Nate and I have been married for 11 years. As much as I’d love to gush about my amazing husband, (he is the saver of the blog), I will instead tell you one of the things he does everyday that makes me feel special. He opens doors. Most every door I walk through, actually, if he is in the vicinity, but particularly car doors. Getting into them, and out, even if we are taking separate cars to the same location for whatever reason. I love it. I am so in the habit of having car doors opened for me, that for a number of years, I’d regularly embarrass myself when I’d happen to be out with someone other than Nate. They’d park the car, get out, and stare at me as I’d be sitting there, subconsciously waiting for them to come and open my door. I’m better now, but it happened many, many times. I felt ridiculous at the time, but now, it’s pretty funny. So there it is, my sweet man opens my door, every time, after 11 years. Awwww.

Thank you, honey. I love you.

OK, I hear ya’, knitting stuff. Today is Friday. That means it’s our Hayden along day. How’s it going out there? Let’s see…

Jena has swatched a nice one. Ann has finished hers, and is lucky enough to have a friend with amazing color coordinating skills. Check it out! I love the complexity of that color combination. It is delicious! Suzy has finished her second Hayden. Good job! (And the scarf matches very well). Donna has started hers. Susan has swatched, and is going to start one soon, but the poor thing can’t blog about it, because her Christmas gift receivers read her blog, so I told her she could post her progress here on Fridays.

OK, I think I got everybody. If I missed someone, please bring it to my attention. Once again, great job on all the Haydens. I never expected my hat to be so popular!

Thank you for the kind posts, emails, and well wishes. Fortunately, the blog wasn’t down for too long, and we were able to get all of my content back!

By some miracle, Nate has managed to fix my site. I truly thought everything was lost. All evidence pointed that way, but, here we are, with posting ability restored, as well as the last 7 months of the semi-public portion of my life! All hail Nate!

Now I have only to go through and delete over 500 spam comments that were left today. That number does not include the over 300 comments that we deleted yesterday. I hate them. I hate spammers. I am sure that the 800 spam comments I’ve received in the last two days have something to do with my site corrupting. I say this because they continued to leave their spam, even after I had disabled the comments to most of my older posts. Then, once I lost all of my content and site access, they continued to spam me, so they had access to my blog, and I didn’t. I hate them.

I’m so glad to be back. I haven’t been knitting much, as I’ve been playing with my anniversary gift (no, you don’t know what it is yet), frogging dumb mistakes, and pouting helplessly while Nate’s been trying to fix the blog. So I don’t have much of anything to report. Maybe I’ll try and whip out a Hayden tonight for the Hayden along post tomorrow. That’s a project I have confidence I can knit successfully. I’ve been botching everything else.

Like, last night, at knitting group, I tried to make pants for Olivia’s doll. I ran out of my novelty yarn scrap I was using for the stripes half way through the first leg. I felt pretty stupid. Then I tried to start on Olivia’s clogs. I had the wrong needle. I haven’t been working on my Lauralund, because it’s not Christmas gift related, and so it feels like a misuse of my time.

Just ignore me. I am not writing well. I think I’m frazzled from the blog crap that we’re dealing with. Let me just end by saying, once again, that it’s nice to be back. Did you miss me?

I’ve been trying to rest. My good friend Michal took the kids yesterday morning so that I could. I went Christmas shopping. The good news is that I got everything done that I had hoped to. The bad news is that I didn’t rest. However, after picking up Veronica, I came home and laid down for a couple of hours. I couldn’t sleep. So I started to knit. I actually didn’t get a lot done, but now Veronica’s doll is a couple eyes shy of being finished. Here be the links!

Here’s the front, and here’s a side view.

I think she’s kind of funny looking. Nate likes her. I’m sure Veronica will. I guess that’s all that counts.

The girls took the school bus home with Michal’s son, so I was able to have a nice, calm afternoon. Then she called and invited me over for pizza. I didn’t have to cook. Three cheers for Michal! She was my angel yesterday.

