I love your hair!!! It looks beautiful!! You’re quite lovely too, actually!
I absolutely LOVE Jasper Fforde!!! 
Who’s reading the audio book?
You guys are so sweet!
OK I was SO depressed when I thought it was going to take me 9 more weeks to finish that balnket. Turns out I started this ball the same day as I posted the meaning of life on the general knitting blog, which was July 15. That means it has taken me 6 days to knit this ball so I have 3 balls to go, therefore it will take me 18 more days to finish if I can keep up this pace. I guess I first was counting from the next to last ball I knitted, when I was going slower… anyway!
I looked on the KAL blog today and wished I had gotten in on Hildie’s tank top KAL when it started - could have used my banana silk. Oh well! I’d like to KAL with others who want to do the newsboy cap from SNB - when this blanket is done - its a must-do for Christmas. Any takers? When the time gets closer I will post to the KAL blog and put up a pic if possible.
Time to get those last few rows in and trundle off to bed - night night friends!
Laura
Oh Jasper Fforde! I love him! I’m listening to his audio book for Eyre Affair - I read that whole series about 6 mos ago I think, its great, isn’t it??
You’re zipping right along on that afghan! And it’s never too late to join a KAL! Jump right in.
Those Tuesday Next novels are hilarious! I laugh and giggle the whole way through them. (I haven’t read the latest one, though.) Does he actually read them in the audio version?
I have this as my desktop at work–people always giggle. If you want one for yourself, go here!
:roflhard: :roflhard:
That is great! I will put it on my stumbleupon page :lol:
He doesn’t read it himself (as soon as I posted that last reply I thought, oh, she is asking WHO is reading it on the CD! ) :oops: Its read by someone called Elizabeth Sastre. and she does a great job. Lots of different British accents to keep the characters distinguished from each other.
I am just now thinking about the order of my next projects - I think since the banana silk tank did not work out on the last try, I will save it for next spring.
The thing I am aching to start next is the fern/asparagus KP - but I realize that if I’m going to get the Christmas projects done they MUST be next! :angelgrin: (we should have a Santa smiley!!)
I did a cabled scarf that my youngest stepdaughter (SD?) really liked - so I’m going to give it to her, and I will make a hat to match. That should only take a few weeks since the pattern I found seems pretty easy. The newsboy cap is for my other SD and will look really adorable (adorkable!!) on her, but I have never made anything like it and it looks hard! :shock: So should budget extra time for that.
Then there is the project I bit off that may be REALLY more than I can chew I’m afraid - its a real afghan made with worsted weight yarn (what was I thinking? at least I could have used bulky!) that is a mass of alternating weird cables. (apparently no pic of this on the web - its called Aran Cabled Afghan by Plymouth Yarns, designed by Lainie Hering). I’m SO glad there is a knitting circle here so I can get HELP since I KNOW I will NEED it!!!
I have already started it but am only on my second (small) ball of yarn.
That afghan is for my DDD (dear darling daughter!) and I would REALLY like it to be done by Christmas but I honestly don’t think its possible. When I started it last March I thought, if I work on it steadily it will be done by Dec, but it got too HOT and I just couldn’t deal with the thought of it on my lap as it grew. Its made of really yummy soft MAXI 70% wool 30% acrylic - whereas the BB blanket is lightweight acrylic in a lacy pattern. Even so it is too hot to work on IT during the main part of the day. We don’t have A/C - not that many people do in Flagstaff.
I’m not a big fan of acrylic, and was hoping to find some kind of washable wool for both (superwash) but have not found any except in sock weight.
These projects are in both cases for young people who might not be trusted to do the handwash-in-cold-water thing :rollseyes:
OK off to knit!! :XX: :XX: :XX: Have a great Saturday!!
Laura
OMG I have been way too good today. How exhausting! :angelgrin:
I decided I would work on our finances this AM for 1HOUR so I could then feel free to work on starting that hat for SD2. I’m sick of the BB blanket and need a break! So that was at 10 AM… I got on a roll and here it is 1PM and I am about to do the last bit…not sure how long that will take. But I will be so releived when its finally done. The idea is to see exactly what we have been spending in each category in order to estimate what our spending will be in the second half of the year… good for planning.
Also good for motivating us to spend less… although so far it looks like we have spent less than we expected in the discretionary categories - haven’t looked at medical yet, I know we have spent more.
