Très Magnifique!

My Birthday weekend was so wonderful! Very little planned, which is unusual. Maybe that is why it was one of my nicest birthday's ever! Jake got home from Vegas around 6:30 Friday night. He was pretty tired, since I had warned him of how crowded the security lines in Vegas are (they always have been when I've flown through there) but it was dead as a doornail when he arrived at 5am for his 7am flight. . . . He almost gave up his seat home, thinking Delta was offering something really worthwhile since they needed like 7 people to give up seats. . . but it was only a $400 voucher, so he skipped it - but he gets major points for calling me to ask 'Will $400 help us out at all if I give up my seat? Do we need to fly anywhere next year?'

Halloween was sad, with my whopping total of 3 trick-or-treaters :( Last year I had 7, so this year I didn't buy too much candy, but I was disappointed. I love seeing little ones dressed up! Since Jake was tired, he sat on the couch the rest of the evening and read. . . I knit on my secret wedding gift while listening to my two new favorite CDs - Kasey Chambers Rattlin' Bones and Weezer's Red Album. If you haven't heard of Kasey Chambers I highly recommend you You Tube a few songs. She and her husband are fantastic! And I'm always a Weezer fan, this CD might be my favorite since the first.

So we slept in on Saturday, and Jake made me a fantastic breakfast - eggs with fresh mushrooms, spinach and brie! After breakfast I got to open a present - and it was a fancy new ball winder! A lovely accompaniment to the swift he made me last year :) We went out to do some shopping where I got some fab new mascara and a jellyroll pan so Jake could make the dessert I requested. We also got a few Christmas gifts for a great deal at BB&B :) We had a mini-snafu when we got home that involved my accidentally decorating Jake's truck with two new scratches. He handled it well, and on today's agenda is a trip to the Nissan dealer to get some touch up paint! I had two packages waiting from the mailman. The first from B&SIL - two supersoft skeins of Alpaca from a New York Alpaca farm. I think it wants to be mittens!

The other was the 2nd package from this round of PRGE and my awesome partner Shelvicious. My package rocked, and of course goes well with my Birthday :) The package included two Halloween Themed cocktail concoctions, cute Halloween dish scrubbies, Halloween Mr Potato Head, a gorgeous skein of Silky Malabrigo in Amoroso and a pattern to use it on, a skein of K1C2 Ty-Dy socks - which I haven't seen before but the long color repeats look so awesome on the FOs on Ravelry! Rounding out the package was a bamboo needle maintenance kit and some Ferrero Rocher yummies! Thanks, Vanessa!!

Saturday night Jen (who rarely blogs) hosted Poker night so we hung out there - where I most definitely did NOT drink an entire bottle of wine by myself! Jen made me the awesomeist apron for my Birthday! Pretty, right?

Sunday we hung out at the house most of the day, then got all dressed up to go to dinner at the WineHouse. This was our first time there since they've moved and I have to say it was disappointing. We're chalking it up to growing pains and having a lot of new staff to fill the much larger space so we'll go again, but my risotto was the gummiest, blandest thing I've ever gotten in a restaurant! But what totally makes up for a lackluster dinner? A ridiculously fantastic dessert! Jake, who always makes me a delicious dessert on my birthday, did an amazing job on the Pumpkin Roll. I think it would be super delicious as a cake with regular icing and not rolled up, too. I told Jake to add a little ginger and nutmeg, but otherwise he followed the recipe exactly. If you like pumpkin and cheesecake, you need to make this roll!

And that, my friends, is how to have a great Birthday! Though for all the dessert I ate, we will be spending some extra time at the gym today. That's OK, though, since another gift I got was a heart rate/calorie mointor, so I can play with it! I've been wanting one for a while, because I never believe the ones on the machine at the gym!

I hope you all have a great week!!

I'm rolling in green

Yarn, that is, not so much the cash :)

My Knitpicks order came in with the yarn for Jake's sweater and his slippers. 19 balls of Mainline, 7 of Wool of the Andes. And, uh, mainline, REALLY? 82 friggin' yards? Couldn't make some meatier balls? That's a WHOLE lot of ends in a sweater, which may force me to learn how to effectively do a Russian Join! I'm trying to work up the motivation to swatch ASAP because he really wants the sweater and will pester me whenever I work on something else now that the yarn is here.

