Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

We're celebrating our Thanksgiving tomorrow so yesterday was a knitting and soapmaking day for me. Very enjoyable. Until I ripped out an hours worth of work on Lady Eleanor because I thought I ended on the wrong row to finish it..... turns out I was correct after all and ripped for nothing. So tonight, I'll try once again to finish it. I'm almost there.

Here are a few soap photos. I've had lots of requests for my soap to use as stocking stuffers and teacher's gifts. So I'm finally getting that organized. If anyone is interested, email me and I'll give you the details. It's pretty awesome stuff if I do say so myself. If it helps my dry skin, you know it's good. I don't have as much of it this year as in previous years, but I should have a good bit leftover.

My mother couldn't wait to give Mr. C. one of his Christmas gifts. He LOVES Elmo... or "Melmo" as he calls him. Check out the sweater... remember that one? It's just now fitting him.

I'm Knitting!

Not a lot.. but I am knitting. Two out of three charity items are complete:

I still have the mittens yet to finish.

Lady Eleanor is still growing.... yet another photo:

I was studying this piece last evening and I just love the look of the un-blocked fabric. It's very 3 dimensional. I remember reading a post in the Scarf-Style Knit A -Long blog where a girl did this pattern and decided not to block it. I thought that was the dumbest thing ever. But the more I look at it, the more I understand not wanting to squash what makes it so interesting to the eye. The last one I made was a solid color and it didn't seem to make that much difference. I guess in the end, I may block it very lightly. This pattern is like Clapotis. You just keep wanting to make more.

For those of you who like to cook, I found an amazing lasagna recipe. It's labor intensive, but worth every minute. Enjoy.

World's Best Lasagna - Allrecipes

Nothin exciting goin on....

I had a great time at Nemacolin. We were kept so busy that no knitting was accomplished. I took it, but I didn't do it. I went to a gourmet cooking demonstration (too much work) and a wine tasting seminar which was great. Our meetings were also excellent. They had a "knock your socks off" motivational speaker whom I think was the best I ever heard. (Kevin Freiberg in case anyone is interested.)

I'm still plugging away at the charity knitting. The scarf is finished and the hat is half finished. Except for some socks that were finished a long time ago, there will be no knitted gifts this year. That bums me out. I had lots of great ideas, but no time to follow through.

Tonight is our holiday party at work. As usual, my boss decided to do it early before everything gets crazy. At least we're having snow. That might get everyone in the mood. (More likely it will be the open bar that does the trick.)

Back in the saddle...

with Lady Eleanor

My replacement yarn arrived yesterday. Same dye lot and everything. I was very lucky. Because I let this yarn sit for a long time before using it, I was afraid everyone would be out of it. But I got what I needed. And Knitch, in Atlanta, Georgia, wrapped every skein individually in tissue paper. That's a first for me. Cute!

This is the charity knitting. I have a scarf, hat, and mittens to do. The scarf is going quickly. I need to get this finished fast so I can concentrate on the wrap and Colin's sweater. I need some FO's!! I feel like it's been a while.

Mr. C's been sick with the flu. Poor kid. Then he gave it to his mom. So far, Grandma has escaped.

I'm holding my breath. Next week is three days at Nemacolin. And I refuse to be sick for that!

Still alive...

I've been a bad blogger. Actually, I've been a bad knitter as well. We had a yarn disaster of major proportions and that really threw me off my game. Last Thursday evening, I settled in to work on the Lady Eleanor and realized I was at the end of my skein. I went to the spare room to get another one out of the box and the box was gone. No problem I thought. DH cleaned and straightened up the room (which tends to get very out of control) and I thought I just needed to look a little harder for it's new resting place. Nope. Gone. The box was gone. I'm going to say roughly $70.00 or a little more worth of yarn... gone. It was in a priority mail postal box. Gone. He thought it was empty. He threw it out. And, to add insult to injury, it sat outside for 5 days and if I had sat down to knit one night earlier, I'd have been able to rescue it. As it was, the trash man got it about 7 hours before I missed it. That will teach me not to knit. I missed it by only 7 hours out of the 5 days it sat outside with the trash. Thoughts of rumaging the land fill ran through my mind. Nah... I got on knit list and found the yarn. I have it now. But it cost him. Big time. I think we can safely say that he will never do that again. So how angry and upset was I over the whole situation? Well, I got these the next day:

That should sum it up.

