FINALLY! Last weekend :)

Good Lord! Today was hectic. . . it always seems to be that way when you have a definite time things HAVE to be done. It just so happens to be the end of the Fiscal Year. . . and I am on vacation tomorrow, which means EVERYTHING has to be done today. . .umm, yeah, that stinks. So I've finally signed off working, with a promise to check back in at 9PM, then I'm OUTTA HERE! Technically not outta here until tomorrow at 6AM, but whatever.

SO, Last weekend in Charlottesville was AWESOME (I apologize for being a total loser and taking no pictures)! We headed out Friday when Jake got home from work. Thankfully we didn't hit any traffic save for ~2miles of construction on 295 around Richmond, so we made the trip in just over two hours. We made it to the hotel and actually had a room (which was suspect. . . the UVA/GaTech game was Saturday and finding a room was HARD!). We met up with our friends who were camping for dinner before the show and then made our way to the venue for the Avett Brothers. The venue wasn't great, and the opening act STUNK (sorry Chitlin - - - is it ironic that I can find no web reference to this girl?). The show was pretty good, though. Apparently marginal, as told by people who'd seen them multiple times, but it was our first show. After, we went to a bar downtown. It was fun to be in a college town again, but unfortunately made me feel pretty old.

Saturday was beautiful, weather wise. We thought it would be cool, but it was like 80 degrees. We started off exploring downtown Charlottesville. They have a great Farmers Market that we wandered through. We bought beets, which are my favorite fresh veggie! Then we meandered a few blocks from the Farmers Market to the downtown mall, which isn't a mall really, it's 5 or 6 blocks of pedestrian only traffic filled with shops and restaurants. There was a knitting store :) Jake is so fabulous about wandering thru yarn with me. (I think he secretly likes it. . . he touches a lot of it!). The store was The Needle Lady. It was nice, but very overpriced, so I didn't buy anything.

Then came the fun. . . WINE TASTING! There are lots of wineries in the central part of VA. We visited 3. .. First Colony, Kluge and Jefferson Vineyards. We enjoyed it thoroughly, and really only had 3 wines of all the tastings we didn't like. We came home with 6 new bottles, very restrained if you ask me!! Our last stop was my favorite. . . and totally unexpected. . . an APPLE ORCHARD!! Living up North, fall apple picking is always my absolute favorite thing to do! Fresh apples, cider and cider donuts. . . YUM!! It's somehow not QUITE the same experience in 80 degree weather and all green leaves, but I guess you can't totally replicate New England or Michigan in Virginia and I was happy just to be at an orchard at all.

We drove home when it got dark, though I wish we had decided to stay two nights. Boarding the dogs gets expensive quick, though, so we needed to pick them up Sunday morning. When we got home, I had a package. . yay! I won a contest a while back on this blog and my prize arrived. It's called 'tequila sunrise' superwash merino (and it came in the coffee mug). I have no idea what I'll make with it, as it's only 90 yds. It's a good thing I don't have my heart set on it, though, as this is what the yarn looked like after Jimmy Ray got his paws on it! Oops! He didn't hurt it, except for getting it covered in dog hair and it's now nicely rewound and in a safe place.

On the knitting front, I have been doing nothing except my scarf for Red Scarf. I originally thought the due date was Oct 1, I've relaxed a bit now that I double checked and it's actually October 15. The pattern is My so called scarf. I HATE it! I like the look, but it is SOOOOO SLOW moving. I have only 10 inches left (one more red block) and I can't WAIT to get it off the needles!

So, now I'm off to pack. I'm making a 'surprise' trip to Kansas City. My dad doesn't know I'm coming to his 50th birthday party. I'm more worried about packing enough knitting, since my dad and step family are Mormon. There will be no alcohol, coffee, soda... really no vices at all to distract me. . . so I shall knit! Plus, I have long layovers on both my flights out and home.

Hope you all have an awesome weekend!! Send good thoughts my way (there is a reason I need something to distract me while I'm there. . . but I won't go into it here!)

See you Monday, when I announce my contest winner. . . final chance to enter is Sunday!

