Knitting in red shoes...

An early FO

2009-12-09T16:15:00.003-05:00

Guess who came 3 1/2 weeks early?

Introducing Rowan, my best finished object yet.

So yeah, no knitting lately :)

Finally, a FO

2009-11-09T15:36:00.002-05:00

I killed the computer a week or two ago...and we finally got a new power supply in last weekend. Between killing my home computer, killing a work computer twice this year, and being unable to efficiently navigate ITunes, I feel technologically stupid. I sometimes wonder if I was not born in the wrong time period.
I mean farming, canning, knitting, no problem! (As long as time is not a factor :))
But figuring out how to load specific episodes from one of my podcasts onto my Ipod? Not so much...
I finished the sweater for my co-worker a whole solid three days before the shower. I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out, and even though I didn't knit a swatch for gauge, I was pretty close. The sweater should fit somewhere between 2-6 months. And after washing and folding clothes for my little one, I think my sweater is closer in size than the variances between different brands of onsies.

So...now no more excuses to keep plugging away at the Tilted Duster...
The Christmas Cactus I have at work never bloomed last year, so I was pleasantly surprised to see it budding. Aren't the striped petals gorgeous?

One of the buds fell off, so I threw it in a beaker, and it flowered. It is the prettiest thing to ever be in that beaker, I'm sure.

Baby Sweater

2009-10-21T15:21:00.003-04:00

I'm knitting this sweater for a friend who is having a little boy. It's going really quickly on size 10 needles. I should be done by now...but you know, life and all. Or to be more specific, the first of three baby showers (baby stuff is sooo cute!), prenatal classes, prenatal yoga, and general nesting seems to be getting in the way of my knitting time. My time seems to be flying by in a blur, not unlike the stitches in the first picture :) I should be able to finish the sweater by next week, when it's done, I'm sure it will resemble a sweater and not a blob.
It's looking more and more like the Tilted Duster might be a winter sweater....

Something Finished, Something Not

2009-10-04T13:39:00.003-04:00

I finally got around to taking a picture of the soaker I finished a week ago. It's from the frantic mama pattern.I love the spirally stripes the variegated Purewool turned out. You can see how much more even my stockinette is in the round versus on the bottom where I switched to straight needles. I must purl tighter :)

The leg holes seems a bit small, but then, I suppose the cloth diaper will take up a bunch of room. I can always rip it back and pick up more stitches around the hole when Baby Neff plus diaper fits into it. Coming from my stock, chances are his legs will not be skinny :)
I'm pretty sure he's working diligently on building his muscles now. It amazes me how strong some of those kicks are.

I've finally dusted off my Tilted Duster again (I really couldn't resist the corny pun). Hopefully I can put some serious knitting time into that and can finish before fall ends. One of my co-workers is due for her firstborn 7 weeks after me, and I'd really like to knit her something. I guess its a good thing that its getting dark earlier and the weather is getting colder. Less outdoor distractions = more knitting time.

Picture Heavy Post of Italy

2009-09-22T16:28:00.006-04:00

In no particular order:
A rare shot of me and Matt complete with pregnancy belly inside the Colosseum.Ancient marble facade remnants on the outside of the Pantheon.
Monteriggioni, a castle outside of Siena.
Little medieval streets in Orvieto.
View of the Roman Forum from Palantine Hill.
Piazza del Campo, Siena.
Arch of Constantine (my favorite *ahem* Russian Fulbright scholar) in Rome.

Fresco in Monte Oliveto Maggiore Monastery (note the cat and dog fight).

Volterra (Best place in Italy to catch a sighting of a vampire for all the Twilight fans, hehe)
View of the Duomo in Orvieto.
Ponte Vecchio in Florence (The famous Medici family used to use this as their personal commute into the city.)
Trevi Fountain at night, Rome.
Casole d'Elsa, our home base in Tuscany.
Hey look, I even did a little knitting in Italy. Someday this will grow up to be a diaper soaker for the wee one. I love the spiral/stripey thing going on in this yarn.

Poor Neglected Blog

2009-08-31T11:12:00.004-04:00

I haven't been knitting.

I've been doing a ton of traveling (from Maine to Oregon to southern New Hampshire) and preparing for baby and I have some great pics, but nothing knitting related.

That elephant I was supposed to finish for my sister's shower and then birth and then baptism?
Never happened.
At this point I guess I'll be hoping to finish for Christmas, when the baby will be 6 months and might actually react to a stuffed animal, so that would be nice.

