New socks for us

I finished second socks for a pair for each of us. So we both wore new socks to D's birthday dinner. That is not totally true, I wore mine.

Zauberball Socks

Socks that Rock "Chestnutty" socks

D wore his Chestnutty socks from Portland. His new Spinning Bunny socks had an adventure earlier in the morning and were resting. I had sprayed a spot on the carpet with carpet cleaner and his comment ten minutes later was, "Why is the floor wet? Oh yeah you sprayed cleaner there". Poor dude did not know why I tackled him and ripped off his socks. I ran to the sink to rinse them and could see a soapy area. This yarn dyed my fingers and needles while I knit with it, so I was really worried about what something I had applied to remove a stain, would do to it.

Spinning Bunny "Bark" Sock

Some dye did rinse out when I gave them the initial dip in the bathroom sink. I ran some water in the kitchen sink but they did not seem to be bleeding dramatically. I added a touch of vinegar to rinse one and two. I think they will be fine. But I bet D was really happy I did not ask him to wear wet birthday socks out to dinner in November, in New York. That is a bit too much to ask of the person you love. 

My alpaca shawl is torturing me. I got close to the start of the lace portion and decided to do stitch count so I could be sure to place a life line. I came up with two more stitches on one side than the other. So I unknit a row and still had the same problem. I put it in time out and came back to count a couple of nights later and still had the same issue. I frogged back several rows and unknit two more rows and still had the same problem. So it went back into timeout for the night. The next night I recounted, hoping it was just a counting error on my part. Nope. I toyed with the idea of frogging it and starting over but I have knitting group this weekend and want to have something to show off. So I did a knit 2 together near the start and end of that portion. I don't regret it at all. Perfection is nice but a couple of K2tog in dark grey yarn on garter stitch will not ruin my day today.

In praise of my Husband

I had a birthday recently and feel the need to praise my Hubby for how far he has come as a gift giver.

D does not like gifts, he's OK with receiving them but hates to give them. If the tradition of gift giving fell off the face of the earth he would be a much happier man. It is not that he is selfish or greedy or ----. It is that he just does not understand why it is important to some people. OK we all know that the irony is that I am a gift person. It is one of my love languages. (It has been a while since I read that book but I remember agreeing with the gift chapter a lot.) Sorry Honey!

I think his gift giving starts out with good intentions and quickly deteriorates into frustration. For some reason he thinks that buying off a wish list is cheating. Yeah I don't understand that one but hey it is who he is. I think he wants to do a good job but gets derailed a bit.

The last few years he has made the extra effort and I can tell. He started paying attention to the stores that I prefer, the things I like to do, and who I like to spend time with. Boy was that a step in the right direction. So I have seen a steady improvement on each gift giving occasion.

This year he hit it out of the park! I received two things that I had spoken about wanting, a yarn ball winder and a sweater stone. He did the reconnaissance, by pointing out that some of my knitting catalogs had "cool knitting tools". Score one for the home team, he is on the right path. He had them ordered, wrapped and hidden before I even knew it. He did admit to being nervous about my attending the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival. Wouldn't it have been bad if I had decided to pick one up there. Future note Hubby, those fairs are more about the yarns and less about the tools.

So I had a nice birthday, but wait there is more. We had agreed to do birthday dinner on Friday night not the night of my birthday. I thought it would be a nice evening out for us, not anything big. I did have a little clue that it might not be that when he did not entertain the idea of trying some place new. But I thought to myself "I've been wrong before".

We show up to dinner and he has arranged for three other couples to celebrate with us. What a man, what a mighty good man! He took my birthday to a whole new level. Don't worry Honey I will not expect this every year, but it was super cool this year.

Thanks for making it special! You're an awesome Husband, I love you.

Man when did my blog turn into a mush fest? Oh yeah it always was one! Thanks also to my good friends and family. I am blessed!