Home Again

Coffee this morning is at home. I feel I should have a little smilie or emoticon to indicate happiness here. I've been away for two days with The Girl Child while the boys held the fort with the dogs. 

Coffee the morning I was away was interesting:

I was staying at my aunt's house. It was quiet as the early risers were up and out and the rest were sleeping. So I quietly made my coffee and sat down at the little cafe table in the kitchen to drink it. I guess I smelled right or was sitting in the right place. This cat clambered up me and buried itself in my neck and hair. It then settled in and I was holding a cat for quite some time while I drank my coffee. 

The funny thing - and not funny 'ha ha' - is that the cat is a hairless cat and that makes petting it very similar to petting a rubber glove. It's a little unnerving to actually see what goes on under the usual kitty fur. 

 

 

While I was away I got to attend a very nice baby shower at a very swanky golf club. My SisterInLaw is the mama-to-be. We travelled on after the shower to my mom's hometown. We didn't even stop to catch our breath before heading out to the movies to see The Fault in Our Stars. Now I have to read the book. 

The second day of my little trip involved shopping for the morning while my mom took her mom to the lawyer's office. A nice lunch followed at a place where we all could eat. And that's tricky since our eating habits go from Carnivorous to Vegan-Gluten-Free-No-Seeds-Or-Nuts.

On our way home, we stopped at a locally famous bakery and bought cinnamon buns to bring home for the boys. The Girl Child got a gopher tail. I think this is a play on the Canadian Beaver Tail - deep fried pastry dipped in sugar and topped with sugary syrup of choice. The gopher tail was deep fried pastry filled with cream and then rolled in sugar and topped with sugary syrup in many flavours.

 

 

 

This treat made for a happy teenager who didn't really notice the milk-run of a drive through cottage country to the highway that would deliver us home. 

It was a short and sweet trip and we accomplished a lot. I have not travelled with my mom for quite a few years - we used to do trips like this all the time...then I had babies. The kids have done this trip more often than I have while they've been growing up. I had forgotten how very busy these trips can be. No moment is spared. Visiting is scheduled and timed, sleeping is over rated and there are few stops along the way between tasks. It's a good time, but it's nice to get home, too.

♥Mrs. A.

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Sweet Poppy It Happened Again!!

You may remember in my last post, I ran out of yarn for my wee purple summer socks. My own fault. It was an experiment. 

However...

Here is my Sweet Poppy baby jacket. You might be able to just make out the string going from arm to arm across the middle of the piece. That's the yarn I have left over. 6 inches to finish about 10 rounds on each little sleeve. 

This time, I'm not impressed. I got gauge and I had enough yarn according to the pattern. Pattern called for 200 yards. Skein said there were 214. Isn't a pattern supposed to test these things out and round up??

My option is to rip out the hem, rip out the edging, the take back the left and right sides, making the flare smaller and the jacket shorter, replace the edging, replace the hem and curse it until the cows come home. 

My other option is to call the yarn store in the village to the north and see if she's got some Malabrigo Rios in the colourway required. I suppose I could also check and see if she also has some purple to finish my socks...

I don't suppose my mom is going to hop on a jet back to New Orleans to get more yarn. That seems silly, even for yarn. However, I should consult her since I am knitting it for her to give as a gift at a baby shower. 

Said baby shower is this weekend. It's a fancy one. Catered, there will probably be hats involved and hosted by the Mother-To-Be's mom and sister at a serious golf club. Mother-To-Be is married to my brother and we're all excited. But we're going to be short one knitted baby jacket unless the stars align and I pull an all-nighter. 

I'm feeling some pressure to represent the Father-To-Be properly, so much so that I've crossed over to the 'other side' and scheduled myself a pedicure. Not that there's anything wrong with pedicures, I'm sure. I don't know, I've never had one. The spa is just not my style. I have a very generous gift certificate that I've been hanging on to since Christmas, so I figured this was as good a time as any to use it up. So nails and toes will be pretty for the weekend. Or at least improved. 

I thought I should include a 'before'...artfully posed so as to cover the unsightly mosquito bites. I wonder if Mr. A will notice?

In other news, The Girl rocked her science exam. 93%, giving her an overall mark of 95% in the course. Well done, Girl, since in this case, we're doing it for the numbers. Her registration at the virtual school for high school credit courses has been accepted and processed. I feel that we're one step closer to having life organized. 

In proper grown-up fashion, Mr. A and I went out and bought some insurance:

Apparently, this generator will run many electrical things in my house, most importantly, the sump pump and the fan that blows the heat around. Having experienced the Ice Storm of 1998 and quite a few blackouts (summer) and power outages (winter) since, a generator is becoming a fixture in many homes here in SE Ontario. 

Just one coffee this morning as I must primp and coif and moisturizer in preparation to be clipped and filed and polished. Wish me luck and patience while I pay strangers to invade my personal space. 

♥Mrs. A. 

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Something Seems Amiss....

The completed sock is 26g. The partially completed sock is 24g. Somehow, the tiny tangle left to knit, not even enough to qualify as a ball, is 2g. 

Theoretically, the math should work. Practically, I'm not so sure. 

♥Mrs. A. 

Something Seems Amiss...Part 2

After a very brief moment where I considered ripping back the toe-in-progress as well as the completed toe of the first sock in a vain attempt to steal back enough yarn to finish both toes, I came to my senses and decided to do the only logical thing: 

Put the almost-completed sock on a stitch holder and buy more yarn. 

Also to consider: is there a decorative edge that I could use in future that doesn't use as much as the picot hem? Something scallop-y perhaps? I seem to be brewing a 'summer socks in 50grams or less' challenge...

♥Mrs. A. 

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