Amelia Cardigan

Finally finished. I used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Black Purl (7 skeins).

Blocking. For details, see my Ravelry entry. I had a few problems with this one.

This is how the neckline looked when I knitted it per the pattern. I think unless your neck is as big as a tree trunk, you might also have to rework the neckline. My best guess is that the grading is off. While people's bodies may grow fatter, their necks don't change nearly as much as, say, their busts.

I'm glad I stuck with it, I really like the finished piece and I think I'll be wearing it.

Brrr

For some reason, I can't get the photos re-ordered for this post, so I'll go out of my intended order. Here's the backyard dog with her beer can. She's trying to stop, I promise.

My first crocheted sock. I just loved this pattern, Beaux Jestes Socks, from the Fall Interweave Crochet. Over the holidays, my mom and I went to a new little yarn shop in her area and they had solids of Brown Sheep Wildfoote sock yarn. A lot of people don't like this yarn, but I've knit a couple of pairs out of it and it seems fine to me, maybe a little splitty. I have one pair that I made in 2003 that I still wear and love.

The only plants living in my Fall garden. I'll call them *baby* spinach, possibly embryonic spinach. . .

The birdbath this morning. It's really cold here, I've been battling freezing pipes, etc. Things are better today. We have cub scout activities and a horse show this weekend, so lots going on.

Looks like I'm going along w/dh on a trip to China next month. I got my Visa application in on Friday, which might be slow because of Chinese New Year coming up. I'll be visiting a high school friend in Shanghai while dh is working. I'm excited.

What's going on here

A little bit of this.

And a lot of this. Tiger and Chuy will lie down together. Batman will not tolerate a dog.


I need to figure out how to fix the neckline on this sweater. I already raised the front neckline by an inch, because I could tell it would be really low. I think I'm going to have to rip out everything and make the scoop of the front neck narrower, so I will have more stitches to decrease in the front section. That will allow me to fill in the neckline more and make it smaller, I think.

I'm at a dangerous point right now, where I want to rip it out and do something rash, but I think it's best if I wait a couple of days and think it over before I do anything else. I hate being this close to finished and then having it not work out. I think it's fixable.

Blah, I've been working on this for over a month and I'm sick of it.

In Case You Think We Only Eat Around Here . . .

The total number of books read in 2008 was 79. I don't really have a goal, but I think typically I read about 50 per year, or one a week. I blame this on my friend and neighbor who goes with me to the bookstore and twists my arm into buying new books all the time.

Back to the eating, my parents gave us this old burger cooker from the 1970s.

My mom used it a lot when we were kids. It came from Sears, still works great.


The burger chef is proud to be making them all by himself. . .

My MIL gave me a big bag of black walnuts and I had seen Paula Deen make this cake on TV. Also, I got a new Crate and Barrel cake stand and dome for Christmas, which needed to be used.

I haven't tasted the cake yet, but it got mixed reviews on the site. I added an extra banana and a quarter cup oil, plus 1/4 cup baking soda, and reduced the cooking time. All of these were recommendations people made, so we'll see if it's moist when I cut it. I have a terrible time with scratch cakes being dry, so I hope it works out. I don't think anybody in my family likes black walnuts either, so this one will probably not be too popular around here.  More for me.

Christmas Illusions

I spent the holidays at my ILs and my parents, so I did quite a bit of knitting during the down times. (Amazing how much more time you have if you're not in charge of cooking and cleaning.) I couldn't get enough of the illusion cloths.

I'm finding that I hate to use stockinette dishcloths, I only like them if they're garter stitch, because they're thicker and they don't roll up. That limits the number of designs to knit, however, and I can't make only Grandma's Favorite or I would die of boredom.

I gave them all away except for the candy cane.

I'm glad to be home, and we've been cleaning out (or dh has) and putting away the Christmas stuff. I made hoppin' john and spinach casserole yesterday so we could have a lot of green and jingling money this year.

Dd is at horse camp this week, visiting a horse rescue today in the rain. Ds is bored with everything already, so he's having a friend over this afternoon. I rented some movies, so I hope to knit and watch all weekend. It's supposed to rain, so it might be a perfect time.