Friday, May 25, 2007

Holiday!!

Wanted to stop in and wish the world a wonderful 3-day weekend. I hope it's a good one. The sunshine this afternoon makes me want to go camping and swimming and bar-b-queing, all that fun summery stuff. Alas I am not doing those summery things but I will be heading out for a road trip with my bestest friend. She's getting married in La Grande in August and as her maid of honor I am going with her this weekend to plan wedding stuff and look at the church she's having the ceramony in. It will nice to see her Mom, when I was't at home I was at her house so I love her Mom like my own. I haven't been back in years so it will be interesting to see everything.

Before I leave I thought I would post up some pictures of my very own handspun yarn. The pictures I have are of my early skeins so they are a bit lumpy and bumpy but I still like them. I just need to figure out what to do with them!




Opps I gotta go! Have fun!

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Going outta my skin!

This morning I deviated slightly from my norm - I drank a non-diet energy drink. I've been trying to loose weight for, well forever, but seriously the last few years. I have pretty much cut out all non-diet drinks and have almost gotten to the point where I only drink water. My one weakness is Diet Wired, I don't drink coffee very often and so this gets me going in the morning. Today my local convenience store was out of diet!! (Oh the horrors!) But I was totally draggin-ass so I went for the sugary stuff. It got the job done, I'm now wired and fidgety but I'm starting to drive myself crazy. Honestly my brain feels tired yet my feet want to dance a jig. Very odd. I guess the extra sugar is more then my body is used to and it put me over the top. To add insult to injury I really looked at the calories and junk and realized that I used up 6 of my weight watcher points for the day. 6!! Normally I don't even eat 6 points at breakfast. So, no more non-diet Sobe's for me, ever!

On to more FO's. Here is my first Fair Isle project. It's a snowflake pattern that came from the creativity that is Bob the Spinningman.

I love how the two purples look against each other. The yarn is Cascade 220. I made another one in pink and white alpaca that felt so wonderful to wear but it lives with my grandmother so no pic's of it.
The lovely model is my big Little Sister (she looms over me at 6'3". Thanks Cass!





I guess the next pics aren't really of an FO, I still need to add button bands and buttons (I guess that kinda goes hand in hand, can't really add the buttons before the bands :P )

The pattern is Knitting Pure and Simple Baby's Neck Down Cardigan. I am a slacker and writing this at work so I'm not sure what the yarn is.
This was started almost a year ago and the child I had in mind is getting close to the 12 month size so I had better get my butt'on gear and finish it. Maybe sharing it with the blog will help push me over the finish line.

Hmm as I'm previewing this I'm not loving the big pics and all the white space (the high school newspaper editor is showing a bit). Not sure how to fix it, I'll do some research, but any suggestions would be welcome.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Pictures!

Finally some visual interest to break up the monotony. This first set of pics is my first entrelac project. Cheri of The Naked Sheep Knit Shop wrote the pattern for a class. Mine turned into a scarf/wrap/shawl/thingie but I really love it. The yarn is Cascade's DiVe Teseo and honestly I didn't keep a ball band (shame on me!) so I'm not sure which color. It looks very fall in Vermont to me.

The colors in the pic look a bit too bright and washed out so I decided to take another pic in one of the many unidentifiable bushes in our backyard. The color is decidedly better, but somehow the bottom of the picture is all funk-di-fied. Someday I'll forgo yarn purchases and buy a copy of photoshop to fix pics like these :P (don't hold your breathe on this one, yarn is so much more seductive the software)



The downside to using bushes as your staging area is that nature tends to grab onto things. The little seeds stuck to that like Alberto Gonzales is sticking to Bushes coat tails. I have been picking them off for a couple of days now. Teach me to think before I lay my knits down any ol' place!

I have more to post but I'm supposed to be taking a shower and prettifying myself (HA!) for a work party. Wish me luck, I'm showing the bf off for the first time! He'll probably come across better then I do actually :P Next time, snowflake hats and toddler cardigans!

Friday, May 11, 2007

Holly Wowsers!!

I was reading through my daily digest of blogs and came across this . If you scroll down the page you will see my name and a link to my blog! When I saw the weird spelling of Meghan I think my heart stopped for a second. "Could that be me? No way!!" I know it's very silly to get all twittery because someone with a big blog like Ryan linked to me. Even more so because it is simply a link for people who want to car pool. If she was pointing out some beautiful knitting or a particularly funny story it might make more sense. But no, I get excited just seeing my name in print:P Apparently my newbness shines through at times. =)

As Ryan pointed out, I'm planning on attending the Dulaan-a-Thaan and would love to drive with someone. I don't mind doing the driving, I'm really just looking for someone to chat with and someone who will poke me if I fall asleep (just kidding). Leave me a comment if you're at all interested.

On the knitting front I finally have some pictures taken and soon I will figure out how to upload them. Is there anyone who uses Flickr that can tell me how to upload from there?

Happy Mother's Day to all moms that may read this. Enjoy your weekend and I hope that the sun shines bright for ya all day long.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Back in the USSA

Reluctantly I have returned home. Although I must admit it's wonderful to see my darling BF and all the critters running around the house. The BF even brought a rose to the airport when he picked me up!! I think I'll keep him for a while ;)

I had such an amazing time. Saw beautiful art work and churches, architecture and country side. Every single meal I had there was amazing, and gelato... mmmmmm!!!! I am truly amazed that I only gained 2 lbs while gone. I'm still trying to sort through it all, it seems a bit like a wonderful dream I had. Not quite real but so vivid and colorful. I'll post a few pics soon and hopefully that will help me reign in my thoughts.

I did manage to finish the cardi by the time the plane left for Florence. I've made some modifications to it. Instead of ribbing around the edges I knit 3 rows of garter stitch, 3 rows of seed stitch, and ended with 3 more rows of garter. I really like the subtle effect it gives. Unfortunately, before I had even worn it, I spilled a bag of honey mustard pretzels in my knitting bag and didn't realize it. So I pull it out to wear and I find lovely splotches of yellow dust stuff ground into it in a few spots. Tonight I need to see if I can rescue it. I might cry if it doesn't work!

I do want to mention that Ryan over a Mossy Cottage Knits, along with Kim Myhre are hosting the first ever Dulaan-a-Thaan at Village Yarn & Tea . I so want to go and was wondering if anyone from the Portland Metro area would want to carpool? Leave me a comment if your interested.