Getting stuff done

Am actually getting some knitting done lately! Finished these Natalya gauntlets for Erin, knitted in Pingouin yarn on size 8 DPNs. This is the second time I've knit these for her, but this time it's in a yarn that won't felt in the wash. The first pair didn't have the individual fingers like this pair and that's what she wanted this time.



Have other things going on:

* Finishing Mom's sweater
* Attending the Portland Sail for the Cure for Mom. She's coordinating the Sail in San Diego and I'm going to scout out how Portland does their set-up.
* Knitting a sweater for Khylee's upcoming 7th birthday
* Knitting something for Gigi's upcoming birthday
* Knitting a hat & gloves for the November Creative Exchange "Warm & Cozy" basket
* Knit Christmas gifts for 4 nieces and 1 nephew
* Knit a baby blanket for the new grandson, Gavin, due in January

Mixed in all of that is:

* Bible study through November
* Dental appointments
* Women of Faith in October
* Required time off in the October-December time frame (2 weeks!)

It's going to be busy! I'll just need to be focused and patient like Smudge and Tribble.

On hair, yarn and books

So, the hair has grown out since the last photo back on the 18th. It's growing fast, but definitely not lying down. It's still on the bottle brush side of spiky, but I have hopes!


I have been knitting:


This is the Flower Basket Shawl completed in Feb? March? Knit with size 3 needles with KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud in Tidewater. I knit it in just a couple of weeks and donated it to a silent auction at church to benefit women's ministries. It sold, but I refused to see how much it sold for - I didn't want to know what price someone had placed on my time.

I've also knitted a little sweater for a baby born to someone at church. Noelle is the 4th child and the first girl - definitely deserving of a sweet lilac sweater. I was a goob though and completely forgot to take a picture of the sweater. But Dayna has told me that Noelle has been wearing the sweater. Awww!

I knit the sweater on size 8s using a pattern from Style Your Own Kids' Knits with Sirdar Snuggle Baby Care in Shade 0219.

I've also finished a SuperHero Cape from Vickie Howell's New Knits on the Block. It's knit in Bernat for the Kruz man to go with the Superman jammies I bought him.

One thing that I was knitting was a pair of socks in TOFUtsies... but they are at a temporary standstill.
Can you see it?

How about now?


A hole chewed by the still living, but only by God's grace, Tribble. She's taken to going after the natural fibers - this yarn, the tiny cake of the Alpaca Cloud remaining from the shawl, and Peaches & Creme cotton.

The socks are on hold until I have the energy to rip past the hole to the ribbing and pick up the stitches to continue on. We'll see what year that happens in.

I have been getting some reading done as well. I re-read Amaryllis, the 2nd book in Jayne Castle's (aka Jayne Ann Krentz) futuristic/romance trilogy on St. Helens. It's a series I enjoy revisiting from time to time.

I also finished American Bee by James Maguire about the Scripps National Spelling Bee. I borrowed this from the local library and was fascinated by the history of the Bee and enjoyed reading of the backgrounds of the spellers. I had been looking for Word Freak, about competitive Scrabble, and found this instead. Borrow this book!

Just finished this week is Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds. Love, love, loved it. Had heard it was good and had wanted to read Rob's copy of it, but he didn't care for it and had gotten rid of it. But bless him, he re-purchased the book when I expressed my dismay. There are two more books continuing the adventures of Master Li Kao and Number Ten Ox and those are going on my wishlist.

I just started Inkheart last night and am enjoying it so far. Kind of wish Meggie would quit the attitude, but hey, she's only a kid. And she and her father show their love of books the way Rob and I do - with piles of them around the house. (Have I shared that our personal library has over 600 books? And it's that low only because we ruthlessly culled it down to the ones we love)

Mom? How's this one?

Babies, babies everywhere

So I finished the little baby hat and decided to do some socks to go with it. Have NO idea which baby will get them, but most likely to go to Brian at work whose wife just had their first, a girl by the name of Cydney Jade.

Cast on for the next hat and set of socks and those will likely go to Matt (also at work) and the little boy he & his wife are expecting. Keep them in your prayers, she's not due until early April but she's in the hospital for contractions. They're trying to stop them and let the little guy cook some more, so she may end up with bedrest from here on out.

Two of the women in my small group for Bible Study (there are 6 of us at my table) are pregnant, there are at least 2 other people at work expecting, and my brother & his girlfriend are also due mid-March. I've got to get crackin' on the baby knitting. But I also have several other gifts to crank out by mid-to-late March.

After that, I'm knitting for the Dulaan project. Rebecca and I will be putting stuff together to send by the deadline and we're planning to do a craft day (read day off) to get a jump.

Been doing better with the weight and eating. Of course, having a cold puts a damper on the appetite which has been nice. I managed to drop a couple of pounds (I'm down to 191.5), so now I've got to keep it off and work on some more.

Lots of family stuff going on. There was a baby shower this past Saturday for my brother's girlfriend and baby Kruz. Felt weird since her friends are all in their early 20's. Next up is a trip to Ellensburg on Wednesday to watch the nieces. I think we'll plan a trip to the library there, maybe a walk around the campus, and a visit to Yellow House Knits to peruse their yarns.

And on Thursday is the bro's birthday, but a phone call will have to suffice since I won't be able to go out to dinner with the fam on Wednesday. Rob & Erin will have to go without me.

Gotta go, our food will be ready in 15 minutes and I've gotta finish getting ready for tomorrow night's potluck.

The Trouble with Tribbles

This is Tribble at 6 weeks. Rescued by our daughter at age 1.5 days (DAYS!) and bottle-fed by us. When we first took her in to the vet at 1 week (or was it 2?) she weighed only .5 oz.

She started out with the name Smack (because we all thought Smack the Cat sounded funny), but changed to Tribble after running through various sci-fi inspired names. Erin and Rob are sci-fi fans and it made sense. Especially now that she makes the little trilling noises like the Tribbles in the Star Trek episode.

So, here's the delightful Tribble at 6 months. Now at 6 lbs and eating like a stevedore. She's going back to the vet in 2 weeks to be spayed (gotta be responsible owners!)

She's supposedly Erin's cat, but she loves Rob best. Could be the hand that feeds her (Rob), the best place to sleep (his lap), or that Smudge also loves him best too.

So, here's Smudge in his favorite spot - lounging on our bed. Twice as big as Tribble and now 6 years old. We got him our first year of marriage and he's been great. Well, other than the food issues.

He was doing fine with dry food, then started throwing it up. Switched to Friskies wet, and eventually started throwing that up (we thought about re-naming him Chuck at this point). We switched to Science Diet wet and he did well, but each time my parents' animals came over, we had to hide their dry food because he'd get into it and, you guessed it, throw up.

But now he's on Nutro dry. Keeping it down and doing well. Litterbox smell is down too (I'd actually typed doo, not too). We are *loving* it. Less expensive than the wet, better food with fewer additives and he gets to think he's pulling one on us.

Man, we love our cats. I just wonder how they'll do when Rob finally decides on a dog.