Good Will Hunting

No one around here wanted to do anything today, so I left them all to loaf, and I drove to my local Goodwill store to thrift away the afternoon. There's nothing like the thrill of a good find! It was packed! I lost out on a cart, so I looked in the bag section for something to carry all my goods. I lucked out and found a big Disney Princess knapsack which turned out to be gold because the zipper in B's knapsack had busted just before Christmas, and I can't begin to tell you hard it is to find a knapsack during the school year! I filled the knapsack with 9 balls of green Canadiana Chunky and 1 ball of blue Lopi - each ball was 79 cents each!! I browsed for 2 and a half hours. I nearly jumped for joy when I spotted a book with ZIMMERMAN on the spine, but it turned out to be an Adam, not our beloved Elizabeth. It's unbelievable the amount of handknit sweaters on the racks. There was the cutest little Baby Surprise Jacket, but it was knit in very bright acrylics, so I did not pick it up, but I stood there for a long time soaking in the clever construction. I tried on the most beautiful heathered green-y, cable-y turtleneck sweater, and it was FITTED, but I noticed a small ravelling spot, and I was too chicken to take it home and repair the darn hole. I have to confess -all the handknits lovingly stitched and cast off to the Goodwill made me a little sad.

I came home and unloaded my treasures; then I finished this quick, simple baby-sized boat-neck sweater. I knit the pieces over the span of two afternoons! Now to seam it. Do I block the pieces first? I want to do it right.


Pattern: Boat Neck Sweater from Debbie Bliss's Baby Knits for Beginners
Size: 3 to 6 months
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers 100% wool, Lavendar - just a tad over 1 skein
Started: February 7, 2008
Finished: February 10, 2008 (still need to seam - does it count?)
Made For: Heck, I don't know. It was an impulse knit. I was also avoiding my sock.


I am now 3 inches into my Woodland Shawl, and it occurred to me that it would be much more enjoyable if my needles weren't the same colour as my mother-flippin' wool. I can't see my stitches!! I then peeked into my jar of needles, and I was elated when I found 2 more sets of needles in the same size. However, upon closer inspection, the other 2 sets appeared a tad bigger. Weird. So I pulled out my needle thingee with all the holes and tested all 3 sets. It seems that the blue Susan Bates aluminum 4 mm needles are really 3.75 mm needles, and the other two are truly 4 mm. That sucks. I assumed that because the needles said 4 mm, they would be 4 mm. Arghh!!

And we survived a gaggle of 12-year olds on Friday night. I think everyone had a good time. I missed the opening of presents as I was out picking up loot for the loot bags - a prime example of how organized I really am. It looks like J had everything under control as shown below.

Happy Weekend, everybody!

N