Best Birthday Weekend

I'm finally back at Mom's house after spending a lovely weekend up at the cottage, which is actually semi-finished! The hot-tub is up and running, which made for a very nice get-away. I spent most of my time up north indulging in a few of my favorite activities: knitting, hiking, swinging in a hammock, and playing with my beautiful toddler niece, M. She's the cutest lil' baby on the face of the earth.

This is a view from the upper deck of my parents' place.

I absolutely love going "Up North" (as us Michiganders call anything north of Bay City). I've been going up to the same area since I was born. My grandparents owned a cottage three miles from this one; every weekend when I was younger, we'd go up and just have fun. I must admit, childhood memories aside, this cottage has much more amenities: hot tub, air-conditioning, hammocks, 4 wheelers, boats, etc.

More pics:

Isn't M just adorable!!

My brother got me up at 8 am for a 5 mile hike through the Huron National Forest, so I did feel like I got some exercise. I love hiking there, but I have bites on top of bites from the bugs.


I infected Mom with the sock bug, so she spent the weekend knitting a pair of lovely socks. Of course, we visited a yarn store. I bought some absolutely lovely Dale of Norway pattern books. I'm so tempted by fair isle sweaters now!




I already miss my hammock. I spent most of my birthday there, swinging in the breeze, and knitting.

Now, back home on the megabus. I'm not looking forward to this week; we're moving a new roommate in and an old roommate out. Urrghhh! Moving!!!

Alright, I'm a bad blogger

I'm a horrible blogger. I know that I haven't updated in a while, but I'll be posting more later. Tonight, I'm heading out to the wilds of Elmhurst for a knitting store. Have ewe any wool is having a two-for-one sale, and of course I need more yarn. Cascade 220 is their staple, and I'd love to find some superwash to do hiking socks with.

Once again, I'm hanging out at Filter, partially because the 'net's spotty at home and for personal reasons that I'm sure you all know. So, I'll have pics that I'll post later tonight.

Project updates:
1) I finished the blue kimono sweater, and I will post the sweater pics as soon as I get home.
2) The orange leaf shawl has ten more working rows (I'm not counting the rows of straight stockinette) and the border.
3) I started a felted messenger bag that will have "F**K CANCER" on the flap. The goal is to work on my fair isle technique, but since it's felted, the technique won't be as important.

On the personal front, I'm still struggling with fatigue. I'm told that that's normal 3 months out of surgery, but I'm still amazed that I'm not the person that I was. I had my checkup recently, and I still found that I spent the week in a state of semi-terror waiting for new results to come in. My mother, a 15 year breast-cancer survivor, says that she still feels that way. Joy- something to look forward to in 15 more years.

Pics to come!