Ingenue

Finally, a month after the knitting was done, I blocked the thing and took pictures. In a knitter's mind, that's when a project is Done.

Here it is: Ingenue for Tim's mom

She picked the yarn (good old Cascade 220) and the color (#9442).  Last time Tim and I visited her, we went to Alpaca Direct, the only yarn shop in Brentwood.  The little store had a pretty good selection of yarns; I came out with not only Cascade 220, but also some Plymouth Baby Alpaca chunky.  Mmmmm!  So soft!

Here is the sweater on the blocking board.  The edges are *not* suppose to be curly! (Arg!)

Update

It's been so long since I last posted!  In the past few weeks I finished a sweater for Tim's mom and a scarf for my friend Rushan.  No pictures yet since I still need to block the 2 pieces.  Tim says he will get me a dedicated "blocking" bucket for my knitting (thanks Hon!).  I can't wait since it'll make the job much easier compared to using the bathtub!

It's also been a busy month for us!  My friend Rushan (for whom I made the scarf) got married.  Her husband is French and I swear the entire French population showed up at the wedding.  I never knew there were so many French people in the Bay Area!

Here is the Bride and me at the shower:

And the Bride and Groom (aka Benoit)

Now the whole family!

(The little girl on the low left was just the cutest! She was so bubbly and full of laughs!)

Migraine

I was hit by the worst case of migraine yesterday.  The vomit-inducing beast reared its head right after lunch when I started seeing bright spots.  We were out and about, and I managed to get some chores done. As soon as we got home, however, I just died on the bed.  


For the  the rest of the day I was debilitated and whiny.  Thankfully Tim was so helpful; he took Moose out when I couldn't bear the thought of being vertical, and he got himself dinner (even though I knew how much he would have rather stayed at home).  


I went to bed around 9PM after attempting (unsuccessfully) to knit.  The nice thing is that Moose decided to join me in bed and keep me company!  =)  He's such a sweet puppy.


I feel better now after a long night's rest.  I am hoping and praying the monster stays away.  I don't get 
migraines often, but when I do it knocks me down like nothing else.  

Busy busy, just not busy with the things I'd rather be doing!

Work is busy busy busy. And nothing like agreeing to take on a contract job (outside of my regular job) to make things even busier.  But the amazing thing is that I seem to be getting more done.  Pressure = productivity?  Hum... I hope my boss doesn't' find out.

Grumpasaurus

I finished Neil's Grumpasaurus!  This was a fun but fiddly project; very cute once done.  I can imagine all sorts of different facial expressions and “hair” styles to put on this little guy!

Next up is the Ingenue sweater for Tim's mom.

My family

My Mom, her husband Hans, my brother, his wife Jen and I all got together yesterday for dinner.  I gave my mom the shawl and, guess what, she liked it! Here she is modeling it for me; I think my mom looks beautiful!

And here is my nephew at 15 months. What a ham!

p.s. All these pics were taken with my new HTC Incredible (you may call it the iPhone killer). =)  I can't begin to express my crush on Google.  I just love everything they do. 

62" x 25"

62" x 25" is the dimensions my mom's shawl. I hope she likes it!

And of course I have to add gratuitous pictures of the world's cutest Moose:

One of his favorite sleeping spots is in the crooks of our legs

Grumpy old Moose at the dinner table (he must take after Tim)

One day

One day I will have so much money that I won't have to work. I'll have so much that I can....(sigh)...an email just popped up.  Back to the grind.

Swatch for a shawl

I've been thinking about a shawl for my mom.  I know the yarn I wanted to use, but I did not know the pattern. So for the past week I've been playing around with different stitch patterns.  And ! tada ! today I know what to do.  

Here is my small and unblocked swatch of the Woodland Shawl by Nikol Lohr.  

This is the front (RS) of the swatch.

This is the back (WS) of the swatch.

The swatch is knit with 2 strands of Adagio held together. I did 2 repeats plus an extra 5 stitches on the right side. Can you see how the darker purple on the bottom blends into the lighter purple towards the top?  Neat, IMHO.  I’m going to keep this gradation in the actual shawl.

I think this will be a good project!

Dinosaur

This was a quick knit and good as an “oh-I-don’t-care-if-the-seams-are-not-perfect” project.  Plus Moose seems to not mind it today.  Yesterday he was trying to claim it as his toy. =)