january 5, 2009, 7:00 pm

what a wonderfully productive day!  i had no where to go so decided to work on neatening up the 2 other bedrooms and getting them ready for the kids – who will be here in just 9 more days.  i did things like put all the misplaced yarn back in the yarn closet, packed a nice-looking basket with 4 projects to keep in the living room, and made room on the shelves for all the books i have taken out but not put back plus 2 new ones that had no spot.

did you ever notice how magazines just pile up, even when they only come 3 or 4 times a year?  i only subscribe to 2 knitting mags – interweave and knitters.  but they are starting to overrun the shelf provided for them.  they have spilled onto the next shelf – which happens to be where terry has his educational books.  now what?  he won’t be too happy that his books have been kicked out for my magazines.  sometime in the near future should probably  attempt to eliminate some of the paper stash.  i will certainly never use all of those patterns!

the other bedroom is used as a playroom when we have friends here with kids.  it had been awhile since i inspected the toy bucket or checked the lego bag.  sad to say, some of the barbies have lost limbs and all are now naked.  i think i found enough clothing for each of them.  the legos need a bigger box so tomorrow i’ll have to pick up a new one.  you see, there are a lot (really a lot) of legos – all left from our boys younger days.  hopefully reuben and william will one day enjoy building with them like their daddys did.

the last thing i did was pull out the new toys i bought for the grandkid visit – some blocks, cars, a puzzle, and a drum filled with percussion instruments.  these, too, need a tub of their own.  the rooms are now ready to be cleaned, beds opened up and made, and fresh flowers added to welcome our guests.  i can hardly wait.

very little knitting was accomplished today.  i worked mostly on finishing mom’s sweater.  i need to add 3 more inches to the body and them work on the sleeves.  these knitting pure and simple patterns do make everything so easy.  i’m doing the little shell st on the bottom of the body (started about 2″ under the armpit) for interest both for the recipient and the knitter – me!  my goal is to have this done by her birthday on the 22nd.  she will be 88.

just for fun, here is the little shell stitch – a multiple of 7+2:

row 1:  knit

row 2:  purl

row 3:  k2, *yo, p1, p3tog, p1, yo, k2*

row 4:  purl