Oh, My Good Fortune; Thank Goodness For Vodka!

Ok, before anyone gets excited, this post is not about alcohol. I was at a loss for a post title, so I scrolled through the drop-down menu of things previously typed in various places.

I have no idea where this one came from, but it cracked me up, so I am going with it.

Sue and I went to Oklahoma City last night to see The Yarn Harlot. We had a perfectly lovely time, although my camera seems to have gone a bit haywire, resulting in photos like this:

And this:

I do realize that one is exceptionally bad. I may need a new camera.

The pictures from the signing came out marginally better. Sue made Stephanie one of her beautiful tiara creations, which seemed to go over well.

We got to stand in line with The Prairie Knitter and other talented Oklahoma knitters, which made it lots of fun.

Please do check out The Yarn Harlot's charming account of her trip to Oklahoma.

In knitting news, I remain intimidated by Icarus. Want to see what I have done so far?

Yep, that's it. Nice, eh?

I'm Hooked--A Story in Pictures

I got a parcel from Amazon on Thursday from my Secret Pal. I opened it to find this (thanks so much for this, SP. I really love this book. I almost bought it while I was on vacation too; you must have been reading my mind!):

And was immediately intrigued by this (well, the lovely photos in the book combined with the plethora of warshrags I've been seeing in blogland):

Which resulted in a trip to Hobby Lobby for these:

With which I produced these (so far!):

And then, in this morning's paper, in the Michael's circular, I spot this (Sugar 'n Cream on sale for $1 per ball):

And so, of course, I went and bought these:

So I guess everyone's getting these for Christmas this year. And birthdays too. They're so fun and quick to make, and the color combinations are dizzying. How can you not love something to cheap and quick to produce, I ask you?

Thanks to my One Skein Secret Pal for this:

I tried and tried to get a good picture of it, but I couldn't manage to get a non-fuzzy one. I think this is because the yarn itself is so soft and squishy, it kind of transforms the matter around it and blurs everything. That's the only thing I can think of. I really wish I had been able to get a photo that did the colors justice!

Oh! And Sue and I are going to Oklahoma City Tuesday evening to see the Yarn Harlot. That should be good fun.

Home Again

For those of you keeping track, I'm home from vacation. As always, we had a really good time relaxing in the sun, swimming in the ocean. Seems like this year we did less than usual, but ended up more exhausted at the end of the day. Maybe it's just that everyone's getting older.

I didn't get a whole lot of knitting done, although I did make it up to the gusset decreases on the first Koigu Jaywalker. Knitting on the beach is just all kinds of fun.

The house we stay in is right next to a protected dune area, so our stretch of the beach is practically deserted. There are only a few houses nearby, and our beach chairs were on the end, so it was very peaceful and private.

Last year, our vacation was cut short a few days because of a hurricane. I think a few of us were worried about the prospect of it happening again, but we needn't have been concerned. There was absolutely no rain the entire week, although the skies did cloud up threateningly a couple of times. We definitely lucked out, weather-wise!

We didn't spend all our time on the beach, however. We had dinner one night at Cafe 30-A, which is turning into a tradition, and for good reason. We made the trip into Seaside for some shopping and browsing. It's a very quaint little sea resort, full of pastel houses and overpriced shops. Seaside's always good for a quick walkthrough though.

And we took a ocean voyage on the Seablaster, a.k.a. The Beer Boat, another tradition. I did bring my knitting along for this excursion.

But first, look and see how amazingly green and clear the water was. It went on like this for miles and miles.

And I'll leave you with a knitting-related photo from the I-Swear-I-Thought-I-Got-His-Face-In-The-Picture file. One of the deckhands on the Seablaster was kind enough to pose with my Koigu Jaywalker. Just wanted to share it with my readers:

Countdown to Vacation

Just trying to fit in one last post before I leave for vacation on Saturday. In case anyone's curious, my husband's parents take the whole family to Seagrove Beach on the Florida Panhandle every year. The past two years, we've stayed here:
It's a fabulous house--private swimming pool and elevator included! It's always very hard to leave at the end of the week.

So my Koigu socks are ready for their beach vacation.

And our iPods are snuggled into their brand new cozies for the trip, stacked up with the board games we're taking along for the trip. For mine, I used the sock yarn I dyed with Kool-Aid. I kind of just made up the pattern as I went along, but I think it turned out pretty well. For Paul's I used Koigu leftover from the wedding socks in a mini-Jaywalker pattern. The cozies only took a couple of hours each to complete, and are perfect!

I ordered some Alpaca Cloud from KnitPicks to make the Icarus shawl with. It arrived today, and it's beautiful. The pale blue has darker blues and purples mixed in; I think it will make a fantastic Icarus. I have everything required to get started, but I just feel kind of intimidated by the pattern.

So I won't be back until the 18th, and I'm going to miss reading everyone's blogs, seeing photos of works in progress and works completed. Hopefully I'll have lots of good beach pics to share when I get home, although with this stupid camera of mine, I'm not too sure!

Oh! I just want to say that I am sooo excited about the return of Rock Star on CBS. Although this year's concept is a bit cringe-inducing, the first performance show was promising, and I'm looking forward to the weeks ahead!