My Green Obsession

So before I went to bed last night, I was reading Carrie's blog and commented, again, about my current love of all things green. As I was trying to fall asleep (difficult, since Jake has taken to reading before bed now, with the overhead light on) I got to pondering my apparent hoarding of all things green (well, green yarn, at least!). I contemplated calling my friend Karen. . . she's wiccan and she has told me in the past that anything you find yourself surrounded by has some sort of significance. .. the universe trying to tell you something. She had always told me this about animals, though, and I wondered if the same was true for colors. It was too late to call her, but then I had this lovely little thought that had me fall asleep smiling and wake up still in a good mood. I realized I'd been thinking about my grandpa a lot recently. He passed away 17 years ago and I don't remember a lot of specifics about him, but his favorite color was green. I've decided this green obsession is a crafty, subconscious connection to him. And with that, I'm re-inspired to pick up my Delilah socks. Well, the yarn, at least. I'm frogging the spiral rib and picking something new. I'm also renaming them my 'Jezney Crickets' socks. . . . my grandpa never cursed (in English, at least! He and my grandma reserved their 'not for kids ears' talk to Polish) and that was his catch all saying.

Sorry for the sort of sappy post, hope you have a great Thursday!

ps - I promise, once the sun comes up and I can get some pictures, I'll post about last weekend and my current WIP!

At 70% (and a contest reminder)

So I'm feeling better today, but not great. I think I will actually venture up to take a shower today, so that's progress, right?

I'm still feeling too crappy to write and post pictures about fun stuff (I like to wallow!) So I will catch up tomorrow.

Today, I'm just reminding you about my contest to win all the supplies to make the Best Friends Bag. You can enter until Sunday night!

UGH!

So I was going to write a nice post about our lovely weekend. I cannot think of anything lovely at the current moment, however, since I have been hit by the worst bug ever. I spoke to a friend and an aunt who are nurses (always good to have those around!) and they informed me there is a wicked 24 hour bug running rampant. I awoke about 2AM and have been miserable ever since. I will spare you the details, but suffice to say I have never experienced anything like this in my life and am hopeful I will never have to again. I've managed about 2-1/2 hours of sleep, mostly in 15-20 minute pockets while lying on the couch. Jake is very sweet and is coming home with jello and popsicles for me, since I can't even keep down water to stay hydrated. I hope I don't pass it on to him. It's awful. ..there was a point near 4:30AM where I thought death would be more forgiving than this. Death would also be more forgiving than Jake will be if he spends tonite in the bathroom.. .. it's always worse to be the 2nd to get sick if you've seen what the 1st went thru.

Here's to feeling better and telling you about Charlottesville.

I love my new hair!

OK, never mind that I look ridiculous in the self portrait, but I wanted to show you my new hair:

and in profile:

This is just blown dry, not styled yet and (obviously) me without makeup. It looked awesome yesterday, but by the time I got home the rain had wreaked havoc on my hair and so I didn't have Jake take a picture.

I'm very pleased, and excited to have short hair again! Yay!

We're headed to Charlottesville in a few hours, to see the Avett Brothers in concert, then tool around on Saturday (yarn shopping & wineries!).

Have a great weekend!

Yesterday was FABULOUS!!!

I think I am still smiling from yesterday. It all started with the mailman. I saw the truck had been out front for quite some time. He often takes breaks on our block, so I didn't pay much attention. A while later my doorbell rang. I opened the door and there were packages!! Count 'em. . . THREE (and notice Zosia wondering why I went out when the doorbell rang, since people usually come in).

Two packages were from eBay purchases, and the bright one was from my secret pal!!

So I already gave you the dish on the SP goods, but here are pics:

Though it's the first I'm showing, it was the last I opened. I wanted to save the surprise until the end.

The small eBay package was this absolutely BEAUTIFUL blended wool yarn. I wish there were more!! It's much nicer than I expected, and I only paid $3.50 for both skeins! (There is some black up for bidding now I am trying to get my hands on, too!). It's from fleece I've never heard of. . the label says 'Merino and Border Leicester cross bred'. Now to figure out what to do with 200 yards.

The big eBay package was a bit of a disappointment. Buyer beware, I suppose. This was the aforementioned $6.80 wool that was supposed to become Mr Greenjeans. Unfortunately, instead of a nice soft wool, the yarn in this box is more like twine. I looked at reviews from other buyers and they all said the yarn was great, so maybe I'm just odd. Now what to do with 2000 yards of it! Jake thinks it would be good for golf towels, since it's abrasive, so I'm going to knit one and see how that works before I decide what to do with the rest (relist on eBay, maybe?)