Sticking with green, I started working with the Malabrigo lace I wound up on my fancy new nostepinne. The color is Vaa and it's becoming a Leaf Lace Scarf, which will be for me :) It's a super simple pattern and is going along pretty well so far. I'm trying to work on my backward knitting to avoid the purling back - recently my right elbow has been sore while I knit and avoiding purls helps it not hurt. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I trace my purl steps and repeat them on the knit side of the fabric, I keep getting the stitch oriented wrong. It's driving me bananas! I am pleased with myself for re-training my knit stitch to be fully left handed so I can keep my right hand/elbow stationary. I think it's even possible I'm a tad faster that way!

All this green needs to not distract me from my Dog Days Socks, though. I REALLY want to finish the pair before the next woolgirl shipment going out 10/13! The 2nd sock is fully knit, I just need to do the lace cuff, but I HATED the lace cuff on the first sock - a whole lot of fiddliness for not much visual effect IMO (you can't much see the flower lace in the varigated yarn!). Jake is going away fishing this weekend, so maybe I can force myself to do that rather than clean while he's gone!

My gift cowl is complete, but not blocked. It's Oh so pretty :)

Along with a box from Knitpicks, the mailman braved the downpour (literally, it was too much for the box so he had to bring it up to the house!) to bring me my Amazon order, too. Jake & I both got a book for reading, and I got Sensual Knits. I've been wanting it for ages since I saw the Transparency Sweater. Unfortunately, it appears even the cheapest yarn to make it will cost me over $60 (to keep it silk/mohair - elann has a nylon/mohair). So it will have to wait, but I really love the book. There are a lot of really pretty patterns. They all are a bit crazy on the yarn, though. I mean, who is going to use 16-23 balls of this Cashmere to make a sweater?!

Tomorrow is Jake's birthday, so today is officially his last day of his 2nd decade on the Earth. (I'm being technical here, he's turning 29, but that means he's starting his 30th year on the planet). He has requested white cake with chocolate frosting. The frosting will be homemade, the cake will be from a mix :) He also requested the cake be decorated with a chainsaw - no joke! It's his gift from his parents, my mom & I (who knew one could cost so much!) and not a surprise. We'll see how my artistic skills work! I'm also making spicy Chicken Parm (spicy sauce from this recipe) for dinner with a few of his friends coming over. Should be a nice day! I'm taking the afternoon off of work to clean the house and shop. Unfortunately for me, I'm not the cleanest baker, so I suspect additional cleaning will be required after the cake is done :)

Visiting the Frog Pond (and belated birthday gifts!)

Well, first the fun stuff. The mailman brought me three boxes Monday. One was a crappy eBay purchase. . . so not picture worthy, so let's forget it. One was my destash from Carrie. LOVE the yarn, just like I expected! The pink/brown sock yarn will make me socks for my cowboy boots. This yarn
is the wool that I want to make a felted project out of, I think the colors will felt into each other so nicely (sorry for the poor pictures, it's rainy and dreary today!). The last box was a birthday present from my best friend Tricia. Tricia and I have been friends since 3rd grade, which makes her my oldest friend. This is no small feat, considering the many late night calls or home visits she dealt with from me (she was much more responsible than me, except for that whole taking her parents' car out before she had her license!) Anyway, she sent me a very thoughtful gift. . . a pattern of the day calendar for 2008 (which I am resisting the urge to open and read every one of right now) and a journal. The journal is to take with me when I'm travelling and can't readily blog, so I can keep track of what I want to tell everyone. THANK YOU, Tricia!! (btw, Tricia, knowing me for so long, is amazed that I have developed the patience to actually FINISH anything I try to knit. . he he he!! Apparently I've mellowed with age!)

