Over The Moon

So Flavio is officially the greatest thing since sliced bread (although it should be noted that in Italy, this is not so impressive, since they've only had sliced bread for about 5 years now...and how many great things have really happened in the past 5 years?). As a knitter, I've found my lack of Adobe pretty crippling because there are so many rad patterns on the internet, and of course they're almost all pdf files (with the glorious exception of Knitty, of course). I had to delete Adobe a year or two ago because my computer was ultra-low on memory, and at the time I wasn't really using it. Recently, I've been trying to re-download it, but it wouldn't work! It would quit on me about halfway through the install. So today I made an offhanded comment about my lack of Adobe, and Flavio was like, "Oh, well, what about Foxit?" Which I'm apparently not hip enough to have ever heard of. So he sends me to the website, and less than 5 minutes later I've got a program to read pdf files. And now I've got goo-gobs of fabulous new knitting patterns, mostly from Ysolda Teague (whose name Flavio & I love so much, we've decided to give it to our future baby girl, should we be so lucky to have one someday).

I've frogged the sock I was working on. Hmph. Anyway, I was yearning for something else to knit, so I started a striped sweater like the aqua one I made a while back. It's brown with pale pink stripes. Soooo cute. I was going to make these sweaters for Sara's babies (she's having twins!!), but after finding the Ysolda patterns, I've decided to make Sophie and Elijah. And maybe Otto for her son, Brock. He'll be 3 in November, and there's no way that's too old for a teddy bear. I wouldn't want him to feel left out.

On a non-knitting note, Flavio's been amazing lately. First he was looking into visas and job openings. Then he was talking about weddings (he thinks we should have 2) and telling his colleagues that he wants to get married. Then he was looking at wedding rings and asking about fertility treatments. I dunno what's inspired it all, but it makes me so happy. It makes it feel so much more real...not like we've got a set-in-stone timeline for all of these things...but like it's not just talk, he's taking it seriously. Yay!! Man, I really hit the jackpot with this fella.

Sit, dog. Stay.

My fat schnauzer Max ran away today. Our big beast of a rottweiler, Xena, has chewed a big hole in part of the fence. Well, really, she's eaten the bottom half of an entire board. We figured Max was too chunky to squeeze through, but apparently not. A neighbor found him and called the phone number on his tag. Thank God for that. Anyway, he's back home now and seems to be pretty pleased with himself and his little adventure.

This morning I bought the current issue of Interweave Knits, but I decided not to buy Favorite Socks for now because I can get it so much cheaper on Amazon than at Borders. I don't need any of those patterns right now anyway. I was going through my stash the other day, and I found a couple skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Old Rose. I don't remember buying this yarn! I'm using it to knit the Child's French Sock pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks.

While I was out this morning, I also finished buying Flavio's birthday presents. I hope he likes them!

Leaping Lily

Last night I finished my lovely lily pad socks. Searching for things to knit next. Here are some ideas:

• I'm really interested in knitting some sort of lace shawl/stole. Maybe the Bleeding Hearts Stole from the current issue (Spring 2008) of Interweave Knits. Dream yarn for this project would be Schaefer Andrea in the Indira Gandhi colorway (100% silk and 100% delicious), but it's wicked expensive ($52!!). I'll probably end up using Knit Picks Gloss in Aegean or Blue Bird (total cost for the project would be less than $12).
• I've signed up on Ravelry (awaiting my invite!) in hopes of finding the Jaywalker sock pattern. I'd like to use this Lana Grossa Meilenweit Color Tweed in Pink/Orange/Brown for the project. These would be for me!
• My mom wants socks for Mother's Day. She's decided on the Dublin Bay socks, using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Whisper.
• I want to make a little boy's cardigan as a companion to the little girl's cardigan I finished recently. I'm thinking about the argyle cardigan pattern in Debbie Bliss's Special Knits. I'll use Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in dark blue (for the body) and cream (for the argyle diamonds). I've already got some little dark metal buttons for the project!

Bad Blogger

I'm a bad blogger. I've rejoined the ranks of LiveJournalers because it's so much easier to log into. Because I'm always logged in. Blogger signs me out of Gmail every time I log in, which is inconvenient for me because Gmail is where I talk to my sweetie.

Still, I don't want to abandon my blog. I love this thing.

Anyway, updates:

• I finished the ribbon-edge cardigan from Debbie Bliss's Special Knits. Super cute.
  
• Now I'm knitting socks. Woohoo! I'm working the gusset of the second sock. I'm using the April 2008 limited edition Lorna's Laces colorway, Lily Pad. The pattern is the Retro Rib Socks pattern from the Winter 2004 issue of Interweave Knits.
  
• Flavio & I are taking a trip to Annecy, a village in France, when I go visit him in Italy.
• They're changing all of our schedules at work. At the moment, I'm not very happy about this. But if I get an OK schedule, I guess it won't be so bad. Maybe I'll have 3 days off every week. That would be pretty sweet.
• It's cold. Wtf?