Thanks, Anne, Alison, Charlotte, Dawn, Kim, Kay, Ginger, and Yarnguy for your kind words, and your commiseration on my future-MIL issues. I hesitated to talk about them here because I didn't want Ryan to feel bad reading this but I think he'll understand I need to vent. And the more people who say nice things, the better I feel. I'm sure someday this will work out, and in the meantime, distance is a beautiful thing, as many of you have pointed out. And if she shows up to our wedding in black mourning clothes, it'll only reflect sadly on her.

I'm nearing the finish line with the bridesmaid tops! A few more inches and I'll be at the armhole of the last one. The first three were all the same size and v-neck, this one is a size smaller and a square neck. Wow, that square neck is so much easier to knit! No decreases to worry about every other row - just knit 17 stitches, throw 36 on a holder, knit another 17 all the way up to the shoulder. The back went very quickly once I got to the neck shaping.

It'll be such a joy to have finished all those tops in time. It turns out I will have enough yarn left over to make myself something, but I think I'll put that on the back burner for now. I am seeing purple varigated silk in my sleep at the moment. Plus I want to make something for Lisa's baby! I'm thinking of the baby blanket in last Spring/Summer's issue of Family Circle Easy Knitting. It's an ocean scene with fish and a whale, and red and white stripes in the sky. I really like intarsia, though I know others who hate it. I enjoy seeing the pictures develop as I knit, and I think it's particularly cute for baby things.

The only thing that's irking me about this pattern is that I looked up the selected yarn online, and the colors that are specified do not all look like the colors in the photo of the blanket. So far I haven't found anyplace that carries the yarn locally, so I have had to look at them online. If anyone has the magazine, take a look and let me know if you think these colors are "off." Maybe it's the monitor I am using here at work? The colors that look really off are the yellow (maize - 3546), green (pale slate - 3774), and color charts are here or here