Go Spartans!

So, any N. Carolina fans who are in town for the big NCAA Championship game tonight woke up to this:

Hope they're enjoying the Michigan weather! At least it was decent on Saturday and most of yesterday.

Jake wanted green pancakes in honor of the game tonight, so I went one better and made 2 of these (only one survived the flip though)

Will spring come to stay?

This morning there is a sparkling layer of frost over everything outside, but it will melt fast as the sun comes up higher, and we are supposed to get to a high of around 60 today after temps in the 20s this morning! Brrrrr!

Sunday morning I woke up to snow flurries swirling around outside. I was hoping it wasn't going to amount to anything, since I was off to Lansing for the book launch of More Big Girl Knits at Threadbear. I headed out before 11am so I could be there by 1pm. As I drove north, I saw some cars coming my way that had a couple inches of snow on them! Yikes! But the sun came out, the snow stopped, and it turned out to be a pretty day. Cold, but pretty. (Later that day my friend Maria sent me an IM saying she was sweltering in 100 degree heat out in California! Crazy weather!)


The book launch party was fun. Amy and Jillian are just fun to be around. There was a very boisterous group of ladies who had gathered to try on the sweater samples from the book. Everyone was oooh-ing and ahhhh-ing as the sweaters were modeled. "Oh, that looks GREAT on you!" was heard over and over and over. It was nice to have the sweaters there to try on, see how they look on you, before deciding to go ahead and knit one of them. Things got really loud and there were screams of laugher more than once during the afternoon. Maybe everyone was on a sugar high from the beautiful cupcakes and cakes that we were all enjoying.



I have been wanting to knit myself a sweater for several years, but nothing really caught my eye as "the one" that I wanted to knit. Well, I found "the one" on Sunday. It is the Hot Cocoa Jacket designed by Jordana Paige. (Scroll down to April 4 to see the blog entry about the sweater).


I tried it on, and it was quite flattering. Someone commented that it was a "butt buster" sweater, and it actually gives me a nice waistline. It is the textured diagonal lines, and the nice shaping that does it. It didn't hurt that the sweater was knit in Rowan Cashsoft DK and just felt divine to the touch. I considered alternate yarns, did lots of searching around on Ravelry for reviews of substitutions, etc. I found good and bad reviews of all the yarns I considered, and in the end, decided to go ahead with the Cashsoft. Several reviews complained about pilling, but I have a nice sweater shaver if I need it, and will be very careful when washing the sweater. I am a warm person to begin with, and absolutely cannot wear a sweater indoors. This will be something that will be worn more as a jacket on a cool day, and hopefully will wear well. The color I ordered is called Lichen.


I am going to cast on as soon as I get the yarn. I want to make sure it is done by October for my trip to Rhinebeck for my birthday. I will have other projects on the needles during this time, but I want to allow enough time to see that it gets done by fall. Some people don't knit in the summer, some cut way back. However, I think I knit just as much in the summer as any other time of the year. I just don't want to have a wool afghan in my lap when it's 90 degrees! I can certainly handle some sweater pieces though.

Right now I have a pair of socks on the needles (almost done!) and I started a lacy scarf from the Piecework magazine my mom gave me last week. It's called the Stork's Nest scarf. I'll share the socks when they are off the needles, and here is a sneak peek of the scarf:



In other areas of my life.... springtime means my chaufeurring is stepped up a notch. Kaitlyn has track practice or a track meet every day after school. Jake has baseball practice a couple times a week, and the games will start soon. Mike has been working later with his new job, so is not able to help out much in this area, and there are times when I am trying to juggle overlapping schedules and trying to be in 2 places at once. It can be rather frustrating at times, but I'm glad they are both doing something to keep active. I am going to have to miss Kaitlyn's meet today since it is about an hour away and Jake has practice. My mom and dad are going to go to her meet (they live closer) and maybe Mike will be able to catch the end of it and bring her home.

Last night the Red Wings played their 3rd game against Nashville in their first playoff series. The Tigers were also playing last night. We started out watching the hockey game, which was going very well. We flipped to the baseball game to see we were losing 5-0. Ugh....not another game where we get blown out...the season is not going well, after all the hype before it started.

Well, I don't know what happened, but we were flipping back and forth between games, and it was at almost the exact moment that the Tigers started turning it around and getting some runs that Nashville scored twice within mere seconds against the Wings to take the lead. The Wings ended up losing a game that looked like they might win, and the Tigers came back from being down 5 runs in the game (twice!) to win 11-9! I hated to see the Wings take a loss, but boy-oh-boy, did our boys of summer need that win to give them (and their fans) a boost! The Tiger bats were hot last night....after quite a few games were they were ice cold. I surely hope this is the beginning a new trend, and that this season just got off to a slow start. Hopefully it is going to be as great as anticipated. Please?

And boy, do we love playoff hockey! Never a dull moment!

GO TIGERS! GO WINGS!

Opening Day

It's Opening Day for the Detroit Tigers today. The fans have high expectations for the team this year. They've played very well the past few years (after a very long slump!) and have acquired some new talent. It's going to be a very exciting year!

Jake is really anxious for baseball to start. The Tigers season, of course, but his own baseball season as well. Hopefully practice will start this week, weather permitting. We had snow flurries yesterday, but today we're supposed to be in the 50s (FINALLY). Maybe spring will actually come to Michigan this year after all! I hope so. It's kind of miserable for the kids to be playing in nasty weather (and not much fun for the spectators either!) Jake has a short season, but he really enjoys playing.

To help us get in the baseball mood, we watched The Rookie last night. What an awesome movie. If you haven't seen it, you definitely should! It reminds you to follow your dreams, even in the face of adversity and nay-sayers.

I finished a pair of socks last night (I'm waiting to see if the sun comes out so I can get a photo) and just cast on with the spring-colors yarn I showed in my last post. I played around for a little bit to come up with a stitch pattern that will compliment this yarn. Hopefully what I decided on will work well. I am already loving knitting with these colors rather than the dark, muted colors of my last pair.

I'm going to watch the Opening Day pre-game coverage, then the game, and knit springy socks! Jake is back to school today after a 10-day spring break, Kaitlyn is still in FL, so the house is mine and that's my plan!

Go Tigers!