The sweater I decided I should knit for myself is going to take forever and many reruns of "Law and Order" to finish, so I thought I'd add a few visuals of the Unknitters Association that inhabit our lives (and delightfully so!).
Dinah, the reigning Dowager tabby is 16 in March. She effectively raised our three children to respectable adulthood and declines to raise the grandchildren. Job well done, Dinah!
Embers of the tender heart and vacuous mind gently urges the grandchildren to new mischief at every opportunity. She's 6 and uses decoys of black fuzzballs she creates here and there to evade the results of her complicity.
Corky..is Corky. Half chihuahua, half schnauzer, he's the constant companion of the two year old grandson and a chewer of many knitting needles and...well..his list of sins is long. He still refuses to confess as to the whereabouts of the missing drop spindle.

While I knit along, I thought I'd post a couple pics of a few things my DH has made. The odd one by itself is made from a banksia pod which grows in Australia. I can always tell when it's been in the house, I can smell it...no one else seems to be able to, but I detect a pervasive and inescapable odor from it.
These are just a few things he's done, I love watching him turn a twisted old burl into something lovely and flowing.
If my drop spindle doesn't reappear somewhere soon, he'll have to make me a new one. Here's hoping the spindle wasn't one of Corky's victims.

I found my next project finally! It's a lovely hat, top and pants set for baby Anna, done in waffle stitch. I don't plan to use waffle stitch for mine tho, I'd like three little cabled owls on the shirt or perhaps a color pattern instead.
I'd post the pic of it, but the URL doesn't paste well at all, so not sure I should use someone else's pic without that. I'll just wait and post my finished work instead. Suspense is good!
My pretty new sock yarn arrived yesterday from Knitpicks.com, but...I need a new set of dpn's to accomodate it. I'd love to find some size 3 USA Inox dpn's. I haven't used Inox yet, it would be fun to try them.
Yep, I'm obsessing quietly with my yarn so the usual chaos at our house won't drive me mad. And it's going to be chaotic for quite a while, since two of our kids are planning to combine their family efforts to revive our old home. (My husband and I moved from there to a wee, cozy cottage with 20 acres for our retirement, all of four miles away!) It's a monstrous house on about 11 acres and we're all oddly fond of the place, so we cling to the fantasy of restoring it. I love the pond there...lots of memories of kids and moonlit swims on hot summer nights. The old swamp willow that shaded our favorite fishing spot finally surrendered to age and my husband made a beautiful wooden jug from a little of the tree. So it really isn't altogether gone.
And now our grandchildren laugh and swim and fish in the pond while our children remember...

Oh..and while I wasn't knitting today, I made a few more needles. The darker set is red oak.
They make nice gifts, my mother likes the ones she got for Christmas. Ulterior motive there, I was gently enabling her new knitting skills.

They're fun to make, so I don't flinch when Corky hides one under the sofa.

I am going to knit some baby pants. I was very sure of this until I got to the part that gave instructions to knit 'em.
Apparently my inability to follow simple instructions (or in my case, destructions) has carried over into my knitting. This gives me two options. Or three. 1: I can scream hysterically and bury the evidence of my ignorance deep in the trashcan. (Tempting!) 2: I can drive smarter knitters crazy trying to explain these quantum theories that are blithely called patterns. 3: I can do what I usually do-bury the destruc..umm... instructions in the bottom of the trashcan and make up my own pattern as I go.
I like the third choice, it's always an adventure and someday I'll learn to follow a pattern without weeping helplessly amid piles of yarn.
AND...I'm going to make myself a sweater. Or I will as soon as I figure out where Corky spit out my homemade (yes...it's homemade, suits me fine, is biodegradeable and toothmarked by the pooch) cabling needle. Oh...that and I learn how to cable where I'm supposed to. I'd rather do one in Fair Isle but the yarn I happen to have is a dark green wool. And some brown, couple grey...no..I don't buy yarn with a project in mind, I buy yarn that that feels wonderful and wants to cuddle.
Fair Isle is wonderful fun, by the way!! And for the first time in my life I'm so VERY thankful to be ambidextrous! It makes things easy and neat! Maybe this week I can get more nice colors to complement the dark green.

Yes!!!

I did it! I made a Button and it works!!! Now ain't that purty!! I like the brightly colored one best.

Yep..this is getting rediculous...
These silly little mindless hats are great for very small kids tho, they can put them on easily and not have them flopping over their eyes.
Meantime...am wracking my brain for a new project while I get rid of scrap yarns.
If I make gifts with wool the recipients will inevitably forget and drop them into a hot washing machine. Instant and efficiently felting said items...but I'm tired of synthetic yarns.
What to make, what to make...hmmm.

And..voila! As I whisk his hat off for a quick scan...

And then there's the Hat...one of them, the other's on the little one's head at the moment. Bet they won't mix this one up at the Nursery, lol. Quick, easy and fun way to clear out the leftover yarn bits that collect in the bottom of the stash bin.

The infamous Shawl is done!! Still needs washing and blocking and fringe, but it's officially done! At least the knitting part, which I was getting a bit tired of the thing.. And then, while reclining in my recuperative sloth, finished a new hat for the littlest grandson and am halfway thru the next one as well. I'll stick a pic or two up soon as I can, the new printer apparently can read the camera chip and do the pics from that. At least I hope..
It was a definite learning experience. Next time I tackle a thingie I "see" in my mind, I'll work it out on paper first.