I'm going to Italy in a few days and I'm hoping to take some knitting for the plane, but I have so much to do for the next few days I don't even know if I'll have time to gather patterns/materials, and I'm not taking the Tilted Duster with me. Trying not to panic about all I need to get done in the next 24 hours!

On the non-panicked side, I turned this:Into this:
And then I found that the seeds of Queen Anne's Lace were used as a contraceptive...so I won't even get to see if it tastes good. The flowers, which were used for the jelly, might be safe, but I couldn't find info that they definitely were.
But it's pretty anyways :)

Rest in Peace Dear Canon Powershot S50

2009-08-02T18:22:00.004-04:00

For 5 long years you served me.

You took some pretty pictures.

You took some fun pictures.

You even took some knitting pictures.

Your service has been greatly appreciated, but you have become:

sad
and bulky and
slightly broken...

I think it best if we put you to rest and let the Nikon Coolpix take it from here.

Yay for early birthday presents! :)

Sweater Progress

2009-07-20T19:19:00.003-04:00

There's not been much progress to show, but enough to take a picture of:

The yarn is gorgeous, heathered with pinks and blues. If only I could get myself to cast that piece off and start on the next piece...
Less picture worthy is the elephant that I have yet to sew together. My sister's baby is hovering on a month old....hopefully I'll get around to it by the christening next month.

It's been a busy month. (Excuses, excuses...) We went to the Finger Lakes with friends for the Fourth of July and got to stay at an awesome house right on Lake Canandaigua. Our friends got their very own designated driver for a day of wine touring. The vineyards out there have gorgeous gardens, gorgeous landscaping, gorgeous lake views, gorgeous swans...yup, gorgeous swans :) Perhaps when I am not so pregnant, I'll be able to do some tasting myself.
And no month without blogging would do without at least one weekend of trucking down to Western MA. We had a lovely hike up Monument Mountain in the Berkshires, complete with some wild blueberry foraging. I must be getting a bit spoiled on the Green Mountains though, because we go to the top....and I was hoping for a bit more mountain to hike up.
Last weekend we had people up for Brew Fest. Yet another event that made me really miss the occasional imbibing of alcoholic beverages. Not to complain too much. They put on the festival on the Burlington waterfront and it's a gorgeous place to hang out.

Yesterday we also spent our energy volunteering for the Mozart Festival. Beautiful classical music in some of the most gorgeous settings in the area. But parking and un-parking hundreds of cars is exhausting, and I still have some sleep to catch up on. Hopefully next time, I'll have more knitting to show in less time. That's the dream anyways :)

Tilted Duster Prep

2009-06-21T14:54:00.003-04:00

Ready to start my first sweater project. I finally got to put the skein winder and ball winder to good use. Husband was amused by how amused the whole setup made me.
So easy!
No resulting yarn tangles!
I heart my ball winder :)Matt really wanted to know why yarn was not sold in yarn balls, if skeins were so difficult to knit from.
I really wanted a logical answer but all I could come up with was,
"Because skeins are pretty, Matthew."
Am I missing something?
My pretty purple yarn balls.
Prettier than skeins?
You be the judge.I've decided to limit the baby knitting until we find out the gender. If Baby is cooperating, that might in just 3 weeks.
I really love gender specific baby patterns :)

In other news, I finally made it to my second Red Sox game. It only took 17 years. (Seriously, the last game I went to was with my DARE class in elementary school.)
Luckily, it was hugely more entertaining than the one I went to back in the '90s during their less awesome years. For starters, I actually kind of follow the team now. They were playing the Marlins and between Big Papi's homerun, and then not striking out at all (it's the small stuff), Ellsbury stealing bases left and right, some excellent knuckleballs from Wakefield, and you know, actually winning the game (a great change from my last game) , I just wish Boston was a little closer so we could go more often.

Perhaps I Should Start Knitting My Own Baby Items...

2009-06-11T20:58:00.004-04:00

..seeing as in 6 short months I will have a baby of my own! I guess I'll have to get on that now that I'm past the nauseous/tired stage.

I have no new knitting to show you (I never even finished sewing the elephant together) . The blanket was well received, though someone in the audience, and yes, the shower was so large (30+ guests) that it was as if there were an audience watching my sister and her husband unwrap guests...
Tangent! Anyways, some guest asked if the blanket were crocheted or quilted. I still don't know if they really didn't know the difference between sewn material and yarn...but then again, maybe they were sitting that far away...

