Happy Halloween to everyone. We went to a pumpkin carving party on Saturday night at the home of one of Bryan’s fellow students. Here are our pumpkins. Bryan’s is the larger one with the goofy face and mine is the smaller one trying to look tough and scary. Being around library students, I’ve gotten a good taste of what to expect when I too become a library student next fall. I’m applying for the second time to library school. The time between not getting accepted the first time and now has given me a lot of time to do some volunteer work and really have a stronger reason for going to library school other than I want to change careers.

I didn’t get a lot of knitting done this weekend because I worked both Saturday and Sunday. With the time change, Bryan and I ate dinner yesterday at what seemed like a normal time but we were finished with dinner by about 5:30pm. We decided to relax for a while and I knit on Fleurette while we watched a few episodes from the fourth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Then we went to see Bryan’s collages that are showing at Cafe Kopi this month. They look wonderful. When we arrived home, he’d received an email from someone interested in purchasing one of his collages! He was only there yesterday morning to hang them up. Our apartment looks very bare right now as about 90% of what was hanging on our walls on Saturday is now at the cafe.

I was thinking about this today. I remember several years ago thinking that the best knitters always knit with small needles. So to fit in to the “best knitters group” I started several projects on small needles – two that come to mind are Hobo (we all know how that turned out) and Glint, which is in the process of being ripped out. I’ve come to realize that being a good knitter doesn’t mean you can knit on the smallest of needles, it means that you can make anything on any size needle and have it turn out beautifully. It also means sticking to those projects and when one defeats you, just pick yourself up and the knitting up and fix the problem. If it means ripping, let it rip. I will finish Hobo and I will reknit Glint as a completely new sweater. I think of the ripping out of Glint as gaining a lot of wonderful Kidsilk Haze, not the loss of a sweater. :) I was thinking about this today as I started another small gift item on size 7 needles. I’m curious what your misconception of who the “best knitters” were?

Our neighborhood is still in full fall colors, everyday seems to bring another breathtaking array of fall colors. The maples seem to be taking turns to be the brightest on the block.
After my walk on Saturday to snap some photos of the neighborhood trees, I couldn’t resist snapping a photo of Chloe in one of her favorite spots. She sits in this window everyday and is sitting there many times when we come home. It’s so fun to drive up and see her sitting in the window.

So this week has been a weird week. Weird in a good way, of course but I can’t really explain how it’s been weird, it just feels that way. I guess because Tuesday and Wednesday were busy and then Thursday and Friday were busy in a different way but everything feels a bit disjointed. Monday was a day to regroup from the weekend and run errands. Tuesday evening, my mom arrived for a short visit. She rode the train down from Chicago and stayed with us Tuesday night. Wednesday, Mom and I accomplished a lot. We went out for the obligatory breakfast and then walked around downtown Champaign. We stopped into a cute vintage shop where they also sell fun stuff. For Bryan, Mom picked up the Deluxe Librarian Action Figure, which comes complete with reference desk, book cart and computer. It’s sure to be the hit of any party or get-together we’ll have with Bryan’s library school classmates.

Then Mom and I went shopping for curtains for our living room. We currently have the standard white plastic blinds that are so lovely with the white walls and the white woodwork. We need to inject a bit of color into our living room. So we set out with a swatch of our couch fabric to find some curtains that will look nice in the room. Unfortunately, the only thing we found that looked good with the couch was fabric for curtains that were about the same color, but I felt like the curtains would be big blocks of dark blueish-green against all of the white and it wouldn’t look good. So then we went to Lowe’s and found some neat greenish bamboo shades, then we picked out a great paint color for the two walls that I plan to paint. (I’ll be using the color on the left, it’s called “Ancient Olive.”) After lunch, we picked up Bryan from school and drove around campus a bit to show Mom the library school and the library where Bryan works. Then it was time to head home for one of Bryan’s famous homemade pizzas with homemade pesto, marinara and spinach on a whole wheat crust. After dinner, I took Mom to the train station and headed to my knitting group.

Thursday and Friday were training days at work. And today was my first day on the salesfloor. I even fulfilled one of the incentives today. :)

In knitting news, I finished the pair of socks that I’ve been working on. They are a gift, so you’ll have to see them using the link. Yay, I finished a pair of socks during Lolly’s Socktober! Now to start another pair using the Lorna’s Laces yarn that I bought last week.

