Icarus

Pattern: Icarus from Interweave Knits Summer 2006 (also available from Mimknit)
Yarn: Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud in Smoke
Needles: Knitpicks Options size 4 - I used size fours mostly because I don't have a nice pointy size three needle and I didn't think it would matter that much.

Icarus is finished. I started working on it last fall, but put it away for a while to work other things - specifically presents for Christmas. I pulled it back out this spring and started plugging away at it. I would knit two or three rows a day and didn't seem to be making much progress, but then one day it was done. For a few days it felt strange not to be working on the shawl anymore, but I have gotten over that. I was planning to enter this in the State Fair, but due to an inability to count, I had one extra stitch I picked up - resulting in an extra column of stockinette stitches - that when dropped to have the correct number of stitches left a slightly larger column of yarn overs. It isn't noticeable unless you know it is there or look very closely, but probably not going to win me any prizes. The shawl is light, but warm since it is knit from alpaca. It is a little bigger because it is knit with size four needles instead of threes, but it seems to be a good size.

Tim and I had a very nice evening. I think I need to nominate Kathy for best mother-in-law. She called earlier this week to let us know that she would like to watch the kids for us tonight and wondered what time she could come up. Tracey came with and they had a pretty good time and walked over to a local ice cream shop while we were out. Nicholas is finally getting better with other people watching him. We have also been spending more time with Tim's family so I think that helps too. Tim and I went to see Ocean's 13. We don't get to very many movies, so we picked this one knowing that we liked the first two and I knew that Renee gave it a good review. We caught a 4:15 movie - because it is $9 for both of us instead of for one ticket. After the movie we went to Cosetta's for the first time. I had the Cosetta sandwich. It was a thick slice of Italian bread on the bottom, a sausage patty, red sauce, and another slice of Italian bread cut in half. It was very good and filling enough for me to be full, but not stuffed. Tim had a different sausage entree, but decided mine was better. We like trying new places and it is so much easier without the kids. They also had pizza by the slice, so we will probably go back with the kids sometime. After Cosetta's it was still only 8pm, so we went to Cafe Latte for a little desert. We were planning to share something, but Tim saw that they had key lime pie and I saw they had a small slice of chocolate cake left from the people in front of us, so that's what we had. It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed our walk along Summit Ave back to the car. When we got home both kids were in bed which was wonderful (especially since I was expecting to have to get Nick to bed).

My knitting plan for the next few days is a swatch for the Mystery Stole 3 with this.


I'm not sure if I will use the pearly beads or the clear beads with the silver inside.

I would also like to get the heel knit on the second Step sock and finish the yoke of Andrew's gansey. We will see what happens. Nick has decided he likes to sit on the floor and scoot around on his bottom and play with things, so that could help. Oh the other hand, Andrew has discovered that he recognizes a number of works and likes to work on reading. So, who knows.