There is knitting in this content...

I had a fabulous birthday with my parents and my boyfriend on Saturday. Mom and Dad did indeed make it in, though their trip took longer due to the weather (and my nerves were rattled knowing they were out there driving in the bad weather). The snow eased up and the roads were cleared in time for us all to go out to dinner at the restaurant where my friend works. We had never been there before: Filo Spinato in Dekalb. Entering the restaurant was like walking into a downtown Chicago restaurant. The ambience was great, the service was outstanding. It helped that my friend works there! She really fussed over us and me. Another waiter was sent to our table to tell a hilarious birthday joke, and it was all topped off with a birthday slice of ricotta cheesecake on an enormous plate with Happy Birthday written across it in lovely dessert sauces. I can't say enough about the food there. The appetizer we chose was baked goat cheese and it was DIVINE! (I've been on the treadmill ever since)

My boyfriend gifted me a bigscreen monitor for my computer, which is amazing. I am loving it! My mom and I played Spider Solitaire on it and their whole stay she was just itching to get on my new computer and play. I came home from work the following day and there was a stuffed spider monkey hanging from my doorknob, which Lisa hung there in order to make my birthday wishes come true. Now, Dick and Cindy owe me a tiny bicycle. So, thank you to my family and friends for spoiling me on my birthday.

I have been knitting. I have had goo-gobs of alone time here lately, so I have been working my needles. However, I'm not really enjoying the knits that I'm currently working on, so I tend to take many breaks. But I made this resolution to get projects off needles, so that is what I am trying to accomplish. In late September I started Poppy from Yarnplay by Lisa Shobhana Mason. This project was started simply because I had left my knitting bag 100 miles away at my parents' house following a weekend visit. I'm normally not a multiple project kind of gal. At the time, Juliet was in the bag that was left behind at mom and dad's. Of course, I can't be without a working project, so I started Poppy as an easy knit because we were headed to Tennessee on vacation and it promised to be a nice, mindless knit for driving. I had great fun with the body of Poppy. You add garter ridges into stockinette at random and it felt like making intentional mistakes and was great fun to add color and vary the intervals of color and/or garter ridges. The body is also knit with the stockinette moving sideways. I couldn't really get excited about Poppy before I had to set it aside to begin Christmas knitting. Unfortunately, it has now become a get-this-off-the-needles project. I finished the back and am working up the front now. It remains an easy, mindless knit, but has lost its lustre for me.

I'm also working on a pair of mittens for a friend as a "trade". It's a new pattern for me, two needle mittens, and I'm not sure I'm liking this pattern or the yarn. The yarn is Bernat Softee Chunkee. I made my boyfriend a hat out of this and it knit up beautifully and oh-so-warm, but after washing it stretched way out and never got shape back, so it's become worthless as a winter hat. Why I picked it up for this project? I bought a BOATLOAD of this yarn in a sale bin a few years back, so these little projects have become stash busters.

I worked on Poppy a bit today, as school was cancelled due to cold. It was -30 degrees this morning according to The Weather Channel. YIKES! The forecast calls for the same tomorrow, so I will get a 5 day weekend out of this blustery weather. We will have to make these days up at the end of the school year, but I don't mind as I'm a live-in-the-moment kind of person and love the surprise of a spontaneous day off. So, more knitting tomorrow.