ADHD

I'm whining this morning. I can't seem to concentrate on anything. When I'm at home, I veg in front of the TV (not even knitting!) and when I'm at work, I veg in front of the computer screen. I'm messing around with my allergy medications right now and the change is making me sleepy and cranky at the same time (not a good combination - ask my family).

Here's one bright spot in my week. I managed to get over to the yarn shop and buy this:

It's a bit pricey ($29.95 US or 43.95 Can), but I'm convinced there are at least 4 sweaters that I want out of this book. It has everything from socks and hats, to vanilla-ish sweaters, to complicated patterns. At the very least, go have a look at the Green Mountain Spinnery website. Better yet, go to a shop and see it. They don't have any pictures of the sweaters inside on the site - just the book.

My Cashmerino Cardigan went to Portugal and back again. It's not finished. All the pieces are done, the shoulder seams done, and the sleeves are just hanging around. I should get them all attached before I lose a piece (it's happened). Then I just need to do the bands and put on those cool buttons.

I picked up the swatches for this last night. I think I'm getting gauge, but it's hard to tell over the cable bumps. Should I wash and block the swatch and measure again? I'm supposed to have 23 stitches over the cable pattern that's on the sleeve - I think I'm pretty close.

My spinning guild is having a roving exchange this weekend. This is the first one I've participated in. They did it a couple of years ago and someone brought in a fugly shawl that he made from the roving. Everyone else oohed and aahed over it and I thought, "Eeeew, I can come up with something more attractive than that." So, I'm tossing my hat in, we're supposed to bring 30-1 oz bags of roving. I'm thinking of one of those cuff-to-cuff, fair-isle sweaters with some unifying roving thrown in. Or maybe I'll spin up all the roving and over-dye. Look out Jillian - I'm getting out the dye pots!


One more thing, today's my birthday. Here's what I want...


Except that I prefer white cake with white frosting, please.

I'm leaving, on a jet plane

Okay, here's the last story I promised you. I've been trying to get it out of my head, pretty much since it happened, but it's one of those life-changing moments (don't laugh - I have minutes of "touchy-feely" just like everyone else). For business reasons, I have to fly about 3 times/year. We have meetings in DC, Boston, and in December - Alabama. I'm not crazy about flying - not phobic exactly, but I do chant to myself as the plane is taking off and landing ("Fly plane fly! Land plane land!"). My co-workers have been known to chastise me whenever there's turbulence on a flight, "What's the matter, did you fall asleep? That was a pretty rough flight!"

So, we're near the end of an almost 7 hour flight from Lisbon to Newark. The head flight attendant comes on and says, "Umm, ladies and gentlemen, the captain has just informed me that we're having 'flap issues'."

Me: "WTF? Flap issues? What the hell does that mean?"

Head Flight Attendant: "Weeeell, what that means is, our flaps aren't working. Now don't worry [!], this kind of thing happens frequently. We will still be able to land. However, don't be alarmed if you see fire trucks on the runway when we touchdown. This is just a precautionary measure."

Me: "Precautionary measure? In case we burst into flames?"

At this point, I think, "Hmm, my mother will be comforted by the fact that 'at least they died together.'" Completely untrue Mom! Hub's in the front of the plane and I'm in the back (where I have a fabulous view of the flaps and their issues). Plus, it's NEWARK - who the hell wants to die in Newark! I'm gauging the attitudes of the flight attendants and they're not looking calm. They have that air of forced calm that I assume they're trained to wear when something goes wrong. I see that they're conferring a lot with the people in the exit rows.

Later, Hub (who was sitting a row in front of the exit) tells me that there was a small, older woman who refused to give up her seat. The attendants were trying to impress upon her that the door is heavy and she may not be able to move it, should the time come. She adamantly tells them that she "is indeed able to carry out the duties of sitting in this row." The final response from the flight attendants is, "Well, okay. You can stay there, but don't do ANYTHING until we tell you to. Don't touch the handle, don't touch the door, don't touch the window - don't touch anything until we say so."