I cast on for a Dream Swatch last night with some random mercerized cotton I had. I think I'll be giving it to Laura. The cotton is actually really soft, nicer than I expected. Thank you, random eBay purchase :)

Unfortunately, I frogged Lelah. Here she is now (on my lovely swift, of course!). I accidentally put a yarn over in the wrong place that I didn't catch until two rows later. I thought it would be an easy fix, so I dropped the three stitches down two rows. . . . and suddenly I only had 7 stitches in total when I should have had 9. One was the yarn over, but I couldn't figure out what the heck happened to the other one. So then I decided to frog just to the row BEFORE the error, to get back to the right stitch count. And, well, let's just say that didn't go so well, and the only thing left was to tear it out completely. It's not the end of the world, I really should work on knitting Christmas gifts, anyway. I also didn't like how my tension was working out on some of the purl stitches, so I can fix that when I start over.

I need to sit down and make the official Christmas list. . . . that is part of the plan at SnB tonight. I am slightly worried it may be an overwhelming list, but I need to see it to be able to plan it. We shall see. . ..

One final note, today is election day. I will be off to vote shortly (waiting for all the working folk to get to work so it's empty when I go vote). Who am I voting for? NO IDEA! I DO know that my state Senate seat is uncontested (Republicans gave up in my district a while ago, apparently) but I'm relatively certain there are House seats up for grabs. Since I have no idea from all the negative ads on TV who is actually running to represent me, I will likely go in the booth and vote for a Green Party candidate or some other person with no chance of winning. Or maybe I'll write myself in :) I think it's important to vote, but also important to not be an uninformed voter. In races where I know nothing, I find random 3rd party votes amount to abstaining rather than simply not voting at all. On the upside, this means all the campaign ads will stop tomorrow on TV. HALLELUJAH! There have been commercial breaks where EVERY AD. . . all six or seven of them, were political ads, negative ones, of course. I do believe only Dr. Somebody So&so (obviously not a good enough ad to make me remember his name) is the only candidate who even bothered to air a 'this is why I'm good' message. I'd vote for him based on that, except I think he's running out in Virginia Beach. Too bad. I never thought I'd WANT to see a beer commercial, but anything will help me not want to shoot myself from watching another ridiculous attack ad. I'm bracing for the presidential campaign, I think I shall have to give up TV!

Birthday Spending Hangover

So the week around my birthday, I tend to give myself a 'blank check' of sorts. I'm typically pretty good at not buying a lot of random stuff I don't 'need'. I allow myself to buy stuff guilt free this time of year, though, because for the most part, it's gift money. So this weekend, I did some shopping :)

I had lots of coupons, so it was even better :) I got a fun to top from Express for only $5 (after $15 coupon). I got a slew of new panties to replace the ones eaten earlier this month by my dogs (with a $10 coupon!). I bought these new shoes. . . LOVE THEM! They'll look cute with some hand knitted socks peeking out, I think :) These were from DSW with a $5 coupon AND a gift certificate, so I didn't actually spend money! While at the mall, of course, I couldn't resist Auntie Anne's. . . . seriously, this place is my weakness!!! Lemonade and a pretzel with the fake cheese stuff. . . .. SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!

My shopping wasn't limited to the mall... . . I used some Amazon gift certificates to buy myself both a stitch dictionary and a sewing book. I also bought this, to satisfy the sociologist in me (it was my minor in college. . . would have majored if I thought I could have made money doing it!). The big splurge, however, was KnitPicks. This SHOULD have been a $6 purchase. .. . I needed black & blue Essential to make Endpaper's for Anna for Christmas. I ended up with a $82 shopping cart which included this book, enough Andean silk to make Sizzle (which I've been lusting after!), some extra Essential for fingerless mitts to come (I'm getting addicted!), some CotLin, just to try it, and both Felici & Risata for some Christmas socks. Phew! So now, this shopping combined with some stash inspection, has made me vow NO MORE YARN until 2008. Really, I could/should go longer, but I have a full frequent shopper card at one of my LYS' that gives me $15 off my next purchase, no minimum. It expires 1/31/08, so I can go in late January and spend that to break the fast. Really, this shouldn't be painful, we'll see how I do! I almost wanted to delay this diet until tomorrow, when I saw Carrie had some sea silk in her destash now, but I resisted.

