I’ve been ill lately and just not in the mood to write here or *gasp* knit.

What have I been doing in the meantime? Besides knitting? Well, I took the kitty to the vetrinarian for a check up. :catwalk: She got all her shots and was none too pleased about it. I suppose that’s the reason why she peed in her box on the way there. Of course, it leaked all over the front seat of the car, so I’ve been trying to clean that mess up. There’s something about the smell of cat pee that makes it one of the nastiest substances known to mankind. :yuck:

I’ve also been working on putting together a digital photo album for my family. They’ve been complaining that I haven’t posted enough about the kids lately. Do you know how many photos people take over the course of four years when there was a wedding, several vacations, two kids, and a cat adopted into the family? Good grief. I’ll be working on this for awhile.

Finally, I finished up my entry for a contest at the Pixelitas. To enter this contest, members had to incorporate two pre-selected photos into a website template. I tried to make the color scheme a little different than what one would expect, so my entry would stand out from the others. I kind of like it

I’ve been steadily plugging away at Klaralund. Here are the front and back pieces. I’ve followed Allison’s lead and deliberately made sure the striping didn’t match up. I didn’t want to end up with “almost-but-not-quite” matching stripes. I thought that would look far worse than these happily mismatched pieces. I’ve got part of the first sleeve done as well and hope to finish it off at tonight’s stitch and bitch.

I tried working on Sam’s tiger sweater yesterday afternoon, but after many sessions of knitting and ripping the intarsia tiger, I had to concede defeat. While I’ve got the intarsia technique down for vertical color changes, I think I’m doing it completely wrong for changes on the diagonal. I keep ending up with gaping holes. Hopefully, one of the knitting geniuses at Purlygirls can help me figure out what I’m doing wrong. Otherwise, I’m going to call it quits. I’ll just knit the big green patch and use the duplicate stitch to add the tiger…not quite an elegant solution, but at least I’ll be able to move on.

I also tried swatching for my Gerbera sweater, but quickly realized I was going to have to become more comfortable knitting continental before the swatching process was going to be meaningful. I’m trying to do stranded knitting holding one color in my right hand and the other color in my left hand. I can do this, but I’m still feeling awkward and my tension is uneven. I think I’ll have to do a practice project first. Do any of you have any suggestions for a beginner project for stranded color knitting? Ever feel like you’re in over your head??? I certainly do. :boggled:

Despite these little set-backs (it’s difficult learning new things!), I’m feeling pretty good about my knitting…especially since Claire now fits into some of the sweaters I knit while I was pregnant with her:

She looks so sweet in this little lacey cardigan I made for her. Unfortunately, she’s got a very grumpy expression on her face in this photo. She assures you that teething is not fun at all, no matter how nicely you’re dressed.

As promised, here are some photos of Claire modeling her new cardigan:

A la Fluffa, I’m showing you a still-as-a-mannequin shot and a dancing shot (or what would be dancing if she could stand up). As always, click on the thumbnails to see larger versions of the photos. Unfortunately, this is the time of year when it’s dark when I leave home in the morning and it’s dark when I get home in the evening, so the photos aren’t as nice as they could be. Despite the lack of daylight, I am really glad that autumn approacheth. After all, it’s sweater weather!

Too Many Knit-Alongs, Too Little Time…

It’s time for me to give you a run down of the projects I’m working on as part of one knit-along or another.

Audrey is coming along. I’ve finished the front and back and cast on for one of the sleeves. I know I said I wanted to finish this by early September, but it’s not going to happen (duh). Think I can make it by December?

I’m making good progress on Klaralund. I’ve finished the back and am more than halfway done with the front. Keep in mind that I just started the front on my bus ride home last night. I’ll be done with this before you know it!

Gerbera: I’m steeling myself up to start swatching for this. The problem is, I’m having a hard time putting Klaralund down to do anything else. I may wait to start this after I’ve finished Klara. The good news is that shouldn’t be too much longer…

Butterfly: I’ve joined the Butterfly knit along hosted by Jessica. This cardigan is from the latest Jane Ellison Noro book, which I showed you a few days ago. I won’t start knitting on this in earnest until late October; however, I have swatched for it.

Job Interviews

The two interviews I had this week went fairly well, despite the fact that I worked myself up into such a nervous state that I got a tummy ache. I admit it. I’m a basket case!

I’m really excited about one of the positions, but I haven’t heard back from that firm yet. The recruiter thinks we should hear one way or another this afternoon.

:judge: I wasn’t quite as thrilled with the second position mainly because that firm frequently works with the firm I’m currently at and I would find that to be a bit awkward. Moreover, the work focuses on insurance claims. Talk about dull. As luck would have it, the people really liked me and have already set up a second interview.