I spoke too soon!

Well I definitely spoke too soon about the whole Spring is coming thing....

We got snow yesterday!! It was coming down slowly all day long. I just know all my bulbs that popped out are going to die!

I know I know - everyone says they are going to be fine - but I still worry!



Even though we only got about an inch of the snow - the dogs still love playing in it and Bailey got his traditional snow mustache. It's kind of hard to see it here - but believe me - it's there!



Oh! - and can I get a "Woohoo!"

My Handmainden Sea Silk finally arrived! I was "forced" into buying some when Mama-E mentioned that the Sweet Sheep had some online. I had never seen it before - but had heard of how luscious it is - so I had to get some. I think I may make this with it:






I picked it up from the post office yesterday after work. Isn't it gorgeous!



The colors remind me of lazing on a white sand beach, looking at the clear blue sky, amid the swaying palm trees and the blue-green ocean...




Mmmmm - I wish I were somewhere tropical right now...


I did spot some turtles today though!

Check out my new turtle earrings!




I made a few pairs of these babies up yesterday for some of my friends that work at the University of Maryland. They are the home of the Terrapins after all. I let them each pick one (I didn't get pics of theirs - darn it!) and I was left with this pair...



They were the ones I wanted after all! Yeah!

I love turtles and have always collected turtle stuff. I seems to be surrounded by other people who love turtle things too. Many of my friends love turtles, my mom collects turtles and I even live in Maryland - home of the Maryland Terps! I guess it was meant to be. Hubbo knew of my love for turtles and when he proposed - he did so with a hand painted turtle box - and wrote "Will you Marry me" inside of it!


Yeah for turtles!


I will leave you with a funny (although bad) picture. (A good blogger is always prepared - camera in hand!!)

I was stuck in some nasty traffic today driving to work on 95. I was sitting there pissed at the world - when I looked over at the car next to me and saw this:



Look at the size of that dog! Look at the size of the car! I think the dog may have outweighed the car by a few pounds! The dog doesn't look happy to be stuck there either!

Good Cause...

Go here and pledge. This is a great cause - anything that sends books to kids is ok by me ;)

Here's a synopsis of the cause from Heather's blog:

"The pledge program is being sponsored by Usborne Books -those of you who know them will know they have GREAT books and are a great asset to all types of educators. 50 percent of the pledge money will go directly to Amelia (well not to her directly but to the school and then to her) to pick out books for her own personal library from Usborne books. She is choosing to donate 50% of her cut to purchase books for her classroom and the school, which I'm just floored by her little 4 year old generosity. The other 50% will go directly to pay for books for our sister school in South Africa. Our sister school was actually co-founded by my friend Anne, who just recently moved here from South Africa . The story is heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once, but it's also entirely too long to tell all of it right now but I'll give you the basic details with more info to come over the next couple weeks. There was no formal preschool education in this extremely impoverished South African community in which Anne lived. So the women at Damion Chrysler pooled their own personal resources to start a school for some of the local children who would probably never have an opportunity to attend any sort of formal schooling. This community has literally THOUSANDS of CHILDREN in it, the majority of which are living in conditions with NO RUNNING WATER, NO PLUMBING, LITTLE ACCESSIBILITY TO MEDICINE, AND VIRTUALLY NO FOOD. And if this is not enough, the entire community has been devastated by the HIV virus as well as drought and famine. The preschool started in a shack, moved to a clinic and is now in a brick and mortar building, it is run entirely by VOLUNTEERS who pay for all expenses out of their own pockets. The school has room for 60 children, all of which are chosen by a random lottery. They are provided one meal everyday, which for most of them is their only meal, and are taught English and other skills that will help them survive in their economically devastated community. "

Thanks!

Spring is coming!

This weekend was gorgous!
Well Saturday anyway - I was laid up with a migraine all day Sunday :(
But Saturday was the perfect day - warm and breezy - the sun in the sky and nothing to do but enjoy the day. Bailey and Hurley and I had a blast playing outside - going to the dog park - and just generally being outside all day long.

Here are some of our antics:








Yes - I do believe that orange thing is a cat toy. No - I did not give my dog a cat toy - Hurley found it.... somewhere... He loved it!





And look at this!! The first flower of spring!!







I know it'll probably die with the next frost - but it's the first flower of Spring! Yippee!! And - it's a crocus.

I find this amusing because whenever my hubbo doesn't know the name of a flower - he calls it a crocus. So I was all excited about the flower and I ran in the house to tell him about it.

He said, "Cool - what kind is it?"

"A crocus!" I said.

"Oh... What's that?" he said.

Me "..."

Yeah... Men!

I must give him props though - he did manage to fix the tv - yeah! I was able to watch the Grey's Anatomy and Ugle betty reruns :( I want new shows!!!


In knitting news - I put down my CPH for a little while and started on a new sock. Jolene had let me borrow her 12 inch circular needle and I liked it - so I went out and bought one for myself. I knit one sock on the new needle - a Monkey sock - with some of my hand dyed sock yarn. ( I love this pattern by the way!!)

