Best Laid Plans....

This was a blog-filled weekend for me.  Not MY blog, mind you, but others'.  See, Mr. ODJ had a bunch of social engagements over the last week or so, meaning that I was putting in a little extra evening bedtime work in while he was out - he's in charge of bath and stories most nights, usually while I'm trying to scrounge us something resembling dinner out of the pantry/freezer.  What that meant for ME (aside from some extra quality time with His Cuteness this week) was that I got to negotiate a little non-baby time for myself here on a nice chilly Sunday afternoon, time I could spend however I chose.  Normally, I would choose to a) sleep; b) finish up one of the eleventy-million projects littering the house; c) make some underpants clean for the Mr and I for the upcoming week; d) drink heavily; or e) make some calls/write some emails to catch up with the friends and family that I can never seem to find the time to keep up with anymore.  Not necessarily in that order.  Oh, um....right...also maybe write some damned thank you notes already.  Ahem. Oh, and did I mention sleep?

Instead, as a measure of the mature and responsible Adult (and also Parent) that I am, I chose to spend this fine and glorious Sunday catching up on the Bloglines backlog, a backlog of posts numbering in, I kid you not, the THOUSANDS.  I will admit it. I briefly considered marking all of them as 'Read', and just starting with a clean slate. See above...THOUSANDS.  Y'all are a chatty lot, and I mean that in the best possible way.  I thought about it, and then realized that I couldn't.  I too badly wanted to know how everyone had spent their summer.  So I read, and read, and read.  And then I read some more.  Then I made us some clean things for the upcoming week because really? Clean underware.  I'm just saying. There was little to no commenting, I knew there was no way I could afford that luxury and still make it through.  No commenting, just lots and lots of reading.  And I almost made it, I did.  About 2/3 of the way through, some thing fantastically screwy happened to the laptop.  I have no idea what, as I was not in the room - or on the same floor even - when it happened, but when I came back with my hot chocolate, the computer was frozen, Explorer was closed, and my Bloglines slate had been wiped completely clean.  Completely.Clean.  Insert your preferred string of obscenities here. I did.  No, the Mr. wasn't in the room either, and shame on you for thinking that.

**SIGH**

It was fun while it lasted.

So I went and played in Ravelry for the first time in months.  Lemons to Lemonade, says me.

Hey look!  Knitting!

The Seaweed Set.

Knitted over Thanksgiving weekend during the 4-hour drive to St Albans, VT to visit family (and back).  There is just so much joy in the instant gratification factor of a beautiful, giant yarn on giant needles.

Specs:
Pattern: Seaweed, found here.
Yarn: Decadent Fibers Cream Puff in (I believe) the 'Indian Corn' colorway. This yarn salvaged from a failed sweater idea.
Mods: While mine is a bit longer than the one in the pattern, because I have a longer coat, the only modification I made was to add a few short rows to the center ribbed section at the top.  I wanted it to stick up a little higher than the rest of the piece and sort of make a little half-hood.  It works perfectly, and just flips down like a little shawl collar whe not in use.   Also, despite the lopsidedness going on at the top of the Seaweed (the left of the picture), it IS actually a normal arc, not all wonky like that.

Hat:  No pattern.  Just started knitting and decreased as necessary to make it the shape I wanted, trying it on a couple of times in the process.  Knit flat and seamed up the back because a) I didn't take any DPN's with me since I wasn't planning on knitting a matching hat (er...do I even own #13 DPN's?)  and b) I really wanted it to stand up and not be floppy so I thought a seam would help, structurally. 

Neck Warmer:   Betcha didn't realize that's what that freaky thing at the bottom was, eh?  Wearing this seaweed thing over a carried baby - a GRABBY baby, I might add - when one's primary base garment is a nursing tank with some sort of cardigan-ish top over it leaves a LOT of flesh exposed to the elements.  None of my scarves survived 5 minutes hanging right there in front of B's curious little eyes, hands and mouth, so I had to come up with something different.  I just cast on enough stitches to cover the exposed neckline of my favorite nursing tank, knit for a bit, started decreasing to a size that would wrap aroud my neck, yet lay flat.  I did 3 or 4 shortrows to get the bump for the back of the neck (nothing worse than the wind whistling down the backof one's collar) and then straight on to the end of the piece.  Add one button and voila.  Neck warmer.  I knew the thick and thin nature of the yarn would give it that little scalloped edge, so I didn't even have to dress it up any.

I'm not going to bother to promise pictures of this ON since it gets dark here just sortly after luchtime, for pity's sake, but I'd like to think we could make that happen.  We'll see.

And now, since it is a couple of HOURS past my bedtime, I'm off.  If anyone wanted to send B some sleepy vibes so that he doesn't wake me until morning, that would be grand.   

Comments

[PumpkinMama]

That is some functional knitting. I do hope you get a modeling shot, I bet you two look snazzy!

[maryse]

hi!

i don't have to go to longwood this week -- boss out of town -- so i might be able to come on tuesday.

[Danielle]

Thanks for explaining the neckwarmer. I was wondering what that was!! And I laughed out loud at "make some underpants clean for the Mr and I for the upcoming week" -- that is totally what I should have done last night instead of knitting, but it sounds way more fun than saying "I forgot to do the laundry".