And the Count Down Begins

It is December 1st, which means that I have only a matter of days to finish 10 shawls in 2010; I am strangely behind on this. I have a game plan though. I am nearly finished with Amy's present for being a good friend (shawl #8) and I am half way through Anne's secret surprise (shawl #9). I have yarn for shawl #10, which I will finish ASAP, as it's small. I just have to decide on a pattern, but I've narrowed it down to a pattern that is striped. I am thinking either Daybreak by Stephen West or Romi Hill's new as yet unreleased striped shawl. We'll see.

I took a couple of days off the frantic gift/shawl challenge knitting (see how clever I was to combine the two? otherwise, I'd be busting my butt for two separate deadlines, although I have upped my deadline by a substantial bit; the shawls have to be done in time for Christmas gift giving.) to make myself a cowl to skate in. The rink is cold, and my neck is the only exposed skin. Scarves, like what everyone else at the rink has opted for, strangle me while I skate. I love scarves, but all of the extra motion of skating causes them to constrict around my throat, making me shorter for air than I'd like to be while exercising. I am very pleased with how it turned out, and while take a picture of it when I have both decent light and a willing camera-person.

On a different, non-knitting note, Happy Hanukkah!

My BIRTHDAY!!!

I am 19 now! It is my 19th birthday today, November 26. Wow. It is a bizarre thing, not no longer be 18. 18 is so yesterday. Hello new year! I wonder what it will be like, living this 19th year of mine. I can already tell that I have will be knitting franticly, has anyone looked at my queue? Yeah...

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone stuffed themselves with stuffing and enjoyed a piece too many of pumpkin pie. I'm thankful for being home with my family this year for Thanksgiving instead of stuck in a lonely apartment back in Texas.

We went to see the new Harry Potter movie tonight, so I'm sleepy. It was good, but my brother and I threatened to just stay in the theater until the 2nd half came out, waiting is going to be difficult. I think I might attempt to read the whole series over again in time for movie 7 part 2.

KnitPicks Palette

I bought some Palette last winter to make a stranded colorwork hat. You have never seen it because I was on the decreases for the top of the hat and realized that it was not going to fit me. I didn't get gauge. It got bundled up into the box that it came in, and has only recently resurfaced, because I want the yarn for another project. One of the reasons (besides that it does not fit, ahem) that I am willing to frog it is that I didn't quite like the colors I had chosen. Being an impatient person, I was not willing to wait for a sample card to come, I just ordered colors I liked and started to knit (forgoing the 'get gauge' instructions at the beginning of the pattern). Here's a nifty thing to keep me from not doing the same thing twice (I'm talking about the color choice thing, I've learned my lesson with gauge. Truly I have.). Go here. If you go there, you will see an option to download a pdf file of all the colors (it's under the 'inspiration' tab). It helps tremendously.

I know about the whole computer monitor-color thing, my computer monitor actually didn't do a bad job there, I tested the ball of Palette in my hand to the one on the screen. I was the one at fault.

Now, if only I could stay consistent with what project I have in mind, and what colors I actually want to use...but that's another day, obviously!

We Are Thankful For Ravelry!!

GUESS WHAT??? (listen up, especially you Rhinebeckers) I might (fingers crossed) be going to the Ravelry event, We Are Thankful For Ravelry, in Austin, Texas!!!!!! It's next weekend!! And only 4 hours away from the door of my apartment! OH!!! I hope it all works out, that my mom and I (and Riley, of course!) can go!! I've been stuck in my miserable apartment nursing a pulled muscle for a ridiculously long time, so now I have something to really cheer me up, it's been insane for me to be off the ice for 6!!! days. I hate not being very mobile. I feel guilty to not be training and getting so much sleep. It's my inner thigh muscle, which is employed for all manner of balancing, limiting my skating ability to forward and backward skating skills, everything else hurts it, including turning from backward to forward and vice versa. My coach thinks I'm nuts to be so impatient with my injury, but that just sort of infuriates me further. I hate with a capital 'h' to not be on the ice. At least I've had my knitting for company... AUSTIN, here we come!!

I have to finish my Audrey, I want to show off at the party!! Bye now!

Riley's First Sweater

So, yesterday was really cold for Dallas. It rained all day, something Texans get really excited about. I always just look at them like they're crazy. I'm from Pittsburgh, it rains non-stop there. I get along great with my British coaches; they both have the same attitude about rain I do. Anyway, back to the knitting. I took Riley on a walk in the rain and first off I must say, my dog is not very brave. He's afraid of umbrellas (among other things, such as motorcycles, bananas and generally anything that goes 'boom'). Second, and more important, he got shivery because he was cold. My little puppy can't be cold. I won't have it. I now understand why my mother always wants me to wear a sweater. Riley's my baby and I hate to see him shiver. My knitting was called into action. I made Riley a little preppy green sweater to set off his ginger ears and was finished in a flash. It would have been a quicker flash if it had not been for a multitude of playtimes, demanded by the recipient of the sweater. He's good about wearing it, just not so good about putting it on. I see a whole wardrobe of little puppy sweaters in his future...

Saturday's Sin

Okay, so every weekend my mom and I try to find something really...sinful to eat. We are chocolate lovers and this week's sin was gelato! We each had chocolate chip and dark chocolate. I added peanut butter chocolate to mine and she added raspberry cheesecake. You got to pick 3 flavors for your 'piccolo' size; it was very hard to do! I was tempted by mint chocolate chip, but couldn't pass up peanut butter, loving that almost as much as chocolate itself.

I don't think we ate anything particularly sinful last week, though the week before last was the Texas State Fair, which was awesome and we bought rocky road fudge, with huge marshmallows and almonds in it. We bought half a pound and ate it all that day. The stomach ache from all the fair food was totally worth it. Have you ever heard of fried s'mores, lattes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or margaritas? Yup, this is Texas and that's how they do fairs down here.

Oh, by the way, it's still 80 degrees in the afternoon here! :p I'm actually getting a bit sick of not having to wear socks. Although we are getting cooler evenings, which is at least a start!

Stashed!

How was Rhinebeck you lucky ducks? I am green with envy. I can hear your giggles at my indignity, so please stop. Anyway, above is my new pet. Isn't it a beauty?It's Scrumptious Lace by Fyberspates, in colorway 'Cherry'. I have big plans, but I'm not sure what they are yet for this pretty, pretty, pretty yarn. I was at the Shabby Sheep, my new LYS (but never replacing my old one, back in the 'burgh...you know who you are!) and this yarn just...spoke to me. It whispered, then when I put it back down, it became insistent and as I turned around, it screamed: "TURN AROUND, PUT THOSE OTHER MISERABLE SKEINS DOWN AND COME BACK!!!!!!!" It was so right, I didn't want those other skeins, they didn't glow like this one did. I just love red lace yarn. I love how it makes you feel, to wear a red scarf.

Oh, and BTW, I am in love with the beads too. I know, most of you have heard my feelings on bead knitting, but I didn't quite realize that beads come in sizes. I have been sticking big ol' size 6's on all of my lace projects, and that has led to my displeasure with the final project. These are size 8's, which when held up to the yarn, actually seem to fit the yarn. I need to find a mini crochet hook that fit through the holes though, the one they told me to buy in Arlington, TX was too big...

I'm thinking of doing Aphrodite with this yarn, but can't decide, what do you think?