I Used to Be A Blogger

Creepy, right?

Once upon a time, there was a knitting blogger who had so many irons in the fire, she choked from smoke inhalation and fell out on the floor, incapable of anything other than staring off into space for weeks...


Seriously.






Okay, so I still spend way too much time staring off into space, but I'm back. Sort of. We are moved into our new home (LOVE it), we got through Christmas (LOVED seeing family), and then the month of January passed in a week's time. Today, I am determined to get a blog post done. This effort is helped by the fact that I didn't have to work today. The doctor's office I work for closed for the day and for half a day Wednesday due to impending winter weather. With my northern friends facing temps below zero and wind chills verging on ridiculous, I hate to complain about the 29 degrees we're having right now with a 90% chance of sleet/freezing rain/snow--but I'm gonna complain anyway. This is SOUTH MISSISSIPPI, folks. They don't know how to deal with winter weather down here (and in my opinion, they should never have to). On the up side, while it will be in the teens overnight tomorrow, by Saturday and Sunday, our highs will be near 70. That's as it should be. I say again: SOUTH. MISSISSIPPI.

When I last posted, I was preparing to move and working on Christmas knitting. As I said above, I got the moving done. Ahem... Christmas knitting? Not so much.

I did manage to complete socks for my daughter-in-law and socks for my mom (pattern yet unpublished), plus the scarf I had knitted over the summer for my son and one sock of a pair I was making for him.

I have since finished the second sock

I still owe my DIL something for her birthday, which I have planned but have been unable to locate the yarn I need for it and I haven't had time to run to my LYS to see if they have any.

Meh...

I had also modified the pattern Tesserae, by Vicki Square, for my mom. I had just four skeins of Classic Elite Yarns Premiere that Mom had picked out of a sale bin at a yarn shop in Indianapolis last summer. She liked the color. It is incredibly soft and nice to knit with, but with only 4 skeins of a discontinued yarn, and Mom wanting at the very least a vest out of it, adjustments had to be made. I thought the pattern in Tesserae was interesting so I used it for just one panel set into large stripes using the Premiere and some Sirdar Baby Bamboo I had in my stash (how the two fibers work together long-term is yet to be seen but they blocked quite well). This was nearly completely knit well before my son, DIL, and mom arrived for Christmas. I didn't get it seamed until after the holiday and it turned out just okay. The shoulder seams are a little...uh, weird. I really need a Craftsy class on seaming. Or a friend who loves to seam. Or both...

**Sigh**

The biggest disappointment of the Christmas knitting season was a beautiful sweater I had planned for my daughter. The pattern is a lovely Amy Herzog design, Aislinn, and I chose to knit it with Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool. I was more meticulous with this project than any I've ever done and it knitted up beautifully. Unfortunately, my daughter's measurements aren't exactly average and I didn't modify when I should have (Amy Herzog would be ashamed of me since she specializes in knits that fit). The top of the sweater across the bust fits perfectly. The sleeves and waist are an entirely different story (about 2 sizes too big).

So, it languishes, still partially un-seamed, while I decide what to do with it. Part of me wants to frog the whole thing and start over with modifications. The other part of me would rather stick some knitting needles in my eyes. Decisions, decisions...

Finally, let me close by offering a cute picture of The Husband's dog, Hildy, in front of our new fireplace. She absolutely loves sitting close to it. Sometimes too close.

Hot Dog!

More pictures of the house in a (hopefully) near-future post.
Lisa
xoxoxo