So that was the packages. Then came the shopping! We went to the gym after work and then the mall. Sears was having 12 months same as cash on Laundry purchases. When I lived in Vermont, I had a front load/high efficiency washer. It was AMAZING! I didn't realize the buyer of my condo listed the washer in their offer, so I couldn't take it with me to Virginia ;( So for the last 18 months I've been stuck with Jake's REALLY OLD washer. It has no gentle setting and is SO rough on clothes. So I finally convinced him, since we could pay for it over a year, to buy a new one! I'm now the proud owner of a Whirlpool Cabrio (it doesn't get delivered until 10/2, but I can still say I own it!). It's a top loader, a little easier to load/unload, but it's still High Efficiency. I can't even tell you how much this excites me. I'm a little sick like that. Appliances make me happy.

Finally, we went to Circuit City and Jake finally bought an MP3 player, so he'll stop complaining he needs one :)

Hope you had a good day, too!

My Secret Pal is Awesome!!

So the weather is really crummy today and I can't get a good picture of my goodies, but I got my first SP11 package today!! I will try for pictures to post tomorrow (as I also got some other eBay items. . it was a great day for packages!). But I will do my best to describe my package here, because I'm so excited!

First, I have to tell you that I suck at surprises and have been trying to find out who my spoiler is by stalking the participants list. She told me English is not her first language, so I totally was ignoring all the US participants. But she tricked me! She lives in California :) However, she revealed to me in her card that she is originally from Finland! So, she sent me 3 skeins of Suvi Novita cotton. . . it's from Finland. . . she wanted to send me something from her native country! (It's a good thing she told me in the card, though, because the label is written in Finnish!)

She also sent a bath mitt and towel she knit (I think of the same cotton but I can't be 100% sure) and a pretty cake of soap for a 'bath theme'! I can't place the scent of the soap, but it's lovely. And, we just had a plumber here yesterday to fix our bathtub so I think after the gym tonight I shall take a soak!

The last item in the package was a box of fudge, that I know for certain Jake will commandeer when he gets home from work!

Thank you Thank you Thank you Secret Pal!!

MUST. . . RESIST. . . EBAY!

I totally need to block it on my browser or something. My new thing is to check a couple times a day, see what is ending in the next 10 minutes and bid randomly on things that are good deals. This has resulted in multiple purchases of items that I have no use for (like two skeins of chunky brown Lopi. .. but it was $1.50 for both!). This is totally against my goal of trying to keep 'needless' things out of my life. Cluttery house = cluttery life and I just can't deal with that anymore! On the positive side, All of my purchases have only totaled $26 (not counting shipping) so at least I'm not breaking the bank.

And I officially decided to chop off my hair. I have an appointment at 4pm tomorrow. I'm planning on cutting my hair like the GH character Kate Howard. It's similar to Jenny McCarthy's, but a little fuller. I'm excited. I'm also excited because I just found out one of my good friends from Vermont who moved back to New York a few years ago when here mom got sick is coming to Williamsburg for a week with her husband and daughter. That's only 40 minutes away!! I haven't seen her in over a year, so I can't wait!!! It's not until October 20, but I want it to be NOW!! Too much excitement in one week. . . first seeing Kim then going to Nashville!

And I'm disappointed I've only gotten two contest entries so far :( I realize there is more than a week, and perhaps people are thinking about their response. Or maybe everyone is working with Jessica so she can win, since she's yet to win a blog contest :)

The world's Largest Yarn Ball, Trusting Math and a Contest

So I hope this makes you chuckle as much as it made me. I realize the picture really can't convey it as well as seeing it in person, but that is one hank of Brown Sheep Burly Spun balled by hand. (The pencil cup should give you some idea of scale, it is in the middle width wise and directly next to the ball) It reminds me of those big dice you win at a carnival. I've honestly never seen something so big. I kind of wish I had had the store wind it for me, because I'd like to see the ball winder that can hold that much! It was totally my amusement for the evening. . . even while knitting with it I kept looking at it and laughing.

The yarn was wound to start Jake's hat. . . finally. I've bought 3 skeins of yarn to find the 'right' color of charcoal he wanted. I cast on and have the hat knit up to the first color change. I actually did a gauge swatch and, surprisingly, got gauge with the suggested Sz 11. I didn't have 11 DPNs, so I used magic loop to start the hat. I really don't understand how some people are so obsessed with that method. I find it more annoying than it's worth to keep slipping stitches on and off the needle. I think you must have to have some serious patience to knit socks that way.

