Holy Crazy Cow!

I am grateful to my friend Bethany for giving me not one, but 2 fantastic excuses to finally buy the cowboy boots I've been drooling over for a while now. We're going to the Brooks and Dunn concert in a few weeks AND all her bridesmaids are wearing boots to the reception. She's just that cool! Here they are...in all their beauty!

What I'd really like to show is the UPS tracking page. I ordered standard free shipping. Soon after I ordered I got a friendly email from Zappos.com that my order had been shipped. When I checked the UPS tracking page I see that my boots are on schedule to be delivered today. Seriously! My boots are in Lafayette in a UPS truck riding around town right now. I've never heard of such fantastic shipping service. And it's free! So I am shamelessly putting in a plug for zappos.com. Again that's z-a-p-p-s-z-dot-c-o-m. Got it? Good.

And the winner is!

This was fun for me! I have picked a winner, but a few sweaters are going in my queue for sure! The Honeybee Cardigan was tough to turn down. The one that looks the best in the Ravely collection is the one I highlighted below. Thing is, she made it out of worsted. I'm afraid that even with the delicate lace, it would be too much for late spring/early summer. Same goes for the Tall Flower Cardi. Love it! Probably will make it for fall, but I think it's too heavy for now.

I also LOVE Poplar and Elm! Oh my gosh! It's beautiful. But it would have to be the highlight of the outfit. I think I'll make it because it would be amazing!

And now for the winner....AMY! You win!

I love the way the geodesic cardi will be an accesory to a cute spring or summer outfit. Plus the suggested yarn is Malabrigo Lace which means it will be lightweight, but cozy. I may use some yarn already in my stash if I have enough. That said, I haven't picked a color winner yet. That will be announced later!

Thanks for all the fun suggestions! I think I'll have to have another contest soon!


Here are the last suggestions. Great sweaters to add to your queue!

Tall Flower Cardi by Cecily Glowic

Myrtle cardigan by Snowden Becker

Old Mill Hoodie by Cecily Glowic

Today is the last day!

Today is the last day for suggested patterns/colors for a spring sweater for me to knit. Here's the most recent suggestion! Winner will be announced tomorrow if I remember! If I don't remember, the winner will be announced as soon as I remember. How's that for a fabulous contest hostess!?!?!

Geodesic Cardigan by Connie Chang Chinchio

Ideas Suggested So Far...

In no particular order here are the patterns that have been suggested so far...
Keep the ideas coming!

Mr. Greenjeans by Amy Swenson




Poplar and Elm by Carol Sunday

Honeybee Cardigan by Laura Chau

(this one is knit by Jettshin)

Barb Wire by Grace Mcewen

It's My First Blog Contest!

I'm heading to Europe (more specifically I'll be going to various places in the Netherlands, Brugge, Belgium and Bergamo, Italy) in May and I'd like to knit an all purpose cardigan to wear while I'm there. This is going to be a contest and I just decided that it will be a 2 part contest.

Part 1:
Suggest a cardigan pattern for me to knit. I'm thinking 3/4 sleeves, feminine, size 6 needles or smaller and some lace detail.
The person who suggests the winning pattern will receive a skein of sock yarn from my stash

Part2:
What color?!?!?!?! Needs to be all-purpose, but who said purple can't be all purpose? Suggest a color and/or a yarn for me to use.
The person who suggests the winning color will get some cute stitch markers.

Post your ideas in the comments and I'll try to cleverly post pictures of the patterns as they are suggested! Contest will end on Friday, April 9th at midnight EST. Yay for a fun contest!

The fine print:
*if the pattern or color is suggested more than once, the first person to have suggested that pattern or color will be the winner.
**if the pattern is in a book or magazine that I don't have and that is not available at the library, you will be responsible for providing me with a copy of the pattern. I am willing to pay for a Ravelry pattern, but not more than $5 or $6.

Shopping Spree!

Tonight I'm going shopping with a few girl friends, one of whom would like some wardrobe encouragement in efforts to impress a certain boy. So exciting! I've had a bit of a wardrobe overhaul myself. A few weeks ago it became blatantly obvious that my wardrobe is boring. I only have a few tops that are cute enough for wearing out on the social scene and my jeans are way too boxy to be terribly cute. In the last couple of weeks I've managed to spruce up the ol' wardrobe!