I sit, in the back of the plane, feel the approach to the runway and watch the flaps kind of swing back and forth like those doors on saloons in western movies. I watch the back of my husband's head move back and forth as he talks to his seat mates. I chant my "fly plane fly, land plane land" mantra and hold my breath. We hit the runway, don't slow one iota, and I think, "We're going off the runway into whatever makes the plane stop quickly and we'll all have whiplash at the very least." Slowly, very slowly (or is it quickly, very quickly) we come to a stop and the people in the plane burst into applause. I, however, burst into tears. The older couple next to me is holding hands and saying, "We made it." All the other people on the plane are joyous and all I could think was, "My children almost spent the rest of their lives without parents."

Hub and I were on separate flights from Newark to Detroit. I asked, "Should we see if I can get on your [1 hour earlier] plane? Then you won't have to wait." He looked at me and said, "I'm pretty comfortable with us being on separate planes today. I'll wait for you in baggage claim. Have a safe flight"

Textiles

I know, I still have one more promised story. I figured you'd forgive me if I showed you the textiles I brought home from the fabulous trip. (Besides, I'm dealing with 8-year-old angst here - give me a small break.)

My favorite color in the whole world is green. If you could see both my yarn and fiber stashes, you'd be able to tell this right off the bat. Naturally, the first color I graviate to is...


Here's my 7.50 euro/kilo yarn. It's about sport weight, I think. I have no idea what I'll do with it yet. It's a lot of yarn for a shawl. On the other hand, it would be a pretty cool, very large shawl. I'm thinking along the lines of Cheryl Oberle or Meg Swanson - an heirloom shawl. I'll let you know.

On our Thursday with our taxi driver, we went into Sintra. I asked him if he knew where I could get yarn. I wasn't thinking clearly enough to have brought some with me, so he was confused. When I pantomimed knitting, he didn't get it. So, I tried weaving - this he knew and lead me to a little shop called Casa Branca. They had every kind of linen textile you could want, from sheets and pillowcases (separately or in sets) to dresses. I picked out this table runner.


It's folded over in the photo, but it's about 2 yards long. Here's a close up of my favorite part...


When I told Hub that I'll use it for a dresser scarf, he said, "but how's it gonna get under all the stuff on your dresser?" I elbowed him and told him to shut up.

After lunch, we went into Cascais. It was a lovely little city, but very touristy (right down to the "My parents went to Portugal and all I got was this T-shirt" - swear to god!). Anyway, we went into this little place that reeked of incense and found this tablecloth.


I fell in love immediately. I called Hub over and just shoved it into his hands, "Look at this, these are the exact colors I want in the Louisiana room!" I knew once it was in his hands and he could feel how soft it was and how well woven, it was mine. It's 200 x 300 cm and should fit on Hub's huge diningroom table. (It's his, because he's been looking for it for about 15 years and just found it at an antique sale last summer.)

The colors are so amazing.


So the walls of the Louisiana room will be the dark red and I think I'll slip in some gold and orange stripes randomly. Any suggestions for window treatments?

The woman at the counter made sure to tell me it was woven in Morocco and that it was wool with the shinier strips woven of silk. I walked out feeling like I'd just purchased a treasure and couldn't have been happier.

Where was I?

Okay, I have 3 stories to tell you about my trip (there may be more floating around in my head, but there are definitely 3).

Since we spent all day on Thursday with the taxi driver and my boss. Hub and I spent all day Friday just the 2 of us. I love my husband - really I do, but I am convinced that we should never spend more than 24 consecutive hours together. It's just not healthy. I get snippy if I'm with anyone for more than 24 hours and with someone who knows how to push my buttons, I get downright bitchy.

Friday morning was fine. He had made it his personal quest that we find yarn in Lisbon. The woman at our hotel told us to either go up to the mall Centro Comercial Amoreiras or go down to the old part of the city, "I'm sure there's something down there." We head downhill toward the old part of the city and just drifted for quite a while. We sat in a cafe for a bit and Hub's day was made when a guy came up and offered him a Rolex "cheeeep." I had the best chocolate croissant in the world and we continued on.

