I hope everybody has had a good week-I have. Last Tuesday we were on our last MRI patient that had to have anesthesia with several walky-talky outpatients to go. Then the holiday for the 4th was to start. Well on that last anesthesia patient the scanner decides to die before even finishing up the exam. We got enough for the scan to be read but barely. When the service guys came in they determined that the worst possible part was fried and at the worst possible time, righ before the 2 days holiday that GE was taking. SO with the prospect of not scanning until Monday I volunteered to go home for the rest of the week. I had PTO's to burn and projects to work on. And I never take a stay at home vacation so I was excited at the prospect. I did end up getting alot done. I kind of had a game plan and I stuck to it some. So some stuff on my list got done and some did not. Some stuff not on my list got done instead like making major headway in my sewing room with the packing and organizing. But I did not get Maddie's top cut out. I did get 1 of my RR blocks made and all my current FS stars sewn togeather.

On the knitting front I finished the 1st of the baby sweaters I need to make. This is the only one for a boy. It is for the sweetest ICU doctor who is having a baby soon. I still need to make a hat but I will put that off because I have a looming deadline for a girls sweater. I really love this little sweater although my pictures do not do it justice. I need to buy a cheap baby doll to be my model since none of the babies I knit for are close by (or even born!) Things I learned on this project was intarsia-there is a strip knit up the back of the sweater in this technique. I also figured out that I could use my sleeve ham to help sew the sleeve into the sweater. I basically divided the body of the sweater and the sleeve into equal 4ths and marked with pins. Then I put the sleeve ham thru the armholes of the sweater. Then I could place the pins placed on the sleeve edge up to the corresponding body pin. I could then anchor the work with more pins and merrily go about sewing the edges togeather. I thought it was slicker than snot myself. And I got the best looking sewn in sleeves I have ever gotten. This was on a small baby sweater but I bet it would work just as well on larger projects although you may have to sub divide the peices more. Or I may look for a larger tailor's ham to use. Any firm padded curved surface that will fit in the armhole should do fine. Pattern was Devan, from Bee's Knee's Knits although I downloaded the "Knitty " version. The yarn I used was Colinette Jitterbug. It was the first time I have used it and I am absolutely in love with it. The hand-dyed yarn has such a nice smooth feel to it for being 100% wool and it is treated to be washed since it is actually sock yarn. The dark cranberry colorway was only very subtly variegated. But the blue had lots of different colors running thru it including some of the cranberry. The colors only ran for 5-6 stitches each time with lots of blue between. I can never tell how hand painted yarns will knit up but this is one time I was thrilled with the result. I will definitely use Jitterbug again and hopefully soon.

I had alot of trouble with my arm this weekend. I can't decide whether I messed it up pulling weeds in the garden or cutting thru 6 layers of cardstock with my rotary cutter. But it cut down on my knitting due to the pain. I have taken quite a bit of Aleve and taken care to not overdo and it is finally getting better!! Getting old is hell!! I also felt pretty ancient when I went to buy a new phone this week. It took me 2 days to get it set up and of course I have not even come close to using all its features yet. All I wanted was a phone and of course it has a camera and a MP3 player. But I actually came close to buying an iPhone. I got to mess with it at the store and it was easy to use and had so much stuff on it. But a smart person does not buy brand new technology. One gives it a chance to have the bugs worked out so maybe next time!!

Once again it is time to post my goals for the next week. I hope to be well along with baby sweater #2, I mean well along. And I want to get at least 1 or 2 more RR blocks made. I would love to have Maddie's top cut out and maybe partially sewn. But we will see how it plays out and I will let you know next time........

See Eileen-here's my head!!!