Bitter Purl/Better Purl

I've been back at work four days now after having a week off. (It was supposed to be a longer break, but the last couple of days of the fiscal year were harrowing so I had to cancel my vacation on those two days. Being in charge is very glamorous. And, yes, bitterness did enter the picture just a little bit.) It was a working vacation anyway, spent cleaning, organizing, meeting with an architect, therefore I had to carve out the fun where I could. So, I made myself feel better with this:

I now feel more relevant. (Now, if the TiVo would leap out of its box and hook itself up, life would be great. It's only been hanging out here for about four months.) I am SO addicted to podcasts--at least for the moment. I sought out and downloaded every knitting-related podcast out there. Whoa. Then I immediately unsubscribed to some of them as quickly as I found them--eek. The one that I am truly taken by is Cast On by Brenda Dayne. She's knowledgeable, quirky, opinionated, self-deprecating, and has a very soothing voice. I went back and downloaded every episode--more than 27 hours worth!!--and am making my way through. The great thing is that I can be doing other things (cooking, cleaning--the most loathsome of all tasks, walking on the treadmill) and I can still feel like I am enjoying knitting in some fashion while I do those things that I must do. (I discovered today that Tim Gunn has a Project Runway podcast--more audio crack for me!)

I also treated myself to these:

Glass knitting needles. They are really gorgeous, especially the large ones with the swirls inside. Yes, they were an unnecessary purchase, but I got them on eBay so they weren't out-of-control expensive. Yeah, okay, I know I NEVER knit on straights anymore but I could...

I have been working on a tank from on of the Yarn Girls books using Sonata from Elann.



Lots and lots of around and around since I adapted it to be done in the round instead of front and back. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I'm working on 5s because I thought the fabric was too loose using 6s, but now I'm wondering if it is too dense. I guess we'll see. I'm really trying to go from being product-oriented to being process-oriented, so ripping out should not bother me, right?

So, I am feeling a little better about re-entry. I'm going to take those two days off in a couple of weeks. And I do have Stitches to look forward to in a month!

Thanks to my June Project Spectrum postcard swap-mate. She sent a lovely card as well as some blue goodies for my enjoyment. It was a lovely package which is pictured here on her blog. (I was having indoor picture-taking issues and did not get a usable shot of my own.)

The Tale of the Knitting Niece

I believe I have succeeded in hooking the niece on knitting. Apparently, her interest in it has not waned since the big Maryland Sheep and Wool extravaganza of family fun. In fact, when I checked in with her this weekend and asked if she would still like to take a class, I got an emphatic "Yes!" in triplicate. So, as I promised I would, I found a LYS that offers classes for kids and I signed her up. I also provided a little mad money in the form of a gift certificate to get her going. And I am going to do a little personal de-stashing by sending her some balls of yarn leftover from various projects (including the oh-so-lovely Kool-Aid yarn) so she has a little starter stash of her own. I think may fly down to Maryland to observe one of the classes myself. Nothing would thrill me more than having her turn into a little fiber fiend who wants to spend her vacations going to fiber festivals and searching for the best LYSs. Perhaps we will start an intergenerational knitting blog. (Okay, she's seven--a bit too young for the blogosphere in my opinion but I am thinking ahead.)

Not Knitting Again

For the second week in a row I did not head down to Loopy to knit after work. The husband, in a fit of impetuousness at 5pm, got on the computer and found two fabulous center aisle seats to see Keb' Mo' and the ever-fabulous Miss Bonnie Raitt at Ravinia. She was, as always, marvelous. And she did my two favorites, "I Can't Make You Love Me" and "Angel from Montgomery" so I was a happy girl. Not the cheeriest songs in her repertoire but, damn, she sings 'em.

Work has been incredibly nerve-wracking lately. Closing the fiscal year is always stressful and this year is really a challenge. I will be oh-so-happy when it is over. I don't even have the time or patience to knit, that's how not-fun it is right now. Blech.

