Believe it or not, this pile is four different birthday presents. I know, you’re thinking it looks kind of pathetic, huh? In fact they’re pretty good presents, just . . . you know . . . small.

Only two of them are actually for my niece and my nephew, whose party we’re going to tomorrow. One of them is or my brother-in-law, whose birthday was the 11th. And one is for my sister, whose birthday this year (June 7th) is inconveniently on a Wednesday. Her weekends for the foreseeable future are tied up, so on her actual birthday, my parents are going to go up for dinner, but I’ll be staying home. I figured the choices are to either bring the present up myself tomorrow, a week early, send it up with them, or wait until the next time I see her (probably Chappy’s birthday in July). All in all, I’d rather bring it early and get to watch her open it.

Anyway, today we ran errands–including a stop at a bookstore. (For the record, I bought six books.) I bumped into a woman browsing the knitting section looking for a book of shawls because a friend’s son had just died and she wanted to make her something, to do something. So sad! This afternoon, I boiled potatoes for potato salad, finished a book, started my second sock, and wrapped presents. All in all, a pretty relaxing Saturday.

I did finish the first Sockotta sock last night. I stayed up until midnight watching House, and figured I could get the sock done during the episode more easily than I’d be able to read. Cindy asked what I think of Sockotta? A perfectly nice yarn. Between this and the Cotton Fleece I’m using for my Green Gable, I have to admit that cotton-blend yarns aren’t horrible. I still maintain that the only 100% cotton yarn I like are ones like Calmer, which are manufactured with some stretch built into the yarn, but cotton blended with wool? It works. (For that matter, my first shawl was made in Rowan Wool/Cotton way back when.)

I did actually just get two skeins of denim-y blue Cascade Fixation today, which is 98% cotton, and 2% elastic. They had had a sample to try out at Modern Yarns when Risa and I were there a couple of months ago, and I was surprised at how “knittable” it was–that little bit of elastic makes a huge difference! This is something I ordered over a week ago (before signing up for the S.O.S. stash-along, which, in any case, doesn’t actually start until Monday), and mostly ordered because I was getting a few knitting needles from Webs and felt I needed to “fill out” the order. The problem? I asked for two 16″ Inox needles and one 16″ Addi Turbo–which was the needle I really needed for my Celtic Dreams sleeve. When the order came today, though . . . three Inox needles, no Addi. Sigh. (Their shipping department does seem to be a bit irregular, doesn’t it?) On the plus side, I called their customer service number–not actually expecting an answer, since this is a holiday weekend, but an actual person answered the phone, apologized, and said I could keep the Inox and they’d sent out the Addi ASAP. I must say, I’ve had some problems with them, but their customer service department does a good job.

Still, it’s kind of frustrating. The one error in the order was the one needle I really wanted, since I’m not enjoying working the sleeve on my C.D. I’ve been working on it for a week and the sleeve’s about 5″ long . . . it almost feels like it’s taking as long as the body did! (grin)

Chappy, I’m glad to tell you, seems just fine today. Quite himself, which is quite a relief. He thanks you for your concern. Mom and I were actually watching some baby-Chappy video tonight . . . oh, lord, it’s so easy to forget how absolutely adorable a baby puppy is. And he was one of the cutest. (Well, he was. If you don’t believe me, click here. I absolutely adore that picture.)

Hey, check out this portrait of Elvis, made out of post-it notes.

• Tags: Family, General • Permalink:Pre-Party //