Action Packed Weekend

What a crazy weekend! The craziest part is that I'm NOT tired today. We started Friday night with dinner with Joe's parents, then his mom & I hit the going out of business sale at the local sewing center. Six hundred dollars later, we went home and caught up on our Tivo'd shows. Oh, right, you want to see the haul:

(I obviously borrowed the photo) It's a Janome 1110DX serger, snagged for 1/2 price since I'm on the mailing list! I also got a ton of accessories and notions, but they're still in my trunk, and they're not that exciting anyway. Saturday morning, Rocco and I went to the vet for his shots (he was SO good! The vet asked him if she could see his belly and he rolled over on his back with his legs out so she could rub his tummy. She looked at me a little shocked that he did what she said, but I just shrugged since it happens all the time). Saturday evening I went to Laser Tag with some work people and then watched the Nascar race with Joe. Sunday morning, we got up super early and went to the local Harley Dealer for a fundraiser for the Children's Hospital. Motorcycles everywhere!! This is our third year riding in this, and it was by far the best organized it has ever been. The local and state police did a fantastic job keeping us together and safe. This is my favorite part, riding by the children's hospital and waving to the kids:

After that, we took a power nap and then headed to NYC for the Yankees/Mets game. They got beat (badly), but we still had fun!

That is a LOT for one weekend for me. I can't believe I'm not tired. How is this possible?

MD Sheep & Wool 2008

I am just now finally recovering from the Maryland trip. It's not like we had to fly far, do very much, or exert any energy to speak of, but I was TIRED when we got home. I guess any weekend not spent on the couch watching Food Network counts as "activity" to my body & therefore wears me out. Anyway!
First off, my mom is a little, um, nuts (it's ok if she happens to find the blog; she knows I think she's crazy). We got a suite for the weekend, and within 5 minutes, she had the place fully stocked for a month-long stay:

I took the liberty of stocking the fridge:

Aren't the little beers adorable? I couldn't resist them! The festival was of course amazing. I got to meet Jess from Ravelry:

I tried to get a Stew Leonard's bag picture with a sheep, but in true animal form, she turned her head at the last second:

And, the yarn! My God, the yarn! I love to just go for the "experience" and not necessarily to buy anything, so I ended up buying stuff I could have easily picked up on my lunch break at Creative Fibers. Whatevs, I had fun!
I got some SWTC Bamboo for the CrochetMe Babydoll Top:

Some Lorna's Laces sock yarn (Black Purl to match the Clapotis):

I also got my WEBS sale purchases a week or so ago:

It's Ella Rae Bamboo Silk to make Labyrinth by Wendy Bernard/StitchDiva:
(Stitch Diva Photo)
I started this last night, and Joe commented that everything I am making lately has been purple (28Thirty, Clapotis, the babydoll top, the sock yarn, and now Labyrinth). I didn't even realize it! What can I say, purple makes me happy.

FO: Clapotis!!

I can't express how excited I am about finishing this! I have wanted to make one ever since I learned how to knit, and I even asked for the yarn for a Valentine's Day gift last year for this specific purpose. So, it took me over a year to get motivated to make it; big deal. Do I even need to post details? I will anyway:
Pattern: Clapotis
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb, color Black Purl, almost 4 skeins
Needles: Knitpicks Harmony size US 9
Mod's: 3 extra repeats of the straight section
Here is is as a scarf:

As a shawl:

In a sexy pose:


And, as a wrap (my favorite):

In other news, I finally had to just go over to my friend's house to take a picture of her doggie in the sweater I made him because she doesn't "get" the instant gratification knit blog readers require:

Is Oy not the cutest dog ever? I'm not really a dog person, but this one makes me melt like buttah. :)

Answers & Updates

You guys did pretty good on the movie quote game! The ones no one got were 1. Muriel's Wedding and 4. Party Girl.
I don't have the promised sewing FO's to show because my last class was unexpectedly cancelled. And by unexpectedly I mean I went to a restaurant, ate dinner, knitted in my booth for 30 minutes, then went to the sewing center and saw the sign on the door that class was cancelled. NOT cool!! They did give me a refund for the session, but I would much rather have 4 finished skirts right now. Sigh.
I have been religiously working on my Clapotis, however, and am LOVING it!
I'm a little over half way in a little over a week. Not bad! My goal is to drop one stitch per day, and I think that will put me way ahead of my MD S&W deadline.

