I have been felled by the dreaded summer cold. There is nothing worse than feeling crappy on a sunny day when it's 85 degrees outside. UGHH!!! I even came home from work. My head feels all stuffy. I don't even feel like knitting. UGHH!!

Back again and with finished socks. This is a more true representation of this color of Lorna's Laces. No pattern, just plain stockinette because I liked them so much like that.

I went home to St. Louis this weekend. Had a good time with the family and friends. Got to babysit my neice this weekend. She's growing up so fast. She's almost a little girl now. She's even got hair. She loved the socks above. She would put the finished one on her foot and tramp around the house with it on. Too bad I didn't have a camera because it was so cute, the sock went all the way up her leg.

Other than that, saw a work friend for Lunch on friday, had a family bbq on Saturday and went to my friend Jenn's for a BBQ today before driving back to St. Louis. Had lots of yummy food and I was so full, I drove all the way back to KC without stopping. 4 hours. Yippee.

Oh, well, back to my real life now. Work is starting to get busy and I'll be in town for 4 weeks in a row. I don't know if I can manage that... :-)

Woo Hoo! Lookie what I got!!

I rescued my socks this morning on my way to work and took them into my office to open (because I couldn't wait until I went home...)












We will thank the wonderful Sandy for my beautiful socks. I spent half the day fighting off individuals who would come into my office and try to make off with my socks...the lamb...THE CHOCOLATE!!!! I did manage to escape the office with all my goodies. (Even though I was on a 3 hour conference call and stuck in my office, I managed to resist the temptation of the wonderful chocolate.)











All Hail my sock pal Sandy. The socks are matching, which, my recent adventure with the Regia Surf yarn not withstanding, is no easy trick. I absolutely love my socks and they fit perfectly. A big thanks to Allison for hosting the sockapalooza exchange. It's always so interesting to get your socks and see what someone else knit for you and also challenging to come up with something your sock pal would like. Allison says she'll do it again in the fall. I'm ready to sign up again.

Thanks Sandy for my wonderful socks!! And the chocolate, too!

I'm dreaming of...

...knitting a sweater...Finally got my copy of Big Girl Knits. I'm in love! I like the lace v-neck sweater. The wrap sweater. The hooded sweater shirt that I can dream only of finding Calmer on sale somewhere for. Then, of course, the cute socks. I've been surfing for yarn all evening and dreaming of my new sweaters...one day...when I find the perfect yarn...at a price I can afford. Lots of good information about finding styles that fit your body type as well.

...I'm also dreaming of my sockapalooza socks. They've come and are currently being held prisoner by the post office since I wasn't here when they came to deliver them. Therefore I can only dream of them. Sniff! I'm going to go to work a little late tomorrow am so I can rescue them since the silly place closes at 5pm (who gets out of work before 5pm??) and I'm going to St. Louis again this weekend. I can't wait!! Pictures tomorrow.

...Stitches!!! Beth booked our hotel last week and I reserved my course this evening. I'm taking Karen Alfke's Unpatterns: Top Down Sweater. I took her cuff craze course last year and had a lot of fun. I'm moving on to making major clothing for myself, and since I need to either design my own or alter patterns, I thought this might be helpful. Besides Karen's very personable and funny and the 3 hour course went by really fast. Anyone else out there taking this course??

Back again...

I'm back. Yes, I went out of town again. I'm leaving again in 4 days for a 4 day weekend in St. Louis. Hurrah! I had a wonderful time in St. Louis this weekend. I got to spend some time with my mom alone (dad was out of town and because her broken leg, she was a captive audience. :-). The, there was the highlight of the weekend, "Girls Day." I went out with 4 very good friends from college. We got pedicures (my toes are very cute...well as cute as my ugly toes get, so I'm not willing to show pictures.) Then we went for a leisurely lunch at Brio. We sat outside, drank potent drinks, ate marvelous food and just generally had a good time and afterwards, we went accross the street to the Cold Stone Creamery. Mmmm!! Spectacular day all around.
While in St. Louis, I picked up a present from my mom. Yes, she made me one of Beth's Leetle Bags. It's just big en0ugh to fit a cake of yarn that has been wound via ball winder. It's pink, of course. No more plastic baggies in my purse for me!!

Other than that, you can just barely see my new project, which will remain a secret. Well, you can tell it's probably a sock, but it's full glory will remain unseen for the moment.

Is it wrong that I just returned from MSW and finalized plans to go to Stitches Midwest???

It's true isn't it??

I'm a knitting junkie.

Or should that be a yarn 'ho?

I'm very excited I made plans with Beth and Suzie to make our 3rd annual trek to that yarn mecca known as Stitches Midwest. It will be a bit different this year as I'm traveling from a different location, so I will not be joining them on the trek by train, but will instead by flying. For me, on Amtrak, it would be a 12 hour trip, which is a little extreme... Can't wait for August!!!

There was knitting this weekend. Started the second Lorna's Laces sock.
I still love these colors, which is much more vibrant that in the pictures here.

