Starting Over

The Cable Down sweater is no more. I only had about 10 rounds done, and I couldn't resist the lure of the yoke. So, I frogged and set out looking for a pattern. Basically, a simple yoke sweater with stranded colorwork at the yoke and bottoms of the sleeves with contrasting trim. Simple, right? Well, my search for patterns turned up a couple that are usable. EZ's percentage system is pretty failproof and is a great basic pattern. Also, the yoke sweater from the Handy Book of Sweater Patterns is another nice template to work off of. I'm probably going to combine them for my own little formula.

As far as a colorwork pattern, I don't really need to worry about that until I get to the yoke, and I have a whole body to knit, so I'm still looking. I'm not sure if I want to do something simple with one standout color, a la Adrian, or something with more colors, like many of the ones shown here. I did find a few colors that I liked together. A bit retro maybe, but definitely my "fall color" taste.

The brown is a rich, chocolate brown and the orange is Trekking (I'd use it doubled). Originally I had just thought of using the Trekking by itself as a simple pattern at the yoke. Then, my sister liked the multicolored yokes so much I did some stash diving. I have the most of the brown, so I may do cuffs/trim in that. We'll see what kind of yoke pattern I can come up with. For now, I'm happily knitting away around and around....

This weekend was also my mom's birthday. We had a great time doing our new favorite pastime - Wii bowling!

The whole family played and we had a blast. Bowling is my favorite Wii activity so far - I really stink at Tennis and some of the other games, but hubby is nice enough to play along with me and get plenty of experience points by kicking my butt. Practice will help, I know. After playing a bunch on the Wii, all the boys crashed.

My sister, the cake maker in the family, made my mom a special "top only" cake. She, like me, loves the top part of an unfrosted cake - the part that unfortunately usually sticks to the foil or other covering. At least this time the cake didn't stick.

Just most of the writing! By all accounts it tasted just as good though. Happy Birthday Mom!

Even though it was her birthday, mom brought me a little giftie.

One can never have too many of these box bags, can we? It is a perfect size for socks or a starting sweater. It will be going with me to Boston this weekend for sure!

I did work a bit more on the New England socks - the heel flap is in progress! I can't wait to wear these. Especially now that it is really handknit sock season! We got a few inches of snow last night along with a bunch of freezing rain on top of it. A mess. But, now it's at least pretty out!

I'm Still Here

Sorry for the long absence. Time seems to have gotten away with me! Before I knew it, a few days had past with no post!

Let's see, what has been happening around these parts.....well, Ravin, Tucker and I are prepping for another agility trial this weekend (3 days). you'll be hearing this a lot over the next month as I have trials every single weekend until the first week in July! Lots of trials! (hopefully lots of qualifying rounds!) The trial this past weekend was not so great. The weather was rainy and really cold. Sunday afternoon, right before Ravin's final run, we got a HUGE downpour, then I looked up at the sky.

(photo credit to dad's cell phone)

You could almost see a line on the ground as the sunny weather moved in. It was amazing.

The Heart Crook sock is coming along. I am doing an afterthought heel for the first time, and it's an adventure.

I've knit it twice already, and finding the right rate of decrease is proving to be a challenge. I followed the pattern for the round heel the first time (here) and it was a bit too shallow. I then knit it again adding another plain round between the decrease rounds. Still not right. So, I'm going to try knitting the "normal" heel that is more like a toe - the decreases lined up on either side instead of swirled around. We'll see how that turns out. The leg still needs to be complete, but I want to know how much yarn I've used, so that means knitting the heel now, then finishing up the leg to use half of the yarn I have. The other sock will have an orange heel and toe. Third time's a charm, right? The heel will be my lunchtime knitting for today.

With the weather warming up, my thoughts have turned to gardening. Between Anne, Jessica and Lolly there is plenty of inspiration out there to get going! My garden has been a bit neglected this spring, to say the least.

I worked on it for a bit over the past days, and am slowly getting all the weeds out. Any suggestions for keeping them out? I was planning on a heavy layer of mulch....Otis thoroughly enjoyed watching me labor in the warm sun.

So, to get some kind of planting accomplished, I brought out the containers and did some planting on the deck.

Snap peas, jalapenos and lettuce will hopefully spring forth in due time!

The Aerogarden lettuce has finally grown all it can grow, so we started new "pods" - this time herbs!

There is everything from purple basil to mint, to dill in here. Mmmmm....I love fresh herbs on everything!

Yesterday was also quite a wonderful day - my birthday! I took the day off of work to go work. Sounds weird, right? Well, I took the day off of my "normal" job to go work at the kennel most of the day. (I would much rather spend the day there than at my day job!) We are cleaning out the large barn we have in order to make it more storage space. I'll just say a large dumpster that was empty on Monday is now pretty full! Terri took me out to lunch and it was a great, hard working day.

Hubby, who makes every day special for me, took me out to dinner last night. Bocado is a new Tapas bar and was absolutely deeeeeelish!!!! They had all types of foods - from lamb to chickpeas to foie gras. We wanted to try everything on the menu! We had a wonderful time, and I was very glad to be able to spend a wonderful night with my wonderful man!

It didn't end there though -

All thanks to hubby's discriminating tastes and Sur La Table. Lots of round cutters for biscuits and things like donuts, a few proofing baskets for bread, a really neat silicone rolling mat (now maybe my pie crusts will be the same size!), some lemon curd, a sweet/tart cherry filling along with a baguette pan (these really would have come in handy when I made these) and what I really can't wait to try - a silicone rolling pin! If it works anything like the Silpat silicone baking mats I have, it will be amazing! (I can't recommend those baking mats enough - NOTHING sticks to them!) Now, I really have to get baking!! It all pairs perfectly with the Mother's Day gift the boys got me (hubby helped I'm sure - they aren't too good at typing) - both The Bread Baker's Apprentice as well as How to Be A Domestic Goddess. Looks like more yummy stuff in store for the near future!