Lacey Baby Beenie

Pattern: Lace Baby Beenie

Yarn: Jo-Ann Sensations Tesoro, 1 skein Pink

Needles: Lantern Moon, Ebony DPN size 5

Notes: quick and easy!! This yarn blocked beautifully!

DRATS!! Another Set Back!

*sniffle* I hate it when I goof on a cable!! I had to frog back 25 rows of the Wave Scarf because I crossed a cable the wrong way and I just couldn't leave it that way!! I get the feeling that someone doesn't want me to finish this scarf!

First FO for 2008!!

I have FINALLY finished the baby blanket!!

Seaming this baby up was really off-putting, so I had to force myself to do it. Last night at 10PM I got a bug up my ass, pulled out my needles and started. I thought "oh, it should only take me about an hour or so" HA! I always seem to think I can do things faster in my mind then they actually take *well, with the exception of THAT. THAT I want to last much longer - laugh*

Anyhoo.... FOUR HOURS LATER!! I had finally finished!





Pattern: Lace Christening Blanket from Vogue Knitting Baby Blankets

Yarn: KnitPicks Shine Sport, 12 skeins of Silver Sage

Needles: KnitPicks Options size 5

Notes: The pattern actually called for each panel to be knit seperately, but I didn't want to do all that seaming, so I cast on all seven panels together and used stitch markers to mark each panel.

Mother Nature's Beauty

We finally had our first REAL snowfall on Thursday. It started right around 11:30 ish. Then about 45 minutes later it was REALLY snowing. Big fluffy flakes. This was the pretty picture I saw when I looked out the windows of my media center.



Then I just couldn't resist and step outside the emergency exit door and took a few more pictures of the snow falling. Look at how big those flakes are! The only thing that would have made this all the more perfect would have been to watch the snow fall from the comfort of my own home, in my PJ's and slippers, wrapped in one of my afghans, and a nice hot latte in my my hands enjoying a snow day!





When I got home from work that day I found this at my door! *SQUEAL* I love when I get packages!



The first package was this Japanese crochet pattern book. The book is Crochet Motif Items. I bought it so that I could get the pattern to make this. I fell in love with that since I first came across it months ago! I had found the book on the Japanese site of Amazon, but I couldn't seem to order it. I was telling Joan at one of the S 'n B Wednesday's about how I was trying to find this book and she directed me to this site, and I found it and bought it!! Thanks Joan!!



Here's an update on my current WIPs.

The Wave Scarf is up to 26". I can't remember what number skein I am on, but my order for the four extra skeins came in. Of course the dye lots did not match the six skeins I had bought months ago, but by some miracle of miracles the new skeins match the older skeins what seems like perfectly! *PHEW* I was so pleased. I went ahead and used one of the new skeins and then brought the project to a S 'n B session and asked a few of the gals there if they could tell where the new skein started and/or stopped. No one could!!! So, just to be safe I am alternating skeins between the two different orders. I am hoping that over this nice long weekend, I will finish this scarf... maybe.... maybe not. Sorry, the pictures is a bit dark. I'll take a better one soon.



Next up, I joined the Secret of the Stole ii KAL (SOTSii). This is one of those KAL where you get a little bit of the pattern at a time along with a few clues and you need to try and guess the connection. This is my first official lace project. I am so excited about it! It was suggested that we use a solid, earthy color. I had purchased a skein of Skacel Merino Lace in Eggplant. I fell in love with the rich purple color. I got it at a 30% discount because it looked like some of the strands had been cut. We couldn't really tell without winding it up. The lady in the shop said she would give me a discount cause she wasn't sure, but that with the discount it would have to be a final sale. I took the chance because I loved the color so much and I didn't want to fall behind in the KAL. Oh, I sooooo shouldn't have bought that skein. It was a pure disaster trying to ball up that skein. I don't know what happened, but it kept getting tangled and my kitty kept trying to play with the yarn. I finally gave up and called a few of the LYS so see if any of them had the same yarn in the same color. *sigh* No luck, but A Tangled Skein, did have the yarn in other colors. So, I hopped in my car and drove down. I found this pretty berry color and bought it and had THEM wind it for me. Of course she had no problems winding the skein. So now I have this skein of purple at home that I don't want to throw away, but I'm also not looking forward to trying to untangle and wind. Anyhoo! I'm looking forward to working on my first lace project!!



Next up is the WhoDuKnit Mystery KAL. This project will only take about 200 yards of a worsted weight yarn. So I went stash diving to see what single skeins I had and found this beautiful blue that I bought eons ago. It's Cascade 220 Heather in Midnight. I just love the color! I'm currently in the middle of clue #3. Just 2 more clues and I should have a finished scarf!



