So… on the knittinghelp forum, we’re doing a Secret Pal yarn swap.  Yay! My assigned person likes pink… so I decided to wander my little self over to Mosaic.  The only problem is that there’s lots of gorgeous pink out there!  I finally settled on some wonderfully soft Sublime merino yarn.  MMMM!   I’ve been wanting to play with this  yarn for a bit, so I guess I’m living through my Secret Pal.  I also picked up some supplies to make her a set of stitch markers.  There were some perfect glass beads with tiny rosebuds inside that I picked out, as well as some fun clay beads.  I also picked up enough to make three other sets for friends while I was at it. 

I snagged myself a single hank of Cascade Sierra in a blue to make a travel bag for the bridal shower I’m going to tomorrow.  I don’t know if I’ll have time to get it done, but I can always do a cute card and an IOU… she’s getting a few other things, so it wouldn’t be the end of the world.  I decided to wait on picking up the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary 2 for now, as I’m already damaging my paycheck enough with purchasing the yarn and pattern for the Hidcote shawl.   I can wait.  I just want to play with the  cascade quattro and try making a cabled, felted bag of my own design and ideas. 

I’m off to look over the Hidcote pattern…     anyone need stitch markers?   I’ve got leftovers!! 

I’ve started on a few new projects, even though I haven’t finished the ones I have.  I know- I’m bad!!  My friend is having a bridal shower this weekend, and since they are going on a road trip for their honeymoon, the theme is a road trip.  I’m going to pick up a really good trucker’s atlas for her, and then I’m making a cute little bag and cell phone holder.  I misplaced/lost my phone on my honeymoon- that was frustrating!!

I’m also going to order the Hidcote Garden Shawl and yarn for it on payday.  I’m going to order Knitpicks Shimmer which is an alpaca/silk blend.  It looks gorgeous online and in the catalog Can’t wait to get it! 

I started a teddy bear for a friend of mine to give to her granddaughter, it’s from the Debbie Bliss simply baby book.  We’ll see how that comes out as well.

Finally- I should have an email waiting for me at home.  The KnittingHelp forum is having a yarn swap, and I get to go buy some sort of fun yarn for my secret pal.  That will be so much fun!!  Anyway– back to my normal life now… hopefully it’s settling down after the furniture insanity!

First of all, I need a good dose of Warcraft soon or I may lose my mind.  To help my sanity last night, I updated my meez avatar, as you can see on the right of my page.  I’ve got my dragon and my knitting, I’m happy!  I just thought that was entirely too accurate!  Anyway, I was off in Richmond this weekend, and things got interesting.  Starting with last Monday– we did hit up the sale, and we got what we thought was a king headboard with cal king rails or something along that line, a dresser for me and an armoire for Joe.  Not too bad…  it was going to be delivered Wednesday, so that morning, I started moving everything out of the bedroom.  I get home from work to hear that the delivery guys decided it would not be possible to get the headboard upstairs, so we have to move it (and we did!)  Somehow, scrawny little me helped my husband get it up to the second floor.  We get it assembled only to realize there are no slats.  Great. 
The next morning, I have a dentist’s appointment, which went fine, if a bit slow.  I then drive to Richmond with my face half numb, the only frustration being that I can’t drink anything.  I spent Thursday through Sunday in Richmond.  If you’re ever in the area, Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens are just gorgeous.  They have a greenhouse with some beautiful orchids and right now they have hundreds of tulips in there.  It smelled wonderful, and it was a perfect day for being outside.  (Pale ‘lil me kinda turned pink, but that happens when I’m in the sun!)  I helped clean a big fish tank (EW!) and came home on Sunday.  
Once I got home, we again tried to setup the new headboard, but discovered it wasn’t really a king!!  We think it’s a California King, which is longer and narrower.  ARGH!!  Unfortunately, that meant that we were both exhausted and we tried to sleep in the queen. BIG mistake.  We both abused each other in our sleep, which got pretty painful!  On Monday, we went and talked to the outlet where we got it… they determined it must have been marked wrong at the factory, because all the paperwork that they had showed  it was a king headboard with Cal. King rails.  Since they didn’t know what it really was, they agreed to give us store credit toward the other headboard we ended up with.  The second one isn’t a captain’s bed with all the extra drawers, but the headboard is padded leather and *wonderfully* comfortable.  Unfortunately, it also weighed more, so we had to get help moving it upstairs.  My wonderful husband got it assembled, and I got to relax in front of the TV a bit and nap lots since I was so stressed out and exhausted yesterday. 
In the end, we got a comfy new headboard, a friend of mine got the one that didn’t fit (the outlet couldn’t re-sell it since they had no idea what size it really was) and I finally got some desperately needed sleep.  OH- and while I was in Richmond, I got some purty Cascade 220 Quatro yarn in two colors to try out for Rogue.  I’m thinking of designing a cabled, felted purse of some sort :)  I just need to find a better reference for cable designs…  too bad I’m too broke to buy the Vogue Knitting reference book until Friday!!

