Holiday

I've taken this week off work. I had no plans to go anywhere, I simply wanted some time off. Time to nap, time to knit, and, yesterday, time to spend with my girl. On May 25 my dear kidlet turned 3.

Three.

I can't believe it, either. However, three she is and she even admits this herself, although when I greeted her the morning of the Big Day, she kept insisting she was two and started to get a bit distressed. But by the end of the day she was gleefully answering "Three!" to the question of how old she was. We had a fantastic day. She got to sleep in, and then in the morning we went to a little get-together of some mums and little kids which was tremendous fun. Alia spent most of her time playing in the sandbox and got super-dirty, which was okay, since the cardigan she was wearing wasn't a handknit. :) Then we came back home, gave her a bath (she loves baths) and a nap, then got up and, by request, took her on a wagon ride to the local playground. There she blew bubbles, swung on the swings, slid on slides, climbed, rocked, ran and generally had a fabulous time. Then we went back home, played cars for awhile (again by request) and had dinner. Dessert was special - DH had bought some peaches earlier in the week. Mexican peaches, to be sure, but peaches all the same. They were by no means the most healthy or luscious peaches I've ever seen, but DD was past caring - she's been asking for peaches for months and was dee-lighted to finally have some. Then it was off to bed. What a day. And what a great kid I have.

So, enough about the bragging, back to my holiday. One of the things I've been doing is watching my new DVD (Mother's Day present) of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I have been staring intently at the Charlie character's sweater. Okay, it's your standard Fair Isle sweater, nothing new to the knitting world, but you so rarely see that sort of thing in movies - and I did a real double-taking upon catching a glimpse of it when the trailers and posters started coming out for the movie - so I think it's pretty special. (You can see a gorgeous shot of the thing at this blog entry.) I've done a Google search for 'sweater pattern "charlie and the chocolate factory"' but there doesn't seem to be anything out there already created. If anyone does know of a pattern for it, please do let me know.

And now...for Aven...pictures of a sheep. (Some of these made me feel kinda icky to take, but whatever helps, ya know? :)

Onto the knitting. Despite my holiday, I haven't been doing too much more knitting than ususal because I've been trying to catch up on my sleep and get the house in order for DD's birthday party on Sunday. However, I am definitely making progress on some stuff.

Self-patterning socks #2 for DH

As DD's birthday approached I had a little wake-up call and panic attack. Since DH's birthday is eleven days after DD's, not even having the first sock for his birthday present completed was not good. Since then, I've been concentrating mostly on this (except when DH is around, of course) and have made very good progress:


I love making self-patterning socks match. Love. It. I'm sure this reveals all kind of interesting things about my character and psychological makeup, but who cares as long as the socks look good.

Garden Shawl for MIL

Flower stems chart is complete! I should have the project to a point soon where I have enough visual progress for another photograph. As it is, I have only one more chart to go after I finish the current one, and the current one is pretty short. I'm really looking forward to being able to finish off the body and open the whole thing up. It's tough to get a sense of it when it's all scrunched up on the circular - my brother teased me that it looked like a shower cap. :) However I absolutely do not have the patience to put it on a really long spare piece of yarn just for the purposes of a looksee. So, I gotta wait until it's done.

Black socks for Dad

Home stretch! Ribbing on the top of sock #2 has begun:

Stornaway sweater for DH

Work has kind of stalled on this as the panic to get DH's birthday socks done rose. But I've still managed to move forward a teeny bit.