Finally moved in!

We spent our first night in the new house! This is the sight that greeted us this morning...

Today we're packing and cleaning and doing laundry and packing and cleaning at Hubby's dad's place.  We have a lot of stuff here.  I had forgotten how much... Hubby left a little while ago with a full pickup load to drop at the house, and then he's coming back to help some more.  It's been a long day, and it's not over yet.

Back to work!

Finished baby blanket!

Here's my second completed project for 2012!

I apologize for the bad photo; I'll take some pics outside later if the sun ever decides to come out.

I had to use a contrast color for the edging, because I ran out of the purple.  Fortunately, I had one skein of the same yarn in a lovely cream color, and it turned out to be just enough.  So I used four skeins of Paton's Classic Wool (3 in "That's Purple" and 1 in "Winter White").  The needles were size US8.  And I think I've decided on the name for this design: Sisterhood Baby Blanket.  This one is for my dear friend and Bunker sister Monica.  We're sisters despite the fact that we haven't met...yet!  Now that we're only about eight hours apart, we're going to have to meet soon. ☻

Editing the post to add this better picture.  You can see the cables much more clearly here.

Baby blanket in progress

As promised, here's a pic of my newest design!

It's about halfway done.  It's going to be about 40 inches wide at the points, since it's a hexagon.  It's close to 30 now, which is about the width of the other baby blankets I've designed, but they were squares.  This one looks like it's for a doll at 30 inches, so I must keep knitting.  I really like how it's turning out.  It's a pretty simple design, at least in my head... I started with the braided cable in the center of each panel.  As it grew, I added the rope cable that twists toward the braid, then another rope that twists away from the other one...then another braid, and more ropes....etc.  I think writing this one up is going to be trickier than knitting it.  It doesn't have a name yet.  I thought of naming it after the baby it's going to be for, but the baby isn't born yet, and doesn't have a name.  Unless this blanket takes another five months to make, I'm going to have to come up with another idea.

In other knitting news, I've been dealing with my UFOs.  I frogged the original swatch for the above blanket; it was a square, in a yarn that I didn't have enough of to make a blanket anyway.  I was just swatching, about a year ago, and hadn't ever done anything with the swatch.  So now I have a reclaimed ball of green wool, and an empty needle. ☻  

And I dug out an eyelash yarn monstrosity that I'd started three years ago.  Angel wanted a fun fur blanket in pink and purple stripes.  I had gotten three stripes done, and my hands said "NO MORE!" so I put it away for three years.  Finally, I told Angel the other day that I wasn't going to finish it, and it wouldn't coordinate with her new turquoise and brown bedroom anyway.  Fun fur does not like to be frogged, so I just bound it off.  I suggested it could be a doll blanket, but she decided to add a button or pin and make it a capelet.  Silly girl looks like a Yeti that someone threw koolaid on.  But it's out of my UFO bin!    And I gave her the leftover yarn.  

And sadly, I discovered that my white lace stole-in-progress was full of holes.  Apparently some evil insect found it very yummy.  I frogged most of it, but only recovered a small ball of yarn, as most of it came off in short, unusable pieces.  Fortunately, I hadn't gotten very far on it, and the balls of yarn in the ziploc didn't look like they'd been touched, so I should still have enough of that lovely laceweight to make a small shawl.  And I've started charting for that design...

Happy New Year!

To welcome the new year, I present my first project, knitted entirely this year. ☺

The pattern is Twisted Tambini by my dear friend Andrea.  I used Paton's Decor wool blend in "chocolate", and US8 needles.  I'm considering making another one with smaller needles, because this is kinda enormous on my head.  But it'll keep me warm, and that's what matters!  I love this design.  The reversible cables on the brim were a bit tricky, since I'd never used that technique before.  The result is terrific, and I love how the brim cables transition seamlessly to the main body cables.  You can't see the crown of the hat in this pic, but that's okay, because I messed up somewhere in there, and couldn't figure out where, so I just faked it.  I don't think anyone will know unless I tell them.  Keep my secret, okay?

