Weekending with Irma

My weekend plans pretty much consisted of a birthday party, a meet up with friends, long walks and football.  We had a great time celebrating Charlie's 3rd birthday [I forgot to take photos].  A couple weeks ago Katie mentioned there would  be make your own trail mix and mimosas-I was sold, then Mary blogged about the cupcakes- so yea-jackpot!  The weather was glorious and we spent most of the time on the back deck.  Andrew kindly let me nibble on the wonderful biscuits from this place, along with some delicious berries.  Saturday afternoon Sophie and I did something we haven't done in quite a while- an afternoon walk!  She managed 1.6 miles before she was ready to head home.  I went out again so as to hit my target of 4 miles total. Sunday morning brought the same brisk temperatures, winds, and loads of sunshine.  I headed out for a walk before meeting up with Brenda and Joyce for our monthly sewing get together.  Another 4 mile loop- sans Sophie, so I've now established a good route for cycling and walking around my neighborhood.

While Irma brought us lovely weather for Saturday and Sunday, it also brought 2 days off from work as south Georgia and the metro Atlanta area braced for high winds and rain.   Before bed we made sure everything was charged and our camp stove was at the ready.  Fortunately for our area of DeKalb County we only lost power for about 20 minutes Monday morning, after the coffee was ready-that was good timing.  There were some serious high winds intermittently throughout the day, but I don't think they ever reached the predicted strength.  Andrew, Steve and I, plus the dogs spent the day hanging out, talking, and watching TV.   I did manage to finish listening to The Boys in the Boat and binge watch several episodes of Turn.

I got the baby sweaters finished-or so I though and blocked [after multiple re-does of the button bands on the green ones!]  While I was completing the green ones I kept thing that something just looked off about them, and then when I was switching out the towels it dawned on me what I forgot to do.  I re-read the pattern, and yep- I forgot a whole set of decreases at the yoke- ugh!  So the grown up knitter in me is going to unweave the ends for the button band AGAIN and finish the yoke decreases, and reknit the button bands AGAIN.  These sweaters are going to the UK, so it's not like their sweater weather is going to end anytime soon.  However, since these are a gift, I want them to be as near to perfect as I can get them.   Since I know what I did wrong, and can fix it, I'm going to be a good knitter and invest the time.

There wasn't much cooking as there wasn't anything in the freezer to cook!  I did bake some pumpkin cupcakes which were delicious.  Not too sweet and just the right amount of fall-y spices.

Tuesday was pretty much a repeat of Monday except taking the dogs out for their potty breaks wasn't nearly as miserable as Monday.  I devoted all my knitting time to working on this project, Shells and Tide, which is a Christmas gift for my Mom.  She bought the yarn a long time ago, and was going to make a shrug.   When she cleared out her yarn stash she gave the yarn to me.  It's an aran weight merino/silk blend I couldn't find anything to knit for myself, and since she is always cold this will be the perfect thing for her to wrap up in.  I'm maybe 1/2 way finished, and I plan to use up all 12 skeins.  This is pretty much all I'm working on right now, I have some socks that are in various stages of completion which I hope to tackle this weekend to give myself a break from the shawl, but don't want to start anything else until the big project is finished.  Our families made it through the tropical storm with no significant damage aside from losing power which was no fun for them.  My hope and prayer is for all of those who are having to re-build and re-group are able to do so soon.