Spring Fling 2010 - Part 2

See that light bulb? It's miniature bottle of liquor that I got at the Midwest Miniature Bottle Collectors convention that was taking place at the hotel at the same time as Spring Fling. Now, I would think this was a weird hobby, but I had to remind myself that I flew to St. Louis to a knitting retreat with a room full of strangers. Ahem. Glass houses, stones, and all that jazz. PS - the lady I bought it from told me not to drink it because it's very old. Thanks for the tip.

I bought that bottle because, well, that's exactly how I felt after my 2 classes on Saturday. Particularly the Sweater Fitness Workshop with Anne Hanson. I'm going to swallow my pride & post this not very flattering picture of me with Anne because, well, it's a picture of me with Anne Hanson. Those lights were none too kind to either of us.

I really really try not to be a fan girl to any of the "knitting rockstars" because well, I imagine it gets pretty old for them. And I will admit that while I think Anne's patterns are beautiful, I don't faithfully stalk her blog or know all of her patterns on sight or anything. But DAMN, this woman is a genius. After I signed up for this class & saw that we were doing measurements & such I thought "why am I taking this same damn class AGAIN????" This is the third class I've taken on how to properly measure yourself & design / make a sweater for your shape. But you know, I still am not getting it right so I thought surely I could learn something & well, one day I'd like to not be frustrated with my finished sweater. I was really excited about it & I swear I spent the whole class nodding because everything she said made so much sense. I've tried to explain to people what I learned & when I try to explain it everything that comes out of my mouth sounds so obvious that I can't believe I didn't think of it myself. Anne gave us 7-8 areas of fit that I had just never thought of before. I don't know how to explain it other than to say if you are frustrated with failed sweaters, take this class! You know how sometimes you take a class & it's totally over your head? Or you take a class & you think "yeah, I know this." Well, I think I am at the exact skill level for this class to make perfect sense. I have made enough sweaters (10ish) & have had enough fit problems that I was ready to hear all of the material that was taught. Fingers crossed that this works for me.

The other thing I decided in that class that instead of deciding to do X sweater in Z yarn, I am going to swatch the yarn until I get a fabric that I like & THEN chose the pattern. I think I try so hard to force yarn/pattern combinations that just will never work. I also decided to frog October Frost. SHUT UP!!!!!! It's just never going to fit & I need to accept it & move on.

My second class was Two Handed Knitting, Forward & Backwards with Gryphon Perkins of The Sanguine Gryphon yarn fame. Wow. That's all I can say. My favorite part of the class is when she told us that you could knit lace forward & backwards without turning your work & a student said "I could never do that." Gryphon promptly said "Actually, you are going to do it in about 15 minutes." I cracked up. She made us do stuff that I think none of us ever dreamed of doing or thought that we COULD do. It was interesting & although I doubt I'll be knitting forward & backward without turning my work on a regular basis, I think it will come in handy for certain things.

Gryphon is about the cutest person I've ever seen & she was sweet to boot. Here is a picture of her showing me a different way that I could wear my Aeolian. Yeah, I think perhaps she could pull that off, me, not so much.


Other teachers at the Spring Fling included Wendy Johnson & Jared Flood. I was really torn on which classes to take, but I have taken classes with both Wendy & Jared before. I took some socks classes with Wendy at the Knit Out in Guthrie, OK & I took Jared's Seamless Sweater Workshop at my LYS, The Woolie Ewe. All of the classes got rave reviews & it was a stellar line up.

Sigh. I'm so sad it's all over. I wanna go back again right now! I'm so inspired to knit so many things that I don't even know where to start.

Spring Fling 2010 - Part 1

Wow. I don't even really know what to say. I had the most fabulous time with a pile of people that I had never even met before that I can't even express it right! I met Beth, the first Spring Flinger at the airport in Dallas - little did I know that it would be the first of so many great women all weekend. I got there & even walking out of the airport I saw a knitter with a bag under her arm knitting a sock & I thought "this is what real life should look like." From that moment until I got home Monday, every moment was spent around other people just as obsessed about knitting & yarn as I am. Not only that, but I could go into any restaurant, store, bar, etc & there were MORE knitters - people that didn't mind if I just plopped down at their table & joined them. I think that was my favorite part - that everyone welcomed just one more person to join the circle & hang out. How refreshing.