I’ve also been plugging away on Fleurette which is coming along beautifully. I haven’t gotten around to finishing the plying of the Lemondrop yarn. I’m sure I’ll finish it within the next few days. I’m ready to get it washed and ready to knit, not that I’ll knit anything with it for a while. I just want to get it off the bobbins. I’ve been very much in a knitting mood so my spinning has taken a bit of a break. It’s one of those things, I’m either in the mood for one or the other and sometimes I’m in the mood to do both and I have to decide – knitting has been winning lately. I think the knitting group and the gifts I’m knitting are putting me in a knitting mood.

Have a happy Halloween! I leave you with one of the many gorgeous trees around our neighborhood. A walk was in order just to snap a few photos of the leaves this afternoon.

This was such a great weekend. Saturday, I rode the train up to Chicago, leaving Champaign at the ungodly hour of 6am and arriving in Chicago at 9am. After I arrived in Chicago, I dropped my bag off at the hotel where my parents would be checking in later that day. I then headed to Borders for a 2nd breakfast and looked at the newest issue of Spin Off. Then I boarded the Red Line and took it down to the Harrison stop. I was in search of Loopy Yarns (719 S. State) that I had read about on Knitters Review.
As I was reading the post on KR, I realized that the owner is a friend of mine that I used to hang out with at Stitches.

When I arrived, Vicki recognized me and it was a great reunion. She has a beautiful store with tons of tempting yarns that I could have spent all of my money on. And a huge selection of Lorna’s Laces, which Miss M introduced me to when we were in Chicago about three weeks ago to see the Yarn Harlot. I couldn’t resist, I had to get a few things.

Size 4 Addi Turbo 24″ needles,
The Flower Basket Shawl pattern and two hanks of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in Pioneer (16). (click image for better view)

After visiting Loopy Yarns, I rode the L up to meet my sister M for lunch and to visit Nina, another recently new yarn store. M wants to make a scarf for her friend and couldn’t resist the Kidsilk Haze. She’s a fairly new knitter but insisted on getting the KSH. I started her on a very simple eyelet scarf yesterday before I left. As I knew she would, she picked up everything really quickly and said she may have to pay us a visit if she runs into problems. I feel bad saying that I hope she runs into problems just so she’ll come visit. :)

While M and I were at lunch, I commented how I loved the color on her nails, she had just had a manicure on Friday. After lunch, we stopped at a nail salon and she paid for me to get a manicure with the same cool color “Wicked.” I haven’t had a manicure since before my wedding over a year ago. It was so wonderful to get a manicure – it’s the ultimate affordable form of pampering.

About 5pm on Saturday, Mom & Dad finally arrived at their hotel, so M & I rode the train downtown to their hotel. Saturday night was the first game of the World Series between the White Sox and the Houston Astros. Mom, M, Dad and I all hung out in their room, ordered room service for dinner and watched the game. It was the perfect way to spend a cold rainy Saturday evening. The Sox won game 1 of the World Series 5-3. I used to be a huge Sox fan, keeping score at the games that I went to. Dad and I used to go to a game at least once a year before I met Bryan. In fact, I had just gone on my second date with Bryan when Dad and I went to our last game together. With the wedding and moving, it just hasn’t possible to go to a game with Dad since then. M has become a bit of a Sox fan recently and even Mom, who isn’t a baseball fan at all, got into the game.
Sunday, Mom and I were complete slugs and it felt wonderful. We sat in bed, Mom read and I knitted. It was a nice way to spend a Sunday morning because it was cold and rainy outside. We even ordered room service for breakfast. Oh, how we love it when Dad’s in town for a conference. :) Then a few hours later, M came downtown and we all went out to lunch.

I caught the train back to Champaign about 4pm. I got home just in time to watch game 2 of the World Series. Bryan sat down with me a few innings into the game and was cheering right along with me when Paul Konerko hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 7th inning. He even celebrated when they won in the bottom of the 9th with a home run from Scott Podsednik. If Dad and I can get M, Mom or Bryan to be Sox fans, we’ll have accomplished something. I got a lot of knitting done this weekend most of it while on the train and while watching the ballgames. I’ve made quite a bit of progress on the Hobo sweater and I am working on the body already. Now for the long haul.

