Random stuff from the past few weeks

In no particular order, here are some things I meant to blog about, but have neglected.

Have I showed you guys the stuff I got when Michele and I went to Orlando?

Well, here you go.


Two ounces of pretty roving to play with, two balls of Freedom Spirit, which I have no clue what to do with, but loved it and couldn't leave it behind. And the Green skein is Dream in Color Classy in "Happy Forest". This was the one purchase I had an intended knit for, and I think it's going to be the perfect yarn for it. Shhh... it's a Christmas gift for someone, so I couldn't show you progress pictures, even if I had them to show.

You see, before I could start working on anything else, I had committed myself to knitting a few chemo caps for my friend's Aunt. Now, we all know that I'm NOT a hat knitter. Not by a long shot. I don't know what it is about them, but they either turn out too small, too big, too floppy, circulation compromisingly tight, etc. I've never completed a hat that I'm happy with.

That said, chemo caps sounded like a nobel cause, and I was up for the challenge. Or, at least I thought I was. So I gave up all hopes of NaKniSweMo and tucked that yarn back in the cabinet along with the yarn for the Ballet Cami that Michele and I wanted to knit together, and I cast on for a cute little hat that I found at Kody May Knits. Check her out, she's got some really cute hats! I used Caron Simply Soft for it, in a solid and very bland color because my friend assures me that her aunt is a very plain person and wouldn't like anything too crazy.

It was a quick knit, but seemed awful short, so I added a pattern repeat to mine, and also lengthened the crochet at the brim to give it some extra length before gifting to said aunt.

The very next day, the hat was back in my possession because it was too short for her taste. Ugh! Nothing like getting a hat back when you don't like hats anyway. :)

My lazy solution was to add another few rounds of crochet to the bottom rather than ripping out the decreases at the top and picking up the pattern again. Overall, I suppose it works, but I'm most certainly not loving this hat at all. Could have something to do with the fact that I absolutely SUCK at crochet and so it looks sloppy and thrown together. But to make up for it, I cast on and knit a plain stockinette hat as well. Hopefully these will be good enough, and I can finally get on with my holiday knitting.


To be honest, I don't have very much of it to do. I'm only bestowing handknits on a couple of folks this year. It's just too much work and I have too much other stuff going on to try and make the handknit Christmas happen.

And just because they're cute, here are some pictures from Thanskgiving that I never shared.





And now, my friends, I'm off to earn a few bucks.

Busy Weekend=Long Post

but not to worry... there are pictures, too.

So, Saturday, amid much fiasco about travel arrangements, mostly due to my own stupidity and inability to see logic at times, I met up with Michele to go to the Orlando Needleworks Show. We were both really excited to get to go and play with all the nice fancy yarn that you can't buy anywhere in our county.

So we get to the convention center, and pay our $6 for parking, and the garage is packed. We get inside, pay our $10 each for entry, and find that the needleworks show is mostly scrapbooking and rubber stamps. Of course it is. Why wouldn't a NEEDLEWORKS show have those things? I was disappointed that there were only a handful of booths that were offering any sort of yarn at all, and sort of felt duped by the title. To be fair, there were quite a few booths with quilting supplies, so I guess, technically, it was a needleworks show. But the ads and flyers made it sound like there would be quite a few more vendors than there were. And the vendors weren't all that friendly and outgoing, either. You'd think that if you'd spent that much money to take part in the thing, you'd at least be trying to chat up your prospective buyers. Then again, when you have the corner on the market, I guess you don't have to go out of your way to please anyone.

That said, the yarn that was there was scrumptious. Michele and I browsed all of the booths, and it was really quite comical because every booth we went to, we both oogled the exact same thing. It's a good thing we like each other, or else there might have been some catty fighting over certain yarns. :)

I was a smart girl, though. Before leaving town I removed my debit card from my wallet and took only cash. That way, I HAD to restrain myself and only buy the things I was on a mission for. Wait til you see just how close I came to blowing it. :)

You see, I had one particular project and one particular yarn that I wanted. It's intended to be a gift for someone for Christmas, and it had to be just right. I had a few select colors that I was looking for, and while I didn't find exactly the yarn I wanted, I found something very close.

I snatched it up, along with a couple ounces of roving to play around with. I'm still not a pro at the drop spindle, but I enjoy playing with it, so the little 1 oz bags are perfect for now, and give me just enough handspun to add a little flair to a project.

So, disappointed with the show, but not ready to admit defeat, Michele and I got the brilliant idea that, hey, Orlando has real honest to goodness yarn shops! Lets go find some! So we got the phone book, and we got the address, and we headed for the car.

It was a beautiful day. Not too hot, not too cold, so we put the top down and acted like a couple of movie stars.

Here we are (aren't we cute!) calling Wil to give us mapquest directions to the holy mecca of fiber.


Yes, the locals do call it Sip n' Knit.

Here is where we had the most fun all day. Unfortunately, I'd already spent most of my budget on admission and one skein of yarn at the needleworks show. It almost kills me to thing that I would have had another 30-something bucks to blow here, had I skipped the show and just gone here. Oh well, it's the price of experience, right?

I did manage to eek a couple of balls of yarn out of the change in my pocket. How could I resist?

And then it dawned on us... we were hungry. Not just a little hungry, more like that "I haven't had anything but a cup of coffee all day" type of hungry.

Fortunately, there's a Publix almost directly in front of the yarn shop, and so we pooled what resources we had left and we bought a sub and a half gallon of tea to share and we had a picnic right there in the parking lot while petting the new yarn.

Here are just some silly pictures of us oogling our new purchases... and petting them, too. :)





Now on to Sunday. Whew!

While Michele and I were at the needlworks show, we discovered that the International Auto Show was being held in the convention rooms just down the hall. This immediately made me sad because I'd made Wil stay at home because I figured he'd be bored to tears hanging out with us. So, I was morally obligated to take him back in return for taking care of J all day while I was out playing.
J had a great time too. The kid has a fascination with Mustangs, and he got his fill of them.





I'm not a car buff like Wil is, but I had a great time. Besides, it was a good excuse to wear my new shoes.