I was amazed to see all the fabric shops in Lisbon. My theory is that since clothing is so inexpensive, maybe you can have something made for you and pay just a little more than buying something off the rack. Anyway, we went into one of the fabric shops to ask about yarn. I had a ball tucked into my little bag and whipped it out when the counter man came over to me (I still haven't figured out what the Portugese word for yarn is). The man smiled very big and said, "Up next street, go left. Go left," and he pointed to the left (natch).

So, up next street we go and then left. The shop was a little sewing notions place. They had every color of elastic in every width I could imagine. Their yarn selection included a 2 foot x 1 foot glass enclosed case that had acrylic baby yarn in 4 colors (green, yellow, white, and blue). I came out of the shop and Hub said, "Nothing, huh?" At this point, I had given up and we just wandered. Then I saw it, across the street in a HUGE storefront there was yarn. Hub said, "Wow, they even have skeins in the window!"

This was the biggest shop of any kind I had seen in all of Lisbon. They had floor to ceiling shelves full of yarn, plus big bags in the center of the shop. I went around putting my hands in every bag. When I had finally decided what color to buy, I approached the counter with my tentative, "Do you speak English?" The elderly lady shook her head and said something to the effect of "What can I do for you?" I pointed to the yarn I had picked out and asked how much. She pointed to one of the signs on the board above the yarn - get this - 7.50 Euros per kilo!!

When I ask what it was, she holds up six fingers and says "Seeex la [wool] and four acreeeleec." Which I take to mean 60% wool and 40% acrylic. I ask "how much for a sweater?" She points to a spot on her hip bone and asks "about this long?" I nod and she holds up 3 and then 4 fingers and waves her hand around a little. So I pull out 4 skeins and pile them on the counter, pay my 7.50 and tell her obrigado and she smiles a big smile and says "tank you!" The whole thing made me feel good and Hub was relieved that he didn't have to be on yarn patrol any more.

So, I ask you, why did he turn into walking Nazi that very afternoon? He decides that he wants to go up to the Amoreiras after all. It was uphill from our hotel, and it's a mall - I DID NOT want to go. Since he had humored me, I was ready to humor him - so we walk uphill. And guess what - it's a mall. It could be in any city in any country in the world, complete with the McDonald's and a couple of tacky gag gift-type stores. He hates malls and pretty much as soon as we are in the place, he wants to leave.

So then he decides that we need to walk down to the waterfront because he had seen an English pub that he thought might be a cool place to go. Does he know which way he's going? Does it matter at all to him that I'm wearing my sandals and not my comfy sneakers? Have I mentioned that he NEVER turns around when he's lost, but continues to drive in the lost direction? Are you feeling my pain yet? After 2 hours of wandering around this city, I'm tired and cranky. We are in the residential areas and very clearly out of our element. (I'm convinced there's a network of "menacing old ladies" who monitor everyone who comes into and goes out of their neighborhoods and when you leave their sight, they call the menacing old lady on the next block so she can keep track of you too.)

I'm getting slower and slower and eventually I step up onto a curb without realizing there's something slippery on this curb. As I'm shifting my weight from right foot to left foot, my left foot slips on the grease. This causes me to stub my right big toe on the cement curb HARD (I did mention I'm wearing sandals right?). What does Hub do? He says, "Keep walking, it won't hurt as much when you're walking." I'm standing on a street corner in a foreign city blinking back tears and he says, "Keep walking." The weirdest part is, I keep walking (I didn't start having homicidal thoughts until later).

He finally decides (about 1/2 hour later) that he's found a suitable restaurant and we can stop walking. (I'd like to take this moment to point out that we did not eat at the English pub because once we got there, he decided it didn't look as cool as he had originally thought.) I go in and immediately order Sangria and water and dont' speak to him until 1/2 the Sangria has been ingested. Then I look at my purple toe and say (as menacingly as I can muster) "Oh, you're going to pay for this!" After dinner, I made him take me to a taxi stand and get me a ride back to the hotel. As of today, most of the purple is gone, but it's a very tender toe and I've pretty much played it up as much as I can.