Btw, what do you think of the new banner across the top? Can you all see it? I thought it was time for a somewhat classy looking banner. I’ve put it off for way too long.

I started my new job on Wednesday and have been in training the two days that I’ve worked. I’m really excited about it though. I have my first day at the register next Saturday. :)

It’s been a strange week because it was a short week for us. We returned from our trip to Vegas on Monday, I started my new job on Wednesday and I am going to Chicago to visit my parents and sister. My parents are in Chicago for several days from Kansas. It will be the first time that I’ve seen my dad since Thanksgiving. Seeing the parents is always wonderful. Bryan won’t be accompanying me to Chicago because he has too much school work to do, poor guy. My mom will be here Tuesday night for a visit, so at least he’ll get to see her.

Wednesday evening, Miss M, one of my knitting friends from the knitting group, came over for an informal knitting night. Bryan made one of his homemade pizzas and then Miss M and I knitted for a while. I helped her figure out a shawl/wrap pattern for her sister. She has some beautiful hand-dyed alpaca that will make a very scrumptious shawl.

I’ve been knitting on some great things but I can’t share them because they are gifts. I can say that I finished the Cranberry lace and am now knitting with the Kidsilk Spray that I recently bought. The socks are coming along well – I finished the first sock and am about two inches into the second sock’s cuff. Unfortunately, I can’t show those either because they are a gift too. Oh, the holidays make it difficult to have a blog where you want to show everything!

I have made a little bit of progress on the Hobo sweater. There isn’t a whole lot to see as I’m just reknitting the first sleeve that’s part of the first half of the sweater.

Last night, I spent several hours plying the Lemondrop yarn. I thought I would be brilliant and to make the yarn stronger for socks, I would do a 3-ply cabled yarn. So I plied two singles together for a standard 2-ply yarn. Then I thought I would just ply the two-ply with an extra single for a 3-ply yarn. But I was reading in the Winter 2004 issue Spin-Off about a 3-ply cabled yarn and the author mentioned spinning the third ply counterclockwise (S) instead of clockwise (Z). But I’ve already spun three singles all clockwise (Z). So does anyone have any advice? Should I just leave it 2-ply and use the yarn for something other than socks? I have about 450 yards on the two bobbins and still have a third bobbin that hasn’t been plied yet with about 350 yards right now. I was going to finish spinning the third bobbin to get 450 yards to ply with the other two. I’m so confused and irritated right now. I’m going to post on the Knitters Review forum about this, so if I get any good answers, I’ll let you know. And ahead of time, thank you for your advice and/or support. At this point, I’m ready to scrap the idea of 3-ply yarn and just knit something out of the 2-ply.
Update at 4:30pm – From the quick advice that I received from several KR members, it looks as though I can use 2-ply for socks. And I can’t just take what I have and add a third ply to make it a 3-ply cable yarn. I have enough yarn to make socks so I’m going to ply the rest of the singles that I have an use the yarn for socks. I’ll just have to knit my socks on smaller needles to get a tight gauge.

In the meantime, I think I’m going to take a break from Lemondrop and start spinning some of the Cotton Candy (light pink) merino/tencel fiber that I have. I’m out of bobbins, or should I say, I have stuff on every bobbin I own, and since I’ve already started the Cotton Candy, I have to work on it. Once I get Lemondrop done I’ll have three empty bobbins.

Well, we found out Vegas is not our kind of town. I don’t want to insult anyone who lives there or loves Vegas but it just felt a bit too much like an illusion to us. We were there for our friends’ Brandi & Toby’s wedding. It’s funny because Brandi & Toby don’t like Vegas either, but it was a great place for them to get their families together for a wedding. Saturday, Brandi’s sisters and stepmother threw her a surprise shower. She was definitely surprised and couldn’t believe that I was in on the surprise. I knitted some dishcloths for her, which she loved.

Before the wedding, I helped Brandi get dressed and was there to just talk to her while we were waiting for the ceremony to start. Brandi looked so beautiful, she said her make-up looked like the Vegas version of herself. :)

The wedding ceremony was Sunday at the chapel at Mandalay Bay, which was lovely.

