Monday, November 5, 2007

Real Life

There has been a lot going on around here. Sometimes real life gets in the way of internet life, but you know, that's how it's supposed to be. And I know the four of you who check in to my blog understand that. :)

Our parish has been celebrating its 150th Anniversary this year.

The big culmination of the year was over the weekend of the 27th and 28th. We had a big dinner dance on Saturday night.
The next day, we had a big Mass at noon, with the cardinal celebrating.

The choir did very well; I was very proud of how all their hard work turned out.


Then I had jury duty the next day. Thankfully, I was dismissed shortly after noon.

Hallowe'en was also this week. Rose wanted to be "a black kitty." My mom recycled a skunk costume that her cousin (Rose's, not my mom's) had worn a couple of years earlier. She looked a little like a Monchichi. :)

I have also been knitting -- I decided to start the Tilted Duster. After a lot of swatching and many false starts, I finally started the back on the 31st. I just finished the first sleeve last night, and hope to have the second sleeve done soon. I'm washing and blocking each piece as I finish it, and so far it looks like it's going to work out.

See, I'm using Cascade 220, and it's my first time using it. Now, since the Tilted Duster should not be overly baggy, I wanted to make sure I was getting gauge (I've learned my lesson). I knit my first swatch on size 9 needles, and got 17 st./in., as the pattern calls for. Perfect, right? Well, no. I washed and blocked that swatch. I did not stretch it in any way, shape, or form, and it measured 15 st./in. after washing. Ah HA! See, I would have knit another baggy, unflattering sweater, and there would have been much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Unfortunately, it didn't bloom as much on size 8s, and I was having a really hard time getting stitch gauge before or after washing, and row gauge was way off. So I ended up sticking with the 9s, but knitting the 36" size. The fronts and backs blocked out perfectly to fit my 38" bust with just about 1" of ease. Which is exactly what I was looking for, yay swatching!