What a day!

This is only part of what the 7 of us bought at Threadbear today. Miri's haul is not here, neither is mine or Deb's. Unfortunately Miri had to leave before we took this picture, and Debbie and I hadn't checked out yet. Kim, Sharon, Clare and Tamara left and Deb and I shopped for hours more. What a time we had!

Here's my haul:

Seeing it laid out it doesn't look like much, but it sure cost a bundle, even on sale! I can't wait to check out my new books. Unexpected Knitting is one I've wanted for a long time, and this copy is even signed by the author, Debbie New. I got a pair of the elusive size 13 Addis in 40" which I haven't found ANYWHERE for months. Several kinds of sock yarn came home with me. My first Lorna's Laces, and some hand dyed Opal that I just love. Also 6 skeins of tweedy looking Cascade colors to do another Panes bag in some more muted colors rather than the brights I've been knitting with so much lately. The pink/yellow/orange/white skeins at the top of the photo are to do a short sleeved summer sweater(from the Designs by Judith pattern on the left of the books)That yarn was in the clearance section, and was reduced another 20% so it is going to be quite a reasonable knit.
I also got a few more additions to my "jeans jacket knit sleeves project" but I'll go into that another day. Diane finished hers and from what she said it is quite lovely and a hit with everyone who sees it. I'm anxious to start mine.

This is Carol.
See Carol putting price stickers on patterns.
See Carol putting price stickers on MY patterns....
MY PANES PATTERNS! MY patterns are for sale at THREADBEAR! I have been on such a high all day I can't even tell you. Matt and Rob seemed to love the pattern (of course we had 4 versions of the bag walking around the store for about 1/2 hour before they cornered us and demanded to know where the pattern came from) Yes. It is good. I feel important and honored. Matt and Rob liked my pattern enough to sell it in their WONDERFUL INCREDIBLE yarn haven.

Here we are when we took our lunch break. I'm not sure, but I think Kim is having WAY too much fun. Starting in the left front and moving clockwise are Tamara, Clare, Debbie, Miri, (my empty chair), Sharon and Kim. Lunch was Mexican....food and service were VERY good.



Here's most of us...WHY did we forget to take a picture while Miri was still with us? We took this picture when we went back after lunch.

While at the store, I also met and talked with the lovely LynnH. I have been reading her blog for a long time and it was a pleasure to chat with her.

And here's me, with my new friends, Matt and Rob. What great guys. They sure make you feel right at home in their place. Joking, laughing, throwing insults at times (but in a fun way...making you feel like you've known them forever) and being SO incredibly helpful, informative, and warm. What a wonderful place. I wish it wasn't 90 minutes away from home...I'd be there all the time. But no, that would be WAY too dangerous. My pocketbook could NOT handle it! Thanks, guys, for a great day. I haven't had so much fun since I visited Diane at Easter time. Oh how I wish she could have shared this day with me. Especially since it was her birthday. Happy Birthday, my sweet, dear Sis! I really missed you today!

Road Trip!

Yippee! Tomorrow morning the BeeGees are piling in Tamara's van and heading to Lansing. Whatever will we do in Lansing? Oh, such a silly question . . .We'll go to Threadbear, of course!!!
This will be my first visit to this super-sized version of the LYS. I am beyond excited. This trip has been in the works for several weeks, and then today I found out there will be a SALE at Threadbear this weekend, starting tomorrow morning! Tamara says she feels bad for anyone else arriving after the store opens tomorrow because we'll get there early, and probably strip the place to bare bones. Photos to follow!

Kim's bridal shower was Saturday. It was great. I am so relieved that it is over. However, now we go straight into "wedding mode" with nary a moment of rest for the weary. She got her hair and makeup done Saturday morning (trial run for the wedding day) and OMG did she look goregeous !!! Lots of nice gifts and a good time was had by all.

My version of the Vintage Bubble Bag

I have a hard time following a recipe without adding, changing, tweaking, so why should knitting patterns be any different?

I bought the Pursenalities book recently. Thursday, when it was time to go off to my knitting group, I had no idea what I was going to take with me to knit, so I grabbed the book, some yarn and this is what I came up with.

