What a Difference a Day Makes

Now usually I have a 3 day weekend from work. Since I work out of town this is how I manage my life. 4 days at work and 3 days at home with hubby. But once a month I am on call and I get to be home about a day and a half with 2 nights next to hubby. But this week because of co-workers vacations I only get about 22 hours at home. And I have to do it again next weekend. But I figured out you can still get a lot done in 22 hrs. I managed to grocery shop on the way back into town, 4 loads of laundry, watered the yard, finished sewing a top for DGD#1 and cooked dinner. And of course there is what comes later tonight when I get to share the bed with DH for just the one night!!!

Last weekend I started my very first Baby Suprise Jacket. I am working off the pattern from Elizabeth Zimmerman's book "The Opinionated Knitter" I am using a Colinette superwash DK weight yarn called "Cadenza" I forget what the colorway is because the ball band is in the city at the moment. It called for 3oz of baby wool that can be knitted at 6 stitches per inch but I ran out just shy of being done and I had a little more than 3 oz so I had to order a whole new skein and I have to wait for it to arrive to finish. I started it on size 7 straights but I will never do that again. I kept having trouble with my long size 7's hitting the wicker on my knitting chair and pulling the needle out of the stitches!! SO this weekend I went and bought a new size 7 Addi Turbo circular to make any further BSJ's I may want to make.. And I am sure I will be making many more. I love this design. I still want to mess around with the double decreases & increases and to figure out where to put contrasting stripes in. But otherwise it is an interesting sweater to knit despite the fact that every stitch is knit, no purling ever. To me this sweater is proof that EZ was a genius pure and simple. Read the book and discover how she came up with this pattern. It basically evolved from a mistake making a hat...yes a hat!! All my mistakes ever get me is frogging!!!

This is the new top I made for my eldest granddaughter. I am very happy with the end result. I only wish the picture could portray how cute it turned out. I always hope her mommy will take pictures of her wearing it but it rarely happens but I know she loves getting stuff I have made her. My youngest granddaughter is not girly enough to care for this pattern so I plan on going to Old Navy and finding her some T-shirts to send. She also loves what grandma makes her but I am realistic and don't want to waste the time making something she just doesn't care for. I still have some more fabric to make them PJ's and maybe I can get them started soon-after everybody gets back from vacation.

I did get some new socks started this weekend. They are the new pattern from my KAL called "I love Gansey" I am making them in a new yarn from a company called "JoJoLand" They yarn is called Melody and it is a superwash Merino that seems quite soft. It is very delicately self striping in a heathery green, fading to purple, fading to blue.. I am not completely happy with the stitch definition on these but they will be soft and warm and I can always reknit this pattern in a crisper yarn down the road. Again they did not photograph well but I will put the pic up anyway just so you can see how the colors blend into each other. I am past 1/2 way on the first leg in just one day although I sure got sick of knitting yesterday evening!!

I am sure I will get alot of knitting in this week and it is possible I can get the sock I am working on completely done and start the 2nd one. It is supposed to be horribly hot this week so I won't be doing any marathon walking and I am only working 8 hr days so I will have extra time each evening. I sure wish my rush order of yarn had come to finish the BSJ but oh-well. That can be next weekend for sure. I have no quilting or sewing on tap until we do our first progressive RR switch which is coming up fairly soon. Other than that it is just work, work, work and knit, knit,knit.......till next time