How about some pretty flowers instead? These pictures are of the peony gardens in Shelburne Farms, definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in the Burlington, VT area.

Think I'm Gonna Cheat

2009-05-28T15:29:00.004-04:00

I'm done knitting the baby blanket for my sister's shower this weekend. I have not yet started the process of weaving in all those ends...or piecing together the elephant...and I'm out of time. Luckily it doesn't really need blocking.

Unluckily, I have shower "stuff" to do tonight instead of spending my hours weaving in all those ends.

So I might be cheating a bit...we'll see how that goes. I got Myha to sit in on the pic so you could see the size. I'm pretty happy with it, but if I had more time and more dark blue yarn I probably would have doubled or even tripled the border length.

Honestly, I'll just be happy when this week is over :)

Sometimes I Commute by Bike

2009-05-07T11:47:00.003-04:00

And when I do, I often stop for groceries on the way home. My Trek doesn't have a basket, or anywhere to store my purchases, save my backpack. More than once, I have tried to balance a grocery bag of food on each handle bar. It is precarious at best, and has resulted in the ruination of at least one of my chico bags from the near constant brush against the tire spokes as the bags swing.

I've been looking at bike baskets, which aren't too expensive, but I worry that I and my Trek are not retro enough to pull off the wicker basket. And though my bike is uncool enough for the metal basket, I just don't like it.

If I had a million dollars, this is probably what I would get. Just pile in groceries, children, flowers, gardening tools. Genius :) Since I am not a millionaire, and you probably aren't either, they are having a contest.

There's Been Some Knitting...

2009-04-26T18:23:00.002-04:00

Not much though. I have one more week of classes and then one final and then I will really have to start knitting up a storm.
And start swimming again.
And start biking again.
And start running again.
It's rather amazing how my exercise habits just completely fall apart under the guise of "busy-ness"...

Yesterday we had our first summer day. It was in the 80s and sunny and gorgeous. It's amazing what one warm day will do to plants. Our lawns are now summer green, the bulbs seemed to have started blooming overnight.
So, of course it was cold and rainy today :)

It's all fine by me because I only have one more week of classes!

Hey Look, It's Only Been 3 Weeks....

2009-04-15T19:53:00.002-04:00

I've been having this love-hate relationship with the blanket I'm knitting.
I love the way it looks in the pattern, and all of the finished pieces on Ravelry, but I hate the way it seems to be coming out :)

It started off pretty horrible as you can see in the picture above. I re-knit the middle twice because I thought somehow this would make the stitches I picked up along the edge somehow more even.

*snort*

Somehow it did not register in my sieve of a brain that all those itty bitty triangles *ahem* "squares" would mean all these itty bitty ends to weave in. Or the fact that there might end up itty bitty wholes from all the joining and cutting and knitting and cutting and joining....Somehow I even managed to knit the square backwards or upside down. Which of these, I'm not even completely sure, all I know if that when you see the side with the middle square not having the stripe around it, all of the other squares do have stripes.

Does anyone know what I did wrong?

To keep my sanity, I have chosen to ignore these things.

I'm going to play on the fact that the blanket will be handmade and flawed and beautiful despite it's flaws. Plus, babies tend not to be picky about stripes and holes and unevenness in blankets.

Right?
The booties, though not done, are just not a priority to finish. I love the little bunny buttons I found, but I couldn't get my camera to focus for a close-up. So just take my work for it: bunny buttons=super cute :)
Two more weeks of classes....

Has it Really Been a Month?

2009-03-24T11:51:00.005-04:00

A month is gone and I really don't have anything (knitting-wise) to show for it.

I started a baby blanket for my sister and restarted it. I have have finished the elephant pieces, but haven't sewn it together or stuffed it....and I still have to weave in the edges on the baby bootees....you know how I heart finishing :)

I have made some jewelry, but given it away before I took pictures. I made a metal bead and am working on a "mandent" for Matt, which is looking promising.

I also got the OK to run (finally!) and am up to 2 miles at a relaxed pace. I'm pretty happy to be able to run again, even if our Spring seems to have regressed for the time being, and I don't really have the time to do it more than a few times a week. I look forward to running shorts weather. Soon. Please?

My sister's baby shower is in about 8 weeks, so I really need to get on that elephant and blanket. I just really want to knit something simple that I don't have to consult the pattern every two rows or have to seam or put things together. Also, I'd really like to have time every night to sit down with some knitting, but that's my fault.

