Spring Flowers & Knitty Stuff

It was overcast but warm and humid yesterday, and last night it rained and blew like crazy. I went out this morning (in the overcast, chilly and windy front yard) to make sure the daffodils and tulips survived. They did--and they don't look too much the worse for the experience. Whew.

Mom and I spent most of the day yesterday gathering supplies and cutting out the tartan cummerbunds for both "Father-of-the"s, and FOG's (aka DH) tartan bowtie (the FOB will wear a long, non-tartan tie) for David & Abby's wedding 3 weeks from today!! Yikes. It took a whole lot more time than either of us thought it would, mostly because cummerbund hooking-together parts were nearly impossible to find. We got things that will be adequate but I will continue the search once the stores open today. *Mom found the cummerbund buckles at some place in Newark, so they should be on the way early next week. The shipping's more than the cost of the notions. sigh* Mom's a really good sewer so I'm confident she'll do most of the work and I'll fetch and carry and give sage advice. Oh, and pay for supplies and buy lunch, stuff like that.


My adventures with yarn continue. Remember last week I got that Lion Landscapes yarn on sale? Well, I couldn't not cast on something with it, so I decided to make more Cozy House Socks with the lighter colored one. It's super bulky weight, not regular bulky like the pattern calls for, and while the ball band recommends using size 13 needles, I'm using size 6, but I thought that it would be okay. My forearms ached when I was knitting the k2, p2 cuff ribbing but I always struggle with knitting ribbing. I tried to put it in time-out for making my arms sore, but I can't seem to leave it alone. When I read the directions for the heel flap, I realized that I'd forgotten to knit the cuff on one size bigger needles but, pfft, so what, right? Right. The cuff seemed quite a bit bigger than the previous ones made with the recommended yarn, but I held them together and they seemed to at least be shirttail relatives. Then before I picked up the stitches for the gusset, I thought it was just too big and maybe I should just frog the whole thing and find something else to knit with my 4 skeins of sale yarn. I kept knitting. I will say that the house sock seems almost pre-felted because the fabric's so dense. I love the colors and it's really soft. I'll keep going and see what happens. And you know I'll make it a mate, a person can't wear just one. Can you say denial?

I will say that as hard as it is to knit that thick yarn on such thin needles it's making working on the Red Licorice Sweater sleeve a breeze. Rows just seem to effortlessly stack up in groups of 8, which is when I have to increase so I see it in 8-row segments in my mind. See?

And for nearly totally mindless knitting I cast on a Silk Road Bias Bag from some of my eBay-bought reclaimed silk yarn. I could stare at the colors all day. So rich.

I still also have the Accidental Sock OTN for waiting room and dentist's chair knitting. I'll have the pair finished by next fall when I'll need wool socks again, I promise.

Finally, I used my Barnes & Noble member coupon for April to purchase a copy of Charmed Knits. I'm such a Harry Potter fan, it's a bit embarrassing.