But really you just wanted to hear about the stuff, don't you?

Here is the goodie bag:

It rocked. And included a skein of Wollmeise Femme Fatale colorway that Claudia dyed just for this package. I was so sad that the ash from the volcano kept her from coming from Germany. I sooooo wanted to meet her & the other ladies that couldn't make it.

Thursday night the fabulous plazajen organized a newbie dinner because her first year she ate alone & it made her sad to think that someone else would have that experience. There were 63 of us and I must admit, my first thought was "clusterfuck". I mean, no way that would go well, but I have to say, they handled it with ease. I heard some people say that the service was slow as we expected, & I thought, Really? I didn't notice at all. I was talking to the most fascinating woman. I loved hearing about her life in a rural area of New York. She had so many questions about life in Texas & the South in general - and you know I love telling stories. I think we were both surprised about what life is like in areas were we have never visited. Then we went to the dessert reception. I found my swap partner Suzanne & she was AWESOME. I swear we have the exact same taste in yarn & I was relieved to know we wouldn't be going on the same shopping trip to Loopy Central. Cause I wouldn't want to have to take her out, seriously. This is what she got me:

Holy crap it was awesome! I want to do another swap with her pronto.

During the dessert reception I had a moment of clarity. I asked "what do we do now?" Everyone looked at me a little crazy & said "YOU JUST KNIT". Oh. I see. We just knit. It was the best thing I ever heard. I have been to quite a few big knitting events. Some smaller & closer to home, some larger & far away, but never has it been WE JUST SIT & KNIT. It was refreshing & I was really relieved. So I just sit & knit. And talked. And knit & talked.

If I had to participate in the Groundhog day phenomenon & live one day over & over & over, Friday would have been a really good day for that. Friday morning I was part of the first group to go to Loopy Central. HOLY CRAP. I have been to a crazy number of yarn shops. I have a really big & fabulous LYS called The Woolie Ewe. Often when we travel & I come back from a shop I'll look at Patrick and shrug - I mean, I'm pretty spoiled & it takes a lot to impress me. Color me impressed.

THIS IS ALL DREAM IN COLOR STARRY!


My new friends Elizabeth & Kim in front of the Cascade wall

More yarn (I hated my pictures in front of the loopy wall - I wish I had spent more time getting them right!)


More yarn!


AND MORE FREAKING YARN!


I got this:


I actually think I displayed some huge self restraint. I also didn't have much time to save for the shopping part & I kept trying to tell myself that I can order whatever I want later. Sigh. I could have filled my house with yarn from this place.

Friday afternoon I had down time to JUST SIT & KNIT. And meet new people. I was quite the table jumper - I wanted to meet absolutely everyone though I admit on Sunday morning at breakfast I looked around & found more people I hadn't talked to & even more that I hadn't even seen! Insane.

Friday my Loopy really started acting up. Apparently Sheri has said that some Loopy's are very well behaved but some are naughty. One lady told a story about how she got one & on the way to her house he ate all of her hersheys kisses! When her package got there there were only empty wrappers & her daughter thought that was pretty mean. I laughed about that so much! Well, mine is naughty too. It may have something to do with the fact that I think I'm the only grown woman to carry around a stuffed sheep all weekend, but my Loopy got into an awful lot of trouble & there is photographic evidence to prove it. My new friends said it could be because I let him share in the flask & that makes me a pretty bad Loopy mamma, but whatever.



Loopy's yarn barf

Loopy needed some rest too


You can see more of Loopy behaving badly at the following blogs:
Carolina
Kimberly
He's quite the character but he must be worn out because I haven't had much trouble out of him since we got home. Maybe he's scared of the cats.

I will come back & talk about the classes. So much to say!!!!

New contest prize

While I sort out the 784 things going through my head about this weekend I just wanted to give you a quick look at a new prize I added for the contest. Madeline Tosh - Tosh Sock in Fjord. Yum



I have to be perfectly honest. I was feeling kind of bad because I had intentions of buying some Tosh Sock as a prize at DFW Fiber Fest. I was tired & well, I guess selfish because I made 2 trips to the Madeline Tosh booth. I bought some for me. Some quite honestly I'm not sharing with ya'll! So I put that on my list for Loopy central because they have a big pile of it. AND I FORGOT AGAIN! In my defense, I was staying far far away from that area because I had bought my fair share & didn't want to be tempted. I asked Jen (one of the sweetest ladies I've ever met!) to bring me something pretty. Boy did she deliver. It's gorgeous & squishy .......I can't figure out why I didn't buy any for MMMMEEEEEEEE. I almost kept it. Man, that would have been wrong & I wouldn't have been able to sleep at night. Of course, that would give me more time to knit it up, wouldn't it???

