company for the weekend

Ben was home from college this past weekend.

He brought someone for us to meet.

Here's Becky!



She passed all the tests: Homemade pizza eating, movie watching, being human furniture for the pets (both cats sat upon her - quite unusual), card game playing, and most of all - geocaching when it's 40 degrees and sleeting out! YAY Becky!





I managed some sewing this weekend.

Five more box bags.

I had to send for more zippers from ebay. Love that ebay - 100 random zippers for $10. Makes these little bags so much more affordable!





Not much knitting lately.

I have begun working on the collar for Osterdalen, finally.









Rogue has a few more rows. (After I ripped out the biased hemming)






Little dog didn't want Girl of the House to leave for school this morning.

The 20th of April in southern Minnesota.



Ice on the lakes.
















Spring wildflowers.







The ice, floating on the waves, tinkled like wind chimes.

Steeking Osterdalen

On Saturday, Paul had to work.

I finally went to my sewing table and steeked Osterdalen.


Because I continued knitting in the round, rather than back and forth at the top, I needed to cut a neckline.

I used a bright red yarn to mark where I wanted the neckline.







I placed the sleeves to determine the depth needed for the steek.










I marked the location and length of the steek with the contrasting yarn.











Off to the sewing machine.

I stitched on both sides of the marking yarn.

I prefer to use short, narrow zigzag stitches. (Maximum placement of stitch fixation!)





There are two rows of stitches on both sides of the sleeve steeks.

Be brave, take a deep breath - and CUT!








Once I finished all the knit sewing and cutting, I was inspired to do some additional sewing.


I finished three denim box bags and one pretty little checked bag.

I cut out pieces for eight more bags.
Now, I need to return to the sewing room!

Knitting and a movie

Last evening, for our Friday night pizza and a movie, we saw "Juno".
(yes, we may be the last people in America to see it)

Loved it - cried like a baby though. Aren't hormones wonderful?

I managed to finish the hem and the first few rows of the body on Rogue.

After the Girl of the House went to bed, Paul and I watched "No Country for Old Men".

I safely continued knitting.


The time came to knit the hem up.

I started well.








The movie was very intense.


I forgot that I added stitches in the cabling area.

I just kept knitting.

I stopped here, in the middle of the row. Notice the severe bias? Yup, I screwed up big time.

I actually set it down and just watched the movie.

That's really unusual. No knitting while the TV is on???

Great movie, though...

It's raining cats and dogs

You can see the official word on the subject. Our fancy weather station says it all. "It's raining cats and dogs."

It's snowing not too far north of us. We're just getting cold rain. Perhaps it will snow later...






It's perfect weather for snuggling in and knitting Rogue.

One sleeve is done, the other is halfway there.








I'm going to have to skein and wash a few more balls of yarn.

Braces

Girl of the House had big happenings today.

Her braces were applied.


Here she is before leaving for school.











Here she is after her day at the orthodontist.

The rubber bands are her favorite color - teal. Isn't it cool they get to pick their bands?





In knitting news: while Osterdalen was blocking, I returned to Rogue.

After a few puzzled moments, trying to figure out where I was in the pattern, I reached the beginning of the sleeve cap.

One more lesson learned - if you aren't going to knit on a project for a month, leave yourself notes!





Big dog Paris has been having difficulties with maintaining ownership of his bed on the new flooring. Everyone wants a soft spot. At one point little dog Chip and calico girl Georgie were sharing with him. (Chip would prefer to play with me, rather than staying where he was for the picture.)

Reminder: ALWAYS label your handspun!

We were up early this morning. According to the weather service, it was going to be a rainy day.

We were out before the rain began. We did two geocaches, then returned home and settled in as the rain began.

After being out in the cool overcast morn, we had a big brunch. Most Sundays at home, we have eggs benedict and Bloody Marys for brunch. Paul makes the BEST fried potatoes!

Today was another success.





Contributing to the success - the eggs I get from a coworker. Home grown, free range eggs - at a price lower than storebought!






Paul worked on more flooring finishing. He's to the point where it really is a one-person job.




I blocked Osterdalen.

After it's dry, I'll cut out the neckline, seam the shoulders, and sew in the sleeves.





I've got a pile of knit goods that need repairs. Might as well begin with this one. Handspun alpaca seaman's scarf. When I went to wear it the other day, I noticed this icky bit at the castoff. I don't know what happened, but obviously it needs repair.

Should be a fairly simple quick fix, don't you think?


Nope! More raveling was needed than I expected. And the alpaca was sticky and difficult to ravel.


About this point, after many heavy sighs, I changed my drink from a bottle of water to a beer. (It's five o'clock SOMEWHERE!)

Because I raveled more than I expected, I went searching for some leftover yarn.

Did I have success? What do YOU think?

I really need to put labels on all these skeins. And this was just one basket!

Lots of white yarn, but no alpaca as best I could tell.

At last, I prevailed.

I raveled a few more rows than I had hoped, but unless someone holds it up and measures, no-one should notice that one side is a few rows shorter.





Lesson #1- LABEL YOUR SKEINS!!
Lesson #2 - Save some yarn from each project for repairs. Don't knit up every last inch.

I picked Osterdalen out of its basket a few nights ago.

Only 13 more rows, and I'm done to the shoulders!

Then, the STEEKING shall commence.



Paul worked on some of the finishing of the new flooring today, while I did minor household chores. Girl of the House was in town with her buddies.


After deciding that enough work had been accomplished, Paul and I set out to make a new cache.

Here, he's taking the GPS readings for the cache.

Can you see the cache? It's in plain sight.








Look straight up the trunk of the tree, then off to the right. There is a branch dangling. The cache is in that branch - it's a film canister inserted inside. Paul drilled out the inside of the branch for the film canister. The branch had a smaller branch attached, and so it hangs off one of the real branches. Unless you knew it was there, you'd never notice.

Cool, eh?

No, really, is THIS an April Fool's day joke?

Did anyone else see the Soft Linen Banana Cozy in the Classic Elite Yarns Webletter that came today, April 1? Yes, it's a cozy for the banana you may want to carry with you. Prevents bruising and helps ripen it faster!

They linked the pattern to Ravelry - Soft Linen Banana Cozy.

Even if this isn't an April Fools joke, is this the best color they could crochet this in. I mean, really, this is almost obscene...

April first!!

Is this an April fools' joke?





School is two hours late this morning.

With my nice new job, I can wait with the Girl for the bus. Yay!