Slow Saturday

I really want to knit myself a purple scarf to go with my new grey wool coat. The lovely young lady who shepards Little Squid home from school, however, has expressed that she needs mittens. This means that the mitts that I knit for her are now mine. Normally I could easily knock out a plain pair of mittens in 3 days. This has not happened. I got the first one finished except for the thumb, had Squidette try it on and determined that it was too small for the giftee. I then cast on 3 more times before I settled on going up just one size in Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns. By the way, thanks Dave for pointing out that the purpose of the elastic in this book is to keep one's place. I was kind of stupid that way and kept having to leaf through the book to find my page. (The original mitten has been set aside, not frogged, and will eventually get a mate -- probably a spare pair for Little Squid.)

Anyhow, I am once again working on the mittens and swear that I will not start anything for myself until they are done. There is also the matter of a pair of mittens promised to a certain sister. When these are done I will weigh them and determine if darling sister's mittens require a purchase of yarn. (I have half a ball in the right color.) If so ... then she will wait a smidge longer until I get back to Knitty City to get another ball. If not ... then I will cast on and maybe she will get them before she goes back to school for the next semester. Since her birthday is not until March, I figure I have a fair amount of leeway.

We spent much of today at Ikea and actually managed to obtain everything we set out to get. Little Squid now has a new rug for his room, Papa Squid got the small piece of furniture on which to pile things near our bathroom and shelves to go over his desk.

Recently Papa Squid began to work on this place to make it look a little more finished. Given that we never finished painting this summer, it is taking some work. Pictures were hung, shelves were purchased and Herman was placed.Some of my tea pots. The four on the right-hand shelf were given to me by my mother-in-law. From left to right they were obtained during her travels in: China, Italy, Turkey and the Christmas Tree shop. The tea pots on the left shelf (left to right): craft fair here in NYC, Quebec City, my sister-in-law and London. Yes, almost all of my tea pots have a story behind them. There are more of them but they are not yet on obvious display.Herman and friends.