Just a reminder - May 30th deadline, we are approaching the one month point. Get to knitting if you've been putting it off. What I have gotten already is highly appreciated & all so stinking cute!

Off to the Land of Loopy

In case you are unaware, there is this ridiculously good online shop called The Loopy Ewe. Sheri Berger, the owner, has done a great job of picking out the top tier yarn in the industry & stocking her shop full of it. She has a great reputation for working with & supporting indie dyers, along with carrying some great commercial lines. If my local LYS doesn't carry a yarn, The Loopy Ewe is where I go to shop. I know I am not alone in feeling like this is my LYS away from home.

Several years ago Sheri put together the first Spring Fling, a retreat where customers could gather to meet, knit, take classes from first rate instructors, and shop at the brick & mortar version of our favorite online store. It is a wildly popular retreat & it has grown even more popular over the past few years. So much so that entry into the fling is decided by lottery. This past December I threw my name into the hat rather thoughtlessly thinking it would be cool to get in, but not counting on it in any way. I got notice a few weeks later that unfortunately I didn't get in & to be honest, I put it out of my mind & never gave it another thought. Until......

...the second week of March I got an email from Sheri saying that I had been on the 2nd wait list & enough people had dropped out that if I wanted to go that I was in. YIKES! I was leaving for Disney in less than a month & really, the last thing I needed to be doing was is running off to St. Louis for a knitting retreat. Without knowing a soul. But.....

Teachers include Anne Hanson, Gryphon Perkins, Wendy Johnson, and Jared Flood. I mean, seriously??? First let me say that I am a total fan girl & I'm a firm believer in taking classes from people you admire. And that know more than you. Which is like a way lot of people. Then I looked at who else would be attending, and that list looked pretty fun as well. Honestly, though, you really had me at Anne Hanson.

I tossed it around in my head & made a half hearted mention to Patrick. He said what he always says, "GO." God I love that man. Easy for him to say because I handle our finances & had to pull the money out of my ass. So I did, or rather from Uncle Sam. Patrick had enough miles to get me a free ticket. Oh my hell, the stars kind of lined up for me to go. So I am going. Tomorrow.

I have 2 great classes:
Sweater Fitness Workshop with Anne Hanson (can you see my happy dance?)
Two-handed Knitting, Backwards and Forwards with Gryphon Perkins

Wow. and wow. I am so excited I could just scream. Wish me luck with keeping my sanity when I take my trip to Loopy Central. Because that's where the real damage is!

They are SO hilarious.

So I told you that I'd have stories from Disney World & figured they would be knitting related in some way. I have to tell you, from the time I left the airport until I got back home I didn't even touch a knitting needle. Well, I did, but only to show my nieces my socks that I am knitting. So no poking Goofy. It would have been funny though!

I could tell 100 funny stories, seriously, because my sister's kids are the bomb. I won't bore you to death, but I thought maybe I'd do quotable quotes bullet point style by child. Ready? ok. Here are the kids so you can see how stinking cute they are. Jordyn is 11 years old & has on the silver sparkly ears (don't know where she gets that from!) & Laken is 8 years old & is in the pink fuzzy ears with the tiara. The ears are very fitting. Just sayin.




Jordyn:
* When I saw her at the airport "The plane ride wasn't nearly as bad as last time. It was so good that I think I might go on the plane back too."
* After riding the Star Wars ride "Where was the fun? I missed it?"
* "Aunt Tasha, if somebody else give you a baby, can I hold it?" A little background - this was hours after the ride on the bus one morning - I offered my seat to a family & the mom said they were fine but jokingly asked if I wanted to hold the baby. I said SURE! So I did. Imagine the looks on Jordyn's face when she looked up & said "Aunt Tasha, where did you get that baby?"
* We talked a lot about the fireworks show at Epcot & how much that must cost every night. On Friday we were riding past parking lots & saying how much it cost to park if you drive. Without missing a beat Jordyn said "I bet that's where they get all of the money for the fireworks." And she doesn't even have an MBA from Harvard.