Mr. C Goes Trick or Treating

I don't know about you, but I think the pacifier clearly makes the outfit.

Fires

I've been pondering the lives of the people in California who lost their homes. My niece was on alert to evacuate. Yes, she lives there. I haven't heard yet whether or not they had to go. She is pregnant with twins. Her first(s). I'm guessing at this point they had to go and I pray that when they return, they still have a house.

What I've really been pondering is .. what if I knew my house was going to burn and I had 15 minutes to grab things. What would I grab?

Wow.

So many thoughts. After people and pets, photos are the first thing that come to mind but mine would be impossible to haul out. I have huge storage boxes of photos and they are so unorganized that I don't know what is where. I'd want all the 8 X 10 baby pictures of the kids and our wedding photos. But how can you say they are more important than the tons and tons of birthday, first communion, graduation, basketball games, etc. If I lost my photos, I'd be devastated.

I once thought about my wedding gown but I'm over it. The only thing it would be good for these days is a Halloween costume.

I have some sentimental jewelry too. Not great jewelry, but meaningful jewelry. I'd be sad to lose that as well.

I have stupid little things in the china closet that the kids made in school or that they got me at Santa's Secret Shop. They are worthless in monetary value but precious to me. I'd want them, but I probably wouldn't remember to grab them.

Clothes? No. I don't really care about clothes. Give me a white shirt and a pair of khaki's and I'm happy until I can manage to add some other things. Shoes? Man, I'd hate to lose my shoes, but, no, I wouldn't get them.

Knitting... wow. I have a ton of great yarn. But I'd let it. There's more where that came from. I would hate to lose all my knitting books though. That would bum me out. But not the end of the world.

In the end, it's the photos. My heart would ache for the photos. Which just goes to prove that it's not the material things in life that are important. I have a few valuable things. But while I was thinking and deciding what I would grab, they never even came to mind.

I think I might take some time to organize a "grab basket". I may spend some time going through my photos and make a small box of "must haves". And maybe throw in a few other little momentos and treasures that are irreplaceable. You never know.

Anyway, my heart aches for those families. It must be so terrible.

No Knitting News

I love Pennsylvania in the Fall. It's my favorite time of year. My boss said he has trouble enjoying it because it's just an announcement that bad things are on the way. I agree that I'm not crazy about knowing what is directly ahead, but I sure do love being outside right now.

I'd like to report knitting news but I'm still just hammering away at Lady Eleanor and to be honest, I'm not even doing much of that. Thanks to my buddy Yvonne I now have the errata for Colin's sweater and I can't wait to get back into that. I'm half way finished with the wrap and I intend to tackle the sweater right after that is complete. When am I ever going to get the charity knitting done????

Happy Birthday Dad

October 14th, 1927 - Feb. 10th, 2007

My Dad would have been 80 years old today. It was a difficult and emotional day. I miss him so much. He was such a funny guy. He was great with the one liner. He had an extremely quick wit. If you ever needed a pick me up, all you needed to do was go visit him. He continually cracked us up. It wasn't corny humor that is annoying. It was just really funny stuff. I think my younger brother inherited some of his quick wit but it is more evident in the third generation. It seems that some of our children have more of him in them than we do. I still can't believe he's gone and I'm dreading the holidays.

On knitting... no news. I haven't picked up the needles in about 5 days so I have to get back on track so I can have the charity knitting finished for the holidays. I'm starting to panic about Lady Eleanor. The plan was to have that finished by the end of October and I don't think it's going to happen. I didn't want to have another UFO laying around when I started the charity knitting but it looks like that's the way it's going to be. I have SO much unfinished for various reasons. I think I will rip Colin's sweater out and start something else for him since Zoe Mellor isn't interested in providing errata. The pink lace wrap is on hold until I get the Addi Lace needles which I have been informed have arrived and I need to go pick them up. I have socks on needles. I'm sure there is more but I think I'm blocking it out of my mind.

Pittsburgh was great. I was so entertained though that I didn't get any knitting accomplished. For what it's worth, the Howard Hanna company is an exceptionally top notch organization. When they do something, they do it right. That was a pretty amazing convention.

Updating progress...

I really haven't had a chance to work on this as much as I'd like, but it is growing, and I am still enjoying the process. I've decided not to block this one out as far as I blocked the last one. I'd like to retain some of the raised texture in the piece.

