A very productive weekend

It was only a three-day weekend (for Rick, that is; I'm still out of school, as is Older Daughter, Younger Daughter had to go back this morning), but we got a lot done. And we got it done in spite of the fact that I am currently sick as a dog. (Yes, I went to the doctor this morning, finally. And yes, I am now on drugs; this sinus infection is apparently so bad that the idea of taking X-rays was bandied about. I have been told to get better quickly lest they carry out their threat.)

First, we (finally!) painted Younger Daughter's room. She's been waiting patiently, and we've been holding off on moving the set of cubbies that Rick built into her room (for desperately-needed storage) until the painting was done, as they were to be bolted to the walls (a hangover from living in earthquake country; we bolt all tall furniture to the walls), and we didn't want to have to unscrew them to take them out for painting. She picked a green color that none of us was sure about (except her) until it went on the walls, and then we all loved it. It required two coats on the bottom half of the room, as the past owners had painted the walls in two colors, darker on the bottom and lighter on the top, but it was worth it. Her room looks like springtime.
That's a little washed out, as it's cloudy today, and her window is shaded by trees; I'll try to get a better picture when the sun is shining in the window, as the patterns that the leaves make on that wall are really lovely. The best way I can think of to describe this color is to say that it reminds me a bit of the color of key lime pie. You may not be able to tell, but those bedspreads are pink, and the pink and green combination is much nicer than I'd have thought it would be. She's completely thrilled with the whole thing, happy that we would let her choose a color and then would spend all that time painting her room. She even invited her sister for a "sleep over" last night to celebrate (this is something that they do, occasionally), and they went to bed early, as they were so excited to be sleeping in her "new" room. It was worth all of the painting with a sinus headache to see her face when everything was put together, no doubt about it.

When I wasn't painting, I was knitting (it's hard to sleep with a sinus infection, I find, no matter how worn out and tired I am; not to share too much information, but my nose has been very productive, too...). And Sprossling is finished! That makes this my first FO for 2010. I stayed up last night to finish the making up, and then steam-blocked it when I got back from the doctor this morning. Forgive the photo shoot; I'm not looking so great right now, but this sweater is, so I had to share.
I think I need to block the button bands just a bit more. But I think I got the fit nailed on this one, finally.
The shoulder seams hit at pretty close to the right place (maybe a titch low?), and the length is good, on both sleeves and body, and it's curve-skimming without being tight (the shaping helps with that, as does the ribbing in the pattern).
The sleeve color did end up being a bit lighter than that of the body, just enough that I'm really glad I reknitted the first one; I had to use some of the darker yarn in the top part of the sleeve, but I'd planned ahead for that and alternated, somewhat randomly, between two balls of yarn, which seems to have done the trick, because I can't tell, looking at the picture, which is which.
So, there is it. To recap: this is a test-knit of Sprossling (Anne hasn't released the pattern yet, I don't think), using Lanas Puras Melosa fingering weight yarn (I still don't see this colorway up there; they must be out), on size four needles (and size twos for the edging). I used just under three balls of yarn for the size medium, as promised. I love this pattern; the lace motif is completely intuitive, and utterly memorizable (this from the woman who can't memorize lace patterns to save her life), and it was kind of fun to figure out how much of each repeat to include when doing the increases and decreases -- definitely a lesson in the concept of not doing an ssk or k2tog unless there was room for its corresponding yo (and vice versa). I can tell already that I'm going to be wearing this one a LOT, as it goes with all of the things I most like to wear.

So here I am, no big projects OTN. I do need to knit up a pair of fingerless mitts for my brother-in-law for his birthday, which is coming up quickly (Geri, don't tell), but I have the yarn for that already and just need to decide on a pattern (maybe another pair of the Paris-Roubaix mitts? Rick loves his...). And I've got that list of requests from the family (socks, scarf, and sweater). But I also have my eye on this, maybe knitted up in this? Meanwhile, I'm going to go sit and my spinning wheel and contemplate.