Uncle Leona's Day Camp

Yes, I have been lax...

But it has taken a lot of energy to get my beloved Tribe back to the playoffs! Can't fret and blog at the same time...messes up the karmic flow of things. But the Indians are back in the playoffs, we fans can sorta relax for the last week of the season, and I can blog again.

Of course, the Browns could mess all that up. That's what they do.

Glen Albyn is, to keep with the baseball theme, rounding third and heading for home!

Nothing quite as enjoyable as knitting with two colors with a 16 inch size 3 Addi Turbo. You all should try it. Personally, I think that's why Aleve was invented. Nevertheless, there is only one sleeve and the front/neck bands to be done, and here's what's left to do it:

Houston, we have a problem. Turns out that somehow I wound up with a kit for a small cropped sweater. The small, according to Virtual Yarns, measures out to a chest of about 43 inches. My boobs haven't been that small since college. Either they goofed, or I, in my ever-evolving cheapitude, figured "I always have too much left over...why pay for what I won't use."

My money is on the latter. There's no end to my cheapness.

So, I have Virtual Yarns on the speed dial in case the yarn goes bye-bye. I'm guessing I'll need at least two more skeins, but we'll see how things go as the sleeve goes along. I did shorten the first sleeve to match my Oompa Loompa arms, so that will help, but that ruby red skein is used a ton in the trim, as is one of the browns. Hopefully, the dye lots won't be too off. I'm guessing that with this design, no one will notice anyway.

Lord knows I won't be pointing it out.

However, after the arthritis-inducing fun with the 16 inch circular, I decided to give my hands a break for a little bit and move on to something a little more reasonable. And speedy. I have had the yarn for Carolyn's PDY Vest (it's an obscure pattern) for a while. It's a vest. On size 8's. In mostly stockinette. Perfect. Got the back done in a night and a half:

The sides are done in double seed stitch with good ol' Lamb's Pride. The middle is a magic ball made up of my Garanimals collection of specialty yarns. There's something to be said about always leaning toward purple, pink, and blue. Most of them are left over from my Crayon Box jacket of a few years ago. The sweater trim is done with a sewn-on cable, which I'm still not sure if I like or not. I may just change it up to a seed stitch trim. The cable, to me, takes away from the fun of the specialty yarns. We'll see what happens.

I just like getting my blazing speed back. It's good for the ego.

What else is there to say?

GO BROWNS!!!!

Hard to believe they clobbered Cincinnati like they did today (51-45....they haven't scored 50 points in a game since 1989). I'm still wearing my Brady Quinn jersey with pride. It's going to make this week a happy one for this town--last week was so depressing.

OK, back to our regularly scheduled Glen Albyn report. Last night, I put the final touches on the body of the sweater. Here's the finished closed-end tube:

The shoulders actually were put together with a slightly different pattern, which turned out pretty cool:

Now, it's sleeve time:

And with one more salute to my beloved Brownies:

I love a good victory.

It's amazing what a good night's sleep will do

For the first time in about four nights, I enjoyed a full, uninterrupted night of sleep last night. The nose was actually functional without being splattered with Afrin, no beeper was around to wake me up, and the alarm was off thanks to today being a day off. I woke up fresh as a viral-infested daisy this morning. Still a tad clogged, but at least the eyes have stopped watering.

Good thing. I think the moms were starting to think I was getting too emotional telling them that their kid had diaper rash.

Anywho, I'm back in a bloggin' mood, so here's what's happenin'...

As I mentioned, Glen Albyn is chugging along.

Once I finish the pattern I'm on and go 12 more rows further, I get to do the neck shaping. That has that "light at the end of the tunnel" thing going for it, which is good. Of course, I still have the sleeves, which have proven to be a pain in the ass for me in the past. I'll try to keep a positive mental attitude about them. Really. I'll try.

Vodka could be useful, I believe.

I just want to get this thing done so I can move on to something using a needle a tad bigger. I miss my blazing speed.

The Labor Day felting extravaganza was a very good time. My Mom was the one most antsy to try her hand at making her own pin--her little gal turned out looking a lot like the one I made. As for my niece, she made an angel with no arms; her patience sort of ran out. The person who really got into it was, of all people, my almost 16-year-old nephew! First, he made a green bear head (his school mascot is a green bear...go figure) which turned out very cute, then he grabbed his favorite pirate t-shirt and made a perfect copy of the pirate (more of a smiley face with an eyepatch and a headband). I was quite impressed. As for me, I was my normal, over-the-top self:

Yep. The Queen of Subtle.

All right, here's your quiz of the day: where is the repeat in this sock?

If you said at the top of the second sock, you're right! I have never seen a sock yarn with such a long repeat. These are being knit with some Trekking XXL I had in the sock basket. I was beginning to fret that the repeat was going to pop up somewhere three inches from the toe, but it actually wound up about two inches after the toe was grafted shut. I did a little surfing out there, and apparently this is the norm for the Trekking XXL yarn.

That's my public service announcement for the day.

Never fear

Despite rumors to the contrary, I did not commit hari kari after the Browns game on Sunday.

Primarily, I think that was due to the fact that one of the rugrats has decided to share their head cold with me, and I was too busy sticking Kleenex up my nose. Secondarily, I don't own a sword.

Anyhow, I'm still here. I'll get a few photos up in a little bit when my nose stops dripping. There's a chance I may be doing neck shaping on Glen Albyn tomorrow if I'm lucky. Can you feel the anticipation in the air????