has it really been a week already?

Wow, I have been an apathetic blogger lately. I have been reading all of my usual suspect's blogs but have even been kinda lazy about comments. I think it's the last teensy bit of winter blues. I just want to lay on the couch more. We had some gorgeous weather a few weeks back, and now 6 inches of snow this morning, ack! So I am going to try to resolve 1. to be a better blogfriend and 2. to have something to blog about - a.k.a knitting.

I haven't been completely fruitless, but a pokey pete indeed.

Several days late for my 9-year-old's birthday, I presented her with a February Sweater for her American Girl. Green is her favorite color and I had this gorgeous Funky Carolina Handspun marinating. I mostly un-knit it at knitting group this week and then worked on it on the train to Chicago. We went to the American Girl Store as her birthday-o-rama. It was kind of funny, my mom, sister and I taking my daughter to AG - yes, three grown-ups - one child. It was a good time - Lib got a new doll, lunch was yummy and the whole day was about perfect. BTW, I have a request for a matching beret. That's the best gift ever.:)



The first three pictures are actually representative of the colorway. I am trying to grow into my camera and went about fiddling with white balance. One of my co-workers is an amatuer photographer and he has dubbed Friday "camera day" - where he tries to teach me stuff. White balance was one of my assignments. It's kind of fun.

I have also been spinning - actually, I feel a little bad to have abandoned my knitting a bit in place of the wheel. I spun up my Funky Carolina Scrappies.


love.

Now, I really need to cast on Ishbel. Need.

naughty knitter

Has not been knitting...

Gosh, not much material for a knitting blog then, huh? So, in the interest of not falling off the radar entirely - let me tell you what I have been up to:


Last Friday my husband and I went to a wall climbing class. What a great lesson in "trust" - one of us has the other hitched to them on the ground pulling up rope slack while the other climbs the wall. My husband almost pulled me off the ground on his descent so I had to be tethered to the floor. At least you get some cute shoes. It was a great evening, we had some awesome pizza afterwards and have three more ready-made "date nights" of class ahead.

And I have been reading:



Some great, some average. I love Jodi Picoult so I pre-ordered her new one Handle With Care - if you loved My Sister's Keeper - you will love this one. It seems like the same story with new characters and a new medical issue, it was very well researched. In spite of her books similarities I enjoy Jodi, so I'll probably pre-order her next one too.

I have been spinning:


Hello Yarn "Churned Up" Falkland

This one is my favorite one yet. I don't think Adrian can dye an ugly thing.

And I watched Rachel Getting Married today. I truly liked it. I saw Milk last week - I liked that one even better, I totally get why Sean Penn won the Oscar - he was amazing. I really enjoyed that I had some time to myself to relish them.

I am intending to go to a knit group tomorrow - remember my resolution to find knitters? Anyways, knitting group means knitting - so I had better cast something on. So real knitting ahead!

Plucky, Plucky, Plucky

I went to the Madision Knitters Guild Knit In yesterday - they were sporting a fabulous vendor list as well as the Yarn Harlot! My husband has been traveling abroad for work for the past week, so I had to find someone to watch my kids because I absolutely had to get to the vendors, if nothing else. I had to meet The Plucky Knitter!



I got there and went directly to her booth. I made sure to get there early and brought my life savings. Okay, not really - but I had saved up for this trip - giving myself all sorts of permissions to spend too much money - because seriously, when do you get an opportunity to shop at Sarah's shop?! And she teased there would be sweater quantities! I also had my knitting penpal, Christine's shopping list. I called her from behind the Plucky sign to verify that I had covered my bases too - I think I stuttered, I was so flustered with all of the Plucky fumes.

I was so excited to meet Sarah in person, she is as sweet and down to earth as she comes accross on her blog. She shared the story of her great-great grandmother making the beautiful dress on the dress form in her booth (I tried that sweater on even). I was so touched by her love for her family, I mean she had just met me and told me how wonderful her family is - gotta love that in a person. Her booth just glowed - her fun colorways are a delight - and to see it all...I wanted to throw all of the skeins on the floor and lay in them - ah. I was a little overwhelmed.

I ended up with 5 skeins of Early Light MCN Worsted and sent my non-knitting sister back for more later on...I'm that crazy lady, you know the one. I really want to make a Silver Belle - and if I am going to invest the time on all of those cables it seems worth it to me to invest the money in a yarn I will love to knit. My sister said she thought she would burst into flames among the throng of the crafty people, to say nothing about it being on the grounds of a Catholic Church, em *wink*.

I also scored several other skeins of MCN Worsted and checked off Christine's list. By 9:30 a.m. I felt like a rockstar getting all of that loot without f5-ing even once. Thank you, Sarah, for making the trip to Madison, and being as nice in person as you are in blogland! And for having the best shoes that I think I have ever seen!

scrap happy

Funky Carolina Scrap Club March Offering

It seems ravelers wishes are Funky Carolina's command...someone suggested she put together a scrap club together with some of her fabulous rovings. She occasionally has scrap sets in her etsy shop - well, now she has a club! And this was my first installment - what a fun little package of fiber scmibbles. I love it. New spots will be posted in April for May-June-July - FYI. The possibilities are endless, look what TreadletoMetal (rav name) did with some scraps she purchased here. How fun is that? For a coat of many colors perhaps.

On top of that fun, Amber of Life in Color, suggested maybe trying a scrappy swap - members send 4 or 8oz of fiber and $5 for return shipping. Then she will divide all of the rovings and send back 4 or 8oz of scraps. There is even a ravelry group - Swap for Scraps - come join us if you are interested. Check out her blog if you have a minute. She has the most clever ideas and the cutest baby ever.

:: quiet ::

Today, in spite of kicking off a week long journey of just me and the kiddos, I enjoyed some silence. It has been a peaceful day - for the most part. Only a little bit of yelling - something about my girls - sometimes I think they can only hear me if I am yelling - kind of like a dog whistle, but loud.

The rain fell steadily throughout the day - rain just gives me permission to keep my sweats on, flick on a lamp or two, burn a candle, clean the kitchen and read and spin. So that is what I did today. Not very exciting, but nice. (what I have not been doing is knitting...that can't be healthy...)

Which leads to what I read - I have drank the kool-aid:


Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros

I wasn't able to locate Apples for Jam in person to help me decide if I needed it. I'm glad I took a leap of faith - this book is delightful. It could be the day tipping the scale a bit - it's a comfort food day - this book is filled with comfort food. Seriously, little half moon "cheese pies". And it is organized by color - in the kick-off month of Project Spectrum. My inner girl-self is drawn to pretty - this is it. I felt like Ms. Kiros was standing in my kitchen with her hand on her hip talking to me, that's just how the book reads. Sweet.

Then because I had some time to spend with Tivo, I spun some Hello Yarn - what a treat...and I watched a new-to-me TNT series Trust Me - because Erick McCormick and Tom Cavanaugh are kind of cute.

spinster

I have been completely taken in by the spinning bug. Good grief, it's positively crazy but I think that collecting roving has become more fun for me than collectiong yarn - gasp - I know.


funky carolina "really" bfl


funky carolina "bomb" superwash bfl

So addictive.

The hardest part may be actually choosing a project. I like looking at the finished yarn so much. I think Bomb will be some fingerless mitts and Really shall be a hat - what do you think? stay tuned!