1 an' a, 2 an' a, shrug shrug shrug!

It took about a week and a little bit of ripping out, but I finished the shrug for my daughter! I even had a little bit of "help" from my friends...

I found an old pattern in last year's Knitter's magazine, and decided to give it a try. It took a bit of fiddling, as the pattern was written for a fine alpaca yarn (and my daughter wanted washable) Hmm.. let the games begin! I found a worsted weight black yarn for her in superwash. The pattern was well written, so I was able to switch it to size 8 needles from size 4. It didn't exactly work out to 'half" the stitches, but pretty close.
I mailed it off last wednesday.. and yahoo, it fit! Not only that she asked if I could make a couple more in other colors .... ummm, errr, "you DID write down the changes you made to the pattern, didn't you Mom???" umm, uhhh.. sort of.. well, I can figure it out again. It's a sweet pattern for those of you who are looking for one.

And now for the kitten update: the little sweeties have found how to jump up on the counters! so much for having safe places to hide things! And they must definately be knitters reincarnated, since they absolutely love to help me knit.. Here's them helping with the shrug...

Needless to say, I enjoy playing with them as much as I do knitting - I've thus slowed down a bit on my knitting speed, but the company is well worth it!
I think from now on I'll get a little extra of any yarn I'm working with so they can continue to help...




After a few days of being glued to the television news about the hurricane aftermath, I decided that I needed a break, and went outside to play in my garden. The flowers are in their last hurrah for the end of summer here. I knocked down the weeds and dead-headed and pulled grass.. it felt good to do this.
The weather here has turned perfect, in my humble opinion, a sunny 70 degrees with a few scattered clouds hanging about.