And check this out:

My first sewing project in about 15 years. This IS part of a Halloween costume for Mr. C. although it probably doesn't look like it. I was rather proud of myself for remembering how to do this after all this time. Sure, it could be better, but it's great for me! It was SO much fun to sew again. I can't believe I got away from it for so long. I can see some cute summer dresses in my future.

I'll be in Pittsburgh for the next few days at meetings. Maybe I'll get in some "hotel knitting".

We'll see.

Lady Eleanor Progress

This could be my favorite thing that I ever knit. Really. I'm loving this yarn and these colors.

To sew, or not to sew... that is the question.

The last time I sewed anything was in 1992. It was also the last time I saw my sewing machine which was a gift to me from my mother a few years earlier. I sewed a lot back then. I made the kid's clothes and I made curtains and toys. I was actually getting pretty good at it until we moved back to my hometown. Then I went back to work, and the sewing went out the window. We couldn't find a house so we rented an apartment for 6 months and moved all of our stuff twice. In the chaos that ensued from putting things in storage and moving things around so much, some things got lost and one of them was my sewing machine. You're probably wondering how you can lose a sewing machine. I'm wondering the same thing. Let me just say that when you have men moving things around unsupervised, stuff happens. (Oh, that box of stuff over there wasn't important, was it??) Nuff said. Anyhoo, it's Halloween time, and Halloween time means costume time, and grandson needs costume. So, will Grandma BUY another sewing machine? You betcha. I only hope it does not turn into a new addiction. Because I do NOT need that.

We went to the sale in Belleville yesterday. Colin enjoyed the horses and buggies. Belleville is a small town with a large Amish and Mennonite population and the Wednesday sale is a pretty big deal.

They also have a big flea market and look what I scored for only $3.00. It's a Pottery Barn pewter ice bucket. The guy obviously didn't know what he had. This is one of the items that my daughter registered for on her bridal registry and it sold for $40.00. So, yay!

And, finally, here is a photo of the sunflowers on my Dad's grave. I planted these seeds very late in the summer and they are just now blooming. They were supposed to be miniature sunflowers that I thought would be appropriate for a grave. They turned out MUCH bigger than planned and as they grew, I just didn't have the heart to pull them out when I saw they were getting too big. My Dad loved to grow sunflowers. I think he'd like them in spite of the fact that they look a little out of place. (But I did learn my lesson for next year.)

My Obsession With "Wrap" Continues

I decided last night to start another "Lady Eleanor" wrap. I've had the Noro yarn for this since last Fall. My plan is to have it finished by the end of this month and still have time for a few small Christmas projects. I am still stalled on Colin's sweater due to a mistake in the pattern and Zoe Mellor has not responded to my inquiry regarding errata. There was an address on the pattern book to contact her and I sent her a letter in the mail (no email address to be found.) That was a month ago and she never responded. I'm guessing she never got it. No knitting designer would ignore correspondence from a fellow knitter. It just wouldn't happen. Right?

The funky two different needle alpaca shawl is blocking. It is a weird shape. (It is shown doubled here. I had to do it this way because I don't have space to lay it out on the floor.) I wonder if that had anything to do with the needle fiasco. I tried to stretch it out into a more triangular shape but it wasn't having any of that.

I finished a sock and started another one at an Open House yesterday. Knitting is getting accomplished. And today, all I want to do is go home and work on Lady Eleanor. Entrelac is SO MUCH FUN!!

Dumb and Dumber

This takes the cake.

So I was starting a hat last night and needed size 10 needles. I go to my Denise set and look for the tens. Something isn't quite right in there. There is one size 10 needle and one size 10 1/2 needle in there. And the matching needles are nowhere to be found. I'm so confused! Who would take one of each out of there? MOI. That's who. Guess where they are?

Oh yeah. Right here. No wonder it looked sort of funky. No wonder I ran out of yarn right before it was finished. I used two different needles the entire time. What am I going to do about it? Not a darn thing... except finish it when the yarn comes. Ugh.

Progress on Alpaca Shawl

This has really been a fun knit. It's quick and easy. And I'm really loving the yarn. (even though the fibers do go up my nose!) Everyone is telling me that gray is the color for Fall so I guess I'll be right in style. I can't wait to finish and block this.