Laken:
* "I don't understand why they call it a runway. There isn't anybody running on it."
* "Everybody is happy in Disney."
* Declared both It's a Bugs Life & Honey I Shrunk the Audience as "absolutely horrible" - she hates the 3D shows, but there is something hilarious about an 8 year old saying stuff is "absolutely horrible." She has vowed never to enter another show that involves "those glasses"
* After riding Rockin Roller Coaster - "I didn't like it at all, I LOVED IT!"
* "I'm trying to get over my fears so I have to go on it." About riding a scary ride- I can't remember which one right now.

Notable quotes from the rest of us:
Stacey - "I'm in the happiest place on earth, I'm not going to be in pain!"
Mom - (upon me coming out of the shop in my leopard print ears) "She's going to grow up one day."
Me - (upon wearing said leopard ears for about 15 minutes) - "I think these might be sized for small children." (hates to admit Mom might be right AGAIN)
My favorite Disney themed tshirt worn by some random Dad at Magic Kingdom - "I'm Grumpy because you're Dopey"

Maybe my favorite story is that on the last night we went to the Fantasmic! show (which, btw, is maybe my favorite part of the trip & you must must go if you've never seen it). At the end of the show a boat comes out & it has every character you can imagine on it. Seriously, like everybody. So when we were walking out, Laken proclaimed that she was very worried about Daisy because there had been a lack of Daisy all week, AND she wasn't on the boat (I did not notice, but my sister said she looked for her too because she was sitting by Laken & never saw her either). Laken is terribly concerned that maybe they have fired Daisy. My sister said maybe she was at home with Huey, Dewey, & Louie. Laken said that maybe DONALD should be home with them & DAISY should be at Disney World. She wanted to ask somebody, but we assured her that the guy selling light up ears from a cart probably didn't know anything about Daisy's fate. So she said she is going to write a letter. And she asked if she could sign my name to it too. I said sure, knock yourself out. It's just the funniest thing I've ever heard. She's really for real concerned about it too! And in all fairness, we didn't see much of Daisy.

Let me leave you with perhaps my favorite picture of Cinderella's castle EVER. My sister took this when we hit the park on Friday at 7am - the weather was that ugly. Cool picture though.


And me with Chip n Dale


WHHHHAAAAAA! I want to be back there right now!

The Happiest Place on Earth

Hi, you have reached Tasha. I'm not here right now, I'm in Disney World with my Mom, sister & nieces. We are surely having a ball & don't really want to talk to you right now. Tune in next week when I hope to regale you with stories like "I poked Goofy with a knitting needle & lived to tell about it" & "no, I'm not a mouse, why do you ask?" Or not. Either way, I'm sure I'll have a little something to say about it.

I should be writing about how I finished that sweater....

but I'm not. Well, I technically did finish Vesper that I talked about a few weeks ago. Notice that "technically" that I threw in there? Because the knitting really is done - I just have to weave in ends from 14 balls of yarn. In linen. In the round, so not in some inconspicuous side seams. Sigh. It's cute though, and I might actually wear it one day. I think I'm going to bring it to my knit group tonight so my friends can beat me down until I do the finishing on it.

But what I am going to talk about is the contest. I'm terribly excited when people ask me about it or tell me they have stuff to send me. It's amazing how small the internet makes the world & how supportive people from all corners of the world are.

Look at what is coming my way:

Sherilyn whipped this hat out (and if you visit her blog you will see the cutest little girl ever!)


Deedee from California (knitnurd on Ravelry) asked about where to send hat so I went poking around in her projects & found this hat that she made for the contest:

I love this hat & actually have this book - I hadn't even thought about it. I might have to make one because it looks like such fun!

So contest details here, still plenty of time - I won't be doing the prize drawing until May 30. Thank you everyone for your support - it really means a lot to me!

Does This Pattern Really Exist?

In a time that we can find anything we ever wanted to see (& lots of things that we never wanted to see on the internet), I find myself in uncharted territory. I'm knitting something that doesn't exist. There are no pictures on the pattern. There are no pictures on the internet. There is no mention of this pattern on Ravelry. There is no "designer" listed on the pattern, no copyright notes. So does it even really exist?

