Friday, May 19, 2006

The Mail Keeps Coming

My tea swap pal is the best! Look at what I got yesterday!



Four kinds of tea: Earl Grey (which I drink almost ever day), lemon ginger (which I drink whenever my tummy feels bad, or in the afternoon, PG Tips, and Peach Martini. That sounds fun!

Some tea biscuits

A wedding garter! How cool is that? The day before the package came, I was actually thinking that I didn't have a garter yet and I would need to find one somewhere. She read my mind!

And two balls of sock yarn w/ a pattern for toe up socks. Here's a close up:



Thank you, thank you, thank you, Sarah!

After I unpacked the box, I made up the ginger tea. It is so good. You can taste the real ginger in it. And I had some of the cookies. Yum. And dangerous! I think I'll take the sock yarn on the honeymoon. Socks might be the perfect, small honeymoon project. They'll be easy to bring to the beach, fit in my bag w/o too much bulk. Of course, I won't have any Internet that week, so if I get stuck, I'll be stuck. But I think I'll try. :)

My first experience with a knitting swap has been so much fun. I have all the pieces for my spoilee too. Just need to package it up and take it to the post office.

Monday, May 15, 2006

More Mail!

Look what my tea knitter pal sent me! First, last Friday, I got this pretty postcard.



Then today, I got this card and tea sample. Isn't that a beautiful cottage? I wnat to live there. I am going to drink the rooibus tomorrow. Yum!





Sadly, I didn't do a lot of knitting this weekend. But I did do a lot of moving! G and I moved the first wave of stuff into his apartment. Next Saturday we'll move the second wave (which means I'll be packing a lot this week. But after little knitting last week, I made myself a deal: I'll go to Curves, then work on packing in one room a night and then knit/blog for the rest of the evening). We're going to do the final wave of moving on June 3. And of course this all means that I'll have more time in the very near future for knitting! In three weeks I'll be moved. That is a trick I used on myself in college before exams. Because, of course BEFORE exams, life sucks. All the studying and paper writing (and researching, if, like me, you procrastinated until the bitter end) stretched out in front of you, seemingly endless. So, I would say, "In two weeks, it will be over and I'll be on break." And it reminds me that the time will pass. So I have my little schedule and I think it will work out. Plus, it's not like it is all work and no play until June. I have my 30th birthday/bachelorette weekend over Memorial Day to look forward to.

So, I don't have any good knitting updates today. However, I remembered that I never put a picture of my green scarf up. I finished this in April. It is a 2x2 rib in Blue Sky Cotton. It is so soft. I love it. And love the color. And it only took one skein, about 150 yards. I have a whole second ball of it that I think will be going to my tea swap pal.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Good Mail Week

Some exciting things have come in the mail for me this week.

Most exciting is G's wedding band. Can't wait for him to wear this. All will know that he is off the market! :)



And, the Hancock's of Paducah fabric catalog came.



Love the big florals.



And lots of pretty greens, perfect for May Project Spectrum.



I wasn't going to buy any fabric for a while because I haven't used my sewing machine in months and I have more than enough fabric, but I may need to own some of this Lime Hydrangea. I have the hydrangea fabric in SEVERAL other colors. Might not be able to resist this one.



And look how cute these eyelet and crochet trims are. Wouldn't they be sweet on the hem of a skirt?



And the last bit of fun mail that came was this free trial issue offer to Interweave Knits. Should I get it? I wonder if my free trial issue would be the summer issue that just came out? My roommate got it and I wasn't impressed with most of the patterns. Too many of the tops have boob demarcations that just don't work for a booby chick. Maybe I should wait until the Fall issue comes out?

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Wedding Wrap

At last, here are some pictures of my wedding wrap. Again, I don't know if the stitch has a name, it is knit two together yarn over across row, except the first and last stitch. It produces a lovely, old-fashioned look, I think. Especially in this Manos cotton. So pretty and so soft!





