Stitch n' Pitch!

On an unrelated stitch n' pitch note...here is my optic waves stole blocking....

I love it! Just need to find a modern/young shawl pin.

Ok, now to the main event. Wow, what a day at the Stitch n' Pitch. There were a lot of ups and downs but all in all a really great time...

Here's where it all began. Joel and I were getting ready for the game, and because we didn't want to spend half of our yearly income on food Katie pointed us in the direction of the prohibited and allowed food items in the stadium. See, read this excerpt:

Metal, plastic or glass containers of any kind [are prohibited] (except for factory-sealed, plastic water bottles, no larger than 1 liter and juice boxes). Only one bottle of water per person will be permitted.

Ok, after reading this I went to GIANT and bought us two arizona iced tea juice boxes. I went up to the gate where the 14 year old worker told me I couldn't bring my juice box in. Looking very hurt and slightly parched I said, "but on your website it says juice boxes are allowed." The 14 year old twerp continued to tell me that juice boxes are only allowed to be brought for kids, not adults. Joel said he should have started wining about not being able to take in his juice box and I said that I should have told him I was 'with child' and that he/she did need the juice box. However, because neither of us are that quick of thinkers we stepped out of line and guzzled two juice boxes, see:

Poor Joel, not the best picture, I guess that is what happens when you try to chug iced tea.

Anyhow, we made the long trek up to our seats only to see very few knitters.


I think you can spot a few, but not many. It was a little disappointing that the knitters weren't as clumped together as we thought it would be. I guess the nats sold the unsold stitch n' pitch tickets to regular fans so we were all kind of spread out.

The game seemed to last forever, didn't end until 11:48pm, and around 10pm or so we looked up and saw monstrous moths circling. I am convinced they were drawn in by the orgasmic scent of wool, and not the giant stadium lights.

Finally, I was happily knitting away and got concerned I was about to run out of my project to knit until this happened....

...yup, knitting the sleeve on the wrong size needles...back to the beginning :(

Wedding shower shots!

Hi guys!! I missed my knitting friends this weekend but I had a great time at home. I was finally able to give Jen her Christmas stockings....here are a few pictures of the finished project and her opening them (these were my super secret project I posted about awhile ago)...

I think she liked them :)
(This was a Judy's Colors kit - I ordered the kits from Nordic Fiber Arts and can't say enough good things about them - seriously, they are so sweet, go buy stuff from them!!!).

Also, look, my leaf paneled sweater in all it's glory! I absolutely love this sweater. It didn't get droopy at all and I wore it all day long. Unfortunately, as you can see, I didn't get the 'memo' that everyone was wearing black and white (seriously, what a weird coincidence).


...what kind of a shower is it without something tiny given to you by your soon to be mother and sister in law! :)

Finally, the happy couple to be married July 27th, 2008 - Can't wait!!!

Blue!

She's done! Just need to wait for my foam floor mat things and blocking wires to come in so I can block this bad boy. So far I love her more than I thought I would but she is a little short so hopefully it blocks out quite a bit!


Pattern: Optic Shawl from A Book of Yarn
Yarn: Brooks Farm Duet
Purchased at: Maryland Sheep and Wool
Modifications: Per a fellow ravelers suggestion, I went up to a size 10 1/2 needle to make the shawl more open.

I made this shawl to be more 'cuddly.' I wanted something cute to throw on when I am cold rather than a hoodie and I think this is perfect.

Look what I want to do next from Knitty, I am totally in love with this:

I don't think I will start it next just because I still have the MS3 on the needles but I will definitely start it after I am done with the MS3.

A weekend full of smiles...no pictures to prove it...

So I have been working on the MS3 a lot lately. Honestly, I am so happy with this thing! I really think it will look great with the black dress I plan to wear to Joel's work Christmas party next year. This is totally putting me on a lace kick. I am already starting to scout around for my next project. The problem is that I see it completely unreasonable to make lace, other than it makes me happy (which I suppose should be reason enough). It just seems silly to invest so much time in something that may be worn once or twice. That being said, if any of you need to borrow a smokey gray stole for anything please let me know, I would love to lend it out that way it gets used (however, if you snag it I may have to kill your first born).

Here are a few new pictures of the stole.

I know, it doesn't look much different than the last time but it does to me. I absolutely can't wait to block it. About blocking though, has anyone seen where I can buy these blocks but without the letter (just solid block)? http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2342676 I have read, and heard, that these are great for blocking if you are too cheap/smart to spend $90 on a blocking board.

On a completely unrelated note...look at this yummmy dinner!

Joel and I went to H-Mart (kind of a Korean grocery store with awesome produce that is reasonably priced) and he ended up making this Tofu/Curry dish with coconut milk, mango's and peppers. I guess the coconut milk definitely proves this recipe will never show up on 'cooking light' but yumm, I wish he would cook more often!

This weekend was Jen's Bachelorette Party in DC. Besides melting in the insane heat of DC we had a great time! We went to Firefly for dinner and then walked around dupont a bit before heading to the hotel. This morning we rounded out the day my going to Trader Joe's (it must stink to live somewhere where there isn't a Trader Joes) and then doing some shopping at the mall. Unfortunately, there are few pictures of the weekend (I will post them when they are sent to me) because we were more than glowing from all the heat. All in all, we had a really great time and seeing my sisters and Mom go always makes it hard for me to learn to love this place. Oh well, trucking along...I do have great knitting friends and that helps a bunch!

not many excuses

Sorry, I have kind of run out of steam on blogging lately. As a bonus though, that means this post will be full of knitting pictures! Joel and I have been dealing a lot with the 'where to live upon graduation' discussion and that proves to be a very stressful and is taking away from blogging time. Don't worry Mai, Katie, and Liz, I think tonight we decided this area deserves more of a shot. It isn't fair to judge the area when we are dealing with crappy Mason and me not having a real job. I would also be lying if I wouldn't admit that having knitting friends is keeping me tied to the area.

Anyhow, onto the pictures. I made Hew, look:

Yarn: Mano Silk and Wool
Honestly, I used all but three yards of the last ball of yarn. I was sweating bullets. It is funny that I thought if I knit faster somehow the yarn would make it through to the end.
Anyhow, the pattern was written well and free so that's always a plus. The yarn is also wonderful to work with!

This is what I am working on now....the third Mystery Stole. For those ravelers out there, I am not doing the crazy wing deal on the one side, mine will be symmetrical with the points on both ends.look! there are beads in there!!!Yarn: Little Knits Indie II (silk/cashmere blend, yum!)
Beads: silver lined gun smoke colored beads from fire mountain gems.

Onto the next project, this has been my metro project.

I bought this yarn at Maryland Sheep and Wool from Brooks Farm with the intention of doing the bias shawl. However, when I started it I couldn't stand the giant needles. Anyhow, another person on ravelry used the same Duet yarn for the Optic Shawl from The Book of Yarn. I am fairly happy with the pattern and think it will look a lot nicer when blocked. My hope is that sometime this summer Joel and I will head to the beach and I can wrap up in it on a late night walk on the beach (hint hint Joel!!). Just a side note, the color is way more impressive in person.

The other project I am working on is a secret so no pictures. I can tell you it stinks though because after being about a fourth of the way done I decided it was way too big and frogged the entire thing and started over.

Lets see. Oh, Katie introduced me to a wonderful website, cooking light! Anyhow, she made this great coconut shrimp with pineapple salsa and I tried to do it myself. Unfortunately, I didn't think there was enough cayenne pepper in the recipe and added way too much. Even though my mouth was on fire I still loved it!

Here's the recipe!