Only two more days 'til LONDON

I am finally going on a vacation - my first since before buying my house in 2000. (Visiting family is great - but doesn't count as vacation exactly.) Sweet Babboo and I are going to London for a 10 days - he has to work for three of them - but it's all play for me. Suggestions on things to see/do are welcome.

While I'm on the plane, I plan to work on this:


I am going to actually do my first top down sweater, custom to my measurements, but I like the looks of this one, so I'll try to use the lace pattern at the hem. The yarn is actually a little prettier than the photo shows, but it's really soft Anny Blatt kid mohair. Hopefully a ten hour flight will give me some time to concentrate and get a chunk done.

Another 6 am call tomorrow - it's been a long long week. I look forward to sleeping in during the next one.

The Yarn Geek Convention

Don't let the title fool you - I'm a total yarn nerd - just ask my oh so patient boyfriend who has to accompany me everytime I pass a yarn store and wait while I pet the entire stock.

So, last week the boyfriend's mom called and asked me if I knew about this "big knitting show" in town. At that point, I just sighed and gave in to the inevitable. I had been trying to avoid the STITCHES convention like a proper Catholic priest avoids the altar boys - you know you shouldn't, but you want it anyway. There was no one who would want to go with me, my Sweet Babboo certainly wasn't dying to go look at yet another zillion skeins of yarn and I really wanted to save money for my upcoming trip to London. I was almost home free when she called.

So, we went to hang with the other yarn geeks. The mom used to knit years ago apparently, and I recently retaught her some basic casting on, and knitting - I think it's her way of bonding with me, but I like that. It gives us something in common and makes me feel less like an antisocial jerk when I can't set the knitting down at family gatherings. She probably kept me out of more trouble too - we had a lot to look at and only a few hours and I could have gotten lost in the button booth alone - so I think I spent far less than I could have. In the end though, I couldn't resist this:

An orange silk merino and a brown viscose blend. My Sweet Babboo keeps asking for a sweater and although I am wary of the sweater curse, he's been a pretty incredible boyfriend, so I think I may throw caution to the wind. He likes stripes and picked out the turtleneck in the latest Knit1 issues but I think that the chunky wool would be way to hot for him. So, not only does he get a sweater, he gets a custom made sweater. I should have some progress made by Christmas. Seriously. And yes, he loves orange - it's his favorite color which is cool because orange yarn is almost always on sale ( I only spent about $96 for both bags of yarn - love "The Yarn Lady" and her bag sale). That's a close up of the brown yarn, by the way.

And this little baby was a present from the mom. Some Suri Alpaca dental floss for Barbie's that I saw all of these Orenburg lace scarves made from. They were so beautiful and I covet them badly, but oh boy am I scared of this one. Perhaps I've bit off a big bite for my firstish lace. But it's sooooooo soft, so I'll try my best. I wonder if I just pull from the skein or wind it or pull from the outside. Anybody have any tips?

It's been a long week and I have a 6 am call time tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get to post again before the big trip. G'night.

Oh Yeah....

OK, so I have to add some of the knitting to feel legitimate here...these are a couple of hats I made for the children of a PR guy who sends tons of work my way...I figured I'd hit him in his soft spot - he's a sucker for his kids. These are just a couple of quickies I made up for them - 1 boy, 1 girl, favorite colors green and pink respectively. My own original designs - whoohoo.

The Monster Hat

The Pink Flower Hat

The Monster in the Monster Hat - wonder how the recipient would feel knowing my dog wore this before him (well, the recipient is 2 - he'd probably think it's cool - don't know about his dad though...)

OK, I'm off to bed, all this thinking and technology is tiring.

I'm new at this stuff....

OK, let's see if the techtard can get it to work this time....



The Brown Menace

My very first post

Well, it's not so exciting as I had maybe hoped - no ribbon cutting ceremony and no sudden burst of creativity or genius, but here it is. I intended to start this as a way to share my knitting triumphs with friends, but as it turns out - I talk a lot. I've got a good life, a great boyfriend and the world's best dog - you'll see many photos of her....because she's the apple of my eye.....but there'll be other stuff too. Here we go.....