Lynette:  I’ll just start posting like I’ve never left.   I spent the afternoon having lunch and knitting with Monica, her sister Becky, our friends Rebecca, Regina and Barbara.   At Rebecca’s suggestion, we met in Hyde Park at Z&H Market Cafe.  It was a great place to meet.  The food was very good and so was the coffee.

Here’s a picture of the menu.  I’m not sure if it changes daily but it reminds me of Tony’s Deli in the north loop area where Monica and I used to have lunch.   I had The Bernita panini which is a fancy reuben sandwich.  The food was seriously good.

We played catch up the entire afternoon and had show and tell.

I forgot to take pictures of everyone else’s projects but here’s my WIP.  I thought I could finish the sleeves this afternoon, but I was having too much fun talking and eating to get much knitting done.

While we were knitting, this elderly guy walked up to me and said something like ‘Grumble, grumble..you need white’.  He left out of the cafe, and a few minutes later, he came back with this spool of white crochet thread.  He said ‘here you go, but you use this for crochet.’  We were impressed that he seemed to know the difference between knitting and crochet.  At least that’s what we told ourselves.

I’m glad our schedules finally worked out and I got to hang out with Monica in person instead of online.  We’re planning to meet again really soon – next time for sushi.  They’ll be more pictures of food and knitting. Promise!

Filed under: KIP, Knit In Public by Lynette

Mom wanted me to let you know that she’s got blog issues and she’s trying to figure out what she wants to do with the blog in general. She’s not getting the comments sent to her email account. The person who does blog maintenance is MIA. So she might be switching to a different blog/domain/account. What do I know? I don’t even have opposable thumbs so I can’t even type.

In the meantime I will continue to balance this snake on my head while Mom figures out what she’s going to do. Stay tuned!

Filed under: Miscellaneous, Monica, Puppers by Monica

Pattern: Acer Cardigan by Amy Christoffers
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed DK in Watery

This sweater was #445 in my queue (which is now up to 690 in case you are wondering) because I’ve been wanting to make this sweater for a while but not sure what yarn I wanted to use. I had originally bought this yarn to make Salina but I never got around to it. When I looked at the sweater again I decided I didn’t want to knit another stockinette stitch project because I already had 2 other stockinette stitch projects in progress. I’m glad I made this cardigan instead because I love it.

I worked on this sweater while I was in Vegas and left it there so I could have a project when I was there. I finished this sweater after Christmas and blocked it a few days afterwards. I came back to Chicago sooner than expected so that’s why the pictures of the sweater are in a bathroom rather than outside in the sun. I flew back to Chicago with it while it was slightly damp so every time I opened my bag on the plane I would smell the wet wool.

This sweater is knit from the bottom up and then you seam the shoulders. Then you knit the sleeves in the round and sew the caps into the sweater. I didn’t feel like wrestling with that so I followed these instructions to make top-down short-row sleeves. I really liked the process and the look and I think I will try to knit sleeves that way for my other sweaters that start bottom up.

I love the combination of the cables with the lace. I thought about adding the pattern to the sleeves but in the end laziness won out. I am looking forward to wearing this sweater next week. We’ve been having a nice touch of warm weather but that will end soon. It’s nice once in a while to get a few days of warm weather to break up the chill of winter.

Filed under: FOs, Sweaters by Monica

Pattern: Meret by Wolly Wormhead
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in Shiny Moss

Our friend Nancy requested a hat from Lynette or I so we’re both making her one. Nancy wanted this pattern in a green and I dug up this lovely shade of yarn that was buried deep in the stash.

I can’t wear berets so that is not a good picture of the hat.

I got the wretched stomach flu yesterday. I haven’t had that in a long time. There’s something going around and with the stress that I’ve been experiencing lately I’m sure that is why I succumbed to it. I spent the whole day sleeping and eating 3 1/2 pieces of toast. Trying to introduce new foods is how I’ve been spending my day today.

Filed under: FOs, Hats by Monica

My mom passed away last Friday and even though I knew when she was sick that it was inevitable I was still not ready. There are so many things that I could say about my mom especially as she and I drove each other crazy. I really loved her and miss her greatly.

On a happier note, I found this link from Susan for a free pattern offer from Tin Can Knits. It expires tomorrow so here you go. It was difficult to choose just one pattern because there are so many nice ones.

I hope you all have a healthy and happy new year. Thanks for reading the blog.

Filed under: Miscellaneous by Monica

That ornament was crocheted for me by one of our friends’ 8-year-old daughter. Isn’t it sweet?

Filed under: Christmas, Christmas Knitting by Monica

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We had a great time visiting with our company and I forgot to blog. Here are some pictures from our holiday adventures:

On Christmas morning I sat down and started working on this jigsaw puzzle.

The plan was to only work on it for a few hours and then work on it the next day but I couldn’t stop. Then my niece and sister-in-law got sucked into it and helped out and 4 hours later we had this.

And finally we were done at 2 pm:

We decorated some cookies:

Here are all of the cookies:

Charlie made one that looked a little worried (bottom row, last one on the right). My sister-in-law made the one wearing a bikini with pasties (bottom row, first one on the left) and my niece made the Medusa (top row, first one on the left).
My father-in-law tuned the ukelele that he got for Christmas.

And finally by the end of the day we all felt like this.

Filed under: Christmas, Christmas Knitting by Monica

Yesterday I noticed that I had 666 projects queued on my Ravelry page. I had to rectify it because it’s of course an unlucky number so now I have the most attainable goal of 667 projects in my queue.

Filed under: Miscellaneous by Monica

Festive poinsettias make me cheery and always put me in a holiday mood.

I went to see my friends’ son play hockey.

I found some odd-colored corduroys on sale and bought them. Now I’m not sure if I can wear them without looking weird!

Filed under: Uncategorized by Monica

Monica: One of the things I used to do when I was younger was visit all of the stores on State Street and look at their holiday decorations. It always put me in a festive mood. I have stopped doing that as I’ve gotten older and busier but today had a chance to walk by Macy’s and got reminiscent about the old Marshall Field’s store. So when I saw that one of the windows featured the old store and the clock it made me happy. Oh sure Macy’s left the clocks and the old Marshall Fields signs on the building but it’s still not the same store.

Filed under: Christmas, Christmas Knitting by Monica