Bryan and I in front of the chapel. (Notice that I wore my shawl. Brandi loved the shawl and was telling everyone to make sure they got of photo of me in the shawl. Brandi, here is your photo.)

They had a brunch after the ceremony at the Border Grill, which has fabulous food.

And they had Toby’s favorite cake, cheesecake, for the wedding cake. It was a melt-in-your-mouth cheesecake and was absolutely wonderful.

I’m so glad that we were able to be at Brandi & Toby’s wedding. I wouldn’t have missed it.
Congratulations and Best Wishes, Brandi & Toby. You’re two very wonderful people and I know you’ll be happy.

Bryan and I are exhausted, it was a long trip home. We got in late last night (Sunday) into Chicago and stayed with my sister before heading home early this morning.

In knitting news, I’m still working on my socks, I’m about 3/4 of the way through the first one. (I got a lot of knitting done in the car on the way to the airport and on the plane.) They are a gift, so I can’t post anything. Sorry but I’ll post them after the holidays. I hope to start another pair of socks for myself soon so that I can get a mention for Lolly’s Socktober.

And for those of you making socks for someone other than yourself, I have a great link for you. It’s a sock size chart.

Because I just couldn’t resist:

Wow! You would have been a pair of socks as long
as it’s possible for socks to be before they’re
tights – and all multi-coloured with pretty
patterns and detail all over the place – then
you could stand and admire your sock-self all
day!

What type of sock are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

That seemed to be the word of the day yesterday. About 4pm, the day seemed to be one of those days. Bryan came home from studying at the library and I was knitting on the couch. He suggested we go out for a walk, so we did. It was nice to wander around downtown Champaign and to walk through the park. When we arrived home, there was a message waiting. It was from a place where I had an interview last week. They were calling to offer me the job. I was so excited I could hardly stand it, they wanted to hire ME! It’s a seasonal job at a very cool retail store. I start next Wednesday. I could feel the anxiety that I’ve been experiencing the last few days just lift away. I think I slept better last night than I’ve slept in a week.

Then about an hour later, the door buzzer rang. I rushed to answer it and it was the FedEx guy with a package for me. My SP5 Pal Wendy had sent a package to me. Her car had had a lot of problems at the end of August, so her last package was late. I was very patient and was excited to get it. Thank you, Wendy.

In the package, she included the Stitch n’ Bitch design journal, 3 hanks of Knit Picks’ lace weight Shadow yarn in Vineyard, which is absolutely heavenly, a box of MarketSpice Tea from Seattle and a lovely card.

I am in love with this yarn, it’s soft and the color is a very rich plum. It’s so fabulous and is perfect for another shawl that I already have planned to make, of course, after the Summer in Kansas shawl. Wendy, I can’t thank you enough. You were a great secret pal!

So with the news of the new job and us leaving tomorrow for my best friend Brandi’s wedding in Las Vegas this weekend, I was able to start two new projects. Okay, so I went a bit crazy on starting projects but they are both gifts so I figured that I’m allowed. I was even able to start a sock for Socktober!

I just have to brag, my Barbara Shawl is fabulous! I love it and it’s beautiful.
Here are a few photos of it on (click image for larger photo).
The back view.

From the side.

It feels wonderful on. For those of you who missed seeing Bear model the shawl, there is a photo for you. :)
I wore it tonight for the first time to the local spinning guild meeting and got tons of compliments on it. I felt like a million bucks. There are definitely more lace shawls in my future. My next planned shawl is Summer in Kansas. Being a former Kansas girl, I couldn’t resist it. And I don’t even need to buy the yarn, I already have Henry’s Attic Fingering Weight Wool yarn in natural white. It’s gorgeous and I bought it to make any shawl and now I have one picked out.

It’s killing me to have to wait until I get a job to start anything new. I’ve joined Lolly’s Socktober and really want to start my next pair of socks, but I can’t. I’m sure within the next week or so, I’ll just cave and start something new. You’d think from the way I’m talking that I don’t have any projects to work on. I have three projects right now (Hobo, Crazy Green sweater and the secret cranberry lace) that need to be worked on but the urge to start something new is overwhelming. I’ve reworked a bit of the Hobo sweater, so I have been knitting. I think this will be a good week for me, I’ve been very anxious the last two days, so something has to come through. Even if it’s a temp job, it’s something!