Thursday, February 09, 2006

Recovery Day

Tuesday between Ikea, the JC Penney Outlet and Webs I thought I might die from the joy. Life is truly good. Stuff on my Ikea list was in the As-Is room. I actually left under budget, with nearly everything I wanted (and, of course, a couple of things I had not planned on, but had been considering). My primary goal was a child sized table, and more Lillabo train parts. Our first stop is always the As-Is room. Last time I managed to get my Poang chair for half price. This time it was a Speja crawling tube for $1.99, a Latt child’s table for $4.99 (instead of the alotted $19.99), and roman blinds for my bedroom, thick heavy things, for $9.99 each. I have made them, but for the money and the time, this was totally worth it. The blue Ikea crawling tube works well with the crawling tube set my mother in law found so now he has two tubes and a little hideout in the middle. As a bonus I snagged another collapsible toy bin, love these things, so now trains live in one and Mega Blocks in the other. In short, my home now looks like a daycare, and I spent half of yesterday trying to arrange it to look less so. We stopped off in the exit Bistro for caviar to take home and hot dogs and frozen yogurt for Girl and mother in law. Then Penney’s Outlet - I had not been since they closed the one in Connecticut - they had my husband’s beloved 100% cotton white mock turtlenecks for $2.99 - I bought six. Then I decided I really don’t care what initials are on my bath towels, for $3.99 they could monogram just about anything on them and I'd buy 'em- Egyptian cotton towels that retailed for $17.99 – so now we’re mAp, and pLg, but who cares??? And, I suppose, if I did really care I could always get a seam ripper and tear the letters out, but it’s really not that important to me. I am a real stickler for 100% egyptian cotton and high thread counts in towels and sheets, and also amazingly, painfully cheap. This fit my bill perfectly!
I also learned a valuable lesson…do not try to chart a cable pattern on your husband's computer ten minutes before it is time to leave, assuming you can just email it to yourself to print. It just did not work out that way. Instead, I got an empty file, and spent 2 hours trying to cable from hand written directions scrawled on graph paper in three different directions with x-outs and pen hacking of all kinds while moving at 65 mph on a major highway. Not good, great overwhelming nausea. I did get a little done, but not nearly as much as I’d have liked, but managed to get another inch last night. Last night was also a Rogue evening – talk about Olympic feats. Twelve balls, wound and ready, and in their own bag. Then I did a bit more on the cabled socks, which I hope to finish today, but that may be tough with the baby...I mean Boy...coming for the afternoon. Then the Olympics start, but I also will start the actual knitting of a new design for the store this weekend, once I have done the final math checks and revisions - thank God for calculators. It's going to be very pretty though, of Longmeadow, and feminine and sweet, but not too sweet. In fact, I may have to make one for myself.

THE BEST PART….while driving to Ikea we stopped in N’Hamp at Webs for a little visit, to drop something off and pick something is up….I bought 2 hanks of Silk Rhapsody, one for myself and one for mother in law. I almost wish the Olympics were behind me, and the sweater I’m designing for the store as well, so I could get my dirty little mitts on this stuff. It’s SO lovely to look at, it doubles as living room decor!! The put-up is great at 260 yards per skein, that’s a LOTTA yarn, $39 retail but well worth it for silk and kid mohair.

The another wonderful thing happened yesterday…my husband put my new slick tire on my bike on the trainer. It is amazing how much difference a tire can make. The treads on the MB tire were causing the bike to bounce around on the trainer. Now it is smooth and slick and no vibration in my poor little tush, so I can sit up straight, pedal and knit to my heart's content. With my new girlie seat and slick smooth tire, I am very excited, and can’t wait till morning to test it out more. I love my husband!! (and Performance Bike)

1 comment:

MelissaKnits said...

The basic lace pattern repeat of this scarf is 16 stitches (plus one), so if you have 33 stitches on your needles now, continue in pattern. If you have 34 stitches now, I'd assume that you may have made an error someplace in patterning. See if you can find an error to correct. If not, then knit those last 2 sts together so you have 33 sts again, and continue on in pattern. Each row should contain a multiple of 16 (plus 1), 16+16+1 = 33, or in the pattern as written it's 16+16+16+1 (49). It could even be wider (16+16+16+16+1) or narrower (16+1).