Tramps Like Us

I am a lucky, lucky girl. The husband and I saw Bruce Springsteen on The Seeger Sessions Tour on Wednesday night. I was about as close to him as I may ever get--maybe 50 feet away or so. It was fantabulous. Even the husband--who does not like loud concerts, crowds, or even most Springsteen music--had a great time. So much so, in fact, he suggested we fly to New Jersey to catch one of the last shows on this tour leg. (He has been converted!!! And, no, we're not going.) Bruce Springsteen is the hardest working man in show business (sorry, James Brown) and, at a time when many of his contemporaries are coasting on their past achievements or phoning it in and collecting their checks, he is bringing fresh, creative, and meaningful work to the stage. The 16 assembled musicians were truly fine and the new arrangements of the old stuff (particularly "Atlantic City") were revelatory. The Bradley Center is a pretty small arena and there were a lot of seats to be had. I know that it is very expensive to buy tickets to these things, but one has to wonder if this tour has not been selling as well as past tours because he's not playing "Born to Run". I love the E Street stuff, too, but it really is great to see him go out on a limb. (For the record, I wouldn't kick him out for eating crackers in bed, but if he never played most of the "Born in the USA" album again, I'd be okay with that so long as I still got to look at the album cover. The man can wear a pair of jeans...)

Just because...

The Adult Equivalent of a Half-day of School

This is how I feel 'cause I am cutting out of work early, getting on an Amtrak train headed for Milwaukee, and going to see my second favorite man from New Jersey. (I am required by law to say that as the husband hails from exit 11.) Is she not the cutest? (That's my oldest friend's little girl. Well, she's not my oldest friend--she's the friend I've had the longest, since we were 14 and she had braces and I wore suspenders, a la "Mork and Mindy". Yep, you bet I did. Her mom and I have been friends for 26 years. You can do the math.) I took this picture of her when we were in PA a few weeks ago for the big Mother's Day Surprise Visit.

I just got home from a knitting gathering in Bucktown. This was my first time hooking up with this group--quite nice. There was an amazing knitter there, a woman who moved to Chicago from Mexico City to live with her daughter a year ago, after her husband passed away. She has a lot to teach the group, many of whom a fairly new to knitting. (Personally, I'd love to pick up some Spanish, and she said she needs to practice her English--perfect!)

Worldwide Knit in Public Day, Chicago Edition

Let me start by saying none of my local friends* are knitters (except, of course, the friends I am meeting at local yarn shops, SnB events, etc.) So, everyone I told of my plans today either rolled his or her eyes, guffawed, or teased me in that isn't-that-amusing-but-girl-you-so-crazy kind of way. Oh, well, they can't be expected to understand what they cannot comprehend.

Well, it was a lovely fall day here in Chicago...felt like it anyway. But, let's face it, who wants to knit outside when it is hot and humid? While rain threatened to dampen the festivities (and, in fact, caused some of us to start the day in the back-up indoor location), the day turned out rather well. About 40 to 45 knitters gathered near the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park. Here are a few pics:

The youngest knitter found himself a lovely perch.

One half of the fountain doing its thing. There is another tower that faces it and a shallow, open wading pool sits between them. Videos of faces are projected through the glass blocks and, about every 10 minutes, they purse their lips and "spit". After a few minutes of this, a large cascade of water spills from the top of each tower and the process starts over again. Fun stuff.

I met some charming knitters and ended the day by walking a few of them down to Loopy Yarn. I hope to hook up with a few of them at either Stitches Midwest or at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival.

The only unfortunate thing about these gatherings is that I don't actually get a lot of knitting done. I did a little more work on the sock and I cast on and did a few rows of Green Gable #2. But, we did unabashedly, unashamedly flaunt our craft in public--and the police were not called.

*S.A. is a knitter, but is way down south in Alabama. Trust me, she didn't laugh when I told her about this--she wanted her own personal chapter of Knit in Public Day.

I try not to be a crazy cat lady...

...but sometimes I can't help it. Papel (who we sometimes tease as being a cat of very little brain) was smart enough to utilize the temporarily repositioned quilt rack as a comfy hammock.

Who says he isn't clever and resourceful...

The sock is coming along. I have just finished the heel flap--yes, for the second time--and am getting ready to turn the heel. I am also knitting a Krazy Kool Aid Skirt (yep, I did just break one of my own grammar rules) for the niece. I hope it will be cute and not too garish. Eh, she's seven--nothing is too garish in a seven-year-old's eyes. Pics to come.

Worrying/fretting/obsessing about the end of my company's current fiscal year and balancing the budget for the upcoming year occupies much of my brain at the moment. It is one of my least favorite times of year. In a not-for-profit, one rarely has to worry about how to spend all of that excess money just lying around! Sometimes I'm tempted to check all of my coat pockets and dig under the couch cushions just to find a few extra bucks to help end the year. I'm looking forward to June 30 because, one way or another, FY06 will be over and a new budget for FY07 will be in place. Thankfully I have knitting to give me something to count other than dollars in and dollars out...like yards and miles of yarn.