Whew! That took lots longer than I expected. Can you wait one more day for the last story? It's a good one, I promise. I also promise to bring pictures tomorrow. Come back, I'll make it worth your while.

I'm a wanderer, yeah a wanderer...

I'm back and I'm not dead (more on that particular thought later) - just incredibly busy. I had over 300 messages in my e-mail in box; and I even turned off all my lists! It took me almost a whole day to weed through that. Also, why is it people want to leave voice mail messages even though you tell them you won't be back for a week. I had 11 messages to respond to from voice mail - luckily it only took about an hour to take care of those.


Enough whining - here's what you really need to know about Lisbon:

1. Lisbon is a warm place, while everyone in North America was enjoying moderate weather, I was getting dressed up in business clothes and having to take a cab for what would be a 10 minute walk to the conference. (My boss was worried about showing up a sweaty mess if we walked.) As a consequence of this warmth, there's no need for wool yarn. I saw yarn in 4 shops. In 3 of those places, it was sport weight acrylic in pastel colors. More about place #4 later.

2. Don't eat in the restaurants "section" of Lisbon. There's a spot near the old part of the city where you're funneled into this seedy looking area and the wait staff pounces on you and pulls you over to their menu pole. The menu pole consists of the restaurant's offerings in every possible language you could imagine (seriously - Chinese is right there next to Norwegian). Suck up your fear of "but they won't understand me because I don't speak [fill in the blank]" and go where the locals go. Most of the middle aged and younger Portugese speak English and once I figured out that omelet is the same everywhere - I was a happy girl. (As a side note, I don't eat seafood, so food was limited for me, but the lamb, chicken, and omelets were delicious - avoid the pork. Hub reports that the crab and shrimp were fab and a dish called Cataplana was the living end.)

3. Get Euros before you leave. The rate once you're there isn't good. I knew this was going to happen, but ran out of time before the trip.

4. Yes, they are offering you hash in the tourist section. Apparently, lots of people go to Europe to smoke dope (is my naivete showing?). I also heard the the penalties for being caught smoking dope in Portugal are very severe. We did not partake, but were offered at least 5 times on different evenings.

5. Make nice with your taxi driver. Boss and I got into a taxi after the conference on Tuesday and the driver started talking. "I can take you around Lisbon or around the area. We have many palaces, I can take you to see beautiful palaces. You can get a whole day or a half day - whichever you want." He even had a tour book show he could show us where he'd take us. We "rented" this driver for the whole day on Thursday and he took us on a great tour. He was the nicest man - talked about his son, his life, knew quite a bit about what we were seeing. I highly recommend this.

My pictures are still on the roll, so to speak. So if you must see some cool things, hope over to this website to see pictures of Portugal. We actually went into the Palacio de Queluz in Queluz, Palacio Nacional and Palacio de Pena in Sintra, and the Cabo da Roca. We also shopped a little in Cascais. It was a good trip, exhausting, but good.

I'll nab a digital camera tonight and take pictures of the yarn and other textiles I bought. I'll also tell some of the stories - don't you just love good travel stories?

I can't believe I missed it...

And Yentala and Jillian even reminded me!!

HAPPY belated BIRTHDAY my bike riding, cancer surviving, never say quit hero...

Bathroom Reading

I work in a building where we share floor space with another department of the University (budget and planning). This means that we share 2 bathrooms with them. When we first got here (late October 2002), I thought it was weird that there was always reading material in the bathroom. At my house, there's always a large selection of reading material, catalogs, fly tying and knitting magazines, Tom Clancy books, etc. This is a business - it just seemed weird. One day, I came upon a magazine I'd never seen before called Belle Armoire. What a cool magazine! Whatever appears in the magazine has to be wearable. There's everything from beaded pins to silk screened dusters. If you haven't seen it - go get a copy. I guarantee that you'll be spending money (I did - on beads and lengths of silk).