Well, I know for a fact that it does because I saw it in the wild. I bought this kit when I went to Stitches East in October last year. I was in the Ruhama's / Isager Knit booth & I saw a woman walking around wearing The.Prettiest.Shawl. I asked her about it & she said "I just bought the last kit" really snotty like. I was kind of sad but figured it was fate that I didn't get the last kit & moved on. Kinda. I kept thinking about it. It was just SO pretty. It would go with EVERYTHING. It was simple and classic. I thought about it for days. I finally went & asked one of people manning the booth about it & they would be happy to ship me a kit as soon as they got home. HOORAY!



When I got the kit the next week I was so excited to see the pattern & remember what it looked like but...yeah, no picture, but I was ok with that. It did have a name, Sangre de Cristo Shawl. Last Tuesday night at about 11:30pm I had a burning desire to cast on for this shawl. (Don't ask me why I do this to myself but I have to tell you, every single time that happens I am so happy that I have a huge stash of yarn, swift/ball winder, & tons of needles at my house.) I started this shawl & now...I'm totally addicted. Wednesday I drug it with me to two knitting meet ups (yes, Wednesday is a really rough day for me, why do you ask?) and I had people asking me loads of questions about it.

* What are you making? Where is the picture? What do you mean you don't have a picture?
* But where can I find it online?
* Did you look for it on Ravelry (because seriously, every pattern known to knitters everywhere is on Ravelry, right? Apparently not.)
* But what is it going to look like?
* If it's a shawl shouldn't you be doing some increases or something?

It's like knitting a mystery shawl that isn't a mystery to me! It's a mystery to everybody else. It's a fun experience & I honestly can't believe how spoiled we have gotten to just pull up pictures on the internet or phone or put pictures on a blog. I have to assume that pre-internet there wasn't immediate information about every knitting pattern known to man. It's a new experience for me & for everyone I am knitting around. So here's a peek at what it looks like.



Now it's my personal mission to get this thing finished so it will exist in the world. And then everyone will know how beautiful & will have no doubt as to why I fell in love with it the minute I saw it.

Sometimes knitting makes we want to cry.

For whatever reason I became completely obsessed with making this Vesper sweater:

Flickr Photo used with permission of pipibird

I bought this Linen Isle on clearance with absolutely no idea what I was going to do with it.

This yarn/pattern combination kept haunting me so I decided to go for it. I printed out the pattern, got out my yarn & needles, & knit a swatch. So far so good. Then I started reading the pattern. Cast on 432 stitches. Wow. And one Ravelry user had done some mods that I wanted to incorporate which called for that to be a provisional cast on. Wow. I almost just put the whole thing down & said forget it right there. But you know, I'm supposed to be pushing myself to learn new things this year, so I wanted to just go for it. I found a video at the Knitting at Knoon website & decided that was the easiest way for me. I sat through a 2 hour movie and STILL hadn't cast on all of those stitches. I just went with it until it was over & you know, it wasn't all that bad. This is definitely an easier method than other things I have tried. Now the issue is that I had 432 stitches on my needles & other than some short rows, I needed to knit all 432 of those stitches for quite while. So I did. And then I realized that I made a ridiculous stupid mistake - I hadn't done my short rows long enough & it wasn't going to be right. I re-read the pattern shaking my head wondering how in the world I didn't see the obvious instructions on that piece of paper!

There are 2 schools of thought on making a knitting project. Some people think you should read through each detail of the pattern & know what you are doing. Some people think you should never read ahead because it will just confuse you & you have to trust the process. I had read nothing but great things about how clever this pattern was so when I read ahead a little & it made no sense, I didn't trust myself. I told myself to just trust the process & when I got to the next part it would make sense. You know what? I'm a pretty smart cookie & I should have known. I should have trusted my gut when it looked like something was wrong. No, the pattern wasn't wrong, but the next step didn't match up with my fabric. Because I SCREWED UP THE KNITTING PART. One day I'm going to believe that I do kinda know what I'm doing & not continue down the path that leads to frogging all of my work!

I ripped back 10 inches of knitting 432 stitches & started over. Now I'm about 3 inches from being done with the body, I need to add a little length to the sleeves, and then knit the pleats around the neckline. I am really really hoping to have this finished so I can wear it to Disneyworld when I go on April 5th. I'd love to have a picture with Mickey and/or Minnie wearing something I knitted! How cool would that be?