The weekend was not just for shopping, however! I did some finishing and some starting. I stuffed and sewed this catnip pal for my SP11 reveal package. I also found ribbon to use as a tie for these pashmina ring bags. . . a late wedding gift for Michael & Laura. They are tiny, but really just meant for the rare occasion you'd have to take off your wedding ring. . . so you have a soft place to keep it. I wove all the ends in on my own Endpapers, and now just have to soak & block. Finally, I cast on for a plain old dishcloth, since I plan to give several away for Christmas. I knit a few more inches of Lelah, as well. The Cotton-ease has stopped squeaking, so my sanity is restored :) I am quickly building stress for the Holiday knitting season. I really can't believe it is less than 2 months. . . YIKES!

Finally, to round out the weekend plans, I FINALLY painted our bedroom windows. First coat, at least. I'm embarrassed to admit the rest of the room has been painted since the end of November of 2006. The problem now is that I've removed the blinds, and I don't want blinds now that it's painted. I plan to make some window treatments myself. . . so I better get to sewing practice! We also raked about 22 more bags of pine straw. . . . and all of them were gone before trash pick up this morning. In the future, I will not be putting them at the curb so early. . .. it totally works me up that I spend all that time and effort raking it and people come and take it! I know it's silly, but I can't help it!

Wow, writing it all down makes it seem much busier than it felt! Here's to continuing productivity into the week!

Birthday Present Overload!

As I've mentioned before, I LOVE presents! However, the older I get, the less I feel like I HAVE to have presents. It's not like when you're younger (read: poorer) and you can't just buy stuff you want when you want it and you really build up a list of stuff you're dying for. It gets harder for me to come up with ideas to give my family because if I want something bad enough, I buy it for myself, and my family is against money/gift cards for the most part. This year, the only thing I REALLY told my mom & dad is "Please don't buy me random yarn or knitting needles'. This stems from my mother, trying to be sweet, being totally suckered in by a LYS she went to and bought me Lantern Moon Size 8 straight needles. While they are lovely, I don't use straight needles. . . and I can imagine the other expensive things a store owner could easily talk an unknowing person into!

So, what did I get?

First, from mom. . . new seatbelt bag!

LOVE IT! I love my current bag, which I've had for 5 or so years now, but it's pretty big and thus I fill it with a lot of crap and it gets really heavy. This one is smaller and should help me avoid overload. And now I have a little purse family :)

Then, from Jake's parents, in humor you can only truly appreciate if you know them and Jake, I got a check. (They are not against cash gifts like my family). The humor of a check? The amount of the check was $.01 LESS than the check they sent Jake for his birthday. I thought it was $1.00 less, and I laughed so hard I started crying and gave the check to Jake. He pointed out it was $.01 less and I was laughing even harder.

What will these checks buy? Well, they conveniently pay for my cowboy boots :) And they will also cover the gifts I bought myself yesterday. . . One skein of Noro Silk Garden (bought yesterday on eBay. . . I finally broke down, I need to see what all the fuss is about), some awesome pink & brown sock yarn and some beautiful colored wool that I acquired from Carrie's destash. I'm going to find the perfect felted project, because I think the colors will blend so beautifully! (I'll post a pic when I get it!)

My dad called to tell me he didn't send me a gift, because I didn't give him any ideas, so he's combining at Christmas.

Then I opened my presents from Jake. . .didn't he do a nice job wrapping? All these presents I 'knew', as I went with him to point them out :) They are a 2'x3' cutting mat, straight edge and rotary cutter. I have no excuses to not work on my sewing now. There is also a pressing/blocking pad! Yay! And he did surprise me with a needle gauge :) Zosia enjoys gifts as much as I do, because she LOVEs to destroy the paper! And it NEVER gets boring to watch her open gifts for you :)


The next thing wasn't wrapped, but it was scribbled on a piece of notebook paper. . . . Mama Llama sock & shawl club memberships! VERY exciting! Both fall and spring :) I believe the fall yarn already went out, but Jake asked her to hold it, so now I have to contain myself until Catherine comes back from Brazil! I mentioned this in passing MONTHS ago, I'm impressed he remembered. So then Jake brought out my pie, and I thought that was it. After all, the yarn club was a pretty good surprise, not what I was guessing, but awesome nonetheless. See, I had guessed he had finally made me a yarn swift. . .as when I got home from Nashville I found lots of sawdust in the garage that was very poorly cleaned up. I asked Jake what he was building and he didn't give me a very convincing answer.