I'm bored today, so I've been surfing. If you haven't clicked the Creative Chicks webring to the left, please do. The next site over is Carvegirl. This woman has some amazingly cool stuff. She was doing a show last weekend and I was very disappointed that she's on the east coast and too far for me to visit. She may not knit, but she rocks as an artist!

Okay, must look busy...

What a Day

At least I got out of the office on this gorgeous September day. I met Jillian and Henry at our favorite chicken salad place. Of course we had to go over to Knit Around Yarn Shop and peek at the new fall yarns. Gorgeous! Fall is my favorite season, soon I'll be wearing turtlenecks, smelling burning leaves, and eating pumpkin pie. Looking at the new colors and yarns is really the way to kick the season off. I bought some pumpkin colored Koigu for socks and some Vittadini Nadia (alpaca and wool) in reds and browns - scarf? I also bought these:



Isn't it beautiful? I think I pulled out a dozen different buttons and was leaning toward this one when J pointed and said, "That one." Decision made. She asked if I was going to be sewing the pieces together on the plane to Portugal. My answer is maybe. The right front is almost done. I think I'll stitch that and the one sleeve and and take the whole thing with me. It will probably be too hot for it, but I'll be stylin'.

By the way, Mr. Henry is the best baby in the world. He was sleeping and contented when he got out of the car and slept peacefully throughout lunch and the trip to the yarn shop. I didn't get close enough to smell his baby smell - way too dangerous. Next time, I'll wake him up and cuddle him. I love other people's babies!


One last bit of news, 15 years ago today, I married this...


That's my hub in all his glory (scratching while watching fishing on the Outdoor Life Network). Has it been a long 15 years - you bet. Would I do it all again - in a New York minute.

Knitting my fingers to the bone

I did very little this weekend. Saturday was a whirlwind for me (between hockey and ballet, there's no time for anything else).

Yesterday, I shipped my husband and son off to fish for salmon. Sassy and I had the whole day to ourselves. I knit. I have the back and one sleeve for my new cardigan finished. I started the right front. It's moving along quite nicely. I really like this yarn and am actually considering buying more of it in a different color - her fall colors are lovely.

I have 4.5 days to pack my bags for a week in Lisbon, Portugal. There's a work conference that will take up Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I told hub that he's to spend this time finding cool things to show me. We'll have all day Thursday and Friday to wander. Any one have any suggestions? I hear that Portugal is incredibly gorgeous and the natives are fabulous. Any and all tips are welcome.

Cro Ho?

Amy has graciously given permission for anyone who wants it to upload this lovely button



to her own server. Sistahs with hooks.

Anatomy of a Swatch

Let me say that I am a born again Swatcher. I used to hate swatching - HATE it. I remember many years ago showing a swatch to Jillian and having her say, "Well, first of all, it's not big enough! You can't measure it and have it be accurate." (Remember that Anne Norling weekend vest I did in Colorado?)

So, over the years, I've swatched and resented every minute of it. I just wanted to get to the knitting. Then it hit me - I was knitting when I swatched. It isn't wasted time, it's prep time and time well spent in that I can make mistakes and figure out how to fix them before actually starting on a project. Plus, it lets me play with the yarn - and we all know what a bonus that is.

Here's my latest swatch. This is for the Debby Bliss Baby Cashmerino Cardigan.


The ball band says to use a US 3 and since I usually knit to gauge, I started with that. I wasn't really happy with the way the swatch felt, not boardy exactly, but not as soft as the yarn is. Then I switched to US 4. The hand with this was perfect - soft, but stable.

I wanted to put a small lace panel in on both sides of the front of the cardigan, so I started messing around. I was knitting this at my son's hockey practice, so I winged it. The first small patch you see is 10 stitches of seed stich bordering a 7 stitch lace panel. The lace panel got absolutely lost (I saw this after about 4 rows). So I switched to 7 seed, 7 lace, 7 seed and was very happy how this came out. You can't see the holes very well in the scan, but what I wanted to emphasize was the line created by the decreases anyway. When the line of holes is moving toward the right, I knit 2 together (k2 tog). When the line of holes moves to the left, I used a decrease Jillian just showed me, knit 2 together through the back loops (k2tog tbl). The holes are sort of hidden and the lines show up beautifully. Exactly what I wanted.

