such a practical girl...

I mean who else goes to an amazing Sheep and Wool fest and buys 1100 yards of gray yarn? Oh, only a girl who hates to knit sweaters. Ha.


...many yards of Miss Babs Yowza- to make Kira *fingers crossed*


Seriously, what a great festival. I had a great opportunity to meet up with Ann, who I met via blogging and then have kept up with on Ravelry and facebook for several years. She lives only a couple of hours away and came to the festival for the weekend to take classes and shop. It was fun having a partner in crime to stalk around the booths. And then we attended the Unwind "after-knit" party in the evening. I lucked out getting to go, but unfortunately at the expense of her roommate's lousey migraine:(


Ann, me and Lisa (who is from a knitting group I have spent time with and met Ann at the festival - holy small world)

We may have had slightly too much fun at the Unwind at the organizers expense. We somehow managed to skip the dinner line and got our meal a bit before our table. We spent the entire time in line debating whether we should just put our shoulders back and stay in line, or slink back to our seats. We decided to be bold and be damned, and got our hot turkey sandwiches before our new friends at the table. A man named Sean came along with his wife and while he didn't knit, he was an absolute gas hooting for winners of door prizes. He was a great sport when he claimed his very own sheep printed project bag. Good man.

All in all it was a wonderful day. I am so glad I shucked my social anxiety and went for it, Ann is a delight. I think our defenses really went down when we committed felony line jumping (I promised her I had an "in" with the local cops - so no worries). I won't soon forget it.


A kind of silly sock from vibrant Yarntini Drunken Pear self-striping, using a Giotto cuff.

It's a little funky, but perfect for the holidays - hopefully I get them done - but at my current irresponsible rate of WIP's, it's sketchy at best.

a quick recap of summer...

Wow - where did the summer go? It seems the older I get, the faster time seems to fly by - well, except for when I am at work watching the clock, then time seems to absolutely crawl.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful season. The midwest is starting to cool off a bit - this is a welcome change for sure. But that mean fall, which means winter - I sure don't want any of that.

I did get some knitting done this summer. I was able to complete two shawls - the one item I hardly have a use for but somehow, want to knit.


A Cerasifera shawl, pattern from Through the Loops, knit from La Digitessa Wollmeise

Then I cast on a Daybreak Shawl, pattern by Stephen West, using Plucky, Yarntini and HazelKnits yarn.

...it still needs blocking.

I cast the Daybreak on before flying out to Boston for a semi-impromptu trip with Carolyn to see Christine and attend her bachelorette party. I have never had such a whirlwind trip, or traveled out of State with girlfriends. so. much. fun. I only regret that most of my pictures don't include the people I met, or went to see. Why is it that I take pictures of stuff but not people? doh. I think I expect everyone hates to have their picture taken because I do. Need to rethink that.


This is table runner I sent to Christine for her wedding, which I sadly couldn't attend. I really like the heavy quilting.

This is the "crack house" from the movie The Fighter...


A hysterical highlight of the trip for me was to see some locations from the movie. I watched the movie again and compared the house to my picture - damn, that is it! Can you just see Christian Bale jumping out the window into a dumpster in the back? How d'ya like me now?

And most recently my girls went back to school - middle school for my oldest already. I could have absolutely cried sitting at the mandatory parent's meeting, I was thinking "gosh, I'm still a kid myself, aren't I?" A 40-year-old kid.


middle schooler and 1st grader - when did these little chickies grow up?