing me.  It’s basically “I don’t care how much it costs.  I don’t mind going into debt for it.  Who knows if we’ll all be dead in a year.  We need to make the most of this while we can!”

So, here’s how “our” part of the trip, which I have dubbed Hubby & Erica’s Excellent Adventure is looking like it’s going to go:

• Fly to London & spend a few days there
• Hop over to “The Continent”
• Eurail through France, through Switzerland, down into Italy (stopping in Paris, Milan, Rome, Naples)
• Hop over to Sicily
• Either back to London for a couple of days, then back to FL or straight back to FL

Like I said, I’m hyperventilating over this!

  Here’s my yarrrn that I bought on Saturday at Nine Rubies.  On the left is the Katia Ingenua, on the right the Crystal Palace Kid Merino.  Whaddaya think?  Any ideas on what they should become? 

Cast on yesterday for the second ladder yarn garter stitch scarf Mrs. R wants for her nieces.  Figured I’d get it done before I forgot.  No metal needles this time, so it should be so slippery!

Jeannette & I checked out the Posh Pooches book last night and the yarn she gave me, we’ve decided I should make the zippered hoodie for Noodles.  The yarn is a bit thinner than what’s specified in the pattern, but that should be OK.  Noodles is smaller than the smallest pattern size, so if I use the smaller size yarn with its natural gauge, it should come out just right.

My friend Arlene joined us at Starbucks last night for knit night.  She bought some bamboo needles in size 7, and I brought her some yarn to practice on.  She’s starting from scratch, learning how to cast on, do the knit stitch, etc.  I think she got the hang of it.  We’ll see.

STILL trying to figure out what to do for the Knitting Olympics.  Please, help me figure it out!!!!

 Playing dress-up they got the dog in on the act.  Thing Two announced that she was “a leopard-winter-dog-Santa”.  Uh, OK.  Can’t figure out what Thing One is supposed to be, other than a hoochy mama (think those dress-up clothes are getting a little small for her, eh?).

 Look closely at this outfit.  This is NOT a “dress-up” outfit.  At least, she didn’t mean it to be.  Boots.  Flowered Capri pants.  Red long-sleeved turtleneck underneath a purple- and white-striped t-shirt.  Green, blue & white jacket.  Ah, to be almost five again…

 Well, here’s how I’m leaning at this moment.  Let me know what you think of these different options:

Well, I went to the viewing yesterday.  The original plan was to get a sitter and for hubby to go with me, but with Thing One sick, plans had to change. 

It was really emotional.  I used to think open caskets were gross, etc. b/c I didn’t grow up with that, but now I’m thinking that a viewing does serve a purpose, especially in a situation like this.  B/c Sid was missing for several days before his body was found, if there was no viewing, it would be easy for the kids to fantasize that he wasn’t really dead, a mistake had been made, and that he’d come walking through the door one day.  With the viewing, there’s no denying that he really is gone, so there’s some finality to it. 

I was OK when I walked in, but I started crying when I got up to the front and saw how they had him laid out.  B/c Sid had been a Marine, he was in his full dress uniform with a flag draped on the casket.  They had a little table with some special mementoes, including a couple of golf balls (don’t remember the other stuff, but the golf balls made me smile).  They had put one of his golf cllubs in the casket with him, too. 

There were tons of flowers.  I had gotten the PTA to approve buying flowers, which I was in charge of ordering.  My favorite flower shop did a great job.  We got a red, white & blue arrangement in a basket with a ribbon.  I was afraid it would be the smallest batch of flowers there, but I should have known it would be big & beautiful, based on my experience with them and Paul’s “angel day” flowers.

There were tons of people there.  When I left right before the rosary was supposed to start, there was a line out the door of people signing the guest book and waiting to come in.  I don’t know where everyone was going to sit.  It was encouraging to see that the principal from the school came, as did every teacher each of the kids had ever had there. 

All the immediate and extended family had on these cool dog-tag necklaces with a holographic picture of Sid on it and “Sid” below the picture.  It was a really special remembrance. 

The funeral mass was at 10:00 this morning, but with Thing One sick, that wasn’t going to happen for us.  I let Angie and Alexis know we why we wouldn’t be there.

So, here’s to Sid once again.  And here’s to Angie, Jesus, and Alexis.  It will be a long, painful road to healing, but I think they’ll travel it well, and I know they won’t travel it alone b/c they have so much loving support.

I have seventeen of the twenty specified repeats done on the birthday project for Hobbes for this weekend.  My yarn’s not quite as bulky as the one in the pattern, though, so I’m going to have to do a few more repeats.  At this rate, however, it won’t take long.  [EDITED LATER:  It didn't take long.  I finished weaving in the ends around 8:45 p.m.  22 repeats insted of the specified 20 to make up for my gauge being a bit different b/c I used different yarn.  Pictures will come on Saturday; I'll make her model it.]