Stay tuned.

Contest Time Q&A - Headquarters & up to date prizes HERE.

A few people have asked me some questions about the contest so I thought I'd put them here. I'm also going to keep listing the up-to-date prizes on this post, so check back often - I keep getting new stuff!

Tell me the details again, please.
Knit chemo caps in any child's size to be donated to Children's Hospital in New Orleans in memory of Adrianna Cavanaugh. Email me at bijouxmasteratgmaildotcom & I will send you an address to mail your finished hats. Your name will go into a drawing for each hat donated. Drawing will be held May 30, 2010.

Do I have to use one of the patterns from your queue?
Absolutely not! Use whatever pattern you want or make up your own. I just know I get stuck sometimes & need a push in the right direction.

I'm not a knitter, I'm a crocheter. Will you accept crocheted hats?
Yes, please crochet some adorable hats.

What kind of yarn should I use?
Again, I really don't care what kind of yarn you use, but it needs to be something really soft & preferably machine washable. Some yarns that I like for this purpose (but you don't have to use these!):
Berroco Comfort
Rowan Calmer
Caron Simply Soft
Berroco Pure Merino or Pure Merino DK
Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in any weight
Fiesta Yarns Boomerang
Rowan Classic Cashsoft - any weight
Lorna's Laces Worsted or DK
This is just an example of yarns I had in my stash that would work.

What are you going to do with the hats if you get more than Children's Hospital in New Orleans needs?
Well, I hope I have this problem. If I do, I will check withe Sloan Kettering which is another hospital where Adrianna spent a good deal of her time after her diagnosis. If I have more than they need, then I will check with local hospitals here in the Dallas area or send them to St. Jude - another favorite charity of mine. They will be distributed wherever there is a need! Send them on & I'll be sure they are put to good use.

Can I podcast / blog / post in my Rav group about your contest?
Yes, please do! The more the merrier - I'd love to be swamped with hats. You can email me or leave me a comment if you do just because I'm curious & will go check it out.

I really don't like to knit hats. Do I have to knit something to win?
Well, I thought about this one & you know what? If you'd prefer to make a donation to one of the charities that are special to the Cavanaugh family, I'm good with that. Your name will go into the drawing for every $10 donation you make to one of the following organizations:
http://www.bandofparents.org/
Band of Parents Foundation
PO Box 335
Dewittville, NY 14728

or to
Children's Hospital, New Orleans, LA
Forward your receipt to my email & I will put your name in the hat. So to speak.

Are you knitting hats too?
Yes, in between all my other knitting I will be knitting as many as I can crank out. And for those of you that know me best - no, I'm not going to put my name in the drawing, though I'd like to because my prizes rock. (you know you were wondering!)

What can I win?
The ever changing prize corner

Wollmeise in the Vroni colorway


OR

Brooks Farms Acero in this great color - 2 skeins.


OR

My sweet friend Dawn (of Knit Naturally Podcast fame & texaspurlgurl on Ravelry) has generously donated a Scentsy Full Sized System - you get a full sized warmer of your choice & 3 Scentsy bars. If you haven't tried Scentsy yet, it is a wickless candle system & I love mine to pieces. Go check it out.

OR

Handgefaerbt Merino Extra Fine Superwash in Lord of the Vampires

Graciously donated by Liz (aka happytexan) & I seriously want to steal this one, but I won't. I mean, she won't give it to me. LOL

OR

Yarn Pirate in Hawt Pink

Graciously donated by Dawn (aka texaspurlgurl)

OR

A Verb For Keeping Warm Organic Worsted Merino

Graciously donated by my friend Lyn (aka downwarddogfbrs)

OR

Brooks Farm Primero

Graciously donated by my friend Lyn (aka downwarddogfbrs)

OR
Prism Custom Dyed Lace Wool

Generously donated by Sherilyn aka Sherilyn on Ravelry.

OR
Madeline Tosh, Tosh sock in Fjord. Yum. Bought this at The Loopy Ewe this weekend.


I will be giving them all away to different people based on a random number generator.

If you have any other questions, email me or put it in the comments.
Knit on!

Contest time!

