All day and into the night

I had two goals for the three day weekend--do the taxes and sew my starts & stripes sweater. Guess which one I focused on?
Project Progress
I have no pictures from the weekend because our digital camera is somewhere in CT with a yearbook staff member. sigh.
First I finished the "I heart Husband Socks." They had been put aside because the colors on the second sock weren't swirling nicely like the first sock did. I probably restarted them a dozen times. On the last attempt I reeled out a 5 inch ball in an attempt to find a similar starting point. But, yet again, after 30 or so rounds the colors were pooling. I finally asked Hubby if it bothered him that the color don't match. He was like what? Because, obviously, they match because it's the same yarn. When I pointed out the pattern discrepancy he was like no. So I just let go and knit! I finished them on Saturday and he wore them over the weekend.
"Stars & Stripes" is all sewed up, but I have to weave in all the little tails. I sat down around 11:30 am on Monday to work on it. I thought to myself, "You are blowing it out of proportion. It won't take as long as you think. In an hour you'll be done." (In the world of literature that is called foreshadowing. Or is it irony?) 45 minutes later I had one sleeve set in. And so it went until around 9:30 pm, taking breaks as appropriate to eat and watch Dr. Who. I even got the laundry done. In between sections I was making sure I got up and moved around. Still, my neck and right arm were sore by bedtime. Apparently I have to work on my finishing posture.
Sweater Triage
On Monday I also sat down and fixed the poor Kid Silk Haze Mohair Cowl sweater. I tied a knot in the two ends, then used an E crochet hook to work the slack back in. The knot ended up sort of on the side under my arm. It came out quite good and I think only my husband and dogs should be paying enough attention to my lower hem to notice anything. (Although a few weeks ago I was standing with my back to the picture windows at the yarn store one evening while I was wear a snug pair of pants. We were chatting, then Laura said, "A guy in the parking lot almost drove into a pole because he was staring at your butt." Go me! Still, from that distance I don't think he would have seen the repair.) Hopefully the knot will hold and I can dodge the dogs.
New Blog Widget
Is it a widget? If you will notice under my profile pic there is a list of my WIPs with progress bars and pictures. The info is pulling over from Ravelry. I saw on a forum that the coveted progress bars were out of beta, so I pounced on them. I had to read a few forum threads and cut and paste several times, but I figured it out.
That's one thing about Ravelry. Having your WIPs lined up like that and seeing 3 things around 90% complete sure adds to the finishing guilt. But, hey, I almost have a sweater because of it.
Most projects are going to be tossed aside for a while, however. My cousin's wife in CA had their first baby over the weekend. Even though I've known for six months that this was going to happen I didn't start a blanket. I'm going to make this crocheted baby blanket from Lion Brand Homespun. It's free on the Lion Brand site and works up rather quickly, if you can keep the first 3 rows straight. It's worked on the diagonal and starts with like 3 stitches, which can be hard to see.
But this week I'm working on a stealth project using Sanctuary from Alchemy. It's 50 silk/50 merino and the dogs are obsessed! They like silk yarn in general, but they were circling like sharks and trying to snuffle the project. Normally I don't mind, but it's a gift so I'm keeping as much of it in a ziplock bag as possible.
Speaking of the dogs, I'm a bad mom. I was cranky today and had to go to the grocery store. I saw a pet store I never noticed before, so I went in and bought a squeaky tennis ball. Do you see the problem with that sentence? One ball. Two dogs. Baru was a little upset. Oops.
Ok, I've been cleaning house since I got home, time to relax and do some knitting before bed.