I did make it one whole week before breaking into the MSW yarn haul. At first I just skeined up the Wool in the Woods, Gold Dust yarn. Then I started to knit it into the Cozy shawl from Knitty.com. It didn't look very good, so I frogged that and restarted
it. This is probably the last picture you'll see of it because I think it will be an x-mas present. I decided to start my x-mas shopping early this year. I already have 2 gifts, so I might as well start the x-mas knitting as well. I've been neglecting birthday knitting, so I'll have to go for broke on x-mas.

Other than that, I cleaned my apartment, balanced my checkbook and made chocolate chip cookies. Oh, the exciting life of a single girl...

More MSW and "the twins"

I was tired last night and forgot two pictures. First, the last of my yarn purchases, the Fiddlehead Scarf pattern and some Merino Wool from Morehouse Merino. I love the colors and I think the scarf is going to be so much fun to knit!

And lastly, so you can appreciate the size of crowds, I took a picture as we were walking up a slight incline. The people go on forever and this is just one of the main walkways. There was one of equal size on the other side of the barns. Quite a few people...

And finally....Ta Da. The Twin Socks are finally finished and they are as close to identical as you could make 2 socks. I'm just so in love with them. I almost have tears in my eyes.

My Crazy Life...

This has been the absolutely most crazy week of my entire life. On Tuesday, my mother broke her leg. She couldn't have done a better job of it. She had to have surgery on Wednesday and they put a steel plate to stabalize the leg. Crazy right. On wednesday morning, I was drying my hair upside down (you know, to get some extra body into the roots...doesn't everyone do this??) and I felt this terrible pain in my back. Pain so bad I could barely breathe. I laid down on floor thinking if I laid on something hard, it would feel better. It didn't. Finally, I decided maybe, it would work itself out, so I should just get dressed and go to work. Ummm, that was an incredibly painful decision. It was raining and traffic was bad and every time I had to stop or start moving or go over a bump, extruciating pain. I began to think something was seriously wrong. I called my sister. She said go to the emergency room. I went to the emergency room. Several hours later, I was on my way with a diagnosis of a strained back and a prescription for Vicadin. But wait, you say, weren't you supposed to go to MSW???? Ummm Yeah. Went home, went to bed with an ice pack on my back. Took the Vicadin. I took more Vicadin. I must be the only person in the history of the world for whom Vicadin doesn't work. Nothing. Didn't make me sleepy, in fact I couldn't even go to sleep and believe me, I'm a napper. Uggghh. Finally gave up on the Vicadin and went to 4 ibuprofen which worked much better. Thursday, back was still sore, but my ibuprofen and I boarded a plane for DC...just in time for the longest plane ride of my life. I knit a sock. Yes, a sock. It was going to take 5 hours anyway and then I got delayed in Cleveland for 2 hours. So, here it is, the "stuck in Cleveland Sock"

In Lorna's Laces Tanglewood. I tried a pattern, but ripped it out before I even left KC because I liked the bottom of the sock better so I just knit in Stockinette. I finally got to DC. Yippee. My brother and his wife are doing well. I met the cutest dog in the world, Biscuit. Who, after initially barking at me, grew to love me by the end of the weekend. We went outlet mall shopping on Friday and then played poker on Friday night. I thankfully, was not the first one knocked out of the poker game, which is really remarkable considering I play like twice a year. So, finally Saturday, the Sheep and Wool Festival. The sheep. Aren't they cute???

There were a million people. It was unbelieveable. My brother and his wife couldn't believe all of the people. They thought I was crazy. for wanting to go to something called the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival, but were good sports about letting me drag them along with me. I did buy yarn... This is Wool in the Woods Gold Dust. It has a thin strand of gold spun in it. I think it will make a fabulous shawl.

And then there's the Koigu. This is where I really think Jeff and Alicia thought I was crazy. All 3 of us were searching through the baskets for matching skeins along with about a million other people.

All in all, came home with 4 skeins of the gold dust, 16 partial (mill ends) of Koigu and a kit to make a scarf from Morehouse Merino which I forgot to photograph. Pictures tomorrow. All in all it was a good time!

FO and reintroduction of the twins

So, I finished scarf for the Mother's day auction to benefit the American Cancer Society. It's just plain garter stitch in fancy yarn. It went really quickly, although the boredom factor kept me switching back and forth with a pair of socks, so it definitely took longer than it should of. It's only 49" long...I'm not sure that's a good length. Personally, I like mine about 7 feet long so they can be wrapped or folded in half and worn all kinds of different ways.

Tonight, I also have the distinct pleasure of reintroducing you to the twins,
AKA the Sherbert socks. I've turned the heel and they're still dead on identical. It's kind of scary. I think they're going to end up being identical! Wow, my first pair of identical socks. Amazing. After all this time. Sniff. I'm so proud. The race to finish them is on. I need those needles to cast another pair on for my 5 hour plane ride to DC. No it doesn't actually take that long. I have a 1 hour layover in Cleveland... Plenty of good knitting time. Also, as an added bonus, if I finish them in time, I'll be able to bring them with me to wear!! Yeah me.

I talked to my SIL this evening. I'm so excited to see her and my brother. I haven't seen them in awhile and talking to her this evening just made me realize how much I miss them. I also get to meet their dog they got last year So Hurrah!!! Plus I'll be on vacation, so no work. Double Hurrah! And then there's those 3 capitol letters we love so much MSW. Yeah!!!

2.5 days and counting!