Instead of knitting, on the nights I don't have classes, I got sucked into The Cider House Rules. Books have a way of really been getting in the way of knitting...or accomplishing all of the things on my To Do List.

I was only supposed to have two classes to worry about; then the undergrad got me all excited about beer brewing, which is a really fun class. And as soon as I find someone to sell me their used equipment, I'll be having some beer brewing fun. All of my classes are really cool, it's just so much time.

I have about 5 weeks of classes left, and until then, there won't be many posts, or much progress :) I passed up the chance to read Stephanie Myer's vampire love story, The Host, in an effort to keep on keeping on.

Dreaming of Spring

2009-02-24T14:02:00.003-05:00

Is Spring here yet?

Warmth and flowers and exercising outside without fear of falling on the ice....
all of these things I presently wish for even though I wouldn't really have time for them until classes are over...

Is it Summer yet?

Parade of Unfinished Projects

2009-02-17T09:11:00.005-05:00

I haven't been blogging because there's nothing done.

I haven't yet finished the stuffed elephant that I swear people on Ravelry have been claiming to finish in a night (I do covet a faster knitting speed).
I had some issues with pattern wording. I tried to get help from Ravelry but the comments were all useful, for example: "pattern wording is confusing."
This is the first time Ravelry has failed me.
Luckily, my co-worker's mother is a knitting guru, so she helped me. (Thanks Jess's Mom!) So someday I will finish this, but not today.
They had you knit the arms in one piece and sew a seam. I figured out that this was unnecessary by arm number two...but man I do hate sewing seams.

Excuse the blurry picture, it's hard in the darkness to get a decent picture that allowed you to see the trunk.

I still have yet to seam and sew the buttons on Saartje's Bootees. I feel like the buttons make the booties, so I've been putting off the process of button searching. This pattern takes up almost more time sewing seams than knitting....have I mentioned how much I hate sewing seams? After I finished knitting and seaming the first one I, of course, found a seamless Saartje's pattern.

I realize the saying is live and learn, but sometimes I wish I could skip straight to learn :)

Speaking of learning, after 5 weeks of jewelery class (read as 20 hours in the studio) all I have to show is this silly pendant. I learned soldering, to make a bezel cup, and the process of finishing a piece. I am quickly developing a true appreciation for why any and all unique jewelry costs so much. The process is time intensive, even when you are skilled. Also, silver is expensive, and while I'm normally a silver/white gold person, I find myself appreciating the colors of the new gold (not gold, just golden in color) and copper...probably because of the relative affordability in price.

Matt's Scarf

2009-02-05T13:37:00.005-05:00

I finished it awhile ago, but as soon as I wove in the ends, Matt took it and replaced his old scarf, which I have to make "disappear." It took a few days to catch him in the scarf with a camera, and I was not given time to properly arrange the scarf on the model, but you get the idea. It would look nicer blocked, but that'll probably have to wait until spring.

While I like to have options for accessories, Matt really likes to have one, and only one set of everything.

One pair of exercise pants.

One hat, one scarf.

One bathing suit.

A pair of black dress shoes, a pair of brown.

One set of sneakers for running/tennis/walking, which he will not replace until they are literally falling apart.

We've come to a healthy compromise where I sneak new shoes in the house. I remember putting all of my running shoes in the shoe rack when we moved in together and him staring aghast. Granted, there are about 6 pairs of running shoes in there, but only one has enough life for long runs. Another pair I use for short runs, another pair I use for tennis or the gym when I'm not running, another I use for walks, and the last pair I use for anything that's to get really dirty. OK, that's only 5...there may be an unused pair in there....but when you train for marathons, you go through 2 or 3 pairs, depending on mileage, and while they won't have enough cushion to run ten miles, they still feel fine for other activities.

I've almost finished a pair of Saartje's Bootees, but there's still the seaming and buttons to finish, maybe this weekend. I've also been working on an elephant for one of the many babies that will be born this year. It just doesn't look like anything yet.

This is my first week of all 3 classes, to 3hr + night classes on Monday and Tuesday, and it's really exhausting...and the weeks not over yet. Still an exam tomorrow, luckily it's on beer. No really. Wanna hear about the German Beer Purity Act? :)

The scarf grows on

2009-01-19T12:18:00.003-05:00

I started classes last week. I'm taking beer brewing and jewelry making courtesy of the University of Vermont. I was never a big fan of beer in college, but Vermont seems ot have microbreweries every three feet, and I've developed an appreciation. As with anything I like or appreciate, I always want to learn to make myself.And in a few weeks my Master Gardener course will start, and the I'll be really busy.

