Sweaters and Puppies

    I finally got back to working on a sweater.  There was a size 2 V-neck raglan cardigan that was sitting on my circular US7's waiting for it's sleeves to be knit that I had been ignoring.  It was suppose to be a Pin-stripe sweater so that meant it was plain white with a navy blue ribbing around the neck.  Boring to work on but it goes fast.  When I work on it.  Finally, yesterday I forced myself to sit and knit and finished the thing.  Got the sleeves done and sewed up and even finished the body.  I was quite proud of myself.  There wasn't much to watch on TV so I just kept at it.  All the educational programs on the Smithsonian channel were half-hour shows on ancient cultures like the Hittite.  And repeats at that!  Finally found some M*A*S*H reruns and even got some of the pin-striping done!  I think today I'll start a sweater with the new yarn I ordered from Mary Maxim...more of their self-patterning Baby Blankie acrylic, this time  a skein each of Bluebells and Sweet Pea, each in a nifty plastic zippered project bag.  I really like the way that yarn works up.  The skeins weigh 10 1/2 oz and I end up doing 2 or 3 baby sweaters and several hats from one skein.  Took this group to the shop on Thursday.  I've got enough of that patterned section on the top left to another hat! The wild ombre

hats are  Red Heart
acrylics and I'm hoping
they sell, too. Kind of cute, no? Yes!  Now, I've got to do some baseball hats.  One sold while I was putting these hats on display and I didn't bring any with me.

   I had talked to Judy before I started out for the shop and she had mentioned she had errands around town including a stop at the Otesaga.  On the way down I thought if I got there before she left the shop I'd suggest we could have lunch at the Hawkeye Grill at the hotel.  They remodeled it this year and besides, I haven't been there in years.   Well,

'the best laid plans' as the saying goes, she had already been there by the time I got to town
but she quickly agreed to my idea anyway.  The weather wasn't the greatest but we weren't the only ones sitting on the patio having lunch.   The building is beautiful and lunch

was very good.  Wish the weather would have cooperated, but we can't always have everything our way, now can we?  It even rained but those umbrellas did their job and we stayed dry. In fact, some kids were playing bocce on the lawn in front of us and didn't seem to be bothered by the rain at all.  I wanted to take some great shots of the lake and send them to my friend, Tim, who's in the hospital in Florida, but the weather wasn't helping.  Don't know if I want to spend $15 on lunch again soon just for photos of Otsego Lake.
   Here's the Pin-stripe V-neck half-striped. Now pin-striping is hard on my hands!  The ring fingers on both hands get 'trigger cramps' from holding the sweater and the sewing needle.  I should get the
rest of the body finished later but now I think I better

switch to knitting and give my finger muscles a break.  Ever have a 'trigger cramp'?  Not something I'd wish on my worst enemy!
   The 2nd sweater OTN's is a size 1 Fair Isle knit with Mary Maxim's Baby Blankie, a self-patterning acrylic DK weight yarn on US7's.  There are 4 more
patterns in the repeat but I'm doing a 'cut and paste' repeat to get the design I want. There are a lot of ends to work in this way but the design ends up unique!  It's ready for the sleeves and I should get them finished today.  Tomorrow Jeff wants to go see a litter of beagle puppies that he has first choice on.  I'm not too thrilled about the idea of another dog but we'll see. Puppies are always cute and beagle puppies especially! 
  I put a pork roast in the crock pot last night for pulled pork and it came out better than the last time!  That will be supper tonight and I think it will be on a 'whenever you're hungry' basis.  Fanny's already had 2 of the bones and declared them delicious!