My next husband

When I was single and dating. I considered many things about the men that I was dating. I considered intelligence, sense of humor, physical attractiveness, and more. One attribute that I never thought about was physical size in case I wanted to knit for them some day.

I didn't know about the Curse of the Love Sweater yet, but I didn't knit for boyfriends. At least not after the scarf incident of 1999. (I knit one unworthy past boyfriend a manly blue scarf for his birthday, and he declined the gift. I had a "real gift" as well, as he so insultingly put it. A friend gleefully claimed the scarf for her husband, and I knit a matching scarf in purple for her. So the scarf wasn't punished in the end.)

So knitwear sizing just wasn't a consideration in my dating life. Now that I am knitting for a large husband, I realize the error of my ways. The Secret Wedding Socks were a large Size 11. The hoodie is a 2x. (He is really more of a large tall to extra large tall, but my sweetie likes a lot of ease in his clothes.) Even the hunting mittens are huge. If they were for me, I would be halfway finished with the second one.

Excuse me, I need to go work on an STILL unfinished thumb.

Today, it is all about the oversized.

Snow day

Yesterday was a snow day for everyone. Snow Tuesday afternoon. Sleet all night. Another foot of snow on Wednesday. At least that is what the sneaky lying weathermen were predicting. The courthouse was closed both days. (I went in to the office for the morning, then came home after lunch, when the sleet was starting.) My husband's factory was closed on Wednesday. So everyone was home Wednesday. Mommy, Daddy, two kids. It was like a weekend in the middle of the week.

We got the sleet all night, so Daddy had to break up the snow before he could shovel it. (Well, he uses a snow blower, but it doesn't sound right to say he "blows" the snow.) It snowed a little in the morning, but the foot of snow never came. Made it seem like much ado about nothing, but that is from the person that never left the house.

My sweetie left to clean his mother's driveway, and took Bugaboo with him. The litle one left with me fussed for a while, then took a long nap. I was treated to a couple free quiet hours to myself. I cross-stitched Monet. It was a nice treat. Another 100 stitches complete. 107,100 to go.


I also worked on my sweeties hunting mitttens. I am almost finished with one mitten. Only a thumb and flap to go. Obviously, it is a little big on my hand, but I couldn't convince Bugaboo to model the mitten.

Last week, children slept in, but I was up early an energetic. In addition to laundry and dishes, I did something for me. I blocked.

First lace. Finished over a year ago, but stuffed somewhere and forgotten. I unearthed it when I was un-hiding Christmas gifts.

This was really my first time blocking. (Well, other than socks, which doesn't count. )

I soaked my lace.




Then pinned it out on a quilt.

And I learned a few lessons:

1. Blocking wires exist for a reason. It was harder than I thought it would be to pin a straight line.

2. Pins matter. I used regular sewing pins. And found that the knitting popped over the tops of the pins. OK, so now I know why blocking pins have wide T tops.

All in all, blocking was a positive experience. And I am looking forward to wear my pretty lace scarf. Not today, though. It is 4 degrees outside, (Why couldn't the weathermen have been wrong about THAT) and I want to wear my wooly moebius, so I can cover my head and ears too.

Today, it is all about being a blockhead.