For now, I'm just trying to get to knit every other night or so. I have another 6-12 inches to go on Matt's scarf. I forgot how monotonous a scarf can get, so to amuse myself, I knit the first of a pair of Saartje's Bootees. I figure that between my sister and two pregnant friends, odds are that one will have a girl. I wanted to take pictures for this post, but I lost my camera. I spent about 10 minutes "running" up and down the stairs trying to find it, but it will probably take Matt looking somewhere I checked multiple times to find it.

Speaking of which, I can start running this week according to my PT schedule. The past week has been so cold that I've been in a mild state of hibernation. I'm too stingy to turn the heat up much, and it was so cold, that it never seemed to get warmer than 62. Being that cold, and under that many blankets, has for some reason, never been a good motivator to get to the gym. I'm sure my physical progress hasn't been exceptional. But I don't care, because I can know walk to down stairs!
I don't know if I'm really ready for the running with my lack of physical activity in the last week, but I guess I'll find out at PT today.

Post Christmas Craziness

2009-01-05T18:57:00.003-05:00

I'm back:
To Vermont.
To driving.
To work.
To Physical Therapy.
To making Matt dinner :)

During the holidays, we spent our time in Western MA among family and friends. It was nice to see everyone, but it is also nice to sleep in my own bed again; to make my own meals and keep my kitty smothered with attention to keep her from meowing and yowling (The brief attentions of my friend who took care of her while were away were not adequate.) And Myha is quite the yowler.

While I was so close to Northampton, I took the opportunity to pass a few blissful hours in the bowels of WEBS. The most exciting purchase was this:
Which I will start working to turn into this soon. And as much as it hurts my head to purchase the exact yarn used...I fell a bit in love with the purple. It has flecks of pinkish-ness and blueish-ness all over. Love, love, love.

And bonus, the awesome in-laws got me the ball wonder I've been on the precipice of buying myself for a good solid year. So I won't have to wind all sevens skeins by hand. And after the knotted mess that was the Purewool after my poor attempt the wind by hand, I feel deserving of the amazingness.
So have I been knitting anything at all in the meantime?

Little bit.

I'm working on Smariek's Triumph scarf pattern for Matt. This is the first thing I will ever finish knitting for him, so I'm working on it exclusively to make sure I finish before Spring and before I get distracted by the Tilted Duster and multiple baby projects that are piling up.

His request was for Celtic Knots, but I didn't find any patterns that appealed to me (in scarf form at least) and Triumph has some intricate cables that I figure is close enough. What I lack in actual pattern content, I will make up in pure number of times I have to use the cable needle....

Plus, I've been eyeing/queuing/printing Smariek's patterns for a long time, I just never seemed to be able to start a project with any of her beautiful, cable-y creations.

And the yarn is Laines Du Nord Cashsilk, which is half merino, and a quarter of each silk and cashmere. A great yarn to work with on a single project, for sure.

Pre-Christmas Craziness

2008-12-22T10:06:00.003-05:00

I realize that I'm not presently working and I should be on top of, well, everything, but I'm not. I'd like to blame it on the not being able to drive or the ridiculously slow pace I meander at lately or the fact that I can't stand comfortably for more than 10 minutes. But really, I've been spending more time reading and watching movies than anyone should. Luckily, the continuous passive motion machine, my excuse for staying on the couch; as it pumped my leg to ever greater degrees of flexion, will be gone soon. And I made a list to get things done now, so no more excuses. I always get more done when I have a written list. I think the satisfaction of crossing things off helps.

I got a small project done in the past few weeks. This pattern was not difficult, but it very nearly defeated me. It was the having to pay attention all the way through each row. I have the attention span of a cat, on good days....
I'm pleased with how they turned out. They were all curly, so I had to block them...which seemed silly, but now they lie flat, which I feel is important in a coaster. The yarn had a lot more brown in it than it looked like, but it kinda matches my couches, so I can't complain. The yarn was also some Michael's special, possibly with soy or something interesting in it.