I am making the second sock on DPNs. I don't know if I was "doing it" wrong - but my left index finger is killing me - I managed to slice my finger while trying to knit with the mini circ. I kept using my left index finger to push the needle back. (I'm a thrower - so I would wrap the yarn around with my right hand and then push the needle back with my left.) I couldn't find a more comfortable way to move the yarn up and push the needle back. You know what I mean? How do you guys go it? Do tell. I'm in pain from my way! I really like the way the sock looks though - no ladders and it's really nice and even. But I don't think I'll use it much if I can't figure out a better way to move the yarn around.


I also managed to find time this weekend to bake a cake... It's Devils food cake with butter cream icing on top and chocolate fudge in the middle.... mmmm.....



It's already gone! It was delicious!

I want my MTV!!

Or any TV for that matter.

Our TV has been out of commission for 4 days now. That means I missed Heros, and Lost and tonight I'm going to miss Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty!! Oh the horror!

Sunday afternoon - we were innocently watching one of those laze-inducing movies from the 80s that they always play on Sunday afternoons on TBS (I love those!) when all of a sudden.... *pop* ... the tv went black - but the sound stayed on. Uh oh.

We have one of those fancy flat panel DLP things and the bulb apparently only has a shelf life of 3 years or so. WTF! I didn't know this! Apparently hubby did. I don't know about you - maybe I'm old school- but when I buy a TV (especially an expensive one) I expect it to last forever. I don't expect it to just go *pop* one day and need expensive parts and repair to get it running again.

I was definitely not amused either when hubby opened up the guts of this expensive TV and began playing around. The TV looked like it had been in that ferry crash I saw last week on Grey's Anatomy! Wires and circuit boards strewn everywhere. Now I must admit - I didn't have too much confidence in hubby's abilities to fix the TV at first... but he seems to have identified the problem.

After replacing the lamp (and the TV still not working by the way) - he delved deeper and found the root of the problem. He now thinks can fix it with some soldering and a new "lamp power ballast" - whatever the heck that is!

All I care about is the fact that I can no longer sit in front of the tv and knit. I've come to realize that I rarely knit without the tv on. I sit on the couch in the silent family room with my knitting and I just can't seems to do it. It's not the same! Weird huh...

So - I went upstairs to my craft room and decided since I wasn't feeling the knitting - I would sew something. So I did!

I sewed this:




I have been wanting to make a needle case for my double point needles for a while now - since they are everywhere! Some are in a vase in my craft room, some are in my knitting bags, some are still attached to uncompleted socks and others I will find weeks from now stuffed in between the couch cushions.

With the completion of my new needle case - I started collecting them and putting them in the case and I realized I have a freaking lot of DPNs! I have 4 pairs of size 3's three pairs of size 2s and many double sets of other sizes. Why so many?
Duh - I already told you the couch eats them.

I swear - every time I would go to make a sock - the hunt for four or five of the same size double points would ensue. I know what you're thinking - Magic Loop! Two socks on two circs! No need for DPns! Jolene even let me try her 12 inch circular that I have seen her and others make socks on with ease. I tried it - I liked it - I bought one - I'm making a sock on it right now - but I still think I will always go back to my DPNs. The other methods just didn't stick. So - I am happy to finally give my beloved DPNs a proper home.

I made up my own pattern for this needle case - so I'm sure a more experienced sewer may have come up with something better - but I'm extremely proud of myself for not using anyone else's instructions to help me. This is all MINE baby!












Oh and I can't resist posting this - my neighbors got a new dog! Allow me to introduce you to Riggo. (named after the Redskins player - John Riggins)

He's a pound puppy who found a home - isn't he adorable!


Look at those brown eyes...

Silly

Get a bunch of knitting gals in a room together and there is bound to be silliness. Laughing, joking, sarcasm, and down right silliness. Here is an example of said silliness:





The reason this is such a bad blurry picture is because I was laughing way too hard to hold the camera still!

Last night I got together with Sarah, Jen, Coleen, Jolene and Erin for bit of knitting. We ate, we knitted, we shared stories and had a grand time!


In all seriousness - I am very lucky to have gotten to know such a great group of women. Thanks ladies!

Sarah made stitch markers for everyone too - aren't they cute?




I love the packaging - and the sheep stamp is just perfect.

While I was there last night - I worked more on my Central Park Hoodie. Over the weekend - I managed to finish the back, and now I'm not working on one of the front panels. I realized that I had somehow managed to put an extra row in every cable repeat in the back panel. I realized this because when I went to do the first cable on the front panel - it didn't look quite right. Why? When I pulled out the back to look at it and compare - I found that it didn't match! I went back and counted the rows in the cable chart and wouldn't you know it - I added a row (two actually - a knit and a purl row) to each repeat.

