On a Dare

This pciture is the result of me not keeping my mouth shut!! I was doing some more packing this week and was digging around in the closet for things I would not need any time soon. I got to the dusty back of my hanging clothes and pulled out my hippy wedding dress. It was cheap when I bought it almost 32 years ago and has never been cared for anymore than just being on a hanger and drug from town to town as we moved. I decided to throw it in the washer and see if it would survive, suprisingly it did quite well. I happened to mention to my weight watcher friends that I thought I could actually fit into it after all these years. Well they kind of dared me to do just that and take a picture. So this morning, I donned the dress, set up the camera and staging(sewing interfacing over the window to diffuse lighting) and set out to make a self portrait. It took about 2 hrs since the lighting was still difficult with so much white. I just kept messing with the metering and finally got a few shots. So yes, I can fit into my wedding dress. But will I ever do this again-probably not!!! This dress will now be officially retired and given to my dear granddaughters to play dress up. I am sure I can get a much better picture when they play "wedding"!!

My knitting week was very very good to me. Last week I mentioned that I had to put the Million sq afghan on hold until more yarn came in. I only had to wait until Wednesday but then it came in droves!! I had been checking the mailbox everyday and finding nothing. I was expecting a Knitpicks order and 2 balls I bought on ebay. Then finally while I was out walking Wed afternoon the mailman came thru with my knitpicks order AND....a whole big box of yarn scraps from the Heathen Housewife herself!!!!! I could not beleive how generous she was and with what lovelies. The knitpicks order paled in comparison. Within minutes I had a new block on the needles and I have been cranking them out since. One day I reeled off 9 new squares. I think now I have finally used every yarn HH sent at least once and some twice. And the Knitpicks yarn ended up being quite lovely too. Of course now I am craving even more variety and have 3 more orders coming in. Still have a bit coming from some more friends too.

I am finally cranking on the Saddle Shouldered Aran. I can only knit about 8 rows a night tho. For some reason it makes my arms ache a little more than most projects. It may the extra work involved in the many cables that need to be crossed. But still 8 rows a night will have the project done well before sweater wearing weather rolls around again next fall. It took awhile but the spreadsheet format has started to click with me and the cable repeats are fairly easily memorized. So far I have only found one very tiny mistake, a purl stitch when it should have been a knit. But it is well disguised and I am sure not going to try to fix it. I am working on a fairly short cable circular needle so I can not "try" the body on yet but if anything it will be a little loose. Plus the steek would make it hard to tell. I can always make adjustments when I do the buttonbands to size it up or down just a little.

And for once I actually got some sewing/quilting done. This quilt top is the found one that I speculate could be at least 20 years old. I finished sewing on the last row of blocks, whipped on the border and today got it basted for quilting. Lexi just had to jump in and hog the picture. Crazy Cat.

I hope this next week finds me nearly as productive and accomplished!! There is still a bit of packing to be done although we got a lot more done this weekend. This is finally the week DH gets to go to the surgeon to see if he can get his neck fixed. I had to laugh when Sunday I was thinking about my busy schedule for the week. I plan on going to DH's Dr's appointment with him and I have my stitch group that night. That and the commissary and I was feeling a little pressure of being away from home too much. Think back less than 2 months ago and I would have had to add a 40+ hr work week and 4 hr commute to all of that!!! How I have adjusted to the slow lane!!! My only need for speed is in my needles!!! I will leave you for the week with just a few cute pics of the fuzz buckets. Both of them managed to be very cute and photogenic-much more than their human mommy!!