Last, but certainly not least. The baby blanket! Look! I'm all done knitting and it's blocking on my dining room table. Now comes the part I dread.... seaming!! I have 4 skeins of this yarn leftover. Oh what to do with it... any suggestions?

So far to date, this is the piece I am most proud of, even if it was the most difficult to make - not talking pattern wise, the pattern was relatively easy.

Achmed the Dead Terrorist

I love this guy!!!!

Yes, I am a Yarn Addict....

AND DAMN PROUD OF IT!!!!

Trying to explain that to a non-yarn addict is a real problem *like explaining any other type addiction is any easier* As you all know, I was in Philadephia last weekend and my first priority was finding all the yarn shops that were within a 10-15 minute drive from my hotel! Yes, I did look up the yarn shops BEFORE I checked out how far the hotel was from the Conference Center. I have my priorities! *a bit skewed, but hey* Oh, the conference center was right across the street and one block up from the hotel! Could I have gotten any more lucky!

Being a tactile type person is great for dealing with kids and human beans, but it can be a real problem when it comes to yarn! If anyone has a 12-step program for crazy people like us, please share!

Friday:

So, I got into Philly around 8pm, checked into my hotel and then head over to the conference center because I had a meeting from 8-10pm. Of course the information booklet that I had did not have the room information for these meetings. On the walk over I called our organization president to let her know that I had just gotten in and was on my way to the meeting.

me: Hi, I just got in.

her: me to, I just got back from walking the exhibition hall and just got into my pj's.

me: oh! You're not going to tonight's meeting?

her: what meeting? Jay didn't tell me about any meeting tonight. I was told about tomorrows discussion group at 10:30AM.

me: What discussion group tomorrow morning?? *panic sets in.... a Saturday meeting? We never had a Saturday meeting before! I planned my yarn shop hopping for Saturday!!!!*

her: Jay didn't tell me about any meeting for tonight, just about the discussion group tomorrow from 10:30am - 12:00pm.

me: What discussion group tomorrow morning?? *can you tell I was having trouble processing the fact that my yarn excursion was being shortened*

She laughs, she apparenlty thought I was joking.... I wasn't!!!

her: So what time are you going to be there tomorrow?

me: I guess I'll be there at 10:30 *well, ok, it'll be over at 12, I probably wouldn't have gotten up till about 10 anyway, so I guess I could adjust my fix yarn shopping times*

Then I get to the convention center....and the doors are locked! Great! I pull out my information booklet and sure as shit it says there suppose to be an 8pm meeting on Friday. OK, I give up! I got back to my hotel room, order some pizza and KNIT! *till 2 in the morning cause I never sleep well when I'm not in my bed or in Mr. X's, but we won't go there right now*

Saturday:

Went to meeting at 10:30AM. Afterwards, I felt compelled to take a tour of the exhibit hall. *yeah, that lasted all of 30 minutes* Had lunch, went back to the hotel to get the directions to the yarn shops and I was off!

First stop was Sophie's Yarns. errrr... that was suppose to be the first stop. Did you know that if you put in the wrong address on mapquest you end up in the wrong place! No really! If you don't put in the right street address you end up in the wrong place. Go figure! I drove around and around the blocks because I could not find Sophie's Yarns at 1713 S. 4th Street! And when I say around the block, I mean just that since Philly has shitloads of oneway streets! After a few times around, I gave up and went to Jane's Yarn Shoppe. That was not any better! By the time I got there is 4:55PM and the shoppe closed at 5pm!

Get the feeling that the Gods were not on my side??

I took a look at the maps and headed off to Loop. After all, isn't the saying, Third times a charm? Well it was! And oh what a charm it was! Adorable cozy little shop. Nice selection of yarn and warm people running the shop. Thank goodness or I was really going to think that someone up there was out to make my trip miserable!

Look at the goodies I bought! On the left are 4 skeins of Sublime cashmere-merino-silk dk. *Niiiiiiiiice* As I continued to look around I heard this "psst, psst look at me" off to my left. Honest, I did! *my therapist says those voice I hear are ok as long as they aren't tell me to harm anyone!* What do my eyes see when I looked.... the most gorgeous blue yarn I have seen in a long time.

BEELINE! *tripping over something that was on the floor, but refused to take my eyes off the yarn for fear of it disappearing if I looked away*

Misti Alpaca 100% Baby Alpaca! Talk about OH-SO-SOFT-AND-SQUISHY! I have never felt a squishier yarn! The pictures really does not do the color of this yarn any justice. I will try and get a good picture of it outside tomorrow. There was only 1 skein of this color in the shop, so I just HAD to have it! I'm think of using this for the Hannah hat.

Lastly, I came across some Blue Sky Suri Merino. Can I just say......Orgasmic! *ok, not THAT good, but pretty fuckin' close!* I don't think I have felt any like this yarn before. It just feels... luscious!! There was no putting this yarn down one it was in my hands. I soooooooooooooo cannot wait to knit with it, I just need to find the right pattern!

