A good weekend

It wasn't a terribly eventful weekend, but that's all right with me! I have spent most of it knitting furiously, trying to finish my sister's sweater before I see her next weekend. It is coming along -- I have another couple of inches to finish the sleeves (which I plan to do tonight). Then blocking, seaming, and the button band. And then the fringe. Not much time. I did take a bit of time to knit the gauge swatch for Baby Helen's cardigan. Oh, it is so soft!!! I cannot wait to get started on the project. It's a much finer gauge than what I'm used to working -- all knit on #2's and #3's -- until now, the smallest needles I owned were 7's.

I went to Supper Club tonight. The theme was Asian food -- apropos of Chinese New Year. It's the year of the pig, and it was pretty easy for me to live up to that tonight! I took a Thai-style coconut soup. It was the first time I'd made it, but it turned out pretty nicely.

I was going to take a photo of pieces of the sweater on the blocking board, but I think I'll wait and take photos next weekend of my sister actually wearing the sweater (fingers crossed that it will fit!)

Bleah.

OK -- First let me agree with my friend Costume Chick that the new Blogger is a colossal pain in the ass. I've spent the past 20 minutes (a) trying to log onto my account, and (b) trying to link to Costume Chick's blog (apparently half the HTML capabilities are missing for us Safari users). I am pissed with Blogger and the Help section is of no help whatsoever.

Anyway, I'm posting a little later than usual this week because I've been very sick. It felt like the flu except no fever. Didn't even leave the house Thursday or Friday of last week, and tried to rest during the weekend. But I'm back (even if it's not at 100%).

When I was sick I didn't even have the energy to knit, but I've made good progress on my sister's sweater since the weekend. I finished the front cardigan panels and cast on the sleeves over the weekend. I've knit several inches, but last night I got all tangled up in yarn barf (thanks Val for an excellently descriptive term!) But it's finally unsnarled and hopefully I'll get more done tonight. Down to the wire -- deadline knitting -- I don't know if I like that idea.

I'm at work (on my lunch hour, of course!) so I don't have any good knitting photos to post. So I'll share some others.

Here's a photo I found on the net of a squirrel wearing a sweater. For the sake of all involved I hope the sweater was photoshopped in.

And if that doesn't make you smile, here's a photo of a great Halloween costume for your dog. Never too early to start planning your dog's Halloween costume. But Anne, what if I don't have a dog? Well, it's February. Go get a dog. You've got time.

Success!

Well, the photo isn't great, but I got over to the Yarn Garden today for their Super Bowl XLI Sale (41% off of everything!) I was looking for yarn for my niece Helen's cardigan. Not a difficult thing, really -- since my sister had requested white. Going into a yarn store looking for white baby yarn in a fine gauge really helps narrow things down. There was lots of beautiful yarn and I did see some S&B people doing some stash shopping, but I was on a mission. I got 7 skeins of Svale, by Dalegarn of Norway. It's 50% cotton, 40% viscose, and 10% silk and it feels really good. I am looking forward to casting on, but I want to finish my sister's birthday sweater first -- just under three weeks before I head south to see her, my niece, and the rest of the fam.

Well, off to watch the game & some commercials, and to do some power knitting!