Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Achieving Serenity

There were a few times while knitting this baby blanket that I completely lost all passion for knitting it, but I still loved the pattern so I kept on (in the long run, I did enjoy knitting this). I definitely feel a sense of accomplishment for finally finishing the Serenity Baby Blanket. I started this blanket back in July, and just finished it today, September 30th.
I LOVE the finished product, but I doubt that I'll knit this pattern again. I think I'm done knitting baby blankets for a LOOOOOONG time. Now that this is finished, maybe I wont feel guilty for working on Christmas gifts instead of baby gifts.

The intended recipient for Serenity is due to arrive in mid-October (and we don't know the gender), but the last time I saw the expecting mom she looked more than ready to pop (and completely adorable, picture a model skinny person with a beach ball shoved in her shirt). Adorable.

btw- I fully intend to post pics of the baby wrapped in Serenity after he or she is born :)

Friday, September 19, 2008

Troll Socks are finished!

I've been working on these socks sporadically since May, and I finally finished them last night.
The pattern is Diagonal Cross Rib Socks from the book 'Favorite Socks'. The pattern was easy enough for me to keep my mind on TV or conversations, but still there was enough to concentrate on so I didn't loose interest in knitting. The yarn is Regia Strato (now discontinued) in color 5740 - Troll.
These socks don't really photograph well, it's really hard to get a good picture that shows both the pattern and the yarn colors, but I think these do a decent job of capturing both. All I ask is that you ignore my pajama pants in the pics...LOL

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Knitting by Candlelight

Remnants from Hurricane Ike came through Ohio on Sunday. We lost power Sunday afternoon, along with approx. 1.9 million other Ohioans. We were lucky though, we were without power for only 20 hours (just long enough for everything in our fridge and freezer to go bad), while the electric companies are saying some people could be without for a week. My Parents and both of my sisters are still without power, and one of my sisters and her family live just down the street from us. Local airports are reporting that the winds got up to 75 MPH in some areas. There are fallen trees and branches everywhere. 6 deaths have been reported so far. My kids are on their second day of no school due to power outages. My next door neighbors tree in their front yard split and 1/2 the tree fell, blocking our driveway and the street. It missed landing on DH's car by only a few feet. Click here to see some pics of the downed tree. Dh and I got the larger branches removed from our lawn yesterday, and today I'm going out there with the kids and we'll get the sticks, twigs and leaves taken care of.

However, in all that, I managed to get some knitting done. While the power was out, after the kids went to bed, I didn't have the distraction of TV or Internet, so Knitting by candlelight it was.
I had a lot of candles, so it wasn't too stressing on my eyes, and I made a decent amount of progress on Mom's Mittens. I know, I'm crazy for doing colorwork by candlelight, but it's the only WIP I have going that the pattern was not on my laptop, and no power= no laptop (the battery for my laptop is kaput), and I didn't want to start another WIP.

Time to get back to the cleanup. Fun....

ETA: almost 48 hours after power went out, my Mom just called me to say her power is back on!!!!!