An FO for the little ones

This year, there are no less than 15 babies being born to people I love. It's quite clearly out of control. And I just can't knit that fast. However, there are some babies whose moms have been through so much with me, I can't deny them the handknits.

The Cabled Raglan Baby Sweater may be one of my new baby favorites.



Pattern: Cabled Raglan Baby Sweater- Rav
Needles: Knit Picks Options US 4
Yarn: Knit Picks Simply Cotton Sport- Malted Milk
Date Started: 6/17/09
Date Finished: 7/25/9
Mods: I did not use any closure on this sweater. No buttons. No snaps. I think it'll be cute to just let it be open and it'll be easy to throw this on over any outfit.

The organic cotton was wonderful to work with. And I'm always impressed that Knit Picks can offer such quality at such a low price.

In Which Brian Buys a Grill

In lieu of a trip to Sock Summit this weekend, I'm basking in the glory of my new exhaust manifold and catalytic converter. I hope my sarcasm is coming through here. I'm very annoyed that my weekend trip was put on hold. And the car still needs a new transmission. Unfortunately, we're in the unenviable position of having a Honda Civic that just NEVER stops. It has 175,000 miles and this is literally the first time the "check engine" light has come on. I can't complain but we have to start thinking if putting money into the car is worth it. On one hand, we can't buy a comparable car for what the car is technically worth. But we're headed to putting more into the car than we'll get out. For now, I we're fixing it. But in a year or two, I'll have to look for a new car. sigh....

But that's not what this post is about... Brian bought a grill.

Well, really it's more than a grill. It's a ceramic refractory cooker. If you're interested it's a Komodo Kamado. And it's a beast. Watch the Today Show segment.

It arrived bright and early this morning in a big truck.



I've never received anything in a crate before. Yikes!!!



Brian couldn't wait to bust into the crate.



The guys who makes these is Art Linkletter's grandson, Dennis. He lives in Indonesia. That's where our (not so) little guy came from.



Here's where is gets really interesting... We have to move this around our house, through the garden to get to our patio.



Not sure we're ready for this. There were lots and lots of theories of how to do this. It's on wheels but there's no solid walkway from the garage to the patio. We have silly little stepping stones that are of no help at all in this situation. So we settled on wheeling it over the garden on boards.



At 500 pounds, Brian and I got a workout getting this far. But we didn't count on the uneven terrain and all of the boards breaking. (On a side note, there was much snail carnage!!) At this point we were out of cheap plywood and had to take a quick trip to OSH. A very grumpy Nell and a very optimistic Brian returned with 4 particle boards that seemed thick enough to roll the final 30 feet.



At the lip of the patio, we were almost stuck again.



But a final push got us to the concrete patio. (Is it just me or does it look like an alien robot???)



We made it!!!! Brian's so proud.



A moment of silence please for all the lumbar that was sacrificed today...



When we put it where we wanted it, Brian said, "if we sell this house, the cooker comes with it."



Good. Because rolling that through the garden was not fun. I'm told I will be paid back in pulled pork which makes my backache totally worth it. Tomorrow, we go to Costco for MEAT. Look out!