Been A While...

And this will be a bit brief, I think. Monday was an odd day; my mother was admitted for a pretty intense spinal surgery, I delivered the manuscript for book 2 to Storey, and my kid returned to Indiana after 3 weeks at home. It was a full day, for certain. We ended it quite accidentally at Caminito, an Argentinian steakhouse in Northampton, to which I must return very, very soon, even if I don't know the name of the cow on the plate. I'll just have the pork again, or fish, and Gene can eat the cow, and I will taste tiny bites when his back is turned.
Other things...I made this for April, but I did not get it done in time for Christmas, so here it sits, waiting for the baby to put into it:It's a free pattern from Elann, the Pinwheel Sweater, and I loved knitting it. I used Valley Yarns Superwash. I am thinking of an adult version in this huge skein of Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool that's burning a hole in my pocket (so to speak).
Since Girl's return to school and the nasty weather we decided to move bedtime base camp onto the futon. This means that we can tend the fire during the night more easily, meaning no jumping out of bed, running downstairs, popping in a log or two, then scampering back to bed, frozen and shivering. SOME people are confused by this, and think that the futon-as-bed was obviously placed there for their personal use.We're negotiating. I make it up more quickly now, to prevent this sort of confusion from occurring, or at least to protect my poor pillow from cat-amination.
Monday, Busy Day, Gene had taken off to deliver Girl to the train. This worked to my advantage as it meant that he could drive me to North Adams as well, so I could knit the whole way out.That's not what happened. Although the road was mostly clear, my planned project wasn't. I began socks for Yarn Forward magazine much later than I'd wanted to begin them, only to discover that they yarn and the intended cabled cuff of a big kilt sock just were not harmonizing. Since the socks needed to be in the mail, oh, yesterday this was very, very bad. I spent the remainder of the trip obsessing over my laptop and a swatch, while whacking Mr. Wonderful for his failure to get a new sticker, resulting in our being stopped not once but TWICE between home and Storey's offices. Our half-hour buffer for weather and bad roads was chewed up by the words "Yes, officer. I know, officer. I am sorry officer" and "How many times have I told you? WHAT did I SAY?? Ugggh! I KNEW this would happen!!" from the passenger seat (that's me; a nagging, annoying wife if ever there were one.) This sticker thing has been a bone of contention between us forever and ever. I am a first-day kind of girl. Sticker expires in January? I am at the inspection station January 2nd. Mr W. is the opposite. He views delay as a cash-saving measure, in which he will eventually recoup years' worth of inspection fees by delaying one-two months at a time for the entire life of the vehicle. My legalistic tendencies are so offended by this. It's like cheating on your income taxes, or eating the grapes before you've checked out. We made it just in time, and all was forgiven. Honey. JUST get a STICKER. PLEASE!
I've also been working with thiswhich may surprise many of you, since we all know MMO says "No bunny. Bunnies go PppFFFOOF!" I bought this at Rhinebeck, and it's become mittens and a hat in progress. I am changing my bunny state of mind. The mittens are wonderfully warm and snuggly. It's difficult to resist, really.
And the car-ride cable chart? The Yarn Forward socks? After some quick executive decisions, I got moving, and within a few hours had this:(If you can see it, check out the radar behind my leg on the mac. Capital I ick!) which closer up looks like this:and this:and finally resulted in these.I adore them. They are knitted in Rowan purelife British Sheep Breeds Blue Faced Leicester. The gauge for the socks is a nice chunky 18 sts/4inches...a good bit tighter than the recommended gauge of 13 sts/4inches, but they are socks - thick, warm, dense, squashy socks that just so hug your feet and legs! Don't you just want to knit them up? They're in a mailer now, headed for England at top-speed (Express Mail even). I didn't want to let them go. I think I'll knit up some more...