Before I joined Summer of Stash, I ordered 10 balls each of the following colors of Sonata from Elann:

For those of you who might be keeping track (and I'm not sure who that would be other than me and the husband) that's 3,450 more yards, bringing the total to 105,739 yards, which is equal to 60.79 miles! Eeek.

Ahhh...

After last weekend during which the city of Chicago was approximately the temperature of one of the rings of hell (okay, not quite, but we, the nearly 100-year-old-house-dwelling-un-air-conditioned-types thought so) this week and this weekend have been perfect.

I hit a roadblock on the sock, so I waited until Friday night when I could get some assistance at Loopy Yarns. I sat down, told them I was having an issue and began ripping back to where I knew I should start. As I was tinking, I realized immediately what I had been doing wrong. That's my favorite part about knitting. I have always felt that the ability to knit has been in my brain and in my hands and I just have to find the way to release it. It seems like something I was always supposed to do. (Wow, that reads SO new age-y.)

Yesterday, the husband and I took a walk around the neighborhood and it was lovely. We live in a historic little pocket of Chicago where most of the houses range from the late 1800s to the mid-1920s. Ours was built in 1909. We are soon going to be undertaking some significant renovations on the house--all new windows and electric, the kitchen, turning the upstairs kitchen into a bathroom/laundry, etc. We'll see how far we get before the money runs out...As much as I would love a house with rooms with better "flow", typical Chicago two- and three-flats tend to be a little chopped up. Ours is a little better because we are on a bigger lot, so our house is about three feet wider than the normal two-flat. Doesn't sound like much, but it actually makes a huge difference. In order to get that flow, we'd have to gut the house which doesn't feel right. We bought it for its vintage details like the wood and stained glass, so we will live with the quirks, too--with a few improvements. Hopefully A/C will be one of them! But I digress...

Our neighborhood feminist bookstore, Women and Children First, surprised me by having a small but nice little selection of knitting books. I have always thought highly of the store. They have really impressive author events and it has plenty of non-feminist titles to keep even the husband browsing for some time. I am going to commit to buying at least a few more books a year at W&CF.

Two friends recently returned from a trip to Florida. They informed me that their very first "junking" purchase was for me. It was this:

It is a bag crocheted out of...bags. Specifically Wal-Mart bags. (It even has a cell phone pocket inside.) Hey, I'm all about the recycling, and one cannot underestimate the appeal of doing handcrafts, but I personally could not give up a life of fiber for a life of plastic, no matter how low the stash ran.* Kudos to this happy hooker, though. Recycle on!

*There is no danger of that. Last weekend I calculated the stash. Not counting items on the frog pile as well as a few other things that got missed, I have 58 miles of yarn. FIFTY. EIGHT. Yikes. I joined the Summer of Stash pronto. It's the first step to recovery.

Back where we started...

...here we go 'round again.

I have now started my first pair of socks four times. First, there was the aborted Sockotta attempt. Then I moved on to the Socks that Rock on #2s. Ripped out once due to a mistake I couldn't figure out how to fix. Started again. Ripped out because, despite getting gauge, I just thought they were going to be too big. Ordered #1s (and #0s and #3s) from Jimmy Bean's Wool and have restarted--again. I'm thinking that this time will stick.

I got my Project Spectrum postcard in the mail today--and so much more! My swap partner sent a whole package of green-themed goodies. How sweet is that?!! What a nice surprise.

Confession time: I went a little crazy. Among the many things I gravitate to are skulls, specifically festive, whimsical Dia de Los Muertos-style skulls. Enter the Lexie Barnes Hermosa bags. The big one is actually a diaper bag. (The yarn will never know.) I have a bazillion bags, including a number of "knitting bags" and I don't need any more. Still, I had to have these:

Love them.

I'm hoping to get a lot of knitting (and other things like cleaning) done over the long weekend. (I don't like cleaning, I do like knitting. Wonder which one will win?!)

Hancock Fabrics is having a 50% off notions sale, so I think I'll go up there and pick up a few buttons, etc.

Long weekends are good.

Why my bathroom smells like a pack of Juicy Fruit

The sun was shining, and there were several packets of Kool-Aid calling my name. So, I took the sun tea approach to dyeing.