The pattern is so simple and very easy. But I've had some problems b/c the ends were slipping off my straight needles (I should have used circular, as this is just a tough too long for my longest straight ones). I managed to get all the stitches back on w/o dropping any. Or so I thought. On Sat., while knitting in the car (mom was driving), I noticed that I had dropped the first stitch of a row, several rows back. I was so mad. I didn't think I could fix it b/c the yarn overs make it hard to see where the stitch was. But I didn't want to start all over. And I didn't want to continue and decide later to rip it out. So, I let it sit and then on Sunday in the airport, I decided to just try to rip to the mistake and fix. And I was able to! I know this is not the most complicated fix, but it was a milestone for my knitting to be able to fix something harder than garter stitch. Yeah!

Monday, May 08, 2006

Why I Missed Maryland Sheep and Wool

For the second year in a row, I missed the MD Sheep and Wool festival. To be fair, I didn't know about it last year until I tried to go (with mom and Larissa) to the Celtic Knot in Ellicott City. It was the first Saturday in May and they were closed w/ a sign that said they were at the festival.

This past weekend, I knew better. But alas, I still couldn't make it. I was in Milwaukee and Chicago for a party. For me! My aunts Trish and Sue and my mother hosted a bridal shower for me and my cousin Cassie (who is getting married a month after me). So, while I would have loved to have seen llamas, I had fun, ate a lot, got presents (yeah!) and saw Pierce Brosnan. Twice! No, he wasn't the shower entertainment (I wish, oops, honey, if you ever read this, ignore that last part). It was yesterday while I had a five hour layover in Chicago. He whizzed by in one of those carts that transports the elderly, infirm, and--apparently--famous through the airport from gate to gate. My gate was across from the United "special people" lounge and he went in. Later he came out and was whizzed away again. If I had only had my camera yesterday, I could prove it to you all! Oh, and I was knitting when I saw him.

So, Pierce aside, it was a wonderful weekend. I got lots of great stuff that I registered for and two amazing things that I hadn't. First, I got this quilt from my mom. Now, I knew she was making me a quilt for our queen size bed, but this Christmas lap quilt was a surprise bonus! Isn't it beautiful?



And I got this gorgeous crocheted afghan from my future mother-in-law. I don't like bobbles on clothing, but on this afghan, they are lovely, especially in this diamond pattern. Aren't I lucky to have two crafty moms? :)



And this last picture is some blue yarn that I bought a few weeks ago at Cloverhill. I love it. Can't wait to work with it. But need to finish the wedding wrap first and then start Operation Fuzzy Britches (more on those in a future post). So glad I finally bought a camera! Can you tell?

Monday, May 01, 2006

New Blog

I started a new blog called Booby Chick: for girls with bigger than average boobs by a girl with much bigger than average boobs. A few weeks ago, I said something about boobs to G and he thought it was funny and that I should start a blog for my boob witticisms. He said that other booby girls would love it, I could talk about where to find good bras, how to attract a boob-friendly dude, what not to wear (tents), etc., and I could make people laugh and maybe even provide a small service to booby chicks. So stop by, say hi. You don't have to be booby or even a girl (but inappropriate comments will not be allowed).

Ok, back to knitting. Had a great time knitting w/ the Columbia group tonight. There was much laughter and cool knitting, and oddly enough some talk of boobs. I am knitting a wedding wrap to somewhat cover the boobs at my wedding this summer. My dress is hot (and pretty!) but the boobs are pushed up and out in a way that might not be the most appropriate in church. So someone across the table asked what I was working on and I said, "a wrap for my wedding to cover my boobs." Of course, it was loud in the cafe and the girls at the other end of the table heard "wrap" and "boobs" but missed the rest. And everybody stopped talking in time for me to repeat "a wrap for my wedding to cover my boobs." In fact, I think the entire cafe at Borders stopped talking to hear me say that. Nice that I could share with all.