Almost Finished

I finally finished the knitting for the Christmas sweaters for my niece and nephew. My brother and sister-in-law have boy-girl twins who are 20 months old, and they are truly the Cutest Little Boy and Girl in the Whole Wide World. The Cutest Little Girl is a ham, always showing off and trying to be the center of attention, while The Cutest Little Boy is quieter and more of a cuddler, and I love them to death. Anyway, I knitted them sweaters for their first Christmas and first birthday, but this Christmas, I didn't quite make the deadline. I had the bodies done for both, and one sleeve for the Cutest Little Girl's, so I did a three-needle bindoff on the shoulders and wrapped them up just like they were finished sweaters, with a promise to finish them after Christmas. Here are pictures from the book with some of the actual sleeve showing:


Both are from Pipsqueaks by Kim Hargreaves. There are some really cute kids' designs in there. If you knit for kids, you should give it a look.

I feel like I've been knitting these sweaters forever, which is kind of true, since I started them in late October. That is probably the worst thing about twins--you have to knit two of everything. I already feel like I'm behind on birthday knitting, especially since I chose this pattern

















from Double Knits by Zoe Mellor. (Another book full of great patterns. All the sweaters are designed in complementary pairs, perfect for twins or sets of siblings. She is awfully fond of seed stitch, though.) Now, I've never done intarsia in my life, being more of a one-color knitter, but I bought the yarn and even knit a few inches of the blue sweater. And I found out something: I HATE INTARSIA! Since I'm sort of stuck with the yarn and I really like the pattern, I guess I'll have to knit them, but I can only stand to knit a few rows at a time before all the dangling bobbins get on my nerves. I feel like all I've been working on for the past two years is kids' sweaters, and knitting this pattern (twice!) will be less fun than the other ones I've done, so I think I might take a break and not knit any birthday sweaters. That way, I can take my time and do the sweaters for Christmas and not feel so pressured. I have plenty of knitting for grown-ups to keep me busy in the meantime, although I do have a book of patterns for kids' toys...

Coming soon: FLAK progress shot!

Easy come, easy go

A couple of months ago, I paid off my car. I was only halfway through my 5 year loan, but I was tired of paying double-digit interest, so I used some of the money I inherited from my grandmother, requested a payoff amount, and sent in the check. I got the paperwork back saying the loan was paid off, then a few weeks later, another envelope showed up in my mailbox. It looked like a check, so on the way back to the house, I started dreaming about the ways I was going to spend this windfall. Should I buy yarn? Books? Clothes? Then I opened the envelope. It was a check, all right. A check for $8.12. You read that right, eight dollars and twelve cents. Why did they bother? It probably cost them more than that to process and mail the stupid thing! That will barely buy me a steak quesadilla at La Fiesta, so the Margarita will come out of my own pocket. Sigh...

You've got mail?

Which is worse: going to the mailbox and getting nothing but junk mail, or getting no mail at all?