SO… there was this great sale at the Pulaski Furniture Outlet (and for those who are local, it’s going on until they run out of stuff in the current store or April 20th… might be worth wandering over!)  But that meant I had to be up at 8am.  For me, this is next to impossible since I don’t get home from work till after midnight, so I’m not in the habit of going to bed before 3 or 4AM.  This means I got nowhere near enough sleep.  So… after waiting outside in the frigid 20ish degree cold for an hour, I was already grumpy and grouchy.  Then we get in, and someone must have come in Saturday after us and bought the women’s dresser we wanted.  We snagged the bedside table we wanted (Yay!)  Then we found out that the Captain’s Bed we were looking at is missing the hardware on the drawers… for 1/2 off the price… who cares?? It’s just the knobs…that just means we need to make a trip to the hardware store.  We then went hunting… got a not quite matching but close enough set of dressers.  *Gorgeous* wood top on mine- can’t wait to get it on Wednesday and take pictures :)  Now I have the challenge of clearing out the walk in closet enough to get it in there.  At least that will make me go through all the stuff that doesn’t fit anymore.  I’ve been joking about using my old dresser in the attic for yarn… hehe- more stash space!  Yay!  Or at least space to organize my yarnage…  

Anyway- turns out there are some of you out there looking at my website, so thanks :)  Now that I have google analytics setup I know y’all really are out there!

Ok… started the baby sweater…   forgot to do a gauge swatch, so got about 12 rows in and measured.  GRRR- needs to have 13 sts/inch, I’ve got 11.  Guess I’m frogging.   That’s what I get for KUI– Knitting Under the Influence.   I was just on pain meds for a day, but it still made me muddle-headed.  Didn’t think to check my gauge.  BAD Laura.  I should thwack myself every time I do that.  That progress bar got moved back…  oh well.

First thing- if you’re using a version of IE that’s not IE7 please forgive the formatting issues. I used a pre-written template that is having issues in IE. I’ll fix it when I get a chance.

As you can see….

I had a blast at Mosaic this afternoon. A wonderful sale was going on. Got some Noro Kureyon and a couple cute bulky yarns for Martha. Got two hanks of Noro Cash Island in color 2,

one hank of Noro Daria in color 11,
      

I got 5 each of Katia Sevilla colors 66 and 61 which is a great looking ribbon yarn… a pain to wind, as I’m finding
                         
Yay! I also got a copy of Debbie Bliss Simply baby and have already started a sweater from there… I’m gonna try the katia yarns for a couple patterns I’ve been drooling over. We’ll se how it goes! Also, HBO is at work today, and they had these great nylon drawstring bags, which worked out great for my yarnage!!

I’m working on updating the look of my blog, so please forgive the insanity and wierd layouts for a few days!

I’m just in a slightly goofy mood today for whatever reason.  Been that way for a few days.  Hopfully nobody gets annoyed.  I hope to get my Word Press software updated soon and there may be some new features on the site.  I plan on having a list of what I’m working on and what I’ve finished.  Hopefully the new software will have more functionality. 

Right now, I’ve got several projects going, some small, some large.  I’m slowly making progress on the miles of ribbing for the second half of mom’s sweater.  I’m also working on the corset for me (on chart D at the moment).  I’ve got the cashmerino baby sweater as well as a toddler sweater.  Hrm… what else…  a bit of lacework I found on http://www.yarnover.net called Egeblad I think (I’m pretty sure it’s Danish).  I’m also doing the simplest lacework scarf in Victorian Lace today.  It’s interesting construction…  you work horizontally across the edge, then bind off.  Then you pick up stitches and work the length.  Bind off again, cast on for the other edge and keep going, bind off.  It’s certainly different. 

If you look to the right, you’ll see some new links.  I have pages with a list of finished projects and projects I’m working on.  As soon as I get a chance, I’ll get some pictures up there as well.  :)  I’m making progress!

I’m making progress on mom’s sweater- I love the alpaca!!

Here’s the yarn I picked up yesterday– Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino for a baby sweater and Berocco Softwist for the Annie Modesitt corset pattern.