Jake's head is 22", so I'm making the large size hat. I knit all the increases and the hat seems small. I threaded it onto scrap yarn to see if it just looked small on the needles. I put it on Jake's head (as much as you can 'put on' a hat the size of a potholder) and had to laugh, as it looked like I knit him a Yamika and didn't look like there was any chance the hat would fit. But I got gauge. . . I was perplexed. I tried to measure around, but there really isn't a good way to curve your measuring tape accurately. Then I remembered I'm an engineer, and I know math. I can measure the diameter of the knitting and get the circumference with the handy 2*pi*r. Finally, my degree is coming in handy :) So I do the math and I get 23.5". But it SO doesn't look that big. . . . I'm torn, trust the math? Or frog and go up to Sz 13s? I really don't want to frog it when I'm *supposedly* the right size, but it's also hard to not trust your eyes. Decisions, decisions.

I booked a trip to Nashville yesterday and I am SO excited. I went to Nashville once with a girlfriend but we didn't get to do much because of tornadoes combined with Jenny not feeling so well. My company is sending me to the SWE conference. Since it runs until Saturday and plane tickets were pretty reasonable, we bought Jake a ticket to come out Friday night thru Sunday. It's not until the end of October, but I'm so excited I want it to be tomorrow!

And now, if you made it this far. . .. my long promised contest. What will we be playing for, you ask? The original thought was if Laura didn't like her bag I was going to take it back and give it away. But, it turned out, she liked it. I, however, did not like assembling it. . . and I have enough supplies for a 2nd bag. So, my web friends, the prize for this contest is everything you need to make your own best friends bag - 1/2 skein of ridiculously expensive pashmina, beads, satin for lining and the purse hardware (ok, technically not everything. . . you need your own needles and sewing thread!). It's a pretty good score, if you ask me! But, in the interest of full disclosure, I did use some pashmina to make two small ring bags for Laura & Michael, so there is slightly less than 1/2 skein, so your bag may come out slightly shorter than the pattern calls for.

What do you have to do to win it? This is all about gifts. Making, giving, receiving, loving, hating. . . .I love gifts. Particularly birthday gifts. I love my birthday. . . it's my favorite holiday of the year. It's the one day of the year people let you believe you are the center of the universe. (I may try to act like that every day, but I can't help it. . . I'm an only child.) My birthday is coming up, by the way (Don't worry, I'll give you lots of reminders, but it's Nov 1!) So, to enter, I want you to leave me a comment telling me about the absolute best and worst gift you've received. And I'm not talking the 'my child was the best gift my husband could give me' kind of gifts, I'm talking material goods here, people!! You can answer in your comment, or if you have pictures and want to make a post, leave me a link to your blog. You get an extra entry if you have pictures. My plan is to select a name out of a hat of all the entrants, but I reserve the right to pick my favorite if someone makes me laugh out loud with their response. You have until midnight on September 30 to post a response and I'll announce a winner when I get back from Kansas City on October 1.

I can answer this question without any hesitation! My 26th birthday gift from Jake. All in all, my 26th birthday wasn't going well. A few of my friends forgot to call me (nearly unforgivable in my book. .. remember, the world revolves around me today!), my mom sent me an Eiffel tower clock (that got returned. . . what was she thinking!) and, to top it off, I was actually out of town in Maryland on business travel. The weekend after my birthday when Jake came to visit he walked in with a BIG box. He handed it to me and it was HEAVY! What could be so big? Immediately, I knew it was tools and I was devastated. Jake thought I needed my own tools for when he wasn't there and had bought me what he thought were essential items in the past. I started to cry. I was so angry. How could my birthday get worse? I refused to open it. Jake protested and said 'I'm sorry I upset you, but just open it. We can go out tomorrow and return it if you don't want it.' After about 15 minutes of crying and arguing, I conceded and said I'd open it. I tore the first piece of wrapping off and I WISH I could have seen myself. It had to have been the fastest transition from despair to elation ever witnessed. In the box was not power tools. . . it was my KITCHEN AID STAND MIXER!!!

The one kitchen item I've wanted since I was seven and thought I would only get when I got engaged at my wedding shower! And now I had it! Yipee!! And I didn't even hold it against him that he played into my being upset about it being a tool before I opened it (his response, 'Well technically it IS a tool')

Worst: It's amazing this worst has stood the test of time. . .but for my 1oth birthday my dad & step mom sent me the most HIDEOUS parachute pants. No, they weren't hideous because they were parachute pants. . . . they were cool then. . . but they were red & black & lime green & electric blue. . . even by 1989 standards they were AWFUL. I still can picture them in my head. .. . I wish I had a picture to share, as there's really no way to convey the monstrosity that these pants were. And no, I never wore them!

I'm addicted to eBay. . . and Catch up!

