Erica’s Blog

I had a nice, relaxing day at home with Thing Two.  As mentioned below, I worked on Olympia.  Thing Two gave me a foot massage (with lotion!).  Around 2:00, I left to go to Starbucks by myself for about an hour and a half.  It was great!

4:00ish, Poppa, Nana & Auntie arrived.  Nana really liked her felted scrap-yarn coasters and the plants for her greenhouse window.  They will help perk up the kitchen when they’re showing it, starting in a few weeks.  They brought me a card and some flowers, very unexpected, but nice.  We had a terrific dinner at Buon Gusto.  We all shared a plate of antipasti misto (misti?) and some prosciutto e melone.  Two bottles of a great chianti between the five adults.  Veal saltimbocca for me, fettucine alfredo for Thing One (she asked them to put some chicken on it, too!), spaghetti alla carbonara for Thing Two.  Desserts for everyone, which ended up getting shared around between the four of us b/c Thing Two didn’t like her creme caramel.  Oh, and marsala before the dessert.  We all ate too much, but it was SO worth it!

Well, there was a change of plans at church yesterday, and they didn’t have kids get up and talk about why their moms are special after all.  Hubby had helped Thing One write down what she was going to say, though, so she brought it home and read it to me.  Go grab a tissue, and I’ll tell you what she said (I’m keeping this paper, for sure!).

1.  
   1. When my brother was born, he was very sick, and he ended up dying.  My mom helps other moms and sick babies by making special hats that fit instead of being too big.
   2. She makes dinners that are yummy, even though sometimes she forgets to give me raw carrots instead of cooked ones.
   3. She uses the Bible to teach me about why some things I do are wrong.  She also uses the Bible to show me why some things I do make God happy.

 Yupp, I finished the knitting on a resurrected UFO last night. Woot!

  Remember Olympia, my project from last year’s Knitting Olympics?  Well, b/c I didn’t like how she was turning out and b/c since I started her, I learned that I was doing my ssk’s wrong, etc., I decided that I should just finish her off and turn her into the front of a pillow.  So, part of my relaxed Mother’s Day was spent finishing the knitting on her.  I thought all I had left to do was the ending border section, but when I pulled her out, I saw on the pattern that I still had a few rows left to finish the last repeat of the lace patterns.  I spent time at home working on her, then an hour and a half at Starbucks Sunday afternoon all by my happy lonesome, then a little while after the Things went to bed.

Next step is to give her a bath and block her.  Then, I’ll measure her so I can figure out how much fabric I’ll need to make a pillow, then go buy said fabric and pillow stuffing.  Then, I get to sew the pillow and figure out the best way to sew her to the front of it.  Lastly, I get to decide if I’m keeping her for myself or gifting her to some friend or relative who won’t mind the mistakes here and there, etc.  Hey, Bobcat, is your bedroom still this color?  

I’m thinking of an ivory-colored moire fabric for the pillow, or maybe even just some plain muslin.  What do you think?  Opinions most welcome.

BTW, after finishing her, I realized that I never could have finished her as a stole w/the amount of yarn I had.  I only had a total of 800 yards, and nearly 400 yards (one hank) went into the small piece I have.  It never would have been enough for a stole.  I learned a lot from making her, though.  Oh, and remind me never to choose pique lace again; I really don’t enjoy knitting that.