encouragement
Thanks for the encouragement about my crazy Friday! It turned out just fine. I got my house clean enough and picked up my mom just in time. We have had a great weekend. Yesterday we spent a grand total of 10 hours in a car driving to and from my great aunt’s 90th birthday party. It was actually a lot of fun because I got to hang with my mom for a while and we got to see new little cousins and fun things like that. No knitting time because I drove, but it was worth it.

gifts
Today we celebrated my birthday with my mom (a couple of weeks early) and I have birthday money to show for it! Yippee! It will be used to purchase new clothes to replace the work clothes I have worn out. I also got two new knitting books! One is the Knitting Stitch Bible and it has so many different neat stitches in it which I’m sure I’ll be able to utilize as I make the swatches for my knitting group (jen, your swatch is 3/4 done!). I also got a Knitting Journal which is so neat! My mom’s friend sent those for me. My mom spent some time teaching me about Christmas stockings and colorwork this weekend. She makes the greatest stockings and has shown me how to carry yarn behind and to keep from getting holes between colors. It’s so fun to see another person knit since I don’t know anyone here who knits. She’s impressed with all I have learned from all of you!

baby, baby
The baby sweater is finished, except for seaming. I am hoping to completely finish it tommorow. I picked up the Zodiac cap sleeved number this weekend and think I have sort of figured out the pattern. It’s going to be stunning if I can pull it off!