And look at that cute bag it all came in!



Sunday:

Now, in my searchs for yarn shops in Philly, I had read somewhere how Sophie's was THE shop to visit. So, before I checked out of my hotel and headed to my Sunday morning meeting. Yes, you read that right, a Sunday morning conference meeting, at 8AM no less! I don't even get up that early for church when I'm home! When I realized yesterday that I had obviously had the wrong address for that shop on Saturday, I looked it back up and decided I would stop there on my way out of town.

It was a nice shop, but not "The" shop that was raved about. It was almost ALL Cascade yarns. Not that there is anything wrong with Cascade considering that I bought some gorgeous Cascade Venezia yarn there. There just wasn't a whole lot of different brands. I did get to touch and feel and squish lots of different Cascade yarns that I have not seen in other shops. The silky sheen of the Venezia just suckered me on. I bought 3 balls of the bulky and 2 skeins of the worsted. Look at color of that worsted!! A beautiful Forest Green. I bought with the intention of making a gift for someone else, but the more I look at that yarn, the more I'm falling in love with that color! I might not be able to give that one away after all!

While I was in the shop looking around, a woman started talking to me. About 2 minutes in to conversation she asked "Librarian?" *ACK! Panic attack!! Do I look like a typical librarian?? Did I look frumpy?? Did I have a pen sticking out of my hair? I almost went to check when I remembered I was wear my hair loose. My friend Marcia and I made a pact in graduate school that we would never turn into a frumpy librarian that had no sense of style*

"Um, yes. what gave it away?" *hold breath*

her: "Oh cause you said at the yarn shops back home, and I'm here for the conference too"

*exhale.... ok, I'm safe.... I think* Then she told me about the shops that she went to while she was in town. *laugh*



Oh, remember that 8am Sunday meeting I was bitchin' telling you about? Well, I had almost finished my first cup of coffee when I felt myself nodding off and decided I had better go get more coffee. So I got up, and as I was trying to walk away, my purse handle reached out and grabbed my foot *I swear I saw it moving!* and wouldn't let go.

You are already laughing aren't you. You can already see where this story is going. Go ahead, laugh it up! All I can say is thank goodness no one was sitting in the chair that caught the coffee that was left in my cup AND that I didn't break any bones!

Once I untangled myself from my purse I quietly crawled out to the hallway and refilled my coffee, twice, before going back compossing myself as if it wasn't me that just lost a fight with her purse.

And that was my weekend - at least the more exciting parts of it :)

Destination: Philadelphia!

Road Tripping this weekend!! Off to Philly for a conference! The hotel I'm staying at says that all the rooms have wireless capabilities, so we shall see. Now, where are the yarn shops?!?!

ooooooooo 4 within 3 miles of my hotel!!! This could be bad!

A Belated Christmas gift

Here is the Wave Scarf that I am making for my older sister.



I was hoping to have it finished in time for La Befana, but it doesn't look like it. Why, you ask. Well that's a very good question. The reason being that the pattern called for 6 skeins of the yarn. So when my sister picked out this pattern several months ago, I went ahead and bought the yarn for it.

Then a few nights ago, I was looking up this pattern on Ravelry. Oh, I wish I had checked this pattern there first. Turns out that not a single person who knitted this scarf in the recommended yarn used the recommended amount of yarn. They all used anywhere from 8-10 skeins! YIKERS!!

I finished one skein and I measured the length.... 5". The scarf/shawl pattern says the finished length will be 71". Hmmm... I'm in trouble if I only got 5" from one skein! I had already wound the six skeins using the ball winder, so I couldn't mail them back to Knit Picks. So, I ordered 4 more skeins and I'm praying that some small miracle will happen and those 4 skeins will be the same dye lot as the 6 skeins that I ordered a few months ago. *yeah, Fat chance, I know*

I'll keep you posted.

All the Little Girls with the Crimson Lips Go,

Cleveland Rocks, Cleveland Rocks!

OK, so y'all know that I spend New Year's Eve in Cleveland. It was a last minute invite from a friend's girlfriend and since I had no real plans for that night....


ROAD TRIP!!


So, Sunday I left my house and my friend Erika left her house in WV and we both headed north. Sunday night we ended up playing Turbo Cranium. Oh my! We had a blast!! That's Erica doing some of the "Star Performer" cards. Believe it or not.... there was no alcohol involved!