In other news, we have our stuff, and it's in our house!  There's still some organizing to be done, and lots of painting.  I started the painting yesterday, with Princess and Kitty's room; pink, of course.  Angel and I will do her room this morning; turquoise.  I'll do the bathroom and laundry room in the same turquoise, and then I'll have to calculate how much beige to buy for the rest of the rooms.  I'm thinking a five-gallon bucket of satin finish, and two gallons of semi-gloss...but I'm not going to just go with my guess.  Made that mistake before...

Anyway, we're still staying at my father-in-law's house, since we won't have tv service until the 12th, or internet until heaven-knows-when, and Hubby has forgotten how to live without those things.  But FIL has gone to his winter home in Arizona, so we have the house to ourselves, and we can take our time moving all of our stuff to our new place.

Hmmm...what else did I forget to post about while I was busy in December?  I turned 31, and Princess turned 7...Merry Christmas...we celebrated Christmas with Hubby's family, but at least I got to call my family.  The girls and I are planning on driving down to Kansas at the end of January to visit them. ☺

Oh, I almost forgot to mention: I started working on a new baby blanket design; it's about halfway done.  I'll post a pic in my next post.  I've got to run now; time for paint!

Frost Cowl and Kindle Cover

Here are pictures of my Frost Cowl!

And here's a pic of a new project. I whipped up this Kindle cover yesterday.  We're giving Angel a Kindle for Christmas, and I felt it needed a cover to protect it.

Woohooo!

I finally have something to post that isn't about the house!  I finished my Frost Cowl.  It took forever, because my knitting mojo decided to take a vacation.  But I think it's back now.  I'm thinking of starting another baby blanket pattern; I have an idea already, and I'd started a swatch ages ago, but I think it's in storage with the rest of my life.  So I need to start over.  Or maybe a good sketch will work for submitting the design to Knit Picks, so that I don't have to make it twice...

And I'm also going to teach Angel to knit socks.  She picked out some sock yarn, and I got her her own set of DPNs.  She was a little disappointed when I told her she needed to learn with DPNs first.  She thought she'd be able to use a circular, not understanding that they don't make circulars short enough for child-size socks.  I told her that once she has a good grasp of knitting with DPNs, I'll teach her to do Magic Loop.  First I need to teach her to do ribbing.  She still doesn't understand purling, but that's because she gets tired of it too quickly.  Maybe she'll be able to tolerate it as ribbing.  We're going to use Silver's Sock Class, but adjust the numbers to fit a child-size foot.

A little update on the house: we're getting very close to being able to move in.  We have electricity, and water, and heat.  So now we need to get the finish work done, and the kitchen floor in, and the carpet in.  And the appliances in.  And...I think that'll be it.  Then we can finally get all our stuff out of storage and into our new place.  It's been a long four months.  I am so ready to be in our own place.

Still here

I realized that I haven't blogged in quite a while.  Which is probably due to the fact that I've discovered Netflix streaming.  I've been rewatching some of my old favorites, including the entire series of "24", and really enjoying it.  Just last night I watched Die Hard With A Vengeance.  Gotta love a good shoot-em-up movie.

Anyway, we're still here.  In my father-in-law's house.  I'd hoped to be moved into our own place by now, but no such luck.  We've been waiting on the electrician.  The builders can't finish the inside work until there's heat, and the heating guy can't get the heat going until there's electricity.  Oh, the plumber is also waiting on electricity. And the electrician has been out of town for two weeks.  He's back now, and the plan is to meet out at the house this afternoon.  I'll call him in a little while just to be sure that that plan is still good.

I had been looking forward to possibly spending Thanksgiving in our new house, but even if we're moved in by then(which I doubt) we won't be there for the holiday.  Hubby's dad has a vacation house in Spearfish, SD, and it's been decided(not by me or the kids, but oh well) that the whole family will spend Thanksgiving there.  It's a great house, and there's plenty of room...but when you get our family (5 people) together with Hubby's dad, his sister, his brother, his aunt(and maybe uncle)...it's going to be crowded.  Yippee.  So I'll have to spend my favorite holiday in a crowded house, with people who love to gossip(always makes me wonder what they're saying about me when I'm not there), and no chance of escape.  Oh, and all the adults will probably get wasted too; this family consumes copious amounts of alcohol anytime they're all together.  Hooray and happy Thanksgiving.

Sorry, I'm being all sarcastic and complain-y.  Better go find another good shoot-em-up to cheer me up.