You can find the free pattern here:

http://www.kraemeryarns.com/patterns/pdfs/vintage-shawl.pdf

I thought I had an entire weekend off (which would be almost unheard of) but it ends up that I have to speak about real estate to an alumni group at the Penn State campus here. So.. I guess I better go give that some thought and decide what I'm going to say. A public speaker I'm not.

On miracles...

I am an excellent driver. I must be. I've never had an accident or a speeding ticket. I'm sure I would qualify for those safe driver discounts that the insurance companies offer. I probably have a safe driver discount and I'd know that if I paid any attention to any of our bills, which I don't. So, with such a driving record, I can't believe that I almost killed a man today with my car, but I did.

I do have to say that most days I am extremely busy, a little stressed out and in a hurry. Today was just the opposite. I was having a nice, quiet, calm day. I left the office to go put a "SOLD" sign on a listing. I was sitting at a stop sign, looked both ways, and pulled out. As I was pulling out, I saw a motorcycle coming right at me. Right at my driver side. By some kind of absolute miracle, he missed hitting me. I pulled out right in front of him. I never saw him when I looked. I remember that the two little yellow lights on either side of the headlight were lit up when he almost hit me, but his headlight was not on. I never saw him coming.

I was so in shock that I had to pull over. He never stopped. I shook for 20 minutes. It's amazing how fast something like that can happen. If I had hesitated one extra second, he'd surely have hit me broadside. He may have died and my life would never have been the same... in one brief second.

So I'm sitting here thinking... if motorcycles are that easy to miss... why would you ride one? I don't mean to be passing the blame to the motorcycle person. I'm not at all. I'm simply saying.. do they know how hard they are to see at times? It was on a tree lined street with lots of foliage so there was lots of background scenery. He just blended in. I wish he could know how sorry I am that I did it.

I come from a long line of non-motorcycle people. I think my nephew went through a motorcycle phase once but it was short lived. I've never thought much about them until today.
I'm glad that no one I love rides a motorcycle.

When Catie was little she made a few trips to the orthopedic surgeon for a problem with her hips. I remember that he had a sign up in his office that said, "Buy Your Child A Motorcycle... For His Last Birthday". I think I get it.

.... and baby makes two

Below you will find the patterns on the new Knitty for Fall that I LOVE.

This would be so perfect for my son's girlfriend. I could totally see her loving this purse.




















And this would be perfect for ME. I love it. And so simple too!

And this is by far the cutest hat I've ever seen knit. I have to knit this for Colin's little brother or sister.

Yep... I'm going to be a grandma... again! Look out Colin. Your world is about to be rocked!

Remembering 9/11

I was thinking not long ago that it was only a couple of years ago.

When I realized it was 2001, I couldn't believe that time had gone

so fast. So much has happened since then and nothing has happened.

I remember when we started the war on terror, I had it in my head

that we'd kick their butts in a year or so and show them who's boss

and they'd think twice about messing with us again. How naive of me. I

had no clue who we were dealing with. I still don't think I do. I have

trouble understanding that type of insanity. I'm not sure how you

fight insanity or if you CAN fight insanity. The one thing I know for sure...

You do have to try. You certainly have to try.

Out of Control...

I've never had so many projects going at one time. So what do I do? Start another one, of course.

I've been dying to start this and I just couldn't put it off any longer. It's done in Kraemer yarns alpaca blend (another fiber up your nose type yarn... yippee) and I'm lovin it so far. My plan is to really whip this one out and then go back to the others. This is going to be fast and furious knitting. I hope. I should get tons of mileage out of this. It's charcoal gray and it will go with almost everything I wear. Come to think of it, I should be brightening up my wardrobe, not adding to the darkness. Oh well. Maybe I'll make a red one next. Or not.

Spa Socks

I'm not sure why they call these spa socks. Most spas I've been in give you little thongy things to wear and you'd look pretty stupid walking around in these. But they are cute and they make great slipper socks for around the house. The pattern calls for Blue Sky Alpalca's Dyed Cotton yarn. We found the correct yarn for the pattern at the LYS in Colorado not far from where we were (as I mentioned in the previous post). Anyhow, a word of advice about the yarn... the loose fibers go up your nose and they set up camp and make it their mission to drive you insane. In all my years of knitting, I have never worked with a yarn that had me constantly sneezing and rubbing my nose and just going crazy in general. It looks good, it feels great, but it's a pain in the butt (or nose) to work with. Never again. I'll substitute for the next pair.