I'm having a contest!
Want to know what you are going to win? Well, YARN of course. Some fantabulous yarn. There will be as many drawings as I have prizes for and I can't give you a final number because no telling what I'll come up with by the deadline. These will be given away for sure.

Wollmeise in the Vroni colorway


Brooks Farms Acero in this great color - 2 skeins.

(my disclaimer is that I am only giving this up because I will see them in April & this gives me a good excuse to buy more. Because I LOVE LOVE LOVE this yarn. Just sayin.)

My sweet friend Dawn (of Knit Naturally fame & texaspurlgurl on Ravelry) has generously donated a Scentsy Full Sized System - you get a full sized warmer of your choice & 3 Scentsy bars. If you haven't tried Scentsy yet, it is a wickless candle system & I love mine to pieces. Go check it out.

Here's what I want you to do. I am collecting chemo caps to send to Childrens Hospital in New Orleans in honor of my cousin's daughter Adrianna. You can read her story HERE. Bring your kleenex if you want to visit the site, but it really is an amazing story & this little girl touched so many lives in her short stay on this earth that it's unbelievable. That's really all I want to say about that.

I will be focusing on toddler sized caps, but you are welcome to knit any size hat that would be useful at a children's hospital. If you aren't sure what to knit & want some ideas, you can visit my Ravelry queue & I have a tab labeled "adrianna" with 20ish patterns in there (Tasha's queue). I link that but I don't want to hear any crap about how many patterns I have queued OR how anal I am about organizing it. Incidentally, I also have a tab labeled "chemo" if you ever want to stalk my queue for chemo caps in general. Or any other category, really.

What do you need to do? You can email me at bijouxmasteratgmaildotcom & let me know that you have hats to donate. I will send you an address to mail them to. Then, on May 30, 2010 I will have a drawing . Your name will go into a drawing for every hat you send me between now & then.

That's about it! You can email me questions or leave them in the comments. Get to knitting!

ETA: Just visited the site to make sure the link is working & realized that the day I posted this is exactly to the day 1 year since Adrianna was admitted to the hospital & they discovered her Neuroblastoma. This was pure accident if you believe in coincidence I suppose.

Olympic Fail - kinda

I had really high hopes for the Knitting Olympics this year.  For those of you who don't know, Knitting Olympics or Ravelympics is an event started by the Yarn Harlot for the 2006 Olympic games.  The premise is to chose a challenging project, cast on during the opening ceremonies, finish before the end of the 17 days of the Winter Olympics.
This year I decided to work on my languishing Works in Progress because well, I had a pile of them, as you know since I bared my soul last month.  In the meantime I dealt with a bunch of them, but I wanted to work on a few of them using a "balls to the wall" approach.  Sigh.  My plans have been foiled once again & I'll tell you why.

Triple S Shawl
I'm using this yarn:

My intention when I chose these colors was to go against what are really safe color combinations for me.  This was a stretch but I really like it & I was excited to see how it turned out.  I finished one strip of the shawl & I just have to say it - I don't like the brown & green skein mixed into the shawl.  It actually has some orange tones in it & I really really don't care for orange.  Everyone who has seen it assures me it is pretty so I thought I could push through.  I got about six more squares in & just came to the point where I know I won't be happy with it.  Brooks Farm will be at DFW Fiber Fest in April, so I figured I'll bring what I have up there & try to find another color that I'll be happy with it.  I put it to rest so guess what?  Disqualified.  No medal.

Noni Adventure Bag

This stupid bag.  I put this down sometime in 2007 because my yarn was all tangled up.  What a wimp!  I literally only had to knit the i-cord handle, felt the thing, then do the finishing.  I finished the handle in like an hour on the first day of the olympics.  I needed to do the felting & have read that you really should put it in a zippered pillow case so that your washer doesn't get clogged up.  I wanted to take that step because well, I can't really have my washer screwed up right now.  So it took me about a week to get around to going to Big Lots & finding a washable sham that would work.  Have I felted it yet?  Hell no.  Don't ask me why - it's like I have a huge mental block about this.  Check with me in a few years - maybe I'll have it done by then.  (or maybe after the olympics as I seem to be rebelling against the deadline).  Disqualified.  No medal. 

Not So Striped Tee
This is the best picture I have of the way the yarn was knitting up. 

