New Paint Color

Ok, yes, I'm posting two entries just a couple minutes apart but they are two different things.

Been painting son's bathroom this week, it's been pink and he had asked me to re-paint and picked out a nice taupe color. For the record, I hate painting, with a passion, and this experience did not change my opinion, it reinforced it. But below are pictures of the pre-paint color and a post-paint color. I think it's an improvement
Old Color


New Color

Finished Shawl in 2009!

I finished this shawl at 11:59pm! (ok, not the end weaving or the blocking but close enough) Lace knitting resolution complete *grin*

Below are the pre-blocked and blocked pictures

Christmas projects

Not many words but I can now post some of the Christmas projects!

Hat and scarf set for MojaveSis


Little Mallard Duck for my mom



Hat for good friend, Kissa (I had to try it on for pics)

Lego customer service, great!

I just have to share this.... When we went to Chicago, we went to the Lego store. While there, son got this Power Miners set (combination early Christmas and his own money). Well, if you look at it you can see there is a rod in the middle that the mine cart travels on.

Son had opened the box to look at it but we didn't plan to build until the next day and in between that time, our cat chomped that single piece to bits. Son was totally crushed because it was an important piece. we managed to get it to sort of work but not quite.

So I went online and sent a message to Lego customer service explaining what happened and asking how to get a replacement. I didn't hear anything, but today the piece showed up in the mail with a very nice note, including a message saying that they hoped the cat was ok!!

I'm really impressed and had to share!

-Dfly

Finished Object!

I finished something that I can actually share! This is for my grandmother for the holidays, the squares are approximately 12". She's tiny and it should be the perfect size for her to use while she's watching TV. Tigger's helping me show the size properly ;-)

Chicago Trip

Well, let's see, even though I've been to the train station plenty of times, I got lost on the way there and couldn't even figure out how. On the way home I realized that they've completely ripped up the ramps which then made sense. I was never super lost because I could figure out where I was, just not how I got there. Anyway, we made the train but couldn't figure out why the parking lot was totally packed and then the train was packed too... took me a bit to realize that there was an awful lot of Badger red on the train. Apparently there was a game down in Evanstown. This was the only trip where I've seen standing room only on the Metra.

Anyway, we got there, I knit part of a sock on the way down. We saw the Christmas windows at Marshall Fields (ok, Macy's but I just can't get used to that). They were better this year, the last couple years Macy's hadn't done as well as the old windows. This one was a cute poem about how Santa and the elves use the power of Belief to collect and answer all the letters to Santa that are sent from around the world.

We had thought of going to Navy Pier to see a Yu-gi-oh Regional Tournament but we got started later than we had planned and decided against it by the time we got there. As usual the Lego store was good, but packed with people and hot. (I don't know what it is but it's ALWAYS hot there) But now we have some Legos and tomorrow will be Lego Pajama day.

Somehow on the way back to the train, I ended up on the lower streets which was a little frustrating as I kept looking up going "I want to be up THERE" but at least I always could tell where I was. We walked really fast to catch the train but got there fine. On the trip back we had to pick up some of those same Badger fans and the conductor on that trip was having fun with them. "anyone wearing red outerwear pays double today"

Over all it was a pleasant day. And the weather was great, I can't remember another trip that we didn't even have to wear coats!

Hope everyone has a good weekend - Dfly

Bizzy Chevy Socks

First, I finished these socks ages ago, back in August. I wore them the other day and it occurred to me that I never posted them as I was waiting for permission. These are again designed by the wonderfully sweet Shannon of Unwind Yarns. The pattern is called Bizzy Chevy Socks due to the Chevron stitch pattern. The yarn is also one of hers, called Shiraz in the "For the Boys" colorway. It’s wonderfully smooshy, these are one of my favorites to wear just for pure comfort.

The pattern is well-written and the stitch pattern is simple to follow, I actually knit on these during last season’s Stitch N Pitch game. I do think that the pooling of this particular pair wasn’t quite what I wanted, I love the look right around the ankle where the color repeats are shorter where you can see more of the zigzag effect, but that's a property of this colorway. I will definitely be using the pattern again with some self-striping yarn or a yarn that has shorter color bits that maybe won't pool.