In other knitting news, I'm still stuck on Colin's sweater, I'm still waiting for my addi turbos for lace knitting for the lace wrap, and I'm still working on the cotton socks that I started in Colorado. I've been mulling over some holiday projects but I think I'll give myself a break this year and declare Christmas 2007 a non-knitted gift year. I'm going to try hard to squeeze in one felted purse for my son's girl friend but I'll be lucky to get it in and I'm not going to stress about it if I don't. That's why God created shopping malls.

Our 7th Annual Golf Tournament for MS was a huge success last Thursday. We had a beautiful day and tons of support from the local community. With so many charity golf tournaments going on, we are truly blessed to have so many people show up at ours. We had tons of great prizes too and what did I win? A dozen golf balls. Oh well, it made my husband happy.

Rocky Mountain Knitting

We had a great time in Colorado. Lots of knitting was accomplished but not on the intended project. I am still struggling with the Zoe Mellor pattern I'm trying to do for Colin. I thought we had the bugs worked out, but as I proceded, I realized we didn't. I finally sent her a snail mail letter to ask about errata since her email address is nowhere to be found.

I started a pair of "spa socks" from this magazine:

These shortie socks are very cute and very quick done in Blue Sky Alpaca's Dyed Cotton yarn on size 8 needles. My sister had the magazine, and we lucked into the yarn the pattern called for here:

The Yarn Studio

The spa socks are in aqua. The other sock shown is more Colorado knitting done in yarn my super secret pal from last year sent me. It took me a while but I knew I'd get to it.

Here's my new Vera Bradley knitting bag (birthday present) from my # 1 daughter... I just love it.

Here we are at the top of Beaver Creek mountain with the Gore Range in the background.

It's beautiful in Colorado.

Vacation Time!

Yay! Off to Colorado for a much needed break. I'm all packed. But I'm stressing about what knitting project to take.

Stay tuned for the Colorado knitting report ... probably Sept. 4th.

Have a great week, and knit on.

Someone Knit For Me!!!

Happy Birthday to me! My daughter knit me a scarf with a cable in it! She is just learning so I am pretty impressed! I am gladly doing the blocking honors. It's done in a Wool In The Woods wool acylic blend. Although you can't see the big cable in this photo...it's really there!

Thank you Kelly!

PS... I think we may have a new addict on our hands.

Fall Knitting and Yukky Weather

It would have been nice if the rain could have been spread out a little at a time over the summer instead of coming all at once. There is flooding everywhere here. And it is cold. And when it gets cold, all I can think about is winter knitting. This didn't help:

I think this is a great issue. There are several things in here I would knit. (If I had time)

This is one of them:

I think I have enough of the yarn from Ireland left over to do this sweater. I'm going to have to measure it out. This would be great with jeans.

There was another cable V-neck sweater I liked in this issue but it is too similar to something you buy at T.J. Maxx to take the time to knit it. I have a rule about knitting sweaters. If the pattern is something you could buy very easily, then why bother knitting it? Case in point:

Very cute. Very "me". But I could walk into any store and buy a very similar sweater. The sweater above is unusual and unique. I couldn't find that anywhere so might as well knit it.

There is another very unique cardigan in this issue that I'd knit. It has a tangled cable yoke. Cute cute cute.

The beach was great. I want to go back.

Off to the beach!

As for beach knitting, I'll be taking it. I just don't know if I'll be DOING it.

I've been working on some spa cloths... experimenting with different patterns... more about that later. Kertzer Butterfly Cotton is an awesome yarn for those cloths if anyone is thinking of getting started on some Christmas gifts.

And the surprise project is....

Knitty's Monkey Hat!

Pattern: Sock Monkey Hat by Sheryl Lange (on knitty.com)

Done is size M

Materials Used: Kraemer Summit Hill superwash wool - worsted weight - two strands held together throughout.

Colors: Topaz, Pearl, Ruby (I used left over black yarn for the eyes and nose)

notes: I started the small for Colin and realized it was too small. I did the medium and it barely fits. However, I used substitute yarn and I did not check gauge so that's what happens. I'd knit the large for a toddler if I was doing it all over again with this yarn. The yarn the pattern calls for is no longer available.