I put this down because I was honestly just bored.  I picked it back up & knit about 4 rows on it then decided I needed to have a little talk with myself.  Would I honestly wear this sweater?  I like the sweater.  I like the yarn.  I wasn't really a fan of them together.  The yarn was striping a little more than I wanted it to, and I seriously don't need any horizontal stripes across my stomach area.  This yarn is great & I love it, but I think it is better suited for a shawl in this colorway.

This is actually how far along I was on it - sorry for the crappy photo.  I couldn't find my camera when I decided to tear it out but needed to click a quick picture for the committee. 


So I tore it out & ended up with this:


I really consider this a fail because I didn't end up with a sweater.  BUT......it did qualify for the Aerial Unwind event in the Ravelympics, so the act of tearing it out earned me this:

HOORAY!  I love a semi-happy ending.



Ophelia
This was a sweater that I started in March 2008.  I never thought I would wear this the way it was written since I'm not much of a vest-ish person.  I figured I could just add some sleeves & it would be a great spring sweater to wear over sun dresses & such (you know, since I wear sun dresses so often).  Well, I finished the sweater nearly as written.  The only change I made when I was knitting the body was to not do the gathered shoulder - I just did a 3 needle bind off which made the shoulder seam pretty long.  To be honest, I just didn't know how to approach adding sleeves.  I got stuck & put it down for nearly 2 years.  There really was not much actual knitting left to do, it was just a matter of sitting down with it & figuring out how to add some type of sleeve that would look good.  And I needed to do something about the fronts that were curling like crazy. 

I brought my problem child to the smartest woman I know, Alissa Barton (aka Knitting Fairy) and she helped me out.  For the curling she had me crochet all the way around the front & when that didn't fix it, I did a reverse double crochet around again.  That took for-freakin-ever because I'm a sucky & slow crocheter.  She also gave me some advice on picking up for the sleeves.  Well, let me tell you, that crocheting was a cake walk compared to the trouble I had with the sleeves.  I pulled them out..oh, I don't know...probably 3 times?  It was like Goldilocks - too many stitches, not enough stitches, just right stitches but the pattern looked like ass.  I finally settled on stockinette sleeves edged with the lace rib pattern that is at the bottom of the sweater.

I'm not entirely happy with the sleeve length - I had hoped that there was enough yarn for me to do do 3/4 length of long sleeves.  Somewhere in the past 2 years I wised  up to the fact that I likely won't be throwing this on over a sun dress & that a cotton long sleeve sweater in Texas would be useful.  I went so far as to weigh the yarn I had left & figured I would knit sleeve #1 until I was half way, then knit the other.  It hits me right below the elbow, which I suppose is acceptable, but I'd still prefer it to be longer.  Here she is in all her glory:

I thought about adding one button at the bust, but for now I'm going to operate under the assumption that I can use a sweater clip to keep it closed.
Ophelia earned me this medal:


After I realized that some of my projects weren't working out, it seemed that I was going to have more time to work on a new project.  I had been really stalking these colorwork mittens:
Deep in the Forest Mittens
I had some yarn in my stash that I thought would work for them

Well, as it turns out, that ivory yarn was too thick.  I also had some ivory cashmere in my stash & I tried to use that.  Yeah, that didn't work out either.  So new last minute entry: Disqualified.  No medal.

What I learned about myself is really what I already knew.  I really don't like knitting on a deadline & I rebel against time lines.  This is my hobby & is supposed to be fun - this go round I wasn't having fun.  I did start something new I'll talk about another day & I'm happy to say that I only spent about a week in no-fun knitting land.  It's good to be back to normal.

We interupt this knitting blog....

to bring a cute baby picture.


This is where I'll be this week - in Austin visiting my friend Suzanne & her baby Annabelle.  This is a shrug that I made for her & proof of why I'll knit her anything her heart desires.  A fun baby knit, an appreciative mom & a cute baby to show it off.  Win win win.

How I Got My Sock Mojo Back

I have 5 drawers like this. This one is full (except for that one sock in the very bottom right hand corner that we aren't going to talk about). I think it's so pretty. Is it wrong that I'm on a mission to fill my lingerie drawers with hand knitted socks?

What?

I DO NOT have socks just like these that I'm making. Why do people keep asking me that?



Clearly they are very different.