woo-hoo! It's Friday! It's rainy and gray outside, but it is TOTALLY Friday. Hooray.

We totally went to Panama City Beach for Memorial Day Weekend. Fabulous Melanie invited us, and we had a kick ass time. I didn't take many pictures - I was too busy knitting and relaxing to do that - but I managed to take one or two. This picture is fairly indicative of our weekend.

Woooo-hooo, PCB.

There was lots of game playing (Rock Band, Grand Theft Auto, and Boom Blocks - yes, we had more than one game system with us), lots of beer drinking, and lots of knitting. I may have accidentally started another new project and finished a sleeve...it's the Dollar and a Half Cardigan [Rav link].

oops, I knit a sleeve.

I'm using my yummy Brooks Farm Willow, and it's perfect for this sweater. I will say this: it took me a little while to understand the lace pattern. I actually had to call my personal lace expert to get her help. I finally figured out that I was forgetting a YO over and over and over again. Now that I've done a whole sleeve, I've got the lace pattern memorized, and I can pretty much read the knitting and see what I need to do.

Other odds and ends: I'm doing stockinette instead of reverse stockinette for the panels in between the lace, and I'm also going down a needle size when I do the stockinette panels. I did some research on Ravelry and on some blogs , and apparently some knitters experienced weird poofiness when they knit the lace panels and the rev st st panels with the same needle size. I'm SO glad I read this, because switching needles seems to have totally eliminated that issue.

Once I figured out those initial things, it's totally easy knitting - it even travels well. Which is great, because I've just added some extra knitting time into my day: I started taking the bus to work!

Bus time.

Hee. I am seriously giddy about this. I live about 8-10 miles away from my work, and I'd always assumed that it would take forever to get to work using the city bus. It turns out that it's a 30 minute ride, AND, it's free because of where I work. HELLO. Free bus vs four dollars or more per gallon for gas? I am SO taking the bus. I was actually inspired to research it because of a thread on a Ravelry forum, and I'm so glad I did. I was really nervous the first time I had to pull the little cord to let the driver know my stop was coming up, but now I've done it successfully. (I know those of you who ride public transit all the time are probably laughing at me. I know, I'm a total newbie to this.)

So that gives me knitting time BEFORE work, and on my way home. How awesome is that?

Let's see. What else? My nephew, otherwise known as BigHeadSchmoo, turned two this week - can you believe it? I can't. He looks so grown up!

It seems like yesterday that he was born!

We'll be celebrating this weekend, which means I've got to find the perfect present tonight. After all, I need to keep my status as favorite aunt....

schmoo.

Posted by Carrieoke at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)

I started a post days ago and then work/knitting/Ravelry/life got in the way. So the short version is: Maryland Sheep and Wool was fun times. Saw some really awesome old friends and made some new ones. Bought some excellent yarn. Got sunburned.

I was overwhelmed (in a good way) by all the Ravelry craziness, but it didn't stop me from participating. Jess and Casey have obviously done an amazing thing and I'm so proud of my friends. And a little in awe of them.

Pictures from the trip are [ here ], if you're interested. And here's what I got while I was there:

The stash.

That's some sock yarn, yarn for one sweater, and some clasps and buttons. I was very restrained, actually. Although after seeing all the Namaste bags that Jess and Casey had for door prizes, I immediately came home and ordered this pretty pretty bag:

This is the Namaste Laguna.

It's beautiful and soft. It is also HUGE. If you don't want a big bag, it's not for you, but if you like to carry everything with you, I highly recommend it. Since I bought that the night I returned, I guess that counts as a MDSW purchase. Hee.

Anyways. What else? Well, I finished Anais. The unraveling of the cast on edge quickly turned into CUTTING OFF the ribbing and picking up stitches, but I'm okay with that. It was a messy job, but I'm super pleased with the results:

AND! I finished Jacob's socks today! He is actually wearing the socks right. now.

Finished!

I used Trekking XXL. I think he likes them. YAY. These are actually the second socks I've made for Jacob. The first pair ended up getting felted (although now I have a nice pair of slipper socks), but Trekking is machine washable (right?) so I think these will be okay.

That's two finished objects! woo-hoo, I'm getting crafty things done. I still need to put an binding on my prettypretty first quilt, and figure out what the heck to do with that purple Drops sweater that just needs finished arms and some buttons...but I'm currently distracted by some lace...

Go Fly a Kite Shawl.

I saw a girl wearing the most beautiful shawl at Maryland Sheep and Wool at Sunday's Ravelry meetup, and it turned out to be her own design! Holli was super gracious while we oohed and ahhed over her shawl. Luckily I had some Malabrigo lace yumminess in my stash, so I started it as soon as I got home. I'm hoping to have it done by my friend's wedding in the beginning of July. I had to get a little help from my friend Leigha to get going, but I'm totally cruising now!

yay. things are good. It's almost truly summer, which means my lovely town is quieter and slower and emptier. and I'm only taking ONE hour of class this summer, which means that I have more time to hang out with these schmoos:

happy schmoos.

Posted by Carrieoke at 8:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (35)

So, Anais. I finished the back and seamed it up - and it was looking very promising! Then, I added the lace collar part.

um, yeah.

Y'all, I wanted to love it, but it's just not working for me. I think maybe because I made my Anais pretty snug, the lace makes it look sort of ... trashy. Someone who saw this picture on Flickr may have mentioned Elvira. (And while I may have been Elvira for Halloween, I'd rather NOT channel her in my everyday wardrobe.) It's just not working. So, I ripped the lace part out, and took Carolyn's suggestion to add some ribbing around the collar.

Better.

Looks better. But this picture is deceptive - it's just TOO SHORT. Harumph. So, last night, I stayed up WAY too late and ripped out the cast on edge. (Full disclosure: I began by ripping out the cast on edge, and then I ended up taking scissors to the ribbing. There are no pictures because it was very, very scary.)

So now, I'm going to add a couple inches of length. I managed to get all the bottom ribbing off, get it back on the needles, and now I'm knitting downwards. I'm hoping I can finish it this weekend while I am at Maryland Sheep and Wool, YAYAYAYYAAYAYAYAYAYAYAY and also OH BOY.

ooh! I also took some pics of the finished Mingus socks before I sent them to Emily:

Swoon.

I love.

[BSG geekout]

I have also recently come to the conclusion that I pretty much HAVE to go to DragonCon this year because Helo and Lee will be there. OH YES.

I might have to dress up like a viper pilot too. NO LAUGHING.

[/BSG geekout]

Posted by Carrieoke at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (55)