Two steps forward, one step back

So DH has been off on course in Ottawa for most of the week. With the car. And the weather was mostly either rainy or unseasonably cold, thus confining us to the house. But it turned out to not be as bad as I thought it would be, since he had pre-made dinners and had stored up lots of food for DD (hint: I do not do the cooking in the household). DD and I had a great time and I was able to get lots done on DH's surprise socks (not to mention the housework).

But as soon as DH came home on Friday evening, we all had to jet on out of there because of his aunt's wedding. My parents took DD to their place (first night away from Mummy and Daddy! - or more accurately, Mummy and Daddy's first night away from her), and DH and I hightailed it on over to Georgetown for the nuptuals. Which were a lot of fun. His family is really great (not to mention really freakin' extensive) and it's always wonderful to hang out with them.

Naturally, we gave DH's aunt her wedding gift. Since I'd brought my camcorder, and the picture of the finished piece was still stored in it, I was also able to show it to other members of the family, such as my MIL and various aunts. (I feel I should point out that it was my husband who went around insisting that I whip the picture out, not me. I'm egotistic, but not quite that egotistic.) Everybody thought it was great.

Also in attendance at the wedding was DH's cousin who had his first baby in November, and whose gift we had never sent (they'd moved...and it took a long time to get cousin's mom to tell us their address...and then I lost the address...and then I found it again...and by that point the wedding was only about a month off so I figured what the hell, we'll give it in person). This gift was the three double-faced bibs I made out of sportweight cotton (bib #1, bib #2, bib #3). They really seemed to like the bibs, plus they'd brought pictures, so we all had a merry old chat about how cute our kids are and how blissful parenthood is. :)

Finally, BIL of the belated Christmas gift was not able to make it to the wedding. He has a new job working for an MP and, if you know anything about federal Canadian politics at the moment, you can appreciate that he is pretty damn busy - he felt there was a good chance that they would be flying him out to the MP's riding over the weekend, so being at a family wedding was not where he felt he should be. (Totally fair.) However, he still got his Christmas gifts, because his apartment was where DH crashed during his trip to Ottawa! DH gave me full details of BIL's reaction. BIL loved it. He made noises of extreme appreciation a la Joey and Chandler on "Friends" when they first test-drove their barkaloungers (sp?). He tried it on immediately. He admired how well it fit. (DH tells me it looked frickin' awesome on him.) He wore it to work the next day. In summary, I think I made him his new favourite sweater. :) Yay! (Happy dance.) Greater compliment hath no knitter.

So! With all these wonderful knitted gifts finally out of my house, it's time to relax, eh?

Like hell.

One of DH's cousins told us that he and his wife are expecting baby #3 in December. This is delightful, wonderful, fantastic news, of course! However...it means that I will be adding another knitting project to my plate. Combined with another project that I am thinking about for around the same time, this will probably mean having to ax my mom's Spanish Knight sweater as a Christmas gift for this year and postpone it to 2006 instead.

But wait...there's more. bluFELICIA stopped by to foretell my doom as relates to sock knitting. She says I'm now going to be addicted. Given how eager I am to flit from sock project #1 to sock project #2, I have to admit that she's probably right. Crap. ;) Although I am very happy to hear that she loves the sock yarn I bought - that bodes well. Thanks!

? for baby Muth

DH's family expands again! The baby is due around December and I'll be taking the opportunity to design something else for my book. Don't know what yet, but flushed from my success with the Snowdrop project, I'm thinking maybe a circular lace shawl-y thing would be nice. But then again, maybe not. Stay tuned.

Socks for DH

I am now working on these while DH is on another floor of the house, with another project beside me for "cover". When he comes down (or up, depending), I stuff the sock knitting under the futon as fast as I can and pick up the cover project, trying desperately to look like I've been working on it all along. So I was continuing my progress, until I realised that I'd somehow managed to pick up an extra stitch between two of the DPNs. Fifteen rows previously. (Insert naughty word here.) Rip. You know that picture I showed you in my last entry? Yeah. The sock is smaller than that now.

Mountain Laurel Counterpane blanket for baby Gelman

I have three hexagons done now, and am about halfway through #4! I also sewed up one of the hexagons just to make sure that it wouldn't look like total crap when it was finished (I figured I'd better do that now instead of waiting until after I'd flat-knitted all thirteen hexagons). It looked pretty darn good. Hexagons continue.

(Yep, it really is 3:30 in the morning. I have a headache, and can't abide the thought of sitting awake, in my bed, in the dark, in pain, waiting for the Advil to kick in, so here I am. I realise that sitting in front of a computer screen with a headache is perhaps not the wisest thing to do, but hey.)