All I had to do then was pick a ribbing. This sweater is tunic length, so I wanted the look of a ribbing without the pull in. I picked out 2, the one on the left is (I think) called a garter ribbing. It's 2 rows:
row 1: knit 2, purl 2
row 2: knit across

It creates verticle lines of garter stitch between verticle lines of stockinette. Very nice, but I didn't like the way it looked with my lace panel. The ribbing on the left is called twisted ribbing. You knit 1, purl 1, but on the front of the work, you knit through the back of the knit stitches and on the back of the work you purl through the back of the purl stitches. This creates a twisted pattern that's firm and stretchy, and not too snug.

Then I took my measurements and plugged them into Sweater Wizard, creating my own pattern. This swatch took almost a whole skein of yarn, but I consider it well worth it. Now, I'm fairly certain what I'll be getting is exactly what I want. I plan on keeping this swatch around, but I can canibalize it - if I need to.

So, to all you non-swatchers I say step into the light, swatching is a good thing.


One last thing, my childhood was spent riding in my dad's Ford pick-up truck listening to 8-track tapes sung by this man...

rest in peace Johnny, mama's calling you to the supper table.

Pictures Galore

At Amy's request, here's a picture of my Sassy in her Tasha Tudor Shawl.



Notice the purple overall shorts she's wearing and what you can't see is the hot pink shirt. This kid is the biggest girlie girl I know (but only because she's older than Jillian's Isobel). This was the child, who at the age of 3 informed me that navy blue was a "boy's color" and she would not wear it. She's thrilled with this...



That is the stash I picked up from Mind's Eye Yarns. Both of the purple yarns are for Sassy and she held up the Splash to her face for a very long time. I'm eyeing that merino/silk blend and wondering how bad I can let the sleep deprivation get (I'll just spin for another 1/2 hour...)

When I got home from work on Monday, my box from Woolcott was on the table. My husband didn't bat an eye, just said "Box for you." Here's what was inside...


There's too much going on in my life right now to have to work - it's not fair.

Boston was Fabulous!!!

But, first things first. Head over to Jillian's and meet my new friend Henry. What a cutie! And his mom has knit him so many new hats that his head will be covered until it rounds out nicely. Reports are that he's a sleepy baby - what good news for the whole family!


Many, many thanks to everyone who left comments about the Kimono. It was a lot of fun to wear and I even got a couple of comments. I did get the button on and started weaving in some of the ends. I don't remember if I expressed my dissatisfaction with the way some of the colors bleed through when woven in. I started to unweave them and make knots. I'm much more happy with the overall appearance, but this isn't something I can spend more than 20-30 minutes on without going stir crazy. The sweater is wearable as is, so knotting will be an on going project until it's finished.

Took the Cashmerino Cardigan with me as mindless knitting. I have the swatch here, but no time for scanning right now. You'll see it tomorrow.

Presentation in Boston went well. I had to input data into our database (something I've done hundreds of times, but never with a huge audience). There were lots of questions and as a result, I was in the hot seat for about 3 hours, but at least people were kind and everyone made a point of telling me that I'd done well. That was really nice. My plan was to go yarn shopping on Thursday night. My boss (aka Don Corleone) had other plans. He had organized a big meeting of all the other heads of the five families centers we work with. He leaned over on Thursday afternoon and said, "I'd like you to come to the meeting and take notes to record what goes on and what decisions are made."

Me: "This is going to make me very unpopular with the other data people."

Him: "I'm running the meeting. I get to make the rules."

I was right - I was not popular with the other data people on Friday. They got over it - or not, it doesn't really matter.


