Have I mentioned I never win anything?

Yeah? Well, that changed. Ah, I have finally won a prize! I gave to Cayli's 3-day Walk for breast cancer, because you know how important that is to me. And she had a little prize raffle for donors, and I actually won!! Really, I almost couldn't believe it. This was a little while ago, but I never mentioned it, so it's part of the whole catching up thing. Would you believe that the grand prize was a stole she knit up herself? Oh, it was gorgeous! And she raised almost $3,000 to boot. Awesome. (Thanks again, Cayli!) Wanna see the yarn I won?



It's Cayli's own hand spun, and boy, was it gorgeous. Beautiful "Clouds" colorway in a Rambouillet/Mohair/Angora blend. It is a 2 ply worsted weight and there is 156 yards. Make that was 156 yards.



My pictures aren't really capturing the essence of the colors, but it's sort of a pale grey with some bluish undertones and lots of darker and lighter changes. So gorgeous. And soft, very nice.

I wasn't sure what to do with it, but I wanted to use every last bit. This is my first ever hand spun, and I drooled over mulled over my decision for quite a while. In the end, I went with the Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf, and it worked out beautifully. I was sick when I took pictures of the FO, though, so they are rather terrible and deficient.



Sadly, that is the very best one. Guess I need a re-shoot. Trust me, the yarn is amazing and the scarf looks really nice. I think it will become a special Christmas present for a certain person, but I don't really want to say who it is yet.

Oh, and this yarn made me want to learn to spin. Something awful. I must hold out a bit longer...

So, having broken my losing streak, I won another prize recently, too. Crazy, right?! Jana had a contest for the Romantic Comedies Sock Club and I am a winner. Of what, I am not sure yet, but it will be coming shortly and I will post when I know more. Woohoo! We had to pick one of two movies for the next shipment, and describe the colors we would choose for said movie, and why. I chose Pretty Woman, and that ended up being the movie Jana went with. She did her own interpretation in addition to my idea, and it's more beautiful than I imagined. I haven't taken pictures yet, but I will soon.

All right, I'm off to enjoy some knitting and a movie with Brian.

Where Do I Begin?

This is a very serious question. Really, I'm not sure. There has been so much going on, and I have no idea how to dive in. Do I update all together right now? Parts for a few days until I'm caught up? Divide into categories...finished objects, knitting events (yes, there were events--for reals), knitting friends' updates, yarn footage? I have always been a fan of the old chronological format, but I don't know if I can work from that far back.

Any suggestions? No? Well, then I think I'm going to go with stuff I'm excited about and can still remember. And maybe I'll work back a little bit. Okay? Okay.

First off, I will share that a while ago (yeah, maybe around the time that I suddenly stopped blogging completely?) we got some scary news. Brian had a routine physical and blood work and we got some bad results. So we did the whole series of tests. We did the worrying, and the speculating, and the general-freak-out-ing. Good times. But in the end, all is fine and he's back to normal. Stop wondering if I "could be any more vague", because that's what I would be thinking, and just chalk it up to me respecting Brian's privacy on this very public forum. You guys get it, right? So he's all set and back to normal, and that is why I didn't call, didn't write.

I'll be honest, too--he's been all right for a week or two, but I sort of fell out of the blogging habit. It wasn't part of my routine any more, and I was having a hard time fitting it in, you know? But I missed it. A lot. So here I am...

Now that that's out of the way, I have lots to share. Some things I finished since we last spoke:

The Shibui Knits baby sweater I was working on. Love it!





I still have to add a ribbon to the top of each side of the front so it can be closed, but that will depend on the particular baby who is receiving it. When I know who's getting it, I'll go and pick some ribbon out. I think I'd love some pink for a girl, though. This turned out so pretty, and I would totally make it again. Next time, I would pick up the stitches for the sleeves from the first half of the sleeve, instead of casting them on, so I don't have to seam under the arms. Not my favorite thing, seaming garter stitch. No idea how to do it, so I just winged it. I think it's o.k., though.

