~Spring is in the air~

It has been a great weekend, beautiful weather, windows open, sun shining ~ I love it! I'm hoping that with the warmth predicted for the next few days that the snow will finally melt out of my yard bringing the much hated MUD! lol Beau (0ur chocolate lab) has begun his spring "allergies" consisting of a breakout under his chin and constant scratching. We aren't sure what causes this every year because it seems to happen before any of his "people" develop their allergy symptoms, but we will have to go and get him his new prescription and try to put the medicated cream on. The keyword being "try" as he has to see what you're doing and wants to EAT everything! lol What I also love is that all four of my kids are here :) Matthew is finishing up his spring break and Melyssa is just starting hers, so there was a three day overlap. The girls had a dance friday night and if I do say so myself, they looked beautiful! I can't believe how quickly my kids are growing up. Softball tryouts begin tomorrow, Em has been the varsity first baseman since freshman year and Nicole will be the varsity starting pitcher this year as a freshman following in their older sister's footsteps who also made varsity as a freshman as their starting third baseman. It will be so much fun to watch them play together for the High School. Emily fractured her right thumb playing indoor softball this winter and it has been slow to heal, we go back again on Tuesday to find out if she can start physical therapy and hopefully be ready for the first game at the end of March. Positive thoughts will be much appreciated :) I haven't managed to knit this week as my leg has been terribly swollen and painful by the time I get home from work, so sitting isn't an option. I haven't quite figured out how to knit for any extended length of time laying down. I'm hoping to put the finishing touches on Melyssa's owl mittens and then get some opinions from all of you on a project that is very important for me to finish quickly. Laptop update..... After locating the paperwork on this laptop, I was able to prove that I had a two year warranty on it that HP insisted I did not have. After fighting with 3 people from HP online who were "explaining" to me that my two year warranty was only good for 11 months (AAAAAAACK) and then fighting with two more people over the phone who were "explaining" the same thing to me, I finally was connected to a woman with A BRAIN! She, along with her manager, actually listened to what I was telling them, figured out that HP had made an error when logging in the warranty paperwork that we sent in when we purchased this machine; fixed the error, sent me a box and FedEx has picked it up to have the Motherboard, Operating System and Harddrive replaced as well as whatever else it needs. I then received a call from a case manager apologizing for all of my trouble and to tell me that since I had to purchase a battery last August because of their warranty error, he was adding another year of full warranty coverage when this one runs out. My daughter's words to me "You know Mom, sometimes I am so happy that you're a @itch"! Complement??????? lol Enjoy the rest of your weekend, we are cooking on the grill tonight! YAY

~Magic?... loop, not gauge!~

I've been knitting the Give a Hoot mittens by Jocelyn Tunney on Ravelry for Melyssa - as her College mascot is an owl. I have to say that although I love the pattern and the very unique thumb gusset, the sizing has been a bit of a challenge. Thankfully, before starting these I looked at a lot of the projects that had been done and read the comments, so I was forewarned of this issue before starting (for this, I love Ravelry!). However, even with this knowledge, using bulky yarn in place of the worsted weight, and a gauge swatch, I had to frog the first mitten 3 times before getting the correct size! The pattern lists the size of these as adult woman ~ I have small hands and they were working up too small for me! Now, I LOVE my dpn's and thought I had every size available until I realized I would have to go up to a size 9 after the ribbing - I DIDN'T have a 9! Now, being the stubborn, never say die Italian that I am, (because I only have 4 or 5 or maybe even 6 wip's I could have worked on) I decided that I would finally teach myself the magic loop method until I could get to the store and buy the missing 9's. I was pleasantly surprised that it was a piece of cake to do and although I will most likely go back to my beloved dpn's when knitting at home, I have realized that this will be a great way to knit socks (mittens, toys, etc.) in the car, at softball games, the beach etc. and not be searching high and low for the "dropped dpn" (I'm sad to say, that I drop them often and have been known to say very unladylike things while looking for them). The "almost finished" mitten on the left just needs eyes and I'm contemplating a backstitch around the owl (the cross-stitcher in me coming out) in blue to help it stand out and make it "school colors". As you can see by the picture on the right, there is NO WAY I will get a pair out of one skein of yarn - thankfully, I bought two :) My favorite thing about this pattern is the thumb gusset - it is fantastic! I will be making all of my mittens with this feature from now on. I hope you all had a great weekend - the weather here was beautiful - in the 50's, open windows, and a lot of melting snow. I REFUSE to think about the snow coming tomorrow and the "below normal" temperatures coming with it! Off to finish the other mitten!