On Friday night I conned the husband into accompanying me to a new (to me) yarn store in Chicago. Loopy Yarns is near 8th and State downtown. When we first moved to Chicago 13-ish years ago, we lived one block away. The Loop has gone through a major resurgence since we lived there. The sidewalks used to roll up at 7pm, and that particular area had a bit of an edge to it. (I say that having lived in Hell's Kitchen in New York before its renaissance. That neighborhood was even edgier then, but there were always lots of people around. Not so in the South Loop of a decade ago.) ER begain its first season right after we moved here, and on the very first episode, there was a scene that took place in front of the Pacific Gardens Mission, practically across the street from where Loopy Yarns is now. Julianna Margulies looked up from the shooting victim she was treating and said, "Welcome to Hell." "Fantastic," I thought, "I picked a great neighborhood."

Oh, but I digress. That was a long-winded way of saying that a lot has changed in that area. Loopy Yarns was nice. I plan to go back for their Friday night open knitting sessions, and maybe for their Einstein Coat Encouragement Sessions.

I bought both Cat Bordi's sock book and the Magic Loop pamphlet as well as some Addi Turbos in 2s. I decided to try the 2-needle method first. I did this:

I was using Sockotta and, frankly, it was not pleasing to me. So, I frogged it and dove right in to the Socks that Rock.

SO MUCH BETTER!!! Softer, squishier, more pliable. Anybody want some Sockotta?

Green

I've completed my first Project Spectrum card and it is winging its way to Malaysia. Hope it gets there. Since green is my favorite color group, this was fun. I have many, many green things in my home, from a sizable collection of McCoy pottery to a hefty portion of my yarn stash. When I was putting the card in the mailbox, I noticed this:

I love leaves. I find the colors and shapes incredibly inspiring. (Sadly, my 7th grade leaf collecting project did not reflect this. Sorry, Mr. Weinstein.)

My Socks that Rock arrived today. Exciting. Even though I don't often wear socks (which makes me an oddity in often-frigid Chicago), I look forward to the knitting challenge of making a pair (or 6 since that's how many skeins of StR that I bought!)

I've been home sick for a few days. I stayed home mostly to keep my co-worker from having to listen to me cough, clear my throat, and blow my nose incessantly. From the neck up, I felt awful. The rest of me felt pretty okay. So, I made some use of the time doing a little stash arranging. Whew. I'm not sure how I ultimately want to deal with it. (In my head, I see a wall lined with barrister's bookcases full of yarn so it can be seen. That's a somewhat expensive solution, but aesthetically very pleasing. Plastic tubs=way cheaper but not very pretty.) Right now, the stash lives downstairs because these guys...

...live upstairs. Our house was/is a two-flat, so several doors separate them from the yarn. Given that they love yarn as much as I do--albeit for different reasons--the separation is a good idea. (That's Pitch in the back and Papel in the front.)

Philly and beyond

Last things first. (Mostly.) My Mom said she suspected we might be coming in on Mother's Day, but she was still surprised. Hurrah. It was fun to do, and, as you might suspect, the trip was punctuated with...

...visits to knitting stores! First off, Loop on South Street in Philly. Loved, loved, loved this store. Wanted to pack it up and bring it home to Chicago. It was bright, it was well organized, the people were so nice, the samples were all hip and beautifully done. I got some circulars in sizes I had been having trouble locating here. And, it is on South Street, which, if you grew up in the Philadelphia-area in the 80s, was the mecca for all things cool. Skinz and Zipperhead ruled. That's where you would go with your babysitting money to buy your Sex Pistols t-shirts that you were SO not allowed to wear to school, so you only wore them on, like, a day trip with your friends down the shore. (Yes, downtheshore, never down to the shore.) (Photo of the former home of Zipperhead--although I can't remember if the ants were there then.)

So, Loop. Go there.

On the way down South Street to Jim's Steaks (yeah, yeah, we could have gone to Pat's or Geno's, but Jim's was closer) we passed this.

I love this place. This artist's work is all over the South Street area, but this is where it all converges.

Then to Jim's for a 40 minute wait, half of it in the rain.

Worth it. Cheese steak with onions, sweet and hot peppers, and Whiz. (That's Cheez Whiz, y'all. Something I absolutely, positively do not eat outside the Philadelphia city limits.)

