31 March 2008

Good Day Sunshine

Today was wonderful!  I turned 33 and had the best birthday I've ever had.
Highlights:
1.  Flowers!!
These are from my husband.  He knows I love daisies, and had lemons put in the vase to remind me to make "lemonade" out of the lemons my job seems to lob at me daily.
The ones on the left are from my sister, Danielle, her husband and my nieces.  And the one on the right is from my mother.  Can you tell Mom's a florist? It definitely has its advantages, the primary of which is that my desk looks like a funeral home for every special occasion.  I love it!

2.  Good Wishes!  My parents, sisters and nieces all called at various times today with birthday wishes.  Best part?  I finally got my frequent birthday wish:  Mom waited until after 7 to call and tell me the story of my birth!  Ah, blissful sleep.  I also got wonderfully sweet wishes from Miss SinCA, Jeff and my Livejournal and Ravelry friends.

3.   Food!  A bunch of my co-workers took me to Tomatina for my fave, the steak piadine.  It's the primary reason I fail at vegetarianism.  And then Shawn took me to Chili's - primarily so that waiters could sing to me, loudly, over molten chocolate cake.  Tomorrow:  Falafel and banana shakes in San Jose!

4.  YARN!  I received two super fun skeins from my friend, Carmen, as well as a myrtlewood bowl her husband carved himself.  And I started 
knitting an ascot for vacation this weekend:
I never said I was a master photographess.  And it kind of looks like boy shorts right now.  But I swear, it's going to be so cute that you'll beg me to make you one.  And then I'll promise I will.  And then I'll cast on and get all excited.  And then I'll see something shiny and put the ascot down to chase it, only to forget I had begun to knit it in the first place.

Wow.  This seems such a self involved post.  What I am really trying to say is that this has been so wonderful.  I am surrounded by wonderful, generous people.  I'm a lucky girl!

28 March 2008

The Saga Continues

I've found a reason not to recreate the shrug:  it won't look good on me even if I finish it perfectly.

I thought I was immune to the "bulk" part of bulky yarn.  As cute as this is going to look on the hanger, I'm going to look like that fat rabbit, only yellow and wearing really cute shoes.

So now, decisions, decisions.  I need to figure out what to knit, and tonight, before I fall out of love with the yarn.  I'm debating whether to knit a lap blanket, or something scarfy that I can mix with a gold silk I have.  Decisions, decisions....

27 March 2008

Welcome

I have finally found something I don't mind posting about online: KNITTING!

My current project is a shrug I'm making out of Misti Alpaca...you can find all the deets on my Ravelry. I know, I know. No pictures. There WILL be though. You mark my words. Or don't, because I'm probably lying.


I've encountered a few issues:
  1. It's too small. Yeah, all you swatchers are snickering right now. SHUT UP!
  2. My finishing looks HORRIBLE. The raglan seams look like I stapled them together with weird...yarn staples. I know I'm a better knitter than this, but can't figure out how I made the seams so wrinkly.

I've decided it's time for radical intervention. First step: Find a finishing course. I'll probably sign up at Article Pract or Knit One One. Step two: Rip that sucker to shreds. I love the yarn too much to let it sit in my pile of rotting yarn corpses never to be picked up again.