Brush with Harlotism

It finally happened. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee came to Florida! Thanks to Knitwitz in Jacksonville for organizing her visit and hosting a great night out.

Susan came up from Orlando and we drove together, stopping in St. Augustine first to initiate a yarn crawl. Alas, the Knitting Boutique was closed for vacation (talk about yer bad timing!) and we were forced to comfort ourselves with my first visit to Hobby Lobby. For a large chain, they had a really great selection. I was surprised to see the copycat sock yarn jacquards priced at $12 for a pair - for that much, I'll save more pennies and support my LYS.

So...onto the Ramada Conference Center we went and found a room filled with nearly 100 knitters all sitting patiently (as there was still another 90 minutes until Stephanie was speaking), knitting, chatting, comparing yarns, patterns, techniques, longest-commute and everyone wore a knitted item. One girl even had her jeans rolled up above her knees so we didn't miss a single row of her cool, funky socks.

I cast-on my Margarita Sock's mate and made it past the heel by the end of the evening. The sock was excited to see Stephanie, but um, Stephanie had like actual things to do and blesh her! she said a kind word to nearly everyone who had a book signed.

After the signing, we noshed at Steak n Shake and met a couple more knitters - this time from Hollywood (that's a 5-hour drive!) and then cruised on over to check out the yarn shop that started it all. Knitwitz was open until midnight and they were super sweet as Susan and I oohed and aahed over yarns we've never seen before. They didn't even rush us out - which was pretty darn cool since we were the last to leave.

I found my first Malabrigo

and discovered Oldfield Creek sock yarn - cool colors!!

It was a great night all-round and I'm so glad Susan was game to make the drive. We had a very memorable time and met some great knitters!

Project: Koozie!

(Recently turned) Six year-old Bobby was watching the Notre Dame game with his Dad this weekend when he realized that Dad was enjoying a refreshing beverage with a koozie around it and Bobby had NO koozie!!

Here's Dad's koozie:

Here's the only koozie in the house that might possibly fit Bobby's cup:

Not only was it GIRL colors, but it was too tall and Bobby was afraid he would be drinking more yarn than rice milk. Enter clever knitter with her needles and boy-colored yarn. Given an evening and half a morning and she came up with this:

Very manly, well-fitting and just in time for next-weekend's football viewing. It made for one happy Bobby!

Snickerdoodle Needs a New Name

Gosh, she's cute! And Snickerdoodle is a great tag for a kitten, but what's a better-fitting ladycat name?

Any ideas?

p.s. Do you like my official Kitten Sleeping Pads? I never thought I'd be so excited to knit cotton, but I've endowed everyone I can get ahold of with knit dishclothes - looooove me some Peaches & Creme!

Feline Subterfuge

So much to catch up on!

2 months ago, I completed my first crochet project. With the help of my sister Helen, I made a blanket for Jennifer's first baby. She'll need a lot of help keeping warm in Canada.

3 Weeks ago, I rescued 5 gorgeous kittens. 3 have been adopted so far (2 to my niece and nephew - my brother-in-law is delighted! LOL)

2 weeks ago, I lost my job. Luckily, Dave was flying in that night for a 10-day visit. We had lots of time to make plans for the future and spent the week of Tropical Storm Fay decompressing and playing with kittens at my sisters house. My niece found interesting ways to torture Squeak (a boy!)

The last two kittens are still with me and Squeak is making his mark on my latest sock project. The first Undulating Rib Sock (from Favorite Socks book) went well and the stretchy cotton yarn is stretchy enough to fit His Royal Large-footednessThey've batted around at my knitting before, but I was shocked to see he'd chewed through the yarn in mere seconds. Kitten teeth are great! Who needs scissors?!

So, now I'm off to plan the future.....socks, husband in Germany, new home for two gorgeous ginger kittens and any other trouble I can find along the way!

Look, Ma! I'm Spiraling!

Busy, busy, busy!

Though I have forayed into the dark-side of crochet (pictures later!) I haven't given up knitting or blogging. Just an eensy hiatus on the blogging thing as I get my Ravelry account and, um... oh yeah....life in general up and running.

I'm working for a German company in Florida (rough assignment, I know) renting a house with a pool, visiting my family on the weekends and keeping my hands busy in-between the Irishman's visits (NOT what you're thinking, I'm keeping my hands busy with knitting!! sheesh)

I'll admit a big sigh of relief living within sprinting distance of a Target, Barnes and Noble and LYS - ah, retail...isn't that what life's all about. Things in Germany were super quaint and the cheese and beer were really, REALLY good. I miss some great people, but there's NO PLACE like home. I'll be back visiting this summer and hopefully scooching in a friend's wedding in Scotland.

Now, onto the good stuff....a photo of my current knitting project. I found three lovely colours of Lion Brand's Organic Cotton at A.C. Moore and started a Mason-Dixon log cabin blanket. Unbeknownst to my inner-nerd, when you log-cabin with three colours, it spirals!!! How cute is that??