Weekend Recap

Had a good weekend. We went up to PA to see Kris's Mom and my folks. One of the reasons we went up to see Kris's Mom was so that he could deliver something to her. When his Dad passed away in April, Kris and I talked about buying the urn for his ashes, but I suggested to him that maybe he should make something. His Dad is the one who taught him woodworking, so we decided that would be a fitting tribute. Kris designed and built this: The light wood is cherry, and the dark wood is wenge. I think it is absolutely stunning. Like I told Kris, I wish to hell he hadn't had to make it, but I think he did a beautiful job on it. While we were there, we took a walk with his Mom and Onyx (their black lab/Rottweiler mix) around the old farm. Kris took a bunch of pictures and posted some of the best ones on his flickr page. We spent Saturday night at my folks' and took Dad to lunch at the Olive Garden on Sunday. He claims never to have been to an Olive Garden, which just boggles my mind. We had a great lunch and a nice time just hanging out with them. In the car on the way to and fro, I finally started my HushHush. I cast on and got through about half of the lace at the bottom. At the moment, it's just kind of a pink pile, so I haven't taken any pics just yet. That, and it's been raining like mad here since yesterday (although it looks to be clearing up), so the light is less than ideal. I did realize that between the HushHush, the Pomatomus socks (currently in time out due to some issues on my part. Trying to figure out how to fix them without ripping. Not sure it's going to be possible. Sigh), and the Candleflame Shawl, I am using nothing bigger than a US2 needle right now. And it is killing my hands! So, the solution? Cast on something else, of course! :D I recently swapped with chadzturtledove2 on the Knittyboards, and she sent me 8 skeins of the coveted and discontinued Lion Cotton-Ease in Ice Blue. She also sent me some really cute patterns for it from an issue of Family Circle Easy Knitting. I'm seriously considering a sleeveless turtleneck with some of it. For the time being, though, I started the Bombshell tee from Big Girl Knits. It is really a cute pattern, and I can't wait to see how it comes out! And how sad is it that I have gotten to the point where using US8's is using "big" needles. What happened to the woman who feared anything smaller than a 9? Oh, and just for massive amounts of temptation - check out this blog: Cupcake Bakeshop. I am totally drooling over some of her recipes and am absolutely going to try some of them. Eventually.