OK, So first, sorry it's been forever since I've posted. For some reason, they actually expected me to WORK last week (sheesh!) and I was wicked busy. I had time for knitting, but not for worrying about pictures. . . and let's be honest, blogging is boring without pictures!! No one wants to read an essay.
So first, the wedding. Laura Beth looked gorgeous and the wedding was beautiful and elegant, and the purse fit right in! The only downside was pictures. . . between issues with the church and the limo driver, we didn't really have much time after the ceremony to get pictures. The church was amazing and it had beautiful grounds and they really wanted pictures outdoors. But all else was well and we had tons of fun!

At the wedding, contemplating how much it cost (which I won't share, but I will tell you it is comparable to my annual salary), Jake and I reaffirmed there are WAY better things to do with that kind of money and that we are NOT having a big wedding! We think Napa Valley for a destination wedding. Yay :)

I also got super cranky with my friend Jeff because of the wedding. Why yes, yes, that IS the Michigan Superfan. He lives and dies by Michigan football, which is difficult this year, since it's been rough so far. The wedding began at 5:30, so he originally knew he'd miss the ceremony but would be at the reception. Then two days before he & his wife would miss dinner but would still be at the reception. Then, really as no surprise, he texted one of the bridesmaids when the Oregon game ended that he couldn't make it. How shitty is that? You miss your friends wedding because you're cranky your football team lost? NEWSFLASH. . . You don't play. . .. you don't even go to school there anymore! You're life will go on. I'm still mad, so sorry for the rant. I guess it's one less person to have on my wedding invite list.

OK, on to knitting! But not my knitting yet. My best friend Tricia (we've been friends since 3rd grade) tried to learn to knit a year or two ago. She had an injury and was at home, all day, unable to really move, so when she got sick of TV, she picked up knitting needles. Apparently the pain meds made it difficult to be consistent, so she stopped. I went up to visit her while I was home and we went yarn shopping at Mary Maxim. I'd never heard of it, but Trish said people drive from all over to go, so I decided why not! I decided while we were there Trish needed to try knitting again. . . she was talking about how much she like the knitted dishcloths her aunt made. So I bought her a set of needles and a skein of Sugar 'n Cream and we went home to practice. She is a lefty and I was trying my best to figure out how to knit as a lefty to show her, but, being used to living in a righty world, Trish decided to try knitting right handed and could do it so off we went! She's knitting English and doing great! I will *hopefully* get a picture from her when she finishes it, but now the world has another knitter. . Yay!

I also got to do lots of secret pal shopping in Michigan. I love visiting out of town yarn stores. I obviously can't post pictures until I send the packages, though.

I also did some secret pal shopping on eBay this weekend. I am so not normally an ebay shopper, but I went through this totally addicted 48 hour period where I bid on a ridiculous amount of stuff. Luckily, I didn't win most of it! But, I did get 2200 yards of wool for $6.80. I couldn't help but buy it at that price. Then, serendipitously, the new Knitty cam out and there sat Mr Greenjeans. Perfect to make with this new green yarn!! And then some. . . 2200 yards is a LOT of yarn!

And now, finally, some progress pictures:

Better Sweater (all seamed, now just needs blocking & button sewn on!)

Undulating Rib Socks (sock #1 done, waiting to cast on 2nd)

Delilah Socks (preparing to frog, I lost a stitch somewhere and, honestly, am not loving the pattern, may start with a new one)

Red Scarf Project 'My so called scarf' (I worried about running out of red, so I'm doing blocks of brown & red)

Wine Cozy (just needs a drawstring!)

And, I really am doing a contest, but this post is too long to include it, so I shall post it first thing Tuesday morning!

Precursor to a BIG post

So I'm back from Michigan, safe and sound, but BUSY! When I get some time and can upload pictures, I'll post all about the FABULOUS wedding, yarn shopping, knitting progress and, as promised, my contest!

I got my Ravelry invite. YAY!! I'm kasiaiscarly, if you want to add me! I've posted some stuff, but not much in the way of pictures, just the descriptions.

SP11 Contest #2

OK, One more thing before the 'big' post. My hostess is having another contest.

The contest:
I want you to post about the worst item you have ever knit/crochet. What was it? Who was it for? What went wrong? Did you give it to the intended recipient, hide it away never again to see the light of day, frog it, or just throw it in the trash? Post a picture of it and you will get your name put in the hat twice.

