What Fun!

I had great fun today. A girl who's come to my knitting group once, I think, teaches knitting at A.C. Moore, a local craft store. She posted a note on the group message board last week about needing some knitters to come to their knitting festival today to help them publicise knitting and yarn and best of all, they'll pay you $50! Well, I jumped on that opportunity. Get paid to knit? Sign me up! Another girl from the group, Lacey, signed up,too. It was the most fun. We got there and got settled and started knitting by about 10am. I was working on, you guessed it, "Yo, Drop It!" We chatted and knit and walked around and looked at yarn. It was all very fun. Misty, who had done the recruiting, told me, "Go grab you some pizza in the break room." While I was back there I looked at the clock and it was 1pm. I'd thought maybe it was noon. Then, poof, it was 2. And, poof, it was 3 and we were done! Time really does fly when you're having fun. And it was so much fun.

Afterward I went up to Pine Mountain and had some yummy Mexican food with my PMF. We also walked around their Arts and Crafts festival where I saw Beth, from the knitting group checked out her booth and amazed everyone with my ability to recognize yarn. When we got back to his house, we watched the end of the Clemson game. Sadly, they suffered their first loss of the year. Oh, well. All the fun I had today had to be balanced out somehow.

Rough Day

I had a rough day at work today. There's just a lot to do, and I'm trying to get it all done and I'm not too familiar with the software I'm having to use. And I'm waiting for decisions from other people and can't really move on until I have them and they keep changing. UGH! At one point I had to go outside and walk around the building just to clear my head. As I started the walk around back, I found myself yearning for some knitting. If I had been in possession of a project, I would have felt so much better. If I could have knit for five minutes, I would have been in much better shape for the rest of the day. And I wouldn't have needed that Mountain Dew.

So, I finished that Garterlac Dishcloth. It sufficiently impressed the knitting group. I provided the website with the pattern.

Also, I'm moving along on the Yo, Drop It! At the group Monday we devised a way to wrap the skein in a rubber band so that it can be untwisted way more easily.

Here's hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Enough with the ribbon already!

Okay, Yo, Drop It! is a beautiful scarf. I'm going to love wearing it. But at this point, it's time to add the second skein of yarn and I needed a little break from all of the untwisting first. This is what I came up with:

It's a Garterlac Dishcloth in Sugar 'n' Cream, colorway Over the Rainbow. Pretty, huh? Find the pattern and tutorials here. There's a photo tutorial that I found particularly helpful, especially when it comes to picking up stitches. If you've ever wanted to practice short rows, here's your chance. It doesn't take long to make one, and it's really cute. Looks great in the variegated. Don't know if it'd be worth the effort in a solid. Thanks to Dawn for showing me the pattern.

Have a great week!

Immortality

Y'all, I have achieved knitting immortality. The Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, has put a picture of me and my sad sock on her blog. I am overwhelmed.

In other news, "Yo, Drop It!" is at the half way point.

It's slightly over 40", or half of the 80" I'm shooting for. See the nice detail of the dropped stitches in the second photo? It's pretty, but the ribbon yarn is a pain.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love knitting? I really do. I love the yarn, the needles, the fabrics. I love how with just two stitches (one the opposite of the other) , you can create all different kinds of fabric. I would knit 24/7 if only I didn't have to work and sleep.

More Harlot Pics

You can see more pictures at my flickr site.

The Harlot Hang

Today Debbie, Tiffany, and I went to Atlanta to see the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. First we went to the yarn store sponsoring the event, Knitch. Oooo. Pretty yarn.We walked in and immediately found Angela and Becca from our knitting group. From left to right: Debbie, Angela, Becca, Tiffany, and Me.

Here's the line in front of us to get in the theater.

This is the line behind us when we got to the door.

Here's Tiffany, Deb, and me knitting while we wait on the Harlot. Here's Stephanie when she came out. She was so funny!! We rolled with laughter.

There she is over there sitting at the table, see the curly hair? She autographing books. We waited in line for our turn.
When we finally got there, she signed all three of my books. I told her I had a sad little first sock. She looked up and laughed and said, "Hold on, Holly. I've got to get a picture of that." She took my picture with my sad sock.
I gave her a little sample of hand cream from my dermatologist's office. I told her I keep one in my knitting bag. She thanked me said she understood because if your hands are dry, they snag on the yarn.