Jeans are a problem for everyone. They are made to fit no one. I tried on 8 pair at Macy's, 8 pair at GAP and didn't even bother at The Limited.
Dear Clothes Buyer at The Limited,
I didn't bother to try on jeans at your store. First, they were $70 a pair which was discouraging enough. But really...did you have to put a giant button on the butt pockets? No matter the size of a girl's tush, did you really think it was a good idea to draw attention to it with a button? Really?
Sincerely,
A jeans shopper speaking out for all women shopping for jeans


So just when I was about to give up, Old Navy pulled through! Old Navy of all places! I haven't had Old Navy jeans since high school. Mostly because their jeans have notoriously been made for girls in high school. So now I am happy with some jeans and cute tops. Missing from this picture is a pair of shoes. Ballet flats just don't seem to cut it in a club or a bar. I need some shoes that say, "this girl means business!" I need shoes I can walk in, but just barely. I don't want blisters, but I do want shoes that look like they might give me blisters.

Tonight will be all about my friend dressing to impress a certain boy. She wants cute jeans. Not sure what else, but I'm sure we'll manage to find a few hot items for her. Maybe just maybe I'll find a pair of shoes while we're out too! This is going to be fun!

A mild distraaction from Christmas knitting...

I'm knitting fingerless gloves for someone and I don't know if I like them. They seem so bulky. I suppose that one option would be to continue on as the pattern says and hope for the best. The other option would be to rip out the fingers in a not so violent way and turn them into convertible mittens. So while I think about that for a while I've decided to distract myself with another Hannah Fettig sweater! I loved the yellow featherweight cardigan I made this summer and now I will make a lightweight pullover. If it's done for Christmas Eve Mass I'll be a happy camper!

I've been hoping for a great way to use this yarn for a while now. It's kind of vintage. At least the label is!

The yarn is 50% virgin wool and 50% crimpset nylon. I don't really know what crimpset nylon is, but the label implies that it's for super strength and delux softness! Ooh la la! The pattern calls for for sport weight, but I'm getting gauge with fingering. I think the fabric will have more drape to it. That's kind of what I'm looking for. So I'm off to the races. Row after row after mundane row of stockingnet in the round. So far, I have an inch. This could take a while.

Shalom My Friend!

I finally finished my Shalom Cardigan!


And this is why I love living with mom...
Shhh....she doesn't know I stole the buttons yet!

Or you could just knit it...

I’ve had some time to drool over some fun catalogs yesterday and today! I would like to report that the following are hot items! Maybe this will help inspire your Christmas knitting.

The Limited is featuring “infinity scarves”. $40 for a chunky knit cowl in a bold color. Or you could just make one!

Sundance catalog is one of my all-time favorites! Some day I will do more than droll over the catalog! Here are some links with super cute knits that we could all knit before Christmas!

This little sweater vest is remarkably similar to several I’ve seen on Ravelry! Actually there are lots of sleeveless sweaters with big collars being worn over plan long sleeve shirts or longer sleeveless sweaters over simple dresses! Looks cozy and elegant for sitting around a fire! I saw a lot of that look in Athleta. Of course everything looks good on the uber athletic, yoga doing, skiing, surfing super women models in Athlete. &%(#)@#!!!

Here’s a cowl neck sweater that reminds me of Francis Revisited.

If only I had made my Shalom with sleeves! Check this out!

How about a pistal headwarmer? Can you say Calorimetry? $28!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check out the other accessories! Norweigan Woods? Hooded mittens? Get yourself some alpaca with a twist and make these!

Well, that’s knitted fashion for October 30th brought to you by the quarantined girl who has too much time on her hands! Hope you are inspired to knit something fun for Christmas!

Early to bed and early to rise

I've been trying to be diligent. Parking on campus is a bear if you arrive after 7:32. Thankfully I have a garage pass and always have a parking spot waiting for me. The garage is further away and I have to park on floors 5-7. That's kind of a lot of stairs. Soooo, I'd rather park in a gravel lot, but I can't seem to get here before 7:43. Today was a new day. I set my alarm a little earlier and woke up to music blasting in my ears. (new iphone docking station is awesome, but a little loud!) I made it here by 7:32 and was able to park in a gravel lot. Very proud of that! There were some BIG yawns on my way from the prized parking spot to my office and I know I'll be really tired around 2:30 when I'm supposed to be awake for class. This early to bed, early to rise thing has it's ups and downs!

Travel Knitting

Now I know why people just knit socks on vacation! Oh well. I'm having
fun knitting this scarf out of Malabrigo silky merino. I pretty much
knit a few inches and the rip an inch back. It's about 7 inches or so.
I found one yarn shop today. I want to say it's called Northern Lights
Yarn Shop, but it's not. I'll have to make a seperate post about that
experience. Gorgeous shop for sure!

We're off to Seward. Tomorrow we'll find out if I get sea sick. Let's
hope I don't! Speaking of gettig sick...today I learned never to eat
pot stickers for breakfast. For the record, I didn't order them!!!!!!
I sure felt the reprocuasions of eating them though!