Our friend David was over for dessert, after a day of fishing. He told Jake he got a new pole and so they went outside to look at it. When they came back in, Jake asked me to go find a candle to light up his pumpkin for David to see it. I thought that was a bit odd, but obliged, and when I went outside to light the pumpkin, what did I find?

MY SWIFT! (picture obviously not outside!)

It's AWESOME. Quite an accomplishment given it was designed by two mechanical engineers with no real knowledge of yarn and why you use a swift! The design really is awesome, they definitely over-engineered it! It is made out of cedar, so it smells SOOOOOOOO lovely! Two of the legs slide and two have pegs, so it's infinitely adjustable to fit pretty much any skein (may be too big for some really small skeins, but those aren't a pain to wind off someone's hands, anyway). They were very proud of themselves, but a little disappointed when they watched me wind. They said it was 'built for speed' and that the bearing that allows it to spin really moves fast. Unfortunately, I don't need that speed for handwinding :) Maybe when I have a ball winder the speed aspect can be fully appreciated! I like hand winding, though, to feel the yarn while I wind it. (btw, that is me winding a skein of Malabrigo. .. . the green for Jake's hat that I feel compelled to cast on for right away out of appreciation!) The swift breaks down to be flat so it'll be easy to store.

They asked me if they did good, and I said VERY :) Their design is a lot nicer than most of the swifts I see. With a few minor tweaks, I told them they could consider selling them on etsy.

All in all, an AWESOME birthday! Thanks for all the wishes here and on Ravelry :) And if you're interested in a swift, let me know :)

Ooh, and I almost forgot. Dinner was AMAZING! Jake's beef stroganoff was better than mom's, even though it was mom's recipe (sorry mom!). The pie. . . even better! This is the recipe if anyone is interested!

28 is the new 18

So today is my 28th Birthday. Yay me! Technically, I'm not 28 until 6:47pm, so I've got a few hours of youth left. Not that 28 is old, but I was just thinking back to when I graduated from college. 30 seemed ages away and yes, it's still 2 years away, but I'm knocking on the door!

Jacob won the 'first to wish me Happy Birthday' contest. He clocked in at 6:10am when we woke up. I used to be MUCH more into my birthday and my good friends would call me as close to midnight as possible to be the first. See. . . . that's a sign you're getting old, you are sleeping at 5 past 12 and prefer not to be interrupted!! LOL!!

No big plans for today. Jake made my pie last night. . . . it's hard to resist sampling it in the fridge. Beef stroganoff and salad are on the menu for dinner, and I plan on FINALLY opening the bottle of Veuve that was supposed to be housewarming champagne but we never opened it. Jake doesn't like champagne, which is why it hasn't been opened. But it's my birthday, so I can drink the whole bottle if I darn well please!

I know I got some sewing needs and am very curious about what the FEDEX man is trying to deliver to me from my mom. Jake also has a surprise up his sleeve (I think I know what it is, but I won't say it here to jinx it! - - no, not rings, it is yarn related! - - wow, I must be sick that I'm more excited about this than an engagement ring. .. . .OK, I'd be excited about a ring, too, but I digress).

I'll report on the haul tomorrow. Have a great day!

Happy Halloween!!

Hope everyone is having a fun Halloween!! I have to say, I've had better. My FAVORITE part of Halloween is seeing all the little kids all dressed up and having fun. (I realize as I write it that that sounds a bit creepy, but really, it's all on the up & up!) When I was of trick-or-treating age, I always waited to go out so I could hand out some candy, especially since the parents of the REALLY little ones bring them out before it's even dark. I was SO excited to have a real house this year. We didn't get much in the way of trick-or-treaters in my condo in Vermont. So how many do you think came to my door today? Well, after the 1st 90 minutes (kids are only allowed to go around from 5-8PM in our town) no one had yet come. I was majorly bummed. Then I got a group of 3 kids. . . then about 15 minutes later a group of 6 kids (including one of the neighbors) came. They were awful cute, particularly the little girl who was Wicked Witch of the West but couldn't say trick or treat without spitting out a mouthful of dots she was already eating! But 9 kids is a pretty lame showing. And I could hear them on the block over from us, but I think we suffer from being on the 'old people' street. Only 1 other house on our block had the light on, so not worth it for most kids to come down. Big Bummer :(

