Erica's Blog

Well, today's Hubby's last day of work till September 11th (Euw, the date just registered!).  We leave on Monday, early.  So, I'll give you one guess what happened today.....

So, I'm trying to crank out another raglan baby sweater before we leave -- this time for my college pal Trish's baby-to-be, Shawna.  Whaddayathink?  Will I get it finished?  (Color's a tad off, but it's a crummy, grey day today.)  These bright colors should look great on her b/c she'll be very dark-skinned.

Eh, projectile, project - whatever!

Anyhow, I like how they all turned out.  I would have preferred to have less stitch defininition, but I ran the boxes through a 14-minute cycle, a 12-minute cycle, and another 12-minute cycle, and this is as felted as they got.

Letterman has "Will it Float?"  The felted bag gals have "Will it Felt?"  Me, I've got "Will it Fit?"

Whaddaya think?  Will the four of us be able to get everything we need for the big trip in these bags?  (One caveat:  The Things' carry-on bags aren't pictured here.  That's where their toys, books, crayons, etc., will go.)

Erica's Blog has been brought to you today by the letter L and the number 27.

I started packing this morning, and now I'm freaking out.  I don't know HOW we're going to fit even the pared-down list of stuff into the bags we have.  Ugh.  And did I say I was freaking out?

Panic is exacerbated (gotta use a word like that once in a while to remember you're a college gradiate) by the fact that there some WIPs that must achieve FO status before we leave.  Did I mention we were leaving the house at 6:30 next Monday morning?  And did I mention I was freaking out?  Actually, I have the secret project mostly done.  My laundry room has that oh-so-familiar perfume of wet Peruvian highland wool....

F.O.:   Finished a Perky Poppy Pin for a trade for my pal Brandi.  She made two sets of stitch markers for me, and I made the felted pin for her.  I didn't get a picture of it, but it was in KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in coal and red.  I did three of the petals per the pattern, and three of them a bit smaller.  The petals were black with duplicate stitch spots of red here & there.  The bobble in the middle was red.  The larger petals were on the bottom layer, the smaller ones on top.  After a 14-minute cycle, it wasn't felted enough, so I put it through on a 10-minute cycle, and it was just right with no stitch definition at all.  The red spots really were spots.  It came out really cute.

NEXT UP:   Baby sweater for my pal Trish.  I've known her since college (Go, Bears!), and she's having her first baby - a daughter - soon.  I'm really happy for her, and it's a terrific excuse to try out some mods to the roll-neck raglan pattern.  Oh, and I'm working on something else too.  I could tell you what it is, but then I'd have to kill you.  Let's just say it involves some Cascade 220, some Wool of the Andes, some big needles, and two women named Ann and Kay.  I'll let you figure it out.

SATURDAY:  Hubby fixed the bathtub drain while I was at WW and hanging out afterwards for an hour with Merry and Sandy.  I didn't realized he'd fixed it, so I told Nana we'd be up earlier than planned so Hubby & I could take showers.  The drain problem had reached critical mass on Friday, the day I happened not to get around to a shower during the day.  Of course.  So, de-skankification (that's a technical term, folks) shower at Poppa & Nana's.  Then, we left the Things & the Beast there while we went to Uncle Jimmy's birthday party.  As usual, Velia threw down, and we ate like pigs.  It seems Hubby, Rick & Big Mike got their "hair genes" from Grandma Ruthie's side of the family.  Hubby was looking around and realized that Uncle Jimmy at 52 has far less grey hair than Rick at 40.  Oh, well.  Then, back to Poppa & Nana's for a belated Father's Day celebration.  Poppa got a kick out of his dragon-head cane from Spencer's (hat-tip to 'Nette).  Jenna got stung by a yellow jacket.  Then, because this Friday the 30th is Nana's last day of work, we surprised her with a funny retirement card, a $50 certificate to Nine Rubies, and one of the sets of stitch markers from Brandi.  Hubby had a bad allergy attack, and I was pooped, so we hit the guest beds pretty early (Yes, we have to sleep in separate beds there b/c the guest room has two twin beds, very Desi & Lucy).

Hysterectomy date has been set and confirmed:  Tuesday, August 29th at Mills Hospital in San Mateo.  (For you local knitters, that's just around the corner from Nine Rubies.  Feel free to bring me yarn gifties.  Just kidding.  Well, maybe.)

Soooo, who wants to knit me a womb?  Hey, maybe you could do it two or three times the size specified, then felt it! 

[Updated to add:  I ended up low-balling it and charging them $75.  I broke it down on the receipt by actual yarn cost and labor.  Either of the other ways came out to more than I felt good about charging them.  If they want to pay me more, fine, and they can probably afford it being that they're a two-income family, and he's a manager at Hubby's company, but I felt weird charging more.  Then again, Saloni charged someone $80 make a pair of socks....]

 OK, here be the hats for Sanjesh's baby.  Still nailing down how much I'm going to charge for them.  Two schools of thought I've heard are:

1. Double the price of the yarn
2. The price of the yarn + 10c or 20c per yard used