First of all, before I forget, thank you for your interest in my new haircut. I will post a picture eventually, when I’m not sick, after I’ve re-dyed it, and once I have an opportunity to get a good one. That’s a lot of variables that all have to line up, so it may be awhile. Personally, I am hoping to show you my new haircut at the same time I’m modeling Lauralund. No, it’s not done yet, I’m just saying that I’m guessing it’ll all happen around the same time. However, keep in mind that my hair doesn’t look that different. I just had my layers touched up, and I got bangs.

I do have a picture for you. I got Olivia to model mom’s sweater.

I will have a picture of mom modeling it at some point, but this is what I have right now.

Speaking of mom, she is having a hard time right now. She has a bad blood clot in her leg, and it sounds like they’re having difficulty getting the situation under control. Well wishes for mom!

In other knitting news, I have FINALLY started Pete’s bag. As a reminder, my youngest brother-in-law, who lives in Italy, requested a felted bag back in August. I’ve been fretting. I’ve been thinking. I’ve been looking. I was in Columbine a week or so ago, and noticed some stunning, dark charcoal Donegal Tweed. Gayle ended up buying it, but changed her mind today, and so I have been playing with it. It is gorgeous stuff. I have now begun the creative and experimental process of developing a felted bag to specific, requested measurements whilst attempting to make something that maintains a masculine appearance. I’ve felted a swatch. It is oh, so nice, and I’ve worked up a pattern. It’ll knit up quick, PLUS, there’s oodles of yarn, so if I totally blow it, I can try again. No harm done. If there’s enough left, I’d love to make a simple, elegant wrap with it. It is such pretty yarn.

Once this project is done and sent off, I’ll be a free woman. I don’t think there is anything else I’ve committed to do that I’m stressing about. Happiness abounds.

Good morning. I am very excited to tell you what I did yesterday.

I finished mom’s sweater.

That’s right. Finished. Done. Completed. All the way. Absolutely. DONE!!! The sun isn’t up yet, so I don’t have a picture for you, but it is done. It is seamed. Ends are woven in. It is blocked. It is done. I am both thrilled and nervous. Fortunately, I am confident in my ability to alter if necessary, but I am hoping it doesn’t come to that.

I am still mildly sick. This is because I still haven’t taken a day to rest yet. I’ve been busy. I had a wonderful, two hour nap yesterday, and I’m sure that was beneficial, but I have not yet spent a day in bed. Grrr. Today is probably not going to be the day. I’m feeling restless. There are things I want to do today. Plus… it’s laundry day. That never equates to a day of rest. Oh well. On the plus side, I feel a little better. Does that count?

I didn’t get to work on the mohair flower over the weekend. My sweet neighbor, upon examining my progress thus far, asked if I was worried that it would end up looking like a big ball of fuzz, instead of a flower. I’m choosing to ignore what that question implies. I tried to explain myself and my flower, but the kids were making such a racket, I didn’t want to have to yell my response, so it was just left at that. I know she’s going to be reading this though, so I guess I can answer here.

“Yes, actually. I am mildly concerned that the hours and hours spent on this project will amount to nothing more than a very large tribble. This is why I have decided to make the greenery out of some left over dark green Lamb’s Pride, instead of the green mohair I bought. The thought being that the contrast in texture will greatly help. If this doesn’t work, I will change gears and make a plain, five petal flower out of garter stitch, which will eliminate the curling ends, and call it good. I believe that will look nice, I was simply trying to be creative by attempting a peony with the curling petals.”

There it is. And I didn’t even have to shout.

Did I mention mom’s sweater is done?

Here we are, on another dark, cold, gloomy Saturday. How’s that for an opener? I bet you can guess how my week went. :-).

I didn’t have the amazing, productive week I had hoped for. I’m sick. I’ve been sick for a week now. Not sick enough to keep me from doing things. And that is the problem. If I had spent a few days in bed, drinking herbal tea and sleeping, I’d probably be all better now. But I didn’t. So I’m still kind of yucky. The only exercise that was had was on Thursday. I did a light treadmill for 35 minutes. I started to do my lower body weights that afternoon, but I got distracted and quit after my quads.