My first Umbilical Cord Hat from the Stitch 'n Bitch book:





It's in some leftover Knitpicks Swish (worsted) in Red Pepper, and I finished it in one night I believe. Kind of a long time ago, but I remember because I was SO excited to finish so quickly! Cute, right? Newborn size. I'll have to remember this one the next time someone has a baby, because it's a cinch.

The Scrappy Scarf:

This one was fun. I took some scraps I had from Elena's Baby Blanket and Brian's scarf and just went to town.



These are some different colors of Berroco Ultra Alpaca. I cast on horizontally--not sure how many stitches, maybe 240 or so. And I picked up a different color for every row. And I just left the ends hanging and made fringe at the end. It was about 5 feet long, or a little more. I believe it was girl-sized, but it was long enough that I would wear it for sure. Very fun, and it was mindless. I love the way it turned out. It ended up maybe 4 inches wide.



This picture gives you the idea. It wasn't finished yet, but it is now. Unfortunately I never took a shot of the FO. Trust me, it was cute.

What were the hat and scarf for? They were charity donations...for...the Pawsox Stitch 'n Pitch!! Yeah, someone from Ravelry (OTKate) organized a stitch and pitch for us in Pawtucket, at McCoy Stadium last Saturday night. About 150 of us met up to watch the Red Sox farming team! We had prizes (no, I didn't win) and goodie bags and lots of fun. The game the night before was called on account of rain, so we watched a double-header: the original game and the makeup game from the night before. Wicked good time.

I don't really have any pictures because my camera died about 10 seconds after I pulled it out of my bag. Irritating. If you belong to Ravelry, you can check out the Pawsox group here and the group page has a picture of my SIL Maura, myself, and Krista. Maura took some pictures, but I don't have them yet. I'll try to do something about that.

Funny story about the Ravelry picture. The three of us are at the game, and things are just starting up. We've got out knitting out and we're getting into the groove, talking and having a good time. A nice gentleman from a few rows down asks us if we would just all smile for a quick picture. But of course! We'd be happy to! We all smile and he takes the shot. We're not thinking about it...we just keep knitting and talking. I watch the man walk away. Like away, away. You know, to another section. Seriously. So I ask them who that guy was and did they notice that he just sort of walked away. At first, we'd assumed he was with our group, but now we were wondering if he was just some nice man who saw three young ladies knitting at a baseball game and couldn't resist taking a picture. Perhaps for his blog, even? Then we didn't see him again for a long time. We looked. In the end, we did see him with our group again, so we didn't worry about it. The next day, Krista called and told Brian to make me go on Ravelry and see the group page. And there it was, the picture from the nice man. I cracked up.

At least he's not blogging somewhere about these huge dorks at the ball game who were *gasp* actually knitting in public! Not that I really care, but it's one less thing to think about. Many thanks to Kate for a great event. We're already planning for next year.

Well, that's enough for right now. There will be more coming. For now, I have to get some stuff together for my knitting class at WEBS tomorrow. This is my first knitting class ever, and I'm pretty excited. The teacher is a well-known sock knitter...any guesses?

Scarves--The Start of it All

So last winter, while I was pregnant, I decided to learn to knit. I started simply, with a few scarves. I think I started with a blue one with different colored flecks, all done in Garter stitch. Very easy, and fast as it was kiddo sized. Then I did the orange scarf you see here. Same basic pattern idea, done on maybe a size US 8 needle. I used Bernat Mills Boa yarn in "Tweety Bird" or something. Very shiny and cute, but I wasn't sure quite how warm it would be. Next I moved on to one for myself, in black to match my winter parka and my black dress coat. I teamed up a chenille with what I think was a black Boa yarn as well. I went narrower, for my personal comfort. It's very warm, with both yarns worked together. I love them, and was very pleased with my first attempts. :)