So Much To Catch Up On

Let's see... Race for the Cure, Knitters Connection, some FOs. Where to begin?!

Race for the Cure

Jared and I ran this on May 17th here in Columbus. It was perfect weather and we actually ran the entire time. I liked the route because it went around Goodale Park and through North Market. The last half mile was killer, and I almost stopped to walk. But, I saw the finish line way ahead and just HAD to run the rest of the way. BTW, I prepared by using the Couch-to-5K program which really helped.

Knitters Connection 2008

Fun, fun, fun! I only took one class, Girly Girl Knitting with Candace Eisner-Strick, so I did my best to soak it all in. The first event I went to was to see the Ravelry people. Yes, the actual Ravelry creators Jess and Casey, as well as Mary-Heather! They gave a presentation -- their first -- for about an hour and a half. If I didn't have kids to go home to, I would've stayed to meet them and get a picture. Now I'm wishing that I had! The Girly Girl Knitting class was on a Saturday morning and lasted 3 hours. We learned ruching, picot CO and BO, ruffles, bow/butterfly stitch, and -- my favorite -- smocking. We didn't get to all the techniques on the handout, although she did explain one before we left which was cool: how to attach a pre-knit lace panel to the underside of a garment to look like a petticoat hiding underneath (I hope I'm describing this clearly.). Oh, and the market was nice. I'd already paid for the class and Ravelry event, so I didn't purchase any yarn (gah! that was hard to do). I saw some lovely alpaca and some really cool stitch markers...

EPS Princess Dress

Done! Luckily, I had one purple button left in my stash to sew onto the back of the dress. The sleeves are my favorite part, particularly the armband followed by the bell shape. Marie picked out the colorway. If I should make this again, I would use a solid color and maybe a contrast color at the waist and armbands.

Note: This was the best pic of Marie I could get with the dress on. Too bad you can't see the sleeves very well!

OTK

I frogged the Vogue Knitting sleeveless tank I was making with Knit Picks Comfy. I didn't bother to take a pic of the horrible mess. I wasted no time CO for a new tank, this time a DROPS design. I'm about halfway done and no pics yet.

I just CO for another kid project from the book New Knits On the Block by Vickie Howell (from Knitty Gritty). Marie LOVES Ariel from The Little Mermaid. So, I'm making her Splash (Ravelry link) by designer Tina Marrin. It's a two-piece mermaid dress-up outfit. The top will be purplish and the skirt/tail will be turquoise. I'm using Shine Sport by Knit Picks.

I still have Henley Perfected hibernating (since it's a long-sleeve sweater). Once I finish Splash and my DROPS tank top, I might return to that as well as more shorties and longies. I'm also thinking about making a few dishcloths since I seem to go through the ones I have so fast. My 3 skeins of CotLin are still sitting untouched, waiting to be made into face cloths or spa mitts. So much to knit, not enough time!

Knitting Stuff

I discovered a cool You Tube knitting video from username ezinspiration (ez, of course, referring to Elizabeth Zimmerman). This knitter shows an alternate way to do wraps for short rows. Since the wrap will end up being worked together with the wrapped stitch anyway, she pulls a loop up through the stitch below the first one on the left needle and places it on the needle. That way, the "wrap" and "wrapped stitch" are ready to be worked together when you come back to them. BTW, she claims that the reason behind this method is to lessen the gap created by wraps. Interesting method -- I will be trying it the next time I do short rows! Oh, and I like how she uses garter stitch in her video so that a purl wrap is created. That killed two birds with one stone.

Reading

I haven't been reading any novels lately. When I can, I've been reading my old college Abstract Algebra textbook to unwind before going to bed. My lack of reading can be attributed to my kids. Both of them combined really zap my time. I have limited free time, which I use to knit and surf the net. Despite this challenge, I'd like to re-read the Harry Potter Series -- especially the last 3 books. After that, I'm not sure. We'll see.

Next Post

My trip to the Outer Banks with the family! I finally uploaded pics to the computer. So, I'll be sure to include a few in my post.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that I got my eyebrows done for the first time. Wow, what a change! I didn't think that my brows were capable of being neatly shaped. I was worried that they'd get waxed, but not trimmed. Wrong! The person who did them was really nice and even showed me how to apply brow shadow. I'm going to have to get some I think. You might notice my eyebrows in the vacation pics. You'll notice little red bumps that showed up and stayed while on vacation (due to sunblock I'm guessing). Hopefully, I won't break out every time because I really like how my brows look when shaped!

Long post, I know! But, you never know when I'll get around to the next one...