Amidst the figures and $$ I have been fantasizing about the Fair Isle water bottle carrier… I was thinking I could get that KP booklet that shows the patterns for all the little snowy figures, but actually use them on the water bottle cover. That is, pick a few, its not very big 
What a cool Christmas present would that make!!! I really want it for me, I have this neato water bottle that flips open with one hand, is made of nalgene so no leaching, and I drink my herb tea out of it. I want to get one for each kid (=6!) and if I were the lean, mean knitting machine I could knit carriers for each one. maybe by next St. Swithin’s day!
I wish I had a knitting friend to invite over for a knitting afternoon! Hopefully if I keep going to knitting circle I will acquire such a friend!!
Anyway back to the last bit…
Laura
:roflhard: :roflhard: Isn’t it a great feeling, that exhaustin from being virtuous!!
Do you have a pattern for this fair isle water bottle cover?! That sounds really nifty! And you can certainly get all 6 done (plus the one for yourself?) by Christmas!
Yes I do have the pattern, courtesy of Jenelle
http://www.hjsstudio.com/bottle.html
sorry my brain is too tired to embed the link
:oops: :oops:
Laura
Oh that is adorable!!
And you don’t need to embed short links. Just the long ones that make the pages huge 
Good
OK here is my day - I never got to start the hat for SD because I was working on finances until it was time to go to the groc store and get dinner. However I am happy and content because we have a PLAN now :cheering:
Really surprised that we are staying within budget, I must have missed something :rofling:
Just now I got an invitation to be part of the yahoo group belonging to the knitting circle in town 
So I posted some pics of some FOs on their group page, and found some pics in the process that I want to post here! This has been a day for finding things, found several $-related items that had fallen through the cracks.
The caramel-colored kitty is Chunk, he is deceptively cute, actually a brat!
The gray stripey one is Jack, who weighs more than my dog Holly.
Seeing how these look…
Laura
Seems like Jack should be named Chunk! :rofling:
They’re both beautiful!!! 
And yay for you for getting the invite to your local knitting circle!! :cheering: :cheering:
Awwwwww! I love your kitties!!
Heehee Chunk is big now - I think that pic was when he was about 6 mos old. He is about as big as Jack (~15 #) but does not have that sort of imposing gravity that comes from being an old, self-important cat! Jack is quite impressive, the mail carrier even came up and told me how cool he is. He goes out and meets people on the street. He especially likes the ladies, but most humans are OK with him. He hates dogs and other cats.[/i]
here is a pic of my kids, left ot right: Roxanna, Cameron and Mitra
Hope this is not too fuzzy… This was also taken awhile back, boy this tells me we need to get the family together and take pictures!! Now only one I’m missing is Tom, SS - he must be camera-shy, can’t find any of him.
Left to right, kathy, Becky, Jim
Your family is gorgeous!
Thanks
Well, tonight I finally DID get to figure out the hat pattern :cheering:
I converted it from chunky to worsted. It has a bunch of cables so I needed to mess with the pattern, adding in a few more cables. Its kind of random anyway, with wide and narrow cables here and there, so I ended up adding another wide one and more ribbing between. I used the graph paper online on ABCs of knitting. I went to Office Max to see f they had graph paper with small enough squares - they did - 6 tablets for $15! No Way! I probably will only use 6 pages a year, not 6 tablets! :shock:
So that was pretty fun, making a little graph-paper pattern! I cast on and did the first couple rows so I know I’m on track. This is from the book One Skein by Leigh Radford, called asymetrical cable hat. Its knit straight up, no decreases, so it should go pretty quick. At the top you sew it square, then tack the 2 corners together. Then you stick a pompom on top. The other thing that makes it different is, no ribbing at the bottom - it goes straight to the cable pattern.
I did get a bit done on the BB blanket today but it was awfully hot. It will be easier to do this small project, and it is for Christmas so needs to get done.
night peeps!
Laura
You have six kids? Handsome family! 
Love those kitties!
And your family is adorable!!!
Yep - 3 of mine and 3 of Jim’s!
Laura
well, yesterday was pretty good as far as knitting went. Worked on the blanket for for about 3 hours total I think - maybe more.Took it with me to knitting crcle and got a lot done while chatting! Its a good group, good mix of ages and people are nice. Found out that there is a YS in a town about 1 hr east of here! Who would think, it’s a tiny little town. But nobody had been there - we will have to organize a field trip!
Also got about an hour’s worth done on the hat, I think… It is really fun and should go quickly.
The reason the blanket is working now is that we had a storm that cooled us off about mid afternoon and it stayed quite chilly. So far its not too hot yet so am back at the blanket, between spurts of housework :rollseyes:
Have a great day!
:happydance:
Laura