New Year's Eve we went to this place called Howl at the Moon. What an awesome place!! It's a dueling piano bar. They had two grand pianos and a drum set on the stage and three guys that played on a rotating basis. The audience suggested the song with a minimum $2 tip, but these guys were getting $5, beers and shots for song suggestions. At one point in the night someone made a suggestion for "Hang on Snoopy" because apparently that is the OSU fight song. After a few bars, another guy went up to the pianos and requested they kill that song and play the Michigan University fight song.

the piano player "I'm sorry folks, this song has just been interrupted because this guy just paid $20 to stop playing this and play the MU fight song!"

heehee... talk about a guy teasing his audience and trying to get more $$!

This went back and forth till the Michigan guy paid $85 for their song!! I couldn't believe it, THAT's when you know you've had way too many beers *grin*

At one point during the night the piano players called some of the ladies to the stage and played the song Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-a-Lot.

Oh my God Becky....Look at her butt....It is so big....




Let me tell you, NONE of the girls that went up on to the stage had any junk in their trucks! Not a one! I turned to the group and asked them if they thought any of these girls even UNDERSTOOD what this song is about!

Now, I bet you never thought I would put my butt out there for everyone to see, but

Baby Got Back!



*thank goodness my folks don't read my blog or I'd have to hear all about how "good girls don't do that" - yeah, it took two years of therapy for me to realize is had an inner battle of Good Girl/Bad Girl raging inside me..... Bad Girl tends to win alot *giggle*

We got those bumper stickers from the bar. We also got these buttons too!



The piano players brought one of their bartenders on stage and changed the words from Doe Re Me to Tony, the guy who drinks the beer. Tony had a very special way of drinking a beer. You'll have to excuse to blurry pic as this came from my phone. None of us brought a camera to the bar cause we didn't know what kind of place it was and we didn't want to risk losing our cameras. Now I know for next time, that I can bring my camera!

Here's Tony! Tony, the guy who drinks the beer! Egging the crowd on to chant for him :) See those bulges in his pockets *no, not THAT bulge - you pervs!* He came on stage with a beer bottle in three different pockets and one in his hand.



Tony's special drinking trick.... a bendy straw!! So what does he do you ask... He puts the bendy straw into the bottle then wraps his mouth around the opening leaving the straw outside his mouth to let the air go in by passing the glugg-glugg when chugging a beer and pretty much downed the bottle in 2 seconds. *no, I didn't exactly time him, but it was fact!* And just incase you missed it the first time, he did it three more times this round!

Later on in the night he was called up to the stage a second time, but only did 2 beers this time. The dude next to him, I guess was trying to show off, but his little cup of beer didn't impress us that much. That was also the guy that paid $85 to hear the Michigan fight song.



Now, when you are dealing with a room full of drinking people on New Years Eve, they really should have had a disclaimer before this stunt was performed... like... Kids, Do Not Try This at Home!

Yeah, you guessed it! This drunken fool silly girl just had to try this when we got back home. Of course, the druken fools friends I was with didn't try to stop me. Oh no!! They encourage this crazy act! Even scrounge around their kitchen because they were sure they had bendy straws!



So, what did I learn?

One: Never try this with a beer you have never tasted before, because if the beer tastes nasty *like this shit "Fat Squirrel". Who the hell names a beer Fat Squirrel??* you end up gagging anyway.

Two: Never listen to drunk friends!

Three: I need more practice.



You would think that we would have stopped there.... Oh no. We had bought some liquer earlier that day since we didn't know for sure if we would be able to get into Howl at the Moon or not. I purchased a bottle of Pomagranite liquer that had a recipe on it for Pamatinis. So I bought everything that was on their recipe and made some that night. I don't know where they got their drink recipe from but this shit tasted like lighter fluid! You would think that when one person gags and claims a drink is horrible that your friends would listen to you and not try it.... oh no... I passed the glass to the next person and said "here, try!" and they did!

Hence I repeat thing number two that I learned "Two: Never listen to drunk friends!"

Then we moved on to try this stuff.



Did you read the bottle? "A Sensuous Fusion of Utlra Premium French Vodka & Provence Blood Orange Mingling with Mango & Passion Fruit" Sounds good doesn't it. Well, it sounded like a good idea to all of us too. Now does anyone wanna try and guess as to what this stuff really tasted like?? GRAPEFRUIT! Grapefruit and vodka is what this tasted like! I've had Mangos before and they do not taste like grapefruit!

Again, if someone gags that a drink tastes horrible, would YOU try it after a friend?? Yup, my friends did....

Hence I repeat again what I learned "Two: Never listen to drunk friends!"

All-in-all it was a very fun night. We could have done without the lighter fluid drinks, but live and learn. New Years Day we went to Cracker Barrel for brunch and then I had to drive home in this:



Getting out of Cleveland wasn't too bad. The storm was definitely worse when I drove through upper PA. Of course the whole time I was driving through this storm I kept telling to go to Maryland. I was not ready to do back to school today, but alas, neither Mr. Snow nor Mother Nature was listening to my suggestion.

And that was my last minute New Year's Eve adventure!