Just back from vacation. Wonderful time, pictures to come. We went to the Adirondacks with Sara and family. We had a blast. Terry and I have decided that Eleanor is a clone of Hannah. It's truly scary, as is the hero worship going on as El follows Hannah around the house, doing absolutely everything that Hannah does.

Am, for some reason, polishing off half-bottle of white wine that has been languishing in the fridge in our absence. Dogs and cat seem to be feeling especially neglected, but otherwise healthy and generally gleaming thanks to the kind ministrations of Loren, our housesitter and erstwhile babysitter. Am relatively tipsy thanks to wine.

Must take self to bed and sleep this off. Much spinning and knitting was done during vacation, including a tragic mishap related to miscalculation in spin-knit-spin approach, which I confess I was warned about. Result: one half of sweater is about a size 3T, other half is, I dunno, maybe 5 or 6? All this is due to spinning the fiber in different batches and having it become increasingly thick as I went along. Not, not, not good. Ironically, if I had made the sweater in pieces instead of using the side-to-side Knitty Haiku pattern, I wouldn't be in such a pickle.

Photos of the gory details will also be forthcoming, as much as I would like to hide said object in a closet with all my knitting failures (such a closet does exist in my house) and forget about it. Instead I have devised a plan which involves CUTTING said sweater in two (one half with one gauge and one half with the other--see I told you it was bad) and then picking up and knitting (after spinning) each one into two different sweaters in two different sizes.

In better news, I have FINISHED shapely! After much worry that it would be too small, it fits wonderfully, if a teeny bit tight around the bust. I won't be nursing twins forever (though there are days I don't believe it) so hopefully the E cup short-rows will fit for the long term. The alternative would have involved darts that met in the middle and crossed, LOL, so I wasn't about to do that.

I seamed the damn thing in the car on the way home. Remember how I said I had gotten over my aversion to seaming? No, I just hadn't done it in a while for more than 2 inches at a time. Yep, still hate it. Glad I had a long car ride in which to do it! Making next project in the round. I think I'll join the scrap along.

Sara and I did some dyeing on vacation (and I am proud to say that we did not damage the vacation house in any way, shape, or form). I'm still experimenting and learning, so I'm doing about a yard or two of roving at a time, which spins up into about 60 meters of singles yarn. So I'm generating "scraps" at a rapid clip. I think they will add some great interest to a scrap sweater, though. Dyeing went great, and it's quite easy. Now that I have some stock solutions made up, it's something I can easily do in a couple hours after the kids go to bed, especially if I set up a table for it in the basement. Last night, in fact, I started dyeing at the beginning of Kerry's speech, and finished steaming before midnight! The main thing I learned is that it is okay if it looks kind of dark and muddy when it's wet--it lightens up considerably when dry.

Really must sleep. More, including a deluge of cute kid pics, tomorrow (if the posse allows me any computer time, that is).