Wednesday, May 25
Where has the time gone?Steven graduated from preschool on Monday. I can't believe that he is almost 5 years old and will be starting kindergarten in the fall. Seriously, I feel like he was just a baby! He was so excited and happy to get his little diploma... and then even happier to play with the ribbon that was tied around it. Silly kid!
Tuesday, May 17
At Knit's EndOur Stitch-n-Bitch group meets twice a month at the Barnes and Noble in Exton. This is both very convenient and very bad. It is not only convenient because of the centralized location, but also because of the cafe. Who can complain about having STARBUCKS coffee being served right under our noses? Not me! The bad part is that we meet upstairs near the craft section... yeah, I leave that store after having purchased at LEAST one knitting book or magazine almost every time. At the last SnB, Kate showed me a book called At Knit's End by Stephanie Pear- McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot. Of course I bought it; and I am so glad I did! What a great and perfectly done book! Seriously, it's awesome. It's entertaining and well written but most of all, it is written so that each meditation/page stands by itself. If you have only one minute (which is all I ever have in one day) to sit down and read, you can easily get two pages done. I love, love, LOVE this book. Thank you to Kate for telling me about this great book and thank you to The Yarn Harlot for writing it. It truly is a pleasure to read.
Speaking of Stitch-n-Bitch, I have a dilemma. Tonight is our second meeting of the month and I SOOOO want to go, but I am torn between that and my love and devotion for my shows. Here's the thing, American Idol AND The Gilmore Girls are on tonight. American Idol is down to the final three (totally pulling for Bo BTW!) and it is the season finale of The Gilmore Girls where one of the girls will get engaged! Obviously, both shows are being TiVo'ed but I don't know if I can stay awake long enough to watch them when I get home. What should I do???
Sunday, May 15
Branching outAs many of you know, I have been looking to move beyond fun fur and acrylic garter stitch scarves for quite some time now. I tried making a poncho and frogged it upon completing it. I made a Booga Bag and ruined it by attempting to felt the bag with a funky yarn that, I've come to learn, can only be hand washed in cold water. (I'm chalking that one up as a learning experience- ALWAYS check washing recommendations on yarn label BEFORE attempting to wash or felt it.) And yes, I have officially moved on to "Acceptance", the final stage of grief.
Having said all of that, I am currently working on two new projects; 1) the Branching Out scarf and 2) another Booga Bag using Noro Kureyon color 139. I am very excited to be trying lace knitting! It's a lot of work but I'm hoping it will be very satisfying! When I need a break from that, I am using the Booga Bag for some quick, mindless knitting. I'm especially using that while watching TV- I can not be expected to follow directions when all of the finales to all of my shows are on within the next week! Anyway, I will post a picture of the knitting progress in the next day or two; there's not much to show on either project yet, as I am only a few rows into each one.
I know this is a bit delayed, but I wanted to write about the wonderful Mother's Day I had last week. Steve took the boys out early in the morning so I could sleep in and wake up to a wonderfully quiet house which was AWESOME! He then came home and made me a pancake breakfast with some delicious Kona coffee. Double yum! Then he and the boys gave me cards and a beautiful diamond ring for my right hand. It was such a great day full of wonderful surprises.
Here is a picture of my ring, though it doesn't really do it justice. The flash kept bouncing off the ring and distorted the quality of the picture. It's soooo pretty though! :-)
Wednesday, May 11
Right...Have you ever had a project you were so excited about but when you finished it, it turned out to be a big disappointment? I've just had such an experience. For my first felted project, I made a booga bag with my own stripes of pink, blue and green and added a fun/funky yarn with coordinating colors at the top. This awesome yarn of rainbow colors is what drove me to keep knitting even when my hands hurt. It was SUPPOSED to be awesome. Imagine how disappointed I was to find that after the first run through the washer, all but two of the colors in the funky yarn faded to white. I don't think there is a word that can adequately describe my disappoinment. Crestfallen, maybe?
Elisabeth Kubler- Ross states that there is a process of grieving in death; I believe it can also apply in situations like these.
1) Denial- No way, I can't believe it. I won't believe it!
2) Anger- WTF? Why did this freakin' yarn fade?!?! After all of the planning and work I put into this damn thing and it faded?!?! !@#$%^&!!!!!!!
3) Bargaining- Maybe I can rip out the bad yarn from the bag and find some way to crochet the fun and pretty NON faded stuff back in. Can you crochet something that's felted?
4) Depression- Everytime I walk by it, I become more disgusted with it for letting me down.
5) Acceptance- I am so not there yet.
I also forgot to mention that for some reason, the bag didn't felt properly at the top because of said faded yarn. BLAST!
Here is a picture of the crappy bag with the faded yarn. Next to the crappy bag with the faded yarn is a ball of the funky stuff- notice the vibrant, beautiful colors. Now take notice of how none of those colors are on the bag. Do you feel my pain? At this point, the bag would have been better without it.
Saturday, May 7
I'm Baaaack!Wow it's been awhile since I've been able to blog! Jeffrey is doing much better now- it has been a long, nerve wracking (almost) 2 weeks and we are hoping he is well on his way to recovery.
I SOOOOO needed a break earlier this week and briefly escaped with Lisa, the girl who does not blog, to New Jersey to visit Knitty Knotty in Westmont. I was anxious to start a new knitting project to occupy my nervous hands. I chose to attempt my first felted project- The Booga bag. I chose 3 skeins of Gallway wool in pink, green and bright blue. That's right people- I am doing stripes for the first time EVER! Lisa showed me what to do and after a few mistakes, such as accidentally knitting the tail of the new ball of yarn I was starting, I did it! I just finished the bottom of the bag and am planning to pick up stitches and begin knitting the rest of the bag tomorrow. I must say, this is alot of firsts for me- first felted project, first time knitting in the round, first time using addi turbos and the first time knitting with wool. I've made a couple of mistakes, some inadvertent yarn overs and things but I take comfort in knowing that it will be felted and NONE of these mistakes will be visible. :-) I do wish, however, that I could remember how I did a couple of those above mentioned yarn overs so I can purposely do them on a future project!!!
I had more I wanted to write about but can't remember as it's late and my eyelids are getting verrrrrry heavy.... here is a quick pic of the bottom of my first felted bag. Did I mention that I did the stripes all by myself?!