On the plus side, it's almost my birthday!! Jake was wrapping my presents and he let me peek now that they're wrapped. I know what these are, for the most part, but I know he has something else to surprise me, so I'm excited. FEDEX also stopped by when I wasn't home, so that must be a gift, too :) YAY! Right now Jake is in the kitchen whisking up the custard filling for my banana cream pie. . . SOOOOOOOOOOO excited to eat it! (it has to sit overnight, thus the making it today.) He even splurged on REAL vanilla bean. . .let me tell you, they are POTENT! I could smell it a good 6 feet away from it.

So, yeah, if anyone wants some candy, please stop by. . . we have LOTS of leftover tootsie rolls, caramels and air heads!!

Nashville Recap

I'm back! Well, we're back! Thankfully, we're back uneventfully. . . no travel problems (which is saying a lot these days!), we even got home early by getting on standby on an earlier flight out of Charlotte.

The SWE conference was so much better than I expected it to be! It's been several years (well, OK 7) since I've gone to one, I'd forgotten how empowering it is to be around so many people so similar to me. I sometimes convince myself I'm crazy about work situations, because my boss tells me I'm overreacting, or simply because I don't have another pre-30 technical professional ANYWHERE in my organization. . . . all the way up to my Vice President! I can't tell you how comforting it was during the Keynote breakfast, when the woman sitting next to me said "Well, I see you have the blessing/curse of looking young, too. Have you found any effective ways of getting people to take you seriously without spouting your resume?" HALLELUJAH!! I'm NOT crazy!! I'm not reading too much into things!! When people (read: 50+ year old men) see me and the first questions they ask are not-so-subtley designed to figure out if I just graduated from college, they really ARE having a problem taking you seriously and want you to justify your qualifications. It was like a huge weight coming off my shoulders. Phew!

I attended some great sessions, a lot centered around 'what do I want to be when I grow up' themes. I feel so much more motivated to take charge and REALLY find a new position. It's so not worth being so cranky about my day to day job! I milled around the career fair for a few hours Friday, exploring what companies do business nearby, in case I run out of options to switch positions within my current company. I also got some cool swag from career fair exhibitors. My favorites? This little bag from Honda
, which is the perfect size for a small project bag and, with no zipper, I can hold it on my arm to hold the yarn without any concerns about snagging it. This much bigger bag from Kellogg is going to be an awesome addition to my current collection of grocery bags. I felt a bit scummy just going to Kellogg to snag a bag, since I wasn't interested in talking to them about a position, so I made them a deal. Here is me posing with Tony the Tiger. . . and here is me following thru with my end of the deal --> Go HERE if you are interested in looking at job opportunities with Kellogg!

I ran in to several old friends, which was so nice to catch up. I also met another knitter! I was supposed to meet up with Jen, who I met on Ravelry, but I got distracted by the friends I had caught up with. While knitting before the 'Motivation, Procrastination, Inspiration' session started, Miriam came over to show me she was knitting on socks, too :) Of course, in addition to trading cards, we traded Ravelry IDs :) Unfortunately, our speaker made us (well not just the two of us, everyone in the session) put everything away except a pen & paper to have a very interactive session. Not before 4 of the girls sitting around me asked for quick lessons, though!

Jake got in kinda late Friday. . . flight delays, big surprise! We went out to dinner near Vanderbilt, then went down Broadway to listen to some music. And, if you've been to Nashville, you know there is live music. . . EVERYWHERE. Every single bar has a band playing, so we just picked one that was less crowded so we could sit and hung out for a while. Saturday I wrapped up conference events, while Jake slept in :) Then we walked around exploring the sights and shops downtown Nashville. Here is the view from the Shelby Street Bridge. . . on a lovely day, I might add! And I learned that this building, which I always had thought was R&C, and was something to do with the recording industry, is actually L&CLife & Casualty Insurance. The name made Jake chuckle. . . more in the context of the 'Life & Casualty Building' and how it is determined what you get upon entering the building. . .he he :)

Jake & I both bought cowboy boots. . . these are mine, his are unavailable for photograph, as they are on his feet at work! We wore our fancy new boots out that night for Sushi, followed by more fabulous music. I have to say, I'm not a country music fan in general, but I love live music, and every single band we saw (5 in total) was amazingly good, but the best was the Travis Mann Band. Seriously, if you are in Nashville, you need to check them out!!

