Once a month I have kind of a mini sewing retreat with a fun group of quilters.  I think I've mentioned it on the blog before.  We drive over to a neighboring island to a darling little house that's set up just for this use.  We spend the day sewing and eating with an occasional trip to two fabric/quilt shops close by. For several months I've been watching my friend Ramona work on a beautiful quilt.  It's in my favorite soft pastels.  She's mentioned several times that these are not her favorite colors, but she knows they are mine.    I'm not sure how she came to work on it – it may have been a kit that was gifted to her.  At our January get together she was putting the finishing touches on it.  She is a marvelous machine quilter – a technique I have not mastered.  She finished and held it up to oohs and aahs.  She commented that she didn't know what she was going to do with it because she really didn't like it that much.  I sat there contemplating if I could really afford to offer her what the quilt was worth (I couldn't), when she turned to me and said, "Maybe I could trade it for two pairs of hand knit socks."  I immediately replied, "Sold!"  She handed me the quilt and we drove over to the LYS and picked out yarn for her socks.  We are both thrilled to bits with our trade!

I've been working away on hubby's sweater, but suffered a little set back.  I had finished the decreasing on the one sleeve and had him try it on.  The sleeve was way too tight, so I had to rip back and pick up stitches for the larger size.  It was then I remembered that I had lengthened the armhole (duh!).  I'm back on track, but sleeve island is proving to be a pretty boring place.  No pictures because I'm pretty much at the same spot I was in the last post.

So, in self defense I fall back occasionally on Cape Cod.  I'm still not sure what the fit is going to be on this.  I keep running the numbers, but gauge-wise I often see what I want to see!  And we all know gauge lies.  This will probably be a little bit of an over size fit, but Starmore sweaters often are.  However, I am loving the yarn and the pattern.  I can't say enough for the Knit Companion app on the iPad.  I honestly don't think I would be loving this pattern so much without the convenience of KC keeping my place in the pattern.  And no juggling of paper charts!  After my miscounting adventure in casting on, I almost switched to another Starmore pattern (Eriskay), but decided that it was now or never for Cape Cod and I'm very happy with the decision.

Speaking of iPads, I had a little misadventure.  I had decided to go bare with mine (the iPad silly, not me!)  But one night I had it sitting on my lap and as I reached into my knitting bag for something, it slid off my lap, did a huge flip in the air and landed face down on the hardwoos floor!  I picked it up and horrors of horrors – there were three cracks in the screen.  Fortunately I had bought the extended warranty that the Navy Exchange offers on electronics and accidental damage is covered.  It is now in the hospital getting repaired and I'm back to sharing one with hubby.  And I've bought a case with bumpers on the corners to prevent this happening again.

This past week we had a wonderful visit from Bill's cousin Val.  She has been wanting to get into digital scrapbooking, but just needed a little one-on-one tutorial.  Unfortunately, hubby and I both came down with bronchitis and it turned into a real challenge because I kind of lost my voice! However, we muddled through and she proved to be a very apt student.  We sent her home happy with new scrapbooking skills and a nice little bronchial virus.  This is how we spent most of the four days she was here:

So – I think just relaxing and taking it easy is on my agenda for a few days yet.  The doctor said this is a tricky one to get over.  The good news is that I don't feel so bad that I can't knit, quilt or scrapbook, so I'm certainly not bored.  Whatever do people do who don't have such consuming hobbies?  I feel so very blessed to not only have those interests, but the tools and supplies to indulge them!