Still trying to figure out what to make for the Knitting Olympics.  Help me out, gals!  The consensus seems to be that I should make something for myself.  Oh, gee - twist my arm!  ;->

So, here are some options for the yarn to be used, which will determine the project:

• Kathmandu Hand-Picked (seven hanks, around 630 yards)
• KnitPicks Shadow, color = Vineyard (two hanks, 880 yards)
• Crystal Palace Kid Merino, black & natural (one ball each, total 480 yards)

I might add my Katia Ingenua to that list, but I’m wondering what I can get out of only 153 yards of it.  I could do an “airy scarf” from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, but I don’t know that I could get much more out of it.  That certainly wouldn’t qualify it for the Knitting Olympics (it’s in the “two- to four-hour projects” category, though that doesn’t include washing & blocking).  [EDITED LATER:  Perhaps I'll join What's Your Skein for using up my Katia.  Hmmmmm.  Wonder how many knitalongs I can join this year???]

Let me know your thoughts….

 Hubby was eligible for his sabbatical last year, but postponed it, knowing that we really didn’t want to be gone during the summer that would hold Paul’s first birthday and the first anniversary of his “angel day”. 

So, now we’re planning his time off.  He gets six weeks of sabbatical, plus his vacation time, plus the holidays that will fall while he’s off, so all total he’s getting about 10 weeks off work.  With full pay.  Wahoo!  We’re planning to be gone for about five weeks of that time.

Here’s what we have planned so far:

July 3 - 7:  Dittneylan’ with the Things and our favorite college student.  Three days in the park, time enjoying Captain Hook’s pirate ship in the hotel pool, etc.  (Hey, Wendy!  Wanna bring HWWV and Girlfriend and meet us down there one day?)

Next:  Go visit Grandma Lorna in Texas.

Next:  Go visit Grandma Ruthie & Grandpa Gil in Florida.

Next:  LEAVE the Things in Florida and go off on our own adventure for, I believe, two weeks.  (That’s what hubby’s say, but I’m not sure if he’s confirmed that with Grandma or not.)

Next:  Return to Florida briefly, then back home to prepare for Thing Two to start kindergarten!

So, here’s the thing:  WHERE should we go for “our” part of the trip?  Hubby has said that this is a “no holds barred” trip, that we can go ANYWHERE in the world we want to go.  ANYWHERE.  It’s fairly easy to choose when you only have two or three choices, but when your choices are the whole world, it’s rather more difficult.  I’m having a horrible time deciding.  HELP!  Where would YOU go? 

I’ve only been able to narrow it down a bit.  Here are places I know I DON’T want to go/things I’m/we’re NOT interested in doing:

• not interested in a cruise
• neither one of us interested in going to Mexico
• not interested in going to Africa
• not interested in going to the Middle East (just a wee bit too volatile over there…)
• not interested in a domestic trip (We had considered going up the East Coast and seeing everyone we know out that way, but that’s not a real once-in-a-lifetime thing.)
• not interested in Hawaii (Hubby’s been there before, anyway.)

We’re thinking about the UK to see the friends hubby made on his ill-fated trip there in April, 2004.  We’re also thinking about the Mediterranean, with a stop in Sicily to meet Zib live and in person (hubby’s idea!).  We’re toying with the idea of going to S’pore to see Teck and Patrice, though I’ve been there before.  We’re thinking about France — sitting in cafes, imagining Hemingway, Picasso & Gertrude Stein (OK, I’d have to make hubby read that stuff first.)

Please!  Give us your input!

  Forget what I said about the quality of the dresser being better than the ones from Ikea.  The holes for the [dowels?  screws?  not sure] on the drawers weren’t drilled deeply enough, so when hubby put it together, there were a couple of glitches.  Bummer.  Oh, well.  As you can see, Thing Two likes it anyway.

  Thing One wanted to tuck in Thing Two. 

  They both had a bit of trouble falling asleep, but they enjoyed having their own rooms.

Lu decided to move her Holly Hat pattern to the “free patterns” area of her blog instead of charging for it.  Apparently, she had given away so many free copies to friends that she thought it was silly to charge for it.

In case it was too buried in my post yesterday, there’s a new yarn store on the Peninsula.  Nine Rubies is terrific!  If you’re in the area, please go support these ladies.  It’s really terrific.  Oh, and the first yarrrn I bought there was Katia Ingenua Print in colorway #5651 (pinks & grey).  There’s only 153 yards of it, though.  I’m not sure what I could get out of it.  What do you think?  I also got two balls of Crystal Palace Kid Merino, one black, one natural.  They’re tiny little balls, but each have 240 yards on them, plenty to make something.

Cast on last night for a bday present for Hobbes.  No pictures till I’ve given it to her on Saturday when she, Jules, and their respective families come over for brunch to celebrate.

Update on Thing Two:  Her foot is fine.  It’s scraped up a bit, but OK.  I got the full story later.  Apparently, her boot got caught in the escalator at J.C. Penney.  Someone who worked there tried to reverse the escalator so that she could get her foot out of the boot.  Unfortunately, he didn’t reverse it but made it go forward, which hurt her more.  It could have been really, really bad, but it wasn’t.  Her boot is thrashed, but she just got a couple of Tasmanian Devil bandages at the hospital.  (Hubby was 97% sure she was OK, but she wanted to go, so they did.)  The J.C. Penney people said they’d replace her boots (which had just been bought yesterday morning!) if we gave them the receipt.  Hubby says he’d rather just have them give her boots from J.C. Penney, especially since I’d gotten her the only pair in her size in those boots at Target.  We’ll see what happens.  So much for the really cute caterpillar boots!  I’m SO glad it wasn’t worse. She could have had broken bones and everything.