To borrow a word - woot!

Hannah's sweater is finished and blocking and should be packed up and on its way to Philadelphia tomorrow. The specs: the yarn is Cleckheaton Country 8 Ply, color 1934, knit on 2 pair of 4mm Addi Turbo circs. Awesome pattern here. This yarn was nice to knit with, and it's 100% washable wool, but when I gave it a bath in Eucalan, it stretched out more than I thought it would. Anyway, it's nice and soft and I think it will be great for a baby.

Next, I'll be working on finishing the husband's socks (no small job for his freakishly large feet) and starting that Woolspun turtleneck for myself.

We had a great Thanksgiving with both sets of parents, with much to be thankful for. We had dinner at our house, though everyone pitched in with the cooking. Here's a shot of the table, ready and waiting, with the fancy napkins that I learned how to fold here:



Hope everyone had as great a Thanksgiving as we did. Now on to Christmas decorating, which will actually be fun this year since we're fairly settled in the house now. Here are the ornaments that I bought at the Handmade Arcade:



I am looking forward to putting them on our tree. They are made of vintage fabric and pipe cleaners and are so pretty.

New knitting content to come soon!

Getting there...

The baby sweater's coming along and I am hoping that I can get this done, blocked and mailed out to the new wee one by the day after Thanksgiving. That's a tall order for me, and every time I set a date for when I will finish something, I fail miserably, so we'll see how it goes. I just want the baby to be able to have it while she still fits in it.

Meetup was fun this week- met and knitted with some ladies I've met before and some I haven't, including Betsy and Lynn. Thanks to everyone who attended- I had a great time.

Oh, and the Handmade Arcade was also very fun, and much bigger (i.e., more vendors) than I thought it would be. I got a cute wooden toy for my nephew, some notecards with London maps on them for myself, and some gorgeous Christmas ornaments for our tree from a woman whose business was called Flake. I have her business card and hope that I can buy more from her. They are made out of vintage fabric and pipe cleaners and I took photos of them, then forgot to download them. Oops. Anyway, it was a good time and I am looking forward to going back next year.

TGIF

Truly, it has been a frustrating week at work, so I am so, so ready for the weekend. This weekend, Lori and I are going with a couple of other friends to the Handmade Arcade- will anyone else be there? I checked the vendor list and saw that there is at least one fellow knit blogger (who sadly has not updated with her amazing knits in a long time) from the area who will be there.

I'm still working on the baby cardigan, but I won't bore you with a photo since it doesn't look all that much different from the last photo. I am looking forward to finishing it and moving on to the sweater, and also possibly finishing Mark's socks finally. I think he is looking forward to that also (he's mentioned it several times in the past few days).

The latest.

I know, I know. I've knit this pattern so many times that anyone out there is probably yawning just looking at this. But seriously. I LOVE this pattern. So easy! So genius! So fast! And so cute, but what wouldn't be, knit in pink?

So. If anyone out there knows me, you know I have a, um, completion problem. I start lots of things, but then I get bored and never finish them. I still have yet to finish my first pair of socks. I have not finished the fiery bolero (though my interest in it has definitely waned now that I am thinking of all wool, all the time). There are countless others in the knitting bag that have not seen the light of day in some time. Like the woolspun turtleneck. Some of you out there may know this turtleneck. It was going to be my very first sweater that I ever knitted, and it was started about two years ago, right after I learned how to knit. The pattern is a freebie from Lion Brand, and it is knit with Lion Brand Woolspun. Now. I am embarassed to say, that way back when they discontinued this yarn, I went on a bit of a...shall we say, frenzy, buying up all that I could find. I have over 40 balls of assorted colors. Alas, all that yarn, and the turtleneck has not yet come into being. It is currently sitting, the front and back finished and one sleeve begun, in pieces in my knitting basket. Part of the problem is that I realized, now that I am slightly more experienced than a beginner, that the front and back pieces are way too long. Now, I don't have enough experience to shorten them by grafting, so as the blogosphere is my witness, I vow to rip and re-make the woolspun turtleneck as my next project. I really still love that yarn, and I'm going to use it, darn it!

Other than that, we are still trying to get back into the swing of things at home. Trick-or-treating was loads of fun on Monday, even though we only got around 30 kids. My favorite costume was a preteen boy who was wearing a plain box, duct-taped to himself. When we asked him what his costume was, he said "I'm a box." Okay then. I wish that we were still in England. We loved York the best of anywhere we went, and I can't wait until we have the opportunity to go back there, and also to explore more of the northern part of the country and Scotland. I'll leave you with some more honeymoon shots:


unprocessed sweaters grazing by the stone circle in Avebury


two of the Noro hats travel to London to see the Tower Bridge

Have a great weekend everybody!

That's it...

Due to the unusual amount of spam comments left on the blog, you will now have to go through the word verification to leave one. I really hate having to do that myself, but apparently it is necessary, as spammers have no soul and are apparently the most inconsiderate people on earth. Thanks a lot.

There's been a little knitting going on and should have some photos to prove it soon. Lori and I are getting together to knit tonight so hopefully progress will be made on the newest baby sweater (a PINK one!!).