Movie Quote Game

I saw this on Stephanie's blog the other day & had to steal it. My best friend and I sometimes have entire conversations in movie quote, so this is our kind of game. The rules:
• Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
• Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
• Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
• Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
• Looking them up is cheating. Please don’t.


1. Stick your drink up your arse, Tania. I'd rather swallow razor blades than have a drink with you.

2. Dear Lord baby Jesus, lyin' there in your ghost manger, just lookin' at your Baby Einstein developmental videos, learnin' 'bout shapes and colors. I would like to thank you for bringin' me and my mama together, and also that my kids no longer sound like retarded gang-bangers.
Jen got it--Talladega Nights

3. You expect me to believe that scantily clad, in the arms of another man, in the middle of the night, inside an elephant you were rehearsing?
Jen again! Moulin Rouge

4. I'll have a falafel with hot sauce, a side order of baba ghannouj and a seltzer, please.

5. Somebody beat him to death and stole a bunch of files. Must've dug up garbage on the wrong guy. We’ve got it narrowed down to a thousand suspects.
Courtney got it.... LA Confidential

6. Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time.
Jennifer (jsins) got it! Old School

7. Little wimp. He wouldn't know a new idea if it hit him in the pachenga...
Jen rocks the pachenga...... Dirty Dancing

8. If you hold back anything, I'll kill ya. If you bend the truth or I think your bending the truth, I'll kill ya. If you forget anything I'll kill ya. In fact, you're gonna have to work very hard to stay alive, Nick. Now do you understand everything I've said? Because if you don't, I'll kill ya.
Jennifer got this one too...... Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

9. Teenagers. They think they know everything. You give them an inch, they swim all over you.
Nicole got it! The Little Mermaid

10. I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is.
Courtney got this one too! Zoolander

Life after Hermione

First off, thank you guys so much for all the compliments on Hermione! I absolutely love it and have worn it tons. As for life after Hermione, I have been pretty scattered. I started 28Thirty, got the body done, started one sleeve, purchased some cool purple buttons, and then nothing. I just have no desire to finish it.

So, I started a dog sweater for a friend at work. Word to the wise: never trust measurements taken by a non-knitter. Just sayin’. After a few frustrating attempts at the sweater (pattern and bad-measurement related), I got an email from Knitting Daily with a free pattern for garter mug cozies. I had to make one. HAD TO!!

Then, I got back on track with the doggie sweater. It started out life as Howie’s Knit-to-fit Sweater, but after the neck ribbing section, the pattern made absolutely NO sense, so I scrapped it and designed my own. Here it is sans-doggie, but I only finished it yesterday, so the recipient is yet to get a chance to model it.

In the awesomest of awesomeness category, a co-worker of Joe’s grandmother died (not awesome), and she had this huge yarn stash that the family had no idea what to do with. She happens to know I’m a knitter, so she asked if I would like to have it. Um, YES!! Duh!!

OK, a lot of it is acrylic, but not all of it. There is some pretty nice wool in there, as well as 3 projects that are very close to being done. One is a men’s vest, one is a ladies’ tee, and one is an afghan that happens to be in the EXACT colors of Joe’s daughter’s bedroom. Hello, graduation gift! This is just half of it; she couldn’t fit any more in her car, so she’ll give me the rest later. Yay!

In other news, I FINALLY started my Clapotis. My mom asked me if I wanted to meet her in Baltimore so we can go to the MD Sheep & Wool this year, and I just couldn’t think of a reason not to. ;) So, Clapotis will be my must-finish-before-MD trip project so I’ll have something hot off the needles to wear to the festival.

My last sewing class is tonight, so I hope to have some FOs to show from that next time.
p.s. There's a Ravelraiser going on in blogland. Show some love (and maybe win awesome prizes)!

FO: Hermione's Gryffindor Striped Hoodie

Hooray! I finished! I think it came out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.
Joe & I went to Lancaster, PA for the weekend to try to catch a little glimpse of Spring (because Lord knows we won't be seeing it in CT for a while). We found this alley near a little fabric shop I wanted to go to.

I thought it just screamed 'Diagon Alley,' and we both agreed this was the perfect backdrop for the FO shoot.

I haven't written up the pattern yet, but I do have it in chicken scratch form, ready to go as soon as I get a little pocket of time to type it up. I had lots of fun designing it. I'm not sure I'm going to design all the time now, but at least i know if I find a sweater I MUST have, I can whip it up whenever I want.
STUPEFY!!!

I'm such a dork.