Nothing New But My Knee

2008-12-19T09:22:00.003-05:00

I made this tart for Thanksgiving, and it was delicious. Cranberry, almond, caramel...mmm. I killed the caramel the first time. The directions said to use a 10 inch skillet. I own a 14 inch skillet (one can never make too much food....).
I didn't think it would be a problem.
I was so so wrong.
Don't ever attempt caramel with a pan that exceed the size of your burner...
But attempt two came out fine.
If I were to make again, I would use another shell recipe. This one shrank, as you can see, and was altogether more trouble than it was worth. But the tartness of the cranberries was an excellent balance to the caramel. You can get the recipe here:
And here is the ugly hat. Perfect size, but no stitch definition and what was it, knit? crocheted? you would never be able to tell. Ah well, it's not for me, and that's another skein of ugliness out of the stash.

I haven't been doing much knitting. Recovery is not painless, but at least I have a Costco sized bottle of Tylenol now :) I can bend my knee to 90 degrees, with discomfort.

For my birthday, my sister got me Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, which I've been coveting for at least a year:
She also got me another present, though not really for me.
She's pregnant! Yay!
So those cute knitted stuffed animals...yeah a great excuse to make them :) I'm gong through all my knitting books and making a list of yarns to buy when we're a mere 20 minutes from Webs during Christmas.

And now for some knitting news....

2007-07-23T17:52:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures of my current (as of a week ago) WIPs.
The first set of pictures details the dishcloth set I'm making. I knit them in a fantastic shade of lime green Peaches'n'Cream. The first is a WIP. I adapted the dishcloth pattern from here: http://kelleysyarns.blogspot.com/2007/05/elvish-leaves-dishcloth.html
by adding two pattern repeats to make the matching dishtowel, and now that I'm done with the baby blanket maybe I can finish the dishtowel. The second two pics of the set show the finished dishcloth. The second shows the pattern detailing much better, but the WIP pic shows the color truest.

Lastly is my newly finished diagonal baby blanket. I only found one small mess up in my garter, it must have been around when I was trying to watch The Lord of the Rings and knit. Apparently I can only knit to chick flicks and bad television. The yarn I used was Lionsbrand homespun, whose fluffy, bumpy nature luckily covers the mistake pretty well. Hopefully I can manage to get this packed up and mailed to my friend before she has her baby. :) I kind of want to pop out a knitted baby bib and/or spit up cloth that I have the pattern for in the Mason Dixon book, buth that might delay my friend getting the package after she gives birth....but, not like she'll need many blankets in August.

So little knitting...

2007-07-27T10:23:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, I received a phone call from my roommate. The one I haven't been living with since the beginning of June. This upcoming weekend was one of the first free one since the big move, that I had planned to move all the miscellaneous fiber, yarn, plants, and mismatched dishwear out. However, my roommates call was to tell me that she had been informed that we were being let out of our lease early, but now we were going to be checked out friday morning. Less than 48 hours away! So I have been spending most of my free time packing, and moving, and throwing out clothing and furniture that I was planning on freecycling. I do hate the waste that results from rushed moving. Soooo much cardboard and paper I had to throw out because I missed the recycling day. And you know what I did tuesday night, unknowing in the moving frenzy that was to follow? I watched While You Were Sleeping en francais and knit a bit for the Mason Dixon baby bib, a really simple pattern in garter stitch. Had I been wiser, I could have moved the moving frenzy to tuesday and wednesday nights, and been free to play and allow Matt to play in our soccer games.

So now our condo is completely full of crap and a very confused kitty.

Baby bib done!

2007-08-08T14:59:00.000-04:00

I finished knitting this awhile ago, but I just managed to get to a craft store to buy the button today. I was going to go cheap and just use an extra, but someone posted a finished bib with a football, and it was so cute I couldn't help myself. Matt had the idea of embroidering "Chew-chew!" onto it, to match the train button, but it turns out that my embroidery skills leave much to be desired. I am considering blocking it, since it's a bit lopsided and uneven in some places, but I've never blocked anything before...so I guess it all depends on my motivation.

The boy booked our honeymoon itinerary today. Two weeks in Greece, including a few days on Mykonos, a few days on Santorini, and a few days around Athens. I found out right after a dentist appointment, so my enthusiasm was stifled by my aching gums. Did you ever wonder why dentists, or dental hygenists, always try to carry conversations with you while their hands are in your mouth? Why would you do that? Do you want to get your hand chewed up?

I'm hoping that in October, once my wedding has flown by as a perfectly executed, stress-free event (haha) I'll have tons of pictures to post that will look like that only prettier and with way cooler ancient structures around me. Maybe I'll take a knitting project with me...