Ravelry & the Harlot

Okay, Ravelry is dangerously adictive. I like it so much. There's so much to see and look at and lust over. If you're not on the list, go, get on it.

Tomorrow, or in a little over 21 HOURS we'll be with the Yarn Harlot. I'm so excited. I'm off from work on Thursday, too, so I can recover. I'll be hanging with my PMF in the afternoon.

I plan to do a blog of the Harlot hang so I don't have to repeat it over and over. I'll just send folks here to read it.

Hasta La Vista.

I'm In!

I got my Ravelry invite!!! I'm in. My ID is "Hotpink". (I've used that one here and there since college.) I'm so excited.

And. . . three days to the Harlot. It's setting up to be a banner knitting week.

Football, Knitting, and Theology

I had a lovely day today. I got up around 10am, made some bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee, then sat on the couch and knitted and watched football for several hours. Ahh. Perfection. I finished this:

For those of you who don't know the story, it was supposed to be a Christmas gift last year, but wasn't done. Then I started working the ends in and it was a nightmare. First, there's a zillion of them; second, the yarn's not the best for working in ends (Lion Suede - beautiful and soft, but the weaving in is horrible). So I made the decision to fringe the long ends instead of weaving in. I really think it works. I finished fringing today about the time Auburn lost to Mississippi State. My Auburn alumni friends probably would prefer me not to watch them. Whenever I watch, they seem to lose. Clemson beat Furman today. Duh. 38-10. My PMF went to Athens today to see UGA play. Big point of contention between us: He likes Georgia and my favorite teams are Clemson and whoever's playing Georgia.

I drug myself to the shower about 4:30 and was ready just in time to go to church for a Sunday School teacher dinner at 6pm. We had a good speaker , Dr. Charles Lowery, and I really enjoyed it. He talked about how we don't need to let things that don't matter bother us. How if something is out of our control, we shouldn't worry about it. We are not in charge of the Universe. That's God's job. Our job is to have fun and let Him do His job. Cool.

This is what my dad says he wants for Christmas:

While I was at his house last weekend, he was looking through my knitting magazines and I went to take out my contacts and wash my face. When I turned off the water, I heard, "Come here, Hon. I found something I want you to make me for Christmas." (FYI: It's "Canyon Ridge" in the current Knitters.) Thanks for not waiting until Thanksgiving, Daddy.

Two Great Knitting Numbers:

4 Days until I see the Yarn Harlot.

134 People ahead of me on the Ravelry waiting list.

Family Reunion, Etc.

This weekend I'm in South Carolina at my dad's house for a family reunion. It's for my mom's family and she died nine years ago. It's really just about the only time I get to see them all. Here's a picture of some of the ladies singing some gospel music.

While I'm here, I'm knitting this:

It's called "Yo, Drop It" from my Stitch & Bitch calendar. It's a drop stitch scarf (duh!) I really think I'm liking it.

I head back to Columbus on Monday. Dawn in coming over tomorrow for dinner. I'm making spaghetti. Yum!

Gifts, Mistakes, and Nightmares in Finishing

Gift Yarn!!! How cool. Debbie from the Stitch & Bitch went to Las Vegas last week. Before her trip I did a search for Nevada yarn stores for her and emailed the results to her. The yarn above is a present for my efforts on her part. She is so sweet!

The other day I was working on my sweater. Sixty stitches in 1 x 1 rib. Supposed to end on a purl. Well, this one row ended on a knit. Uh oh. I counted. 63 stitches. Oh, crap. I can't see the stitches well enough in the fluffy yarn to fix it. I started to frog it and it gets all tangled and breaks not once, not twice, but three times!I'm going to put it in a bag for a few days. Maybe when I come back to it, I'll know what to do. I know one thing: I'm going to pull out some Woolease or Cottonease to make this sweater. I need a simpler yarn.
This is a scarf that was supposed to be a Christmas gift last year. It wasn't even close to done at Christmas. I finished knitting it in March or so. See all those stripes? Well let me tell you, it's not self-striping yarn. I tried to weave in the ends, but it was a nightmare. So, I decided to fringe the sides. I really think it's going to look really cool this way. Anyway, the giftee's birthday is coming up and I'm working on getting the fringe done.

The Stitch & Bitch moved to Panera tonight. I got a Chipotle Chicken sandwich and an Orchard Harvest salad. All very good. I'm going to like this place.