NOTE: I have a thing about names intentionally spelled wrong like Klassy Kuts or Kidz Korner or anything of that ilk. Cheez Whiz gets a pass, but only when I am in the City of Brotherly Love.

We skipped Sophie's, which is around the corner because the aforementioned wait backed us up a little. It's on my list for the next trip in.

Then, back up South Street to retrieve the rental car, and on to the Chestnut Hill section of the city. Chestnut Hill is lovely. Historic homes, nice shopping, charming restaurants, etc. Try the Baker Street Bakery's Apricot and Pistachio Bread if you get the chance. Delish. And, they also had some decent Philly-style soft pretzels. These are not like soft pretzels anywhere else. Shaped different, taste different, must be eaten with yellow mustard. I love them. A lot. And these weren't bad considering they lacked that street vendor je ne sais quoi.

I stopped in at The Tangled Web and at The Knit With. I bought my very first book of knitting patterns at The Knit With a long time ago, so it has a special place in my heart. I also got some very sweet needles that, I must admit, I bought for decorative rather than practical purposes. Both of these stores were well-stocked but not much was happening at either, so I didn't get a sense of the "culture" at each. (I was really impressed with the variety, selection, and organization of the needles at The Knit With.)

Each LYS has a personality, and you have to find the one that works best for you. For me, I would like to rent a permanent space on the couch at Loop.

MSW--My Spectacular Weekend

What a fantastic time! My husband, niece, brother- and sister-in law indulged me by attending the Sheep and Wool Festival. A good time was had by all. We spent about 5 hours there on Saturday. I would have spent the whole weekend but, hey, when you're the only knitter in the crowd, one must compromise. The niece enjoyed petting things and picking out wool for a hat that I promised to knit. The husband and his brother are "let's find out" types and enjoyed asking questions of the breeders. (The anatomy of male sheep provided serious fodder for discussion. Boys.) I enjoyed everything. I must admit, as we were leaving, little clumps of knitters were scattered about in the shade, and I so wanted to plop down and knit away, but it was not to be.

Saturday morning I gave my niece a hefty gift bag full of goodies including a knitting starter set: Kids Can Knit, a knitting spool, two sizes of needles, a crochet hook, brightly colored cotton, and some Kool Aid-dyed wool. She spent a good part of the weekend making "tube scarves" for her stuffed animals. A knitter is born!

On Sunday, the niece and I decided to continue the knitting lessons (subjects covered: spool knitting, finger knitting, casting on, and the knit stitch) outside. Yep, knitting in a parking lot. All we needed was an Igloo cooler and a six-pack of cold ones. (Juice boxes, obviously.) We attracted some attention. A little neighbor saw what we were doing and went inside to get a knitting kit she had never even opened before.
SIDE NOTE:
Dear Makers of Kids' Knitting Kits:
Please, oh, please rethink the contents of your kits. Resist the urge to make an additional buck by including the crappiest yarn EVER in them. No one who touches that petroleum-based, sticky-yet-greasy nastiness will ever want to grow up to be a knitter. They will toss down their needles in frustration convinced that they cannot knit when, in fact, NO ONE can knit with that @#$%. Thank you.

My heart swelled with knitterly pride and joy when my niece told her friend, "This is my aunt. She is going to come visit this time every year and we are going to go to the Sheep and Wool Festival. She dyed this yarn herself with Kool Aid!" How sweet is that?!

Our short time at the Festival resulted in a relatively modest (by my warped, OCD-tinged standards) addition to Le Stash. On a side note, there was knitting, frogging, and re-knitting of the GG. (I did not see any GGs at MSW. Too warm, perhaps?) Once I decided it would not be worn to the festival, I frogged about 5 inches at the bottom that were just bugging me and started over. I may try to get it done for this weekend when I fly to PA to surprise Mom for Mother's Day. (She doesn't even know what a blog is, so the cat is in no danger of being let out of the bag!)

GG/MSW/OCD

Here is the GG in process. Just 6 days before MSW--and the pressure is on!

For some reason, re-sizing the photo made the stitches look nasty. They are not. In fact, I'm really happy with the way the Cotton Fleece is knitting up. It's nice and even with a really pretty sheen. Hurrah.

This is the evidence that I have some issues with obsessive/compulsive behaviors. I could not buy the yarn for one GG. I had to buy yarn for LOTS of GGs. (And the total stash is a thing to behold...)