And, finally, knitting. I carried the Imagiknit scarf with me thru the conference. .. easiest to knit on without paying attention. I knit while standing in lines and while waiting for sessions to start. I knit in a few sessions that weren't ones I needed to take notes in. I made a lot of progress, but again, not picture worthy, as it looks the same only longer. On the flight on the way out, I made progress on the endpapers, but ironically, on the way back, it was so friggin' cold in the airport and on the plane, that my fingers just about froze trying to knit, so I was resigned to magazine flipping with my hands firmly drawn into the sleeves of my long sleeve shirt! I have 3 more rows to knit before I split off the thumb.
I can't wait to finish so I can wear them!! I also joined this KAL to show off my mitts, thanks to all the love from you all on my last post :)

Lelah and my seeded rib socks made the trip to Nashville, but unfortunately, they did not see the outside of their ziploc bags.

Phew! That was a long one, but now we're all caught up! After work today we are going to get our pumpkins so we can carve and roast seeds. Yay!! And of course, the most exciting thing? My birthday is only 3 days away!

T-23 Days

So, my birthday is in 23 days. (That is November 1, if you don't want to do the math). I love my Birthday, though strangely enough, less now that I used to. But, it's still my favorite holiday. My least favorite part of my birthday, however, is the month I have to endure answering 'What do you want for your Birthday?'. I detest this question. Normally, I could have 100 things on my brain that I 'want', but when you tell someone you want it, you will likely get it, and that's a lot of pressure. There's lots of stuff I think I want, and never get, because, frankly, I just get by without it. Do I NEED a blocking board? Of course not, and I don't want someone to spend money on me for something I end up not using (or not using enough to justify the cost!). And so here I sit, and ponder, what to ask for. (Can you believe I love my birthday when I put this much pressure on myself!) I really DO need a nice, big cutting mat and rotary cutter to really work on my sewing. . . you can only do so much when you have to start with non-straight edges. Beyond that, I'm stumped. I think I'd like some sock blockers. . . and maybe one of those tube things that hold your DPNs when they are in use. . . but I just don't know! Anyone have a knitting or sewing related item they think I must have?

In knitting news, I finished my undulating rib socks. Problem is, they are too big. The first one fit when I knit it, and I knit the second one to match. . .and they are too big. I must have tried them on with swollen feet or something. Here is a picture of me trying to tell myself they aren't too big.

And an up close of the pattern, I really like it!

In an effort to 'save' them, I'm violating the cardinal sin of washing in warm water and drying in the dryer, to see if they will shrink. They are superwash, so they won't felt. But, the yarn is 75% superwash wool and 25% polyimide. . . . which I have a feeling will translate to 'will not shrink'. I wear a 7 1/2 or 8 shoe. . . so if anyone has bigger feet than that and wants to call dibs if they don't shrink, let me know!

It is 94 today, and so still no sweater picture. I may be crazy to put on wool socks outside for a picture, but certainly not a sweater! With the socks done, my only WIP now is my jeezny cricket socks. I'm almost done with the Eye of Partridge heel on the first one. I need something new to work on! I ordered yarn from KnitPicks to make the Endpaper mitts, so I hope that comes in the mail today! I was going to work on the MD Baby Kimono, but I can't get gauge with my needle options (who knew I only have Sz 6s in DPNs!) and so I have to wait to go shopping this weekend for needles for that. I want to get Bryspun needles, I really think I like them better than addi's, but the only store that sells them around here for sure is my least favorite, and I don't think I can bear a trip in there. Any of my local readers. . . do you know if Hook & I or Ewe Knit Kits sells the Bryspun needles?

Finally, in swap news, I got a new SP11 pal. The girl I was spoiling was removed. Thankfully I'd only sent her one package, but it had a beautiful skein of Malabrigo (the Paris Night one) in it and a handmade bag. She hadn't done anything yet for her downstream. And this poor downstream girl got an upstream that flaked out last round, too! So now I want to think up something extra special for her.

TTFN!