I took my girl Jillian's suggestion and treated myself on Friday. We got out of the meetings at noon - this left me lots of time. First, I trekked over to Mind's Eye Yarns. Otis the bunny was in residence in this lovely little Victorian house. Nice selection of medium to high $$ yarns, but what caught my eye was the merino/tussa silk blend roving. Beautiful shiny, soft roving. A hank of this came home with me as well as some Cascade 220 in purple (for guess who) for a sweater and a purple ball of Splash in Berry Parfait. Sassy's going to love a long, tubular scarf that she can wear like a balaclava.

So then, I hoped back on the T and went to Woolcott & Co.. I've been in this shop before and didn't think much of the service. They were nice enough, just didn't go out of their way to make me feel welcome. Let me tell you, I walked in there on Friday and there must have been some sort of neon sign or something over my head. They couldn't have been nicer to me if I was Daryl Hannah.

Seriously, they were in the process of putting out all their fall yarns, so the place was crowded with boxes. They pointed me right to the sales bins and pretty much said, 'get busy, that stuff needs to go.' Everytime I pulled out a yarn and asked about it, one of the clerks dropped what she was doing and hunted up a pattern book for me. The owner came out of the back of the shop and practically pulled me from place to place in the store shoving yarn at me. When I mentioned that I was working with the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, Nikki demanded to see the work and then proceeded to show it to all the clerks and some of the customers too. Here's a partial list of what I bought:

Adrienne Vittadini Emma (enough for a shell)
Vittadini pattern book (with the shell pattern)
Noro yarn (I don't remember the name, but it's the wool, silk, and cashmere blend) I really wanted enough for a sweater, but the yardage on this stuff stinks (60 m) so I settled for a few skeins and Little Big Man (my 12-year-old son) will get a scarf or a hat out of it.
a couple balls of an orange yarn that was in the sale bin (it's orange - I love this color!)
Debbie Bliss' Noro 2 pattern book
a skein of Schaefer Yarn in this colorway


I had never seen this yarn in person. It is drop dead gorgeous. I had 3 skeins in my hands and forced myself to pick one. Nikki kept digging into the basket and say, "oooh, look at this one...and this one." She had a skein in her office that she wouldn't sell, but brought it out for me to fondle. It's a lovely deep purple to silvery lavendar skein and she's going to try and get more.

In the end, I was fretting about how I was going to get it all home. The sale's clerk said, "Well, if your purchase totals more than $100..." I looked at her over the moutain of stuff I had on the counter and she said, "We'll ship this out for you tomorrow morning."

In short, both Woolcott and Mind's Eye are worth a trip. If you're in Boston, make the pilgrimage, you won't be sorry.

Turn Henry Turn

Send your good thoughts to Jillian & Henry today. Happy, healthy baby (& mommie)!!

Painting, schmainting, indeed!

Remember, I'm the one who can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan...





I pulled out the seams on Sunday while my kids had their riding lesson. I didn't bring anything to distract me and when it only took about an hour to pull out what I had already seamed - I had to sit and fend off the flies.

Seaming back up took about 1.5 hours. Then I did 2 rows of single crochet around the front and neck openings. I have a couple more loose ends to weave in and a beautiful mother-of-pearl button that my son picked out to attach. I'm so glad this is done!!!

I also fiddled around with Sweater Wizard and created my first pattern. It's a mindless mostly stockingette stitch cardigan. I have a huge swatch that I meant to bring in and scan - but forgot it this morning. Jillian suggested an easy lace pattern for the front - so I did that too. It's too difficult to explain in words - you'll have to wait for the scan.

Here's what else I managed to do this weekend (my kids are glad to be going back to school):
Clean (I'm wondering if all my dust has contributed to my allergies this summer)
Paint (2 reds for Louisiana room and 3 greens for living room - I'm trying to make a decision here)
Knit (lotus blossom socks - 1 is finished, the other has been ripped out and restarted)
Beading (I was sucked in on Saturday - $90 in beads sure doesn't go very far!)

I'm off to Boston today! I have a big presentation tomorrow that I've been obsessing about so much that I haven't told anyone I have to give it (except my co-workers). I'll let you know how it goes. Sure hope the cool weather follows me!