Yay! Friday!

I'm not sure what I'm "yaying" about because I have an insane work day and an insane work weekend ahead of me. I guess it just sounds good. Friday. Thank God it's Friday. I can dream.

Anyhow, I have a secret project. I'll share it when it's finished but it's a surprise for someone who lurks here from time to time. It's so darn cute I can't stand it. And of course it wormed it's way in among all the other things I have started and put the kabosh to those projects. I guess that's what knitting is all about. I will say one thing about it. I'm knitting it with worsted weight superwash wool (Summit Hill) by Kraemer Yarns. That is one nice yarn. It feels good and looks good. I'm not knitting a sweater, but this yarn would make an awesome sweater. I got it here:
Victoria's House of Needleart

I'm still stuck on Colin's sweater. The dirctions are so wrong. I think. I'm going to try hard to find time to get some help tomorrow. I was zipping right along on that until dang row 14 of pattern. It's so wrong. And no errata to be found anywhere. That is so frustrating.

Have a great weekend! Knit on.

C'mon n' Vogue

It's out. I wait for this. I'm always fascinated by this magazine. If someone said to me... There will only ever be one knitting magazine printed again and you can choose which one, this would be it. The patterns are incredible. The modeling and photography are awesome. I think what sets it apart is the presentation. It's what you would expect from Vogue.

Now, having said all this, here's the thing.... If it was the only knitting magazine ever printed again, I'd be up the creek. I KNIT from other magazines. I utilize them. I wear them out. I've never knit anything from a Vogue Knitting magazine in my life. But I keep a pile of them a mile high. I throw other magazines out after time. I keep these.

I'll never figure it out. When I analyse it, I think that these patterns are patterns I aspire to someday when I get good. (and, really, they aren't that hard!) Do they just seem intimidating because some super fashion model with weird lipstick and eye make-up has them on? Do I attempt even more difficult patterns from Interweave Knits because the people wearing them look like they might have walked out of the house next door?

Interesting. Huh?

Oh, by the way, there is a really neat Debbie Bliss cabled jacket in this issue and the pattern can be downloaded free at www.vogueknitting .com. (I don't know if I'd use the DB cashmerino aran yarn it calls for though... from the looks of things, the sleeves in the photo are already looking a tad fuzzy)

Weekend Knitting... and lots of it!

I was a bad bad girl. I neglected housework. I neglected the shopping I needed to do. But I did knit. Since I didn't have any socks on needles I decided to stash bust with a pair of little toddler socks. I forgot about all the pink in that Trekking yarn when I started them for Colin. So, now, I may just include them in some charity knitting.

As you can see, the back of Colin's sweater is coming. I am on row 14 (after the moss stitch border) and it isn't making any sense at all so I'm wondering if there is a mistake in the pattern (or, more likely, a mistake in my brain) These cable patterns usually flow, and you can tell what you're doing makes sense, and this row is not making sense. I've knit it and ripped it 5 times now. I guess the next step is ...HELP!

I put a few rows on the never ending pink lace shawl too. I think I'm done with that until my new needles come. I need POINTS!!

Thank Goodness For Lifelines

In the last two weeks, I have ripped down to the lifeline 3 times on my shawl. I'm not sure what my problem has been after not making any mistakes on it for months. But those lifelines sure are handy little things. I've even gone so far as to keep two lifelines in the piece just in case. (I'm a little neurotic)

















I keep thinking that if I had known about lifelines when I started (and started, and started, and started) the Michaela shawl, I'd be wearing it now instead of having it on the "to do" list.

Colin's sweater is a blast. I LOVE cables! It's going to be so cute. Photos soon!

Colin's Sweater

I started Colin's new sweater last night. On size 2's. Ugh. It's going to be a long haul. I bought this book last year and I'm happy to be using it. She wanted the pullover for him so that's what it will be. It's being done in Kraemer yarn's Tattamy Tweed (dk) which I have used before.

As for the pink lace shawl, I'm using the rationale that it has to be put on hold until I get the proper tool to finish it. I ordered a new addi turbo circular needle specifically designed for lace knitting with much pointier tips than the needles I had been using.

I bought a book last night with patterns for knit toys. I'm sure that was a wise investment. Because I have so much time to sit and knit toys. :-)