I used Lamb's Pride worsted weight (Aztec Turquoise--2 skeins) instead of the Cascade 220 called for. Then, instead of the Noro Silk Garden, I used Lion Brand Landscapes(Pastel Meadow--4 balls). I'm quite pleased with the results.

Besides changing both yarns, I also made it a bit shorter, knitting only 10" instead of 12" before decreasing. As you can see, I also added a ruffle along the bottom of the garter stitch section. If you like this look, here's what I did:

Using solid color, double strand, (my Lamb's Pride worsted)
Pick up along bottom of garter stitch edge, 68 stitches.
Knit one row even.
Knit into front and back of each stitch, 136 stitches.
Knit one row even.
Knit into front and back of each stitch, 272 stitches.
Knit one row even.
Change to single strand of contrasting color (my Lion Brand Landscapes)
Bind off using contrasting color.

I think I would have liked the ruffle a row or two longer, or maybe not quite so ruffled, so maybe next time I will knit 2 or 3 rows after the first increase, and then knit into the front and back of every OTHER stitch and knit 2 or 3 more rows even. Who knows...I like to play around!

Oh, it's always SOMEthing, isn't it?

I got up this morning feeling pretty darned good, due to the fact that I had 9 hours sleep, catching up nicely after the night before, when I had gotten less than 4 hours worth...

Just after Jake got on the bus, I came back and was checking email. I heard a big crash upstairs. Went up to find Kaitlyn's dresser tipped over. Also on the floor were her TV, VCR, DVD player, etc. The TV doesn't work now, the VCR and DVD player seem to be ok, but I haven't checked them out that well yet. I think the dresser is ok (we just bought it about 2 months ago)

The worst thing though, the dresser fell on MY laptop that she took upstairs to do homework on last night. It's toast. I'm pissed. I bought that laptop with some savings bonds that my grandma had bought me through the years, and I received after she died. It was special to me.

I'm thinking Kaitlyn probably left several of her top drawers open, which caused it to be unbalanced and with all that weight up there....CoCo probably jumped up there and that was all it took.

I have to call the insurance co and see if our homeowner's will cover any of it

CRAP CRAP CRAP!

Life goes on....

We're trying to get back into our routine around here....catching up on a lot of things that got ignored and pushed aside during the 2 weeks we lost between hospital visits, funeral arrangements and plain "not feeling like it".

Kim and I finally started on the wedding invitations last night. She's upset because she ordered them before she and Drew knew they'd be moving, so the response cards and return address on them are wrong. We made up some labels to put over them, but labels on the wedding invitations just doesn't sit well with her. It was either that, or get them reprinted (NOT!). So she has to get over it and use the fact that they have a brand new house as a consolation prize.

Meanwhile the shower is just 2 weeks away. ACK! I'm not ready!

Jake's baseball opening day is today. I'll be sure to get some pix of him while his uniform is still in pristine condition. Jake had his 8th birthday last weekend in the midst of all our turmoil. It was nice to focus on his special day and just let the kids be kids for a couple of hours. He had 6 of his classmates come over for pizza, cake and ice cream, and some good clean fun. Mike took the boys outside and hit balls for them to field, they played kickball, ran races, and just had a blast.

I'm working on several new knitting designs and hope to have both of them ready very soon. I'm seriously considering submitting one of them to Knitty. Cross your fingers that it gets picked! That would be so awesome! It's been hard finding time to get much knitting done lately. Hopefully I can find a few spare hours here and there to get things finished up and submitted.

The weather continues to be wacky. Today was the first day in a long time that there was not frost when I got up. I was able to throw the windows and doors wide open this morning and boy was that nice. Considering....it snowed again on Tuesday. Yup, in May. Granted, it was only for about 10 or 15 minutes, but it was most definitely snowing. That had BETTER be the last of it!Anyway, the weekend is shaping up nicely. It's in the 70s and I'm loving it.

Off to hear the crack of bats against balls, the roar of the crowd, the smell of the hot dogs....oh, I got carried away...we're just playing at the middle school fields, not Comerica Park (Gosh I HATE that every sports stadium name now has to be an advertisement. Whatever happened to Tiger Stadium??? Comerica's people are not playing ball...the Tigers are!)

Sad

We've had a death in the family. We're still kind of numb. I don't feel like much of anything is worth blogging about. Maybe in a few days..........