I met The Yarn Harlot!!!

Yipee! I met her at the Charlotte book signing:

What a funny gal! I had a blast! And The Charlotte Purls were out in force!

I walked in the JDRF Walk for a Cure this morning. (I ended up raising $200 - yeah! Thanks to everybody who donated!) The rain held out till we were done walking, which was great! Here's the crowd (pic taken by Team member Denise):

I recently finished the hat I was knitting for my son with the handspun yarns I spun on my wheel:

He loves it, even though it is big enough for his Daddy to wear it if he wanted to. That just means it'll fit him for forever, right?

And we picked up our new camper this afternoon (I know we were supposed to get it last weekend - long story). We'll probably pop it up tomorrow and load all the crap we took out of our old camper into the new one. ;-) (You know, all the crap that is currently sitting in our foyer, that has been sitting there for 2 weeks.... that crap.) To be honest, it's not really crap, I just can't stand to have stuff blocking our foyer, KWIM?

I went to Atlanta with the boys to see my Mom, whose on spring break (my Grandma was visiting as well, so I got to see her too). The boys always love seeing Grandma and "Papa". Here's a cute pic of my Mom with William:

Well, that's it for now - I'm still exhausted from my Atlanta trip, so I'm for bed early again tonight.

Is there a weight on my chest?

So, we've been having trouble with Joseph staying in bed at night. He and William share a room - and since William needs access to the bathroom at night, we don't lock the door. He constantly gets out and wanders downstairs. We repremand him (aka spanking) and put him back in bed, lather rinse repeat, until he finally stays put and falls asleep. I'm sure it's a stage - he's enthralled with the fact that he can get out of his bed and his room at will. But it's very frustrating.

So anyways, last night we do the same routime as usual. During the whole Joseph issue, William is fast asleep. Then, when we go up to bed ourselves later we peek in on the boys to see how they are. And HERE is the picture we are presented with:



Both boys out like a light. I am so surprised that William didn't wake up and tell Joseph to get the heck off of him! We had quite a laugh.

On the knitting front, I finished sock #1 of my Entrelac Socks:
And I'm on sock #2 right now. It's slow going, since it's competing for my knitting time with a gazillion other projects! :-)

I'm about 10 minutes away from completing my Capelet - I'll have pics later once it's done.

And, I finished these two purses for the craft fair coming up:

They're just waiting on buttons. I lined both of them too.

And, here's some spinning I've gotten done:

This is a three ply Corridale/ Bamboo mix (two plies of purple wool, and one ply of grey bamboo). It worked out to a good fingering weight - I'm very happy with it.

And a very similar:

This is the same wool as the other yarn, just worked as a two ply without the bamboo ply. It worked out to a light fingering weight. I may try to sell this at the craft fair, we'll see how I feel.

We're picking up a new camper on Saturday - we're so excited! We've traded in our pop-up for a newer model. This one has a slide out dinette area, so we gain some floor space, and it has a sofa, so we gain some seating as well. Here's the model we're getting, isn't it pretty?!

That's it for now!
TTYL!

WIPs

OK, so there's a little local craft show that I'm going to participate in around the end of May, so I've been knitting like crazy to make stuff for that. I've never had this many things on the needles at once! I've got felted bags going, Yoga socks, baby hats, and who knows what else! On top of that, I've got a few things on the needles for me, because, you know, all this knitting for-sale things is burning me out, so I have to have some things to work on for me. :-)

So I have these socks going:

They're the Entrelac socks by Eunny Jang from Interweave Knits Spring 2007. I'm to the heel of sock #1 now. I was worried that I was off gauge with them (using US1 needles), but they are fitting perfect so far! I am enjoying the entrelac method so much! And I now love toe ups! I had tried doing toe ups for William's socks, but gave up and went ahead and did cuff down because I couldn't get the cast on to work. Well, this time I tried 'Judy's Magic Cast On', and OMG, it was so much easier, and looks great! I think I'm hooked!

And here's my progress on the Juno Regina Stole:

I can only work on it when I can give it my FULL attention. I don't like leaving off in the middle of a repeat, so I try to stop at the end of chart repeat. (I know I could use a row counter, but I would still probably loose my place!!) This is at the end of the third repeat of chart 2.

So is two "me" projects on the needles enough? Maybe, maybe not. I am so tempted right now to cast on *another* pair of socks using my Audacity yarn (from Black Bunny Fibers):

I really don't want to hide this yarn on my feet, though. BUT, she has some DK weight yarn, so I'm thinking of getting some of that and doing a hat with it. Then I'd have socks and a hat that match! And, the pretty colors would be on my head! Or maybe I should do a scarf?

It's supposed to represent all the different skintones of people, so I'm thinking it really needs a cable pattern to symbolize the interconnectedness of us all. I haven't found the right pattern yet, though.

Well, I'm feeling quite slack when it comes to my Master Knitting Program. I haven't done a thing in the last couple of weeks. I really want to get the swatches all done by the end of May, and then have the whole thing done and mailed in by the end of June. But, I want to have a good number of things knit up for the craft show, so that needs to take top priority right now. I'll try to knit up a swatch a week, though, to try to stay on target. I think I can handle that. :-) Here's the photos of my swatches 5 and 6:

Swatch 5:

Swatch 6:

Let me tell you, I hope I don't lose the tags on these, because I have a heck of a time telling these two swatches apart!!

Well, that's it for me now.

Have a great weekend!

Mardi Gras Mask

First, here's a free patttern for ya!

Mardi Gras Mask (link is a Ravelry download).

(Details:

Yarn: about 50 yards of worsted weight yarn. Plus 10 yards or so of fun fur type yarn.

Needles: US3 or size needed to obtain gauge.

Gauge: 5.5 sts/inch.)

Enjoy!

The boys are still sick, but not as bad as last week. Mostly just runny and stuffy noses now. My 2.5yo can not blow his nose yet, which makes for some very interesting moments, let me tell you. Yuck!

I finished a couple of things recently:

A pair of socks for DS#1, since he outgrew his other pair:

My own design, based on Cat Bordhi's Sky Architecture. I may write this pattern up, if I can upsize it for adult feet! :-) I did lots of ribbing in the hopes that they fit him for a lot longer than his other pair did - plus I made them about a half an inch longer than his feet are now.

And here's an itty bitty sock on an itty bitty sock blocker:

Now I want more of these!!!

And I got my Malabrigo Lace the other day from The Loopy Ewe.

I've started a lace stole with it, the Juno Regina from Knitty. I've never knit with Malabrigo before, but I've touched a finished object made with it prior to this. OMG, what a soft yarn to work with - I cannot wait until their sock yarn is available!!!!!!

That's it for now!