The best laid plans

I've had my butt kicked with the baby jacket . I'm seriously behind with this project . At this point I'd hoped to be working on the matching pants ! Witness the progress as of this morning ...

The instructions for this pattern leave something to be desired . The real problems began with the attempt to attach the sleeves on the circular needles . There are 247 stitches on the needle at that point and the underarm gap was only three stitches wide , meaning that working the first few rows was a nightmare of kinked cable , dropped stitches , frogging back when the pattern didn't match up . You name it went wrong . I think I'm on the right track now , but keeping fingers crossed that everything lines up in the proper place. On the plus side having to do this for a second smaller sized jacket I should have all the kinks worked out , so progress should be quicker .

We had the most gorgeous weather here this past weekend . I dug out a lawn chair and sat outside for a bit on Saturday . Unbelievable for the end of March ! We turned off the lights for Earth Hour and read by candlelight . Apparently here in Quebec energy consumption only went down by 5 % during that time, which is not as good as some other provinces . Maybe next year we'll do better .

Off to have lunch with Shirley and then bring Bingo to the groomer . I'll have a brand new pup when I get him back .

A new WIP

Late last week Chantal gave us the date for Jessey's christening . It will be on Mother's day May 10th , in the afternoon. She asked me if I could knit an outfit for him , hoping that I had enough time to also knit one for her BF Monika's baby who's also being christened that day . No pressure there , six weeks to knit two outfits ! I wouldn't normally consider knitting the second outfit , but Monika will be Jessey's godmother .




Here's what we decided upon , the jacket , pants and a hat , knit in a fine white cotton . This is how much I got done after about 10 hours or so of knitting this weekend . I'm just about at the yoke and will cast on for the first sleeve today . It's pretty much all knit on 2,oo /2,5 mm circulars . At least there won't be a lot of sewing /finishing when the knitting is completed .





The plan is to have the jacket done this week with the pants at least cast on . In between I'll also be working on the green baby sweater , just to get a break from white cotton . Keeping fingers crossed that all goes as planned with this special knit project ...

Spring & other things

It really feels like Spring is not far off . We've had glorious weather and the snow is melting away . Yay !

Last week wasn't too productive knitting wise . I've started on the sweater for Shirley's expected grandson . Yes , they're having a boy . Shirley got the news on Saturday evening . Her son lives in BC and they had an ultrasound done in Edmonton where Robyn's family are . Shirley was able to see the ultrasound being performed via the Internet . How amazing is that !

Other than that there's not much exciting going on here . I've started on our income taxes , a most depressing task , since you see in black and white how much money the taxman taketh . We've been lucky because in the last few years we've not owed more and got a refund . The reason being that more comes off Mike's payslip for Quebec taxes . It's always hard to scrape the money together when you owe them so we decided awhile ago to pay more right at source . It leaves less take home pay but at least we're done with it at tax time .

Mike and I went out to dinner on Saturday night , sort of unexpectedly . We'd intended to go see " The International " but I messed up on the theatre showing so we made lemonade out of lemons and went out Cafe Maurizio . This is a tiny Italian restaurant not far from the cineplex that we discovered quite by accident last year . The food is delicious , not too pricey and the desserts are HEAVENLY . I'll try to get the movie right next time , wink wink ....

Tickled Pink toddler socks ...

... fresh off the needles . I can't believe there's till yarn left ! Maybe there 's enough for some wee baby socks .

We had such nice weather this weekend that the knitting was put aside to enjoy the fresh air . It really felt like spring might be just around the corner .Today it's back to winter, with cooler temps and snow , so back to knitting . I'm anxious to gift these mother /daughter socks while it's still cool enough to wear them .

Aside from enjoying the weather we spent part of Saturday costing out the downstairs bathroom renovation planned for this spring/summer . Our bathroom downstairs is badly in need of an overhaul . The federal government renovation tax credit (part of their economic stimulus package ) was an added incentive to get going on this project . I guess I have to thank Stephen Harper for at least one thing , much as I can't stand the man or his party . Max will be helping Mike with a good part of the work . The plan is to have it all done before Max's wedding so we can accommodate out of town guests . Can't wait to get going !

Casey was over early Saturday morning with Jessey . He wanted to give Chantal a chance to sleep in . Bonus visit with the little man ! Yesterday they were all here for Sunday brunch . It's nice to have them all together , it makes my week !

A new month

Well it's a new month and there are some knits off the needles and something new on them too . I'll call these the strawberry waffle socks (the pattern is a waffle rib) . These are intended for Shirley's daughter and the smaller ones will be for her granddaughter , Emma . The yarn is Lorna's Laces "Tickled Pink " .

There was quite a bit of yarn left from Dana's socks , so I decided to knit a toddler sized pair for Emma . Just in case I ran out of the Lorna's Laces , I searched the stash and found a single ball of hot pink sock yarn . Perfect solution , cuff , heels and toes in the Lorna's Laces and the rest of the sock in hot pink . Pink is not my colour, so it's a mystery to me how I had some in the stash and only one ball to boot. Another pair down and knitting continues ....