So, I guess 'worst' is a relative thing. Ugliest? Least like i was intended? Lots of interpretations. I guess I'd have to say my 'worst' is the Tank I made this summer. I had 3 skeins of Cascade Fixation. I actually wanted to make this tube top, but I couldn't figure out the directions, so I decided on this tank, instead. It was supposed to be for me. I really like the color and how it was knitting up, but it has NO shaping whatsoever, so it looks like I have on a stiff tube and it isn't at all flattering. I didn't do anything wrong, per se, it's just the way the pattern is. I changed up the straps to try to make it more interesting, but it just generally doesn't work. I suppose I could have put in some shaping if I had thought of it while I was knitting the body, but it didn't really hit me until I was mostly done. I ended up putting it in a bag of charity donations! Just because I didn't like it doesn't mean someone else won't!

Here is a link to a post with a picture of the final top. . . I'm certainly wasn't going to post a picture of it on me!!

So close I can taste it!

Found you!
You signed up on June 27, 2007
You are #11301 on the list.
85 people are ahead of you in line.
19632 people are behind you in line.
36% of the list has been invited so far

This inevitably means, however, I will likely be invited tomorrow and will have to wait ALL THE WAY TO MONDAY to play with it! Boo.

In knitting news, I'm bored with all 3 projects I brought to Michigan, so progress has been SLOW. I've also been busy seeing friends. I re-converted a friend to knitting (I have pictures to post later!) She 'sort of' learned a couple years ago, but trailed off because she had a hard time getting anyone to help her (she's a lefty!). I tried my best to figure things out left handed but then, it turns out, she can knit like a righty! So she's going to town on a dishcloth. Very exciting, no? Scary, however, that I am somewhat of a knitting Evangelist now.

I'm bored and (surprise) procrastinating

So I decided to do this meme. . .

Green=where I live

Blue=where I've lived in the past

Red=states I've visited in my current lifetime

Grey=haven't been there....yet!

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii/ Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

I've still got it!

Though never loving road trips, I used to be able to knock out the 14 hours from Detroit to Minneapolis or the 11 hours from Burlington to Detroit pretty easily. Then we got Zosia, and my first trip with a dog in tow was trickier. But, on the plus side, Jake started coming with me more so we had two people to share the driving. I'd say it's been close to 3 years since I had to do a long drive on my own, I was not looking forward to it. Yesterday was such an awesome driving day, though! I woke up early to get on the road at 5am and I pulled into mom's driveway at 3:20pm. Not bad for 680miles and 2 dogs, if I do say so myself. There was no traffic, except for a small stretch in Ohio, so it was a warm, sunny beautiful day to be on the road.

I was too tired of being in the car to go visit any friends yesterday, so I stayed at mom's and knitted. I had to frog the scarf I started before I left. There was a minor altercation between Zosia and Sadie (Sadie is my very old dog at home. . . she's like 12 and not much for playing anymore) which made me drop my knitting and subsequently drop a stitch. Not paying attention, I thought I had one EXTRA, not one LESS stitch, so I decreased and knit a few rows before I realized something was wrong and the stitch pattern was too difficult to frog and save because of all the all the double stitches. Good thing I only had 4 inches done! I also cast on and knit about 2 inches on the spiral rib socks I chose for my Delilah yarn. I chose this pattern by virtue of the fact that I only had size 2 needles with me and I couldn't match the gauge of the other pattern I liked.

And, if you're interested, I'm knitting my scarf for the Red Scarf Project. You may be familiar with it from this blog, but if not, check it out. You have until October 15 for them to receive your scarf if you want to participate. I personally think it's a pretty great thing. I can't imagine how tough it would have been to grow up in the foster system and still have the motivation and strength to go on to college without a family to help me get thru it.

Anyhow, I'm off to visit with the bride to be today. Mom's internet isn't too deathly slow, so I'll probably still be poking around this week! But as a teaser. . . since I hinted at a contest if Laura didn't like her bag, even though she appears to, I'm going to have a fun little contest anyway for a prize almost as good as the bag. I'll post the rules next Monday when I'm back in Virginia!

Have a great Labor Day!

Mandy's Candy Bag

I stumbled on this contest. Yay for timing, as I was looking for a pattern I could use to make a cute little jewelry pouch. So here is my version of the bag, much smaller but just as cute!

I love the yarn. .. it reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream. . . . YUM!!! I'm going to send it to my secret pal with some yummy chocolate treats inside. And then I'm going to knit another for me!

If you're interested in knitting it, the contest runs for two more days, and it's a super quick knit (I did mine in like an hour). The pattern is on my sidebar under FOs, so get knitting!