Happy Groundhog Day!

Mondays kind of suck. The weekend never seems quite long enough, you have to get up early again, and the whole work thing is kind of a drag. However, when you have managed to somehow finagle your still-somewhat-jet-lagged husband to get up with not one, but both kids, allowing you to sleep for 11+ hours for the first time in (probably) five years, there's not much room for complaining. Even though I will try.

It's been a crazy few weeks - IM went on a week long business trip, Mermaid came to visit, the girls' daycare moved into a new building (where Boo's new teacher lasted all of three days before becoming persona non grata - oops!), and things swung into high gear on our moving plans. The grownups in the family are going to look for a place to live in a couple of weeks. Is is silly that I am inordinately excited about 1) a business class trip to London and 2) a week with no kids? Ok, the second part of that isn't silly, but the first part? Anyway...I'm hoping to keep my finishing-up-of-long-undone-WIPs streak alive by finishing Manon before we leave. Because I'm pretty sure it's not going to be 70-something degrees in the UK.

January was a big achievement month. Here's the recap:
Knitting
Boo's Tomten
Sunset Surf scarf (from handspun)
Devil's stripey pink socks

Spinning
Buckland, 8 oz of Finn top from Hello Yarn Fiber Club, November 2008
Spun 8 oz of Crown Mountain Farm superwash merino
Finished the second 4 oz of my first Yarn School spinning

Unblogged:
Two pairs of earrings (Rav link)
I finally finished the knitting on Duck Returns. However, I think it has a new intended target, so no pix until it's totally finished (lined) and in the mail and received on the other end.
I also had to lengthen Ironman's Christmas socks a bit, so I ripped out the cuffs, knit about 2 more inches on each, and finished them off. And I still have yarn left. Love that Trekking XXL!
Spun another 4 oz of my first Longwool (Masham) from Yarn School

And just in case anyone is concerned that Boo is getting left out in the sock department (and to save you from yet another picture-less post), behold the in progress sock. And if she pulls another screaming fit before 5:00 am tomorrow like she did this morning, I will make the foot longer and give them to her big sister. So there.

The problem with unblog-able knitting projects

is that you have nothing much to write about if that's all you're working on. Well, that and a never-ending intarsia baby blanket. The StR is nice to work with, and it's knitting up quite nicely, but my internal vision of what these socks will look like has changed pretty dramatically over the course of the last week. I think, having muddled my way through the heel flap/shaping and up into the ankle, that I've settled on the final version. I just need to peruse Barbara Walker and see if there's a neat edging that will work well. Oh, and knit the other sock of course. And write up the pattern. And do more math then I'm really comfortable with to get sizes to fit people with normal sized feet. I never quite trust that my math is correct, and I've got an 8 stitch pattern repeat to contend with, so the pattern writing may take longer then the actual knitting of the socks. Stay tuned.

Duck is coming along, slowly - it's the perfect project for watching silly movies on DVD. This weekend's installment was "Good Luck Chuck", which I enjoyed more then I thought I would. Very silly, but some unforgettable (and extraordinarily un-PC) lines, particularly from Chuck's plastic surgeon friend whos name I can't remember. Last weekend we watched "40 Days and 40 Nights" in which Josh Hartnett gives up sex for Lent. Timely, and also entertaining. I'm sensing a theme here though - maybe it's time to stop letting Ironman go to the video store by himself.

Tonight I plan to sit down with Ivy, finish off the damn seaming and get on with the neckband. I will be flipping back and forth between election returns and Season 2 of Buffy. There will be beer.

Irons in the fire

I'm home today with a (not so) sick Boo and decided to take advantage of the lovely weather to get some photos of the current works in progress. There are many.

A new blanket for Devil, to replace the one lost a few weeks ago. I'm through the first border and staring down the barrel of 120+ rows of mindless blue and white intarsia. I'm already pretty certain that I hate intarsia. This is not going to be pretty.

Ivy, 90% seamed, ties done (note: I did not knit the required 52" because then they would be dragging on the ground), neckband left to be knit. The pattern calls for the neckband to be knit separately and then sewn in, but I'd rather knit it to the sweater as I go. Need to think about that a bit more.

The rest of Cricket, my first installment of the Hello Yarn Fiber Club almost a year ago (May 2007). I'm halfway through the hunk I had left over.

Socks for Devil from the Rainbow sock leftovers (there were lots of leftovers, 30+ grams). I started these while waiting for my Blue Moon package, but they are now on hold for a while. There are also the StR socks, of which I've managed to knit and rip most of the foot. Hmmm...hopefully I'll have something finished soon!