Well - I guess if I'm going to do the pattern wrong - I better be consistent! Because there is NO WAY I'm ripping out the entire back. I actually think I like it better the way I did it!





I also did some more spinning over the weekend. I worked on some of the silk roving Amie gave me. I am very proud of this yarn so far - it is much thinner and more consistent than my last batch.

I can't wait to spin some more! Even my hubby was interested in the spinning. (Which is more than I can say for his interest in my knitting!

Spinning!

I went to my first spinning night on Friday! It was at Cloverhill yarn shop in Catonsville. I have always loved this shop for it's yarn and pleasant helpful staff and now I have one more reason to love it. Their spinning night was so much fun! I'm a newbie drop spindler and wanted to get more experience. I was commenting on this fact to Laura and Amie when they suggested I join them on their monthly spinning group. Spinning group?! I was so there. Sarah came too and I'm glad - 'cause we learned together and I also I knew I wouldn't be the only drop spindler there!

As it turns out there were two other drop spindlers there as well. Jen and another gal... (who's name I already forget). There of course were many other spinners there with actual wheels. And I got to try one! Yeah! Amie was kind enough to let Sarah and I have a go with her Lendrum. It was harder than I expected to get the wheel going at all and I also had trouble getting it to "eat the yarn" fast enough (sorry for the nontechnical terms in advance!). I also overspun and broke the yarn several times. But I did get a bit of a knack for it... kind of...eventually... maybe?

Sarah did MUCH better than I did and I don't think she broke the yarn once! Go Sarah!

Here are some of the gals at work:

I soon went back to my dropping - I mean drop spindling and spun enough single ply - that I wanted to give plying a try. In the end - I ended up with a good amount of yarn. I am quite happy with the result. I used some of the roving I dyed at Mama-E's dye class.

Sarah made the most awesome gift too - A spindle bag holder! I love it! Thanks Sarah!!




After spinning - Sarah and I had a delicious meal at Mango Grove... did you know they serve meat now too?

Anyway - after that I came home and gave my new yarn a bath -

and then hung it up to dry.



I don't know what I'll make with it yet - but I do love it

Yarn, jewelry and more!

I am sending out the prize package today for Knitty Mama. I hope she likes it :)

Here are all the goodies she will be receiveing for winning my Got Labels? contest:


My hand dyed "Dreamsicle" yarn, hand made stitch markers to match, a little purse to keep the stitch markers in (made by me), two funny farm animal erasers....



and some earrings to match - to wear with whatever you end up using the yarn for. Yes I made these too.

I had a crafty day yesterday - full of jewelry-making and sewing! Fun! I love making earrings - I tend to give most of them away to friends as gifts and usually make up a huge batch in one sitting. I think I made about 15 pairs of earrings and 5 sets of stitch markers yesterday. Jolene - I made some for your fund raiser too!

In knitting news - I have started the shoulder decreases in my Central Park Hoodie yesterday! I love this yarn soooo much! Did I already mention that like 50 times already! But really - I do. I got to knit on it a little bit today over my lunch break - a rare occurrence indeed!


Some other knitty gals and I went out for a fiber lunch. My co-worker - Giants Knitter and I met up with several knitters who work near us - Sheila, Kathy, Kathleen and their friend Theresa (?) - (I'm bad with names - sorry if this is wrong!!!) She is a crocheter - but we let her hang out with us anyway. They are all bloggless too - the shame!

Anyway - this makes my third visit to the new yarn shop in Hyattsville - the Tangeled Skein. I didn't buy a thing this time - but instead sat on one of their comfy couches and knit on my CPH. I have the store memorized at this point and gave directions from my perch. You want cotton yarn? - it's over there. Bamboo? - around the corner. Everyone was suitably impressed :)
I actually remembered my camera this time too - will wonders never cease!

This was my view from the couch:





We had a great time at Franklins too - Gotta love those onion rings!

And the winner is....

Congrats goes out to Knitty Mama!


She won a skein sock yarn hand dyed by me! She was chosen with my highly scientific process of me numbering everyone who added a comment and then asking Giants Knitter to pick a number between 1 and 15 :) She picked 12 and there we have it.


There will also be some other goodies in the package - but here's a look at the yarn.









I am calling this colorway "Dreamsicle" because it reminds me of those frosty treats I used to eat as a kid. (which I think were actually named Creamsicles - but we always called them Dreamsicles)


Man I could go for one now actually - it's always sweltering in my office!

In other news - I have been busily working on my Central Park Hoodie. I am more than halfway done with the back right now. Here are some pictures I took over the weekend - but I think I've done about 4 more repeats since these were taken.



I just love this yarn - it's working up very quickly and I am definitley not bored with it. The cables and the subtle variations in the yarn keep it interesting and fun.




I hope everyone has a great week - it's finally starting to warm up around here - so hopefully some of our ice will melt soon! I did wake up to the most beautiful sunrise this morning - I thought I'd share....