The happy news? I can cross my legs now. Isn’t that incredibly cool? There are probably many of you that can’t relate, but I am sure there are some out there who can. I’ve never been able to cross them well, I think because structurally, my legs are too close together. I paid attention to these things when I was younger. But for many years now, I couldn’t cross them at all. I am pleased to announce that I can cross them again. I don’t need to hear about spider veins. I know. But still, possessing the ability is worth cheering about! Hooray!

As usual, I’m hoping to do better next week. I hope you’re week has gone better than mine. How’s it going out there?

I didn’t do any knitting yesterday. I cleaned the fish tank, cleaned other things, made meals…. the usual stuff. Plus, I worked with Abner

most of the day, trying to get him fully integrated into, and behaving in, the house. Working towards the day when he can wander freely. Today, I think I’m going to sit and knit, I mean rest.

Last night, my friend Celeste and I went to the mall to buy a dress for her daughter. ( I already told you I wasn’t resting). I saw the most ridiculous thing, it was a poncho (Jessica) made entirely of organza. What the heck? That is going to serve no purpose, whatsoever except to look trendy. I guess that’s the point of “accessories”, but it looked so weird. I don’t think I would have noticed it, but one of my favorite bloggers has been making fun of ponchos for awhile now, and I always harass her about it, so I thought it was only fair to say that last night, I saw what she was talking about. This doesn’t change the fact that I love a good poncho. The fad has just gotten out of control. (I am also a hypocrite, because I think that organza wraps are totally cool).

I was thinking about mom’s sweater yesterday. Remember? You haven’t heard about it in awhile, have you? Well, it has sleeves now, and one side of the sweater is seamed. It looks nice. It has been hanging in my coat closet, waiting to be finished since mid November. I was thinking, yesterday, about why it’s still there. This is out of character for me. I’m a finisher.

Fear. That’s right. I’m afraid it isn’t going to fit her well, and I’m delaying. I need to get over it. So today, I’m planning on seaming the sweater and working more on the lovely mohair peony for the Flowerswap. Wish me luck.

UPDATE- Yikes! I forgot, it’s Hayden along day. I’ve been really enjoying your Haydens. Keep ’em coming. How are you doing with them, knitalongers? Since last week, Malle has finished another one, and Jenika finished hers! Great job! Hayden is working on her Hayden. Hehe. And Maddie posted about finishing hers, but I haven’t seen any PICTURES yet. Hint, hint.

Well you’ll have to click the link, a necessity for the purpose of secrecy. But, hey! It’s a good picture at least! This is the future Christmas present of a certain Veronica June.

In other knitting news, check out what I picked up today, here. (Except for you, mom. You can’t look). Isn’t it gorgeous? I think I want to knit one, maybe after the first of the year. Anyone want to do it with me? It looks like Elann carries the yarn sometimes, but they’re out right now.

Yesterday, Veronica and I went to the LYS and played with a spinning wheel for a couple of hours. It was fun. I want one. It looks like Jessica and I are going to take a class to learn how to do it. Anyone else want to join? Like, Hayden? Maddie maybe? How ’bout you, Sharlyn? It isn’t for a few months. C’mon, girls! Succumb! (Nothin’ like peer pressure).

I’ve needed a haircut for many months now. My beautiful friend, Rosalind, came over last night to borrow some cookie cutters (because I own them all) and gave me a great one. Olivia, who has been waffling in her desire to cut hers off decided that she now needed hers cut just like mine. Sweet Rosalind obliged.

Then Veronica got in on the game. Veronica has never had a haircut, ever, in her 3 1/2 years on the planet, other than her grown out bangs. She still had her baby curls at the very bottom of her long, golden tresses. Sigh.

Well, I have a tradition with my daughters. Their first ever haircut happens like this….. I brush it. I put it in a ponytail at the base of their neck. Then I WHACK it off and trim the remaining hair into a cute little wedge-bob. This enables me to keep this,

forever and ever. If you’d like to see the before and afters, click the link.