How much does the tomato cost?

I've been kind of amused watching my one little tomato grow in my red neck hanging planter thing. I figure it's about a $15 tomato. Here is is...cute little lonely tomato.

From Summer2009

But look! It's not going to be a lonely tomato for long! There are a few more little flowers.

From Summer2009

So maybe I will have a total of 4 tomatoes! That would mean they are less than $4 a piece. Crazy. There better be some more tomatoes by the end of the summer or I'm going to be really bummed.

I'm trying to pack for my trip and it's difficult. I really hate to check a bag. Eight days of unpredictable weather makes it tough though. Right now I have to consider the 10 day forecast calls for rain every day, we'll be on ice half the time doing whacky crazy stuff and who knows if I'll need to dress up ever. Polar fleece and jeans and hiking boots takes up way more room than sun dresses and flip flops. Humpf. I'm still going to be stubbern and try to make it fit in my carry on bag. I'll take my favorite hydration pack for extra little things. Maybe I'll treat myself to a new hydration bladder thingy. Not sure if I'll need it, but it might be nice. Sounds like a trip to Hodson's Bay!

Sunrise...Sunset

GOOD MORNING!GOOD NIGHT!

Thanks COURT1KATHY !

I got home from Indy this afternoon and had a package waiting for me! The package was from my Ravelry slipper swap pal COURT1KATHY. She sent me not 1, but 2 pair of fantastic slippers! I'm kind of on a purple kick right now, so I have to say the purple ones are my favorite, but it's hard to say because the other ones are super. I'm wearing them now! Plus I got a lovely little crochet rose pin and big stitch markers (that I needed!) and some yummy grape juice mix to add to water bottles. I didn't grow up having grape anything because mom gets sick just smelling it, so it never occurs to me to buy grape anything. I like it though and so it's fun to have these little individual servings of grape drink. I hope COURT1KATHY doesn't mind that I'm poster the picture she took. I'll try to get some action shots of me wearing the slippers soon.

From socks

One down, two to go

I finished Mom's socks this morning. Yay!

From socks

I'm working on the orange sweater now, but I think I will have to redo the sleeve I already knit. I'm afraid it's going to be too tight and uncomfortable. No point in having an uncomfortable sweater!

Can they get done?

There are a few knitting projects looming over me. All are really close to being done, but just haven't gotten done for one reason or another. The main reason being that I always seem to start a new project! I really want to get a few of these done ASAP.

My little red summer sweater is pretty stinkin close. This is the sweater that needed major repair last spring and I never did it. i started it, but never really got finished. I have just about an inch on the front and back plus a lot of kitchener stitching. Might take a total of 5 hours if I sat down and did it in one go.
Here is is all ripped out and ready to go...

From The Stash

Project number 2 that seriously needs to get done are mom's socks. Probably another 5 hours of steady knitting on those. They are going to matching mismatched socks. One pooled (photo) the other is striping. I wish they had both stripped, but I'm not in the business of ripping out an entire sock just to see if maybe possibly it will stripe the second time I knit it.

From socks

On to project number 3. My Remember Sweater! It would be perfect to wear as a jacket in Alaska, but it's not done! Only one sleeve, the collar and the piecing. Maybe I should multi-task tonight. I could block the pieces are are done while I knit one of the other projects. Here's the cool smocking pattern on the top of the sweater.

From socks

Those are the three projects that are really looming over my head. Trust me there are others that I'd like to start, but I really want to get these done first. It can be done. Especially now that it's been made public, I will race to get them done and post progress as soon as possible!

5 reasons I probably won't be getting tan this summer

1. school

2. hospital

3. vacation in Alaska

4. i have yet to wear a swim suit this summer

5. I do dumb things like wear jeans or long sleeves on a perfectly warm sunny day.

Finished Featherweight

Good thing the weather cooled off! Gives me a good excuse to wear my new sweater! I just finished it the other night at the hospital. Couldn't get mom to wake up, so I had to go out to the nurses' station to show it to someone. A friend at knitting group who would prefer not to be named on the internet took a picture and emailed it to me, so here it is...me knitting another sweater while wearing a sweater I knit.

Dumb blog Design

Let's talk about how dumb my blog looks right now. Real dumb. Real, real dumb. For some reason I remember there being so many more blog designs to choose from on blogspot, but there aren't. Don't get me wrong. I'm ever so grateful for the simplicity offered by blogspot. Not like I know how to design a webpage and besides it's budget friendly! But doesn't anyone else think it's time to update the background options. There are like two that allow for full screen photos like I posted yesterday or whenever that was. And they are dumb. So for now I will pout.

Now this is what I call summer!

From Summer2009