Angela of Green Gable

Whew, the GG is going a little more slowly than I would like. I keep popping over to the GG KAL (congrats to Carrieoke and Jacob, btw!!) to see that so many are racing ahead on theirs, too. This is a great pattern but it does have a couple of bugs. It's good to hear what others are experiencing and to learn by their posts.

I am desperately going to try to get photos on this flipping thing this weekend. My camera and my computer have refused to speak with one another for some time and that must stop!!

SnB Tuesday at the MCA. Yippee.

Progress (kind of...)

After a week of not knitting on my vacation (and maybe that's why I didn't have a great time on this trip!!!) I am back at it. Just before I left, I made a scarf using Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky and I was not happy with it. I had this idea in my head and it just didn't turn out the way I planned. So, last Sunday I frogged the whole thing, wound it into skeins, soaked it in some Kookaburra Wool Wash to get the kinks out, and hung it up to dry. In the meantime, it got really warm here in Chicago and knitting big, thick, wooly stuff in the heat is just not that appealing to me. So....

...on to the Green Gable! Oh, I have this fantasy that I will have enough time to work on it before I go to MSW and that I will be able to wear my lovely new creation there. Not likely, but a girl can dream, can't she? And in a moment of combined loneliness (I'm flying solo at work for a few days) and OCD, I ordered yarn for 5 more Green Gables from Oregon Trail Yarn at eBay. I don't even know if this thing will look good on me, yet! Damn my compulsive tendencies!!!

I have just discovered that there is a Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in September. September is usually dedicated to business travel, but, due to budgetary constraints, I may not be gone so much this year. I may just hop in the pretty little Jetta and head on up to Jefferson County.

Have I said how excited I am about MSW? I'm really, really excited.

Oh, and I registered for Stitches Midwest. I am all about the knitting...

Back in action

Just returned from vacation. I finished my bell-sleeve shrug in the hotel the night before the ship left port so I was able to wear it. It turned out okay--not great. I used Shine and it is already a little bit pill-y. Harrumph.

Once I got on the ship, I did not knit at all. Too hot. I did, however, read Knitting Rules and Mason-Dixon Knitting. Both were great. I cannot wait to start a log cabin throw.

I am looking forward to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival with great anticipation. I think I may scope out some sock yarn and try a sock. I'll probably never wear it/them (I really don't like wearing socks--an issue when you live in the cold, windy Midwest) but I want to try it out. Perhaps stockings for the mantelpiece...(Just thinking ahead.)

I have joined Carrieoke's Green Gable KAL. I don't have a lot of faith that the finished product will look good on me, but I am looking forward to working along with fellow knitters. When I was a kid, back in the days before the VCR, The Wizard of Oz was only on once a year. That was it, no second chances. (We did not have a color tv--just black and white--so while I did know that most of the movie was in color, I didn't actually see it that way until I was in high school--how sad is that?!!) I loved knowing that I was watching the movie along with everyone else; it was an event for me, and one I looked forward to every year. I'm thinking of the KAL in sort of the same way--something that is connecting knitters all over the country in a common pursuit. I've ordered my Cotton Fleece and I am ready to go!

SnB

Of all of the things I could do for my birthday, I elected to go to the SnB at the MCA and THEN dinner with the husband. So glad I did. Everyone I have met there has been so nice, interesting, and passionate about knitting. It's so great to walk into a place knowing you already have something in common with everyone in the room.

It is confirmed: we are going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! I have convinced my husband, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and niece that it will be tons of fun. (If there are funnel cakes there, at least a couple of people will be happy.) I can't wait!

Well, I'm off to warmer climes.

4T

In two days I will be forty. One could do a lot of things when one celebrates a significant birthday. Right now, my plans are to go to the MCA for Stitch n' Bitch and then go to dinner with my husband at one of our favorite restaurants, MK. No candles. No balloons. No waiters singing silly birthday songs that aren't "Happy Birthday" so that the restaurant can avoid paying music royalties. Perhaps a little prezzy to open--that would be fine.

Trying to decide what kinds of knitting to bring with me on vacation. It will be warm and humid, so that needs to be taken into account. I did have high hopes of finishing two shrugs before I left. I'll be thrilled if one is finished. (Decided against bringing the other dress anyway, so I am in no hurry to get the pink one done at the moment.) I am also hoping that my copies of Mason Dixon and Knitting Rules get here before I leave--those are definitely going in the suitcase. There is a good chance they will, thank you Amazon.