And if anyone knows any yarn shops along the Panhandle, be sure to let me know!

Clapotis--Fini!

I finished Clapotis, and she is more gorgeous than I could have imagined. The KnitPicks Shimmer I used is unbelievably soft and luxurious. And oh-so-affordable!

I did notice from my last post that no one likes a post without pictures. And, really, I should have known. I'm the same way--if I stumble upon a blog with no photos, I just keep moving.

So, to make up for my lack of pictures last time, I've got lots of them this time. Not to mention a freshly made blog button for those of you who might like to link me.

To the left is Clapotis, glistening in the sun. I think the bright light really brightens the colors. In person, they're more subdued.

But only slightly. This is certainly not a quiet, retiring Clapotis!

Obligatory close-up:

Here she is after her bath, stretched out across my dining room table, which is not big enough to accomodate. So not the best blocking job in the world, but it certainly did help smooth it out and straighten the lines.

And, yes, those are leopard spots on my dining room wall. And, no, I did not put them there.

So....what to knit next? This is really a dilemma for me because I am leaving for vacation July 8th, and I will need something to take along with me. I am still working on Cozy...

...which is a fabulous knit, and I love the soft puffiness of the KnitPicks Andean Silk, but I'm not sure it's quite the right thing to work on at the beach.

There's always the long-neglected Pomatomus. Perfect theme for a beach vacation, too. I feel guily for having abandoned this project, but I got frustrated when I had to rip it out and start over, then I just got sidetracked by other stuff. But it's still hanging around, and a definite contender for vacation knitting.

Or I could just take it nice and easy and make the Jaywalkers I have been wanting to make for myself out of this lovely, lovely Koigu:

I do plan to start these soon since the only thing I have on the needles (besides the dreaded Poms) is Cozy. And, since I have already done two pairs of Jaywalkers, the third should be a snap!

The last two photos don't have anything to do with knitting, but I was so thrilled when I saw the following in our backyard:

We planted four grapevines in our backyard when we moved in four years ago. Three of them, our rambunctious dog Annie ripped out of the ground. This one is the only one to survive the rampage, and I have never seen grapes actually on it. So that's exciting.

And I leave you with the miniature rose my husband has finally managed to coax out of the dirt. He's so proud.

Aww---No Photos?!?

Nope, this is my first ever post with no photos. Boo!

I'm just too lazy, and also, I want to save photos of Clapotis until I am done, because it is really coming along nicely.

I have been contemplating some new projects. I think I want to make a really intricate lace shawl, not because I would ever wear it, but because it looks fun. And it would make a great present for someone. I'm thinking maybe the Icarus shawl from the current Interweave Knits. That one's in the front-running, although I'm considering others as well.

I did look up the yarn used for Icarus, the Alpaca Yarn Company's Suri Elegance, and it's $30 a skein! I guess it's not too bad, considering you only need one, but still! Yikes! They do have some beautiful colors though, and I was very attracted to the greens, even though I'm not really a green person. I need to do some more looking and see what kinds of substitutions others have made for this pattern.

Also, I'm thinking about starting my first actual piece of clothing. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to make, but I'm going to remain silent for now!

We played Shadows Over Camelot today with our friends (twice, actually, and once more at my husband's parents' house), and while the game has lots of moving parts and lots of decisions to make, it's not really that difficult. We had fun playing it.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Now, back to work.

Ingredients

So I decided what one-skein gift I want to make for my One Skein Secret Pal. It's this, from here And here are my ingredients: just some simple black wool, a kicky fabric for the liner, and some needles and thread.

I still need to find a handle for the purse though, but I have time. From what I have read, this is not only an adorable knit, but a fast one.

I also want to procure the ingredients to make this:

The chicken and peaches platter from Real Simple magazine. Mmmm, it just looks so good! I was going to throw it together for supper tonight, but we ended up going with my husband's sister and her husband, my father-in-law, and my niece to a Chinese buffet. Ugh--bloated! My youngest niece didn't go because, get this, she went with my mother-in-law to her knitting club meeting. She's only 8 (my niece, not my mother-in-law)!

My nieces Brittany and Caleigh are down from Michigan to visit this week and next, so I took the afternoon off and spent it with them swimming in the pool at my parents'-in-law. We had a good time, but I got a wee bit too much sun, and now I'm radiating heat. Luckily, I tend to turn tan within a day or two, so it's not too bad.

I know lots of people hate constant pictures-in-progress, so I won't post photos of Clapotis and Cozy right now. I will say I have dropped 8 stitches so far on Clapotis, and man, this is a tedious knit! But it's gonna be fabulous.

I wanted to mention that I went and saw An Inconvenient Truth this weekend, and I loved it. It was absolutely riveting from beginning to end. Everyone should go check it out.

So, we have some friends who love German strategy games like The Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Pirate's Cove. My husband bought Shadows Over Camelot recently, and we were trying to figure it out tonight. Oh. My. God. It's so complicated (see below).

After about an hour, we gave up and decided we'd have to have some help figuring it out. We're going over to our friends' house on Sunday for lunch and to play.

Really, I swear we're not nerds.