Yummy alpaca

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I received a little package in the mail from Allison which contained some lovely goodies. Check out the beautiful card she enclosed. Absolutely gorgeous. Allison took that photo herself, and you can get a better look at it by clicking on the photo on her Fryday Photo blog here to see an enlarged version. Go! Go take a look, but remember to come back here afterward. :-) And if you want to see some gorgeous photos from her recent trip to Italy, go here.

Bead row counters

She made me some bead row counters which I am looking forward to trying out. She has posted instructions for making these row counters here. And enclosed a yellow dial row counter because I only had red ones. I had no idea they came in yellow!

Yummy soft alpaca yarn

There was a lovely skein of Pacific Meadows Alapacas in an orange/yellow colorway. It's exudes springtime and is super soft. I am going to have find something special for this yarn.

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I'm still playing around with that same ball of black Elann Baby Silk yarn. The zig zaggy pattern you saw didn't work out for my project, so it got frogged and it reincarnated into this cable pattern:

I had to crudely pin it out to take this photo because the edges were curling. It's hard to see the pattern because of the dark black yarn. It's really a basic cable pattern where half the cable is plain stockinette and the other half is seed stitch. Click on photo to enlarge. The first cable twist at the bottom is stockinette, the next one above is seed stitch, and it continues to alternate going upwards.

I think this cable pattern is interesting but loses some impact on the dark black yarn.

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I want to thank everyone for their comments in my last post (and also in email), I really appreciate it. I can't believe I received the same news twice within 5 months. One can read and hear about what happens during a miscarriage but nothing truly prepares you for the experience itself. It was quite a shock in March, however after having gone through that before, I am definitely better prepared this second time around. Still waiting...

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Just responding to some comments from my Lights off post...

CatBookMom:

Love your suggestion of using a light colored towel underneath dark yarns. I had never thought of doing that before and will definitely give it a try.

As for the first day of day care, Miss M did surprisingly great! I was worried about separation anxiety. Perhaps it's the newness of it all that has her attention or pleasantly distracted. We'll see how she behaves after she gets used to it all.

CC:

Oh my! That wouldn't be pleasant. I always think it would suck for that to happen during surgery.

Frogdancer:

I must admit that I felt exactly that while I was waiting. lol. I was really surprised to have made so much progress that day.

Teenuh:

It's the new building on El Camino near 85. Love that building, but I sometimes get lost trying to remember which floor/wing I'm heading for. Love the suburbs for the ample free parking. Back in San Francisco, I'd spend aeons circling around for parking around California Pacific Medical Center, and then it was only 2-hr parking which would be problematic if the appt (lab work, diagnostic testing, etc) took longer than that.

Good to hear that has happened to other people too. Next time I'l lhave to do some chair dancing while I knit/wait for my doctor to show up.

TracyKM:

I have that book! Many many years ago I even did the charting thing, then I eventually became more in tune with my body and didn't need to do that anymore. I should dig out that book, hopefully it's one I have already unpacked. If it's still in a box -- and we still have many unpacked boxes in our living room! -- then it may take a while.

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Buttons for February Lady Sweater

I haven't touched my February Lady Sweater lately, however I did manage to remove the buttons I got (from the card they were attached on) and try them out on the 2-stitch button hole I had made. The button hole was definitely too small for the button I chose. I think I will have to use a 4-stitch button hole. One downside to not having smooth round buttons is that they tend to "snag" a bit on the knitting. I keep looking at these buttons and liking them more each time. I think I'll keep them despite the uneven edges.

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Just responding to some comments from my Buttons for my February Lady Sweater post...

CindyG:

I actually did just that when I went button shopping, but stopped after a button fell off the card and it couldn't be reattached to the card. I was afraid the store staff would get on my case about ruining their button display. lol.

MicheleLB:

My worsted weight yarn, Elann Superwash Bamboo, knits more like DK and I think I need to go down a needle size or two to compensate for the "airy" fabric I'm getting. It's not "holey" overall, but I do think the raglan increase parts are a bit "holey", although it is not yarn-over-holey. I need to play around with different increases.

Teenuh:

Is the "twisted bar life increases" the one specified in the pattern? I actually started with that in my first row, and then switched to some other method. Still not happy with the results. Need to experiment further.

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Triumph Scarf swatch

Just when I thought I was getting caught up with blog reading (about 60% caught up, which is pretty good for me!), I fell off the blog reading wagon again. It comes in cycles and I'm always catching up. As Ravelympics (Ravelry link) begins this Friday, I will probably fall even further behind as I will need to focus on my Ravelympics projects.

When I first signed up for Ravelympics a month ago, I thought it would be a great motivator to get me to start and finish a knitting project. I was excited about it and even designed the cable scarf I would knit for Ravelympics, the Triumph Scarf Pattern can be found here in chart format. I was feeling so optimistic about starting and finishing the Triumph Scarf within 17 days that I even added the Regina Scarf (last seen here) I've been working on since January(!) for my MIL, which will (hopefully be) her Christmas present. I need to work on the latter half of this scarf. Now a month after signing up, I feel less confident about completing the events I've signed up for (viz. Cable Steeplechase, Scarf Stroke, WIPs Wrestling) and think I'm a prime candidate for the Hopelessly Overcommitted team.

I finally caught the 2-parter season finale of Doctor Who. Bloody brilliant! Must watch it again...

Check out this gorgeous photo of Milo. I think it's better than my previous favorite of Milo.

Ok, I've gotta go get some real work done now. Run some errands. Do laundry. Mop the hardwood floors. Yes, not very glamorous work. But if I finish early then I get to reward myself with a little quiet knitting time! :-)

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