Whew, just under a week.

I haven't kept up with this blogging thing as well as I thought I would. Writing takes time, picture loading takes time, and there are only so many hours in a day (8 of which I'm usually at work). Anyway, enough excuses. Here I am and I've got some things to talk about.

Thursday:
I had the day off and overslept. It felt great. I did manage to get some things done though. I finally finished a pillow made out of a band T-Shirt (Fifteen, if you've heard of them. 90's punk awesomeness) that didn't fit me. I started making it about three years ago ~hangs head in shame~for my friend Amanda's birthday. I think the reason I stopped with all three sides sewn was because I was afraid to sew on the zipper, something I'd never done before. Well, I made myself finish it because she was scheduled to have a C-Section that day and I wanted to bring it to her at the hospital. She laughed as hard as she dared when she saw the pillow and I fell apart with the cuteness of her little girl, Moxie Ann. Matt (the daddy) was on the phone when I got there, but when he got done seeing him hold his little girl so gentle was one of the sweetest things ever. I'm really flattered too, because this hat (being modeled so obligingly by Sam) that I made for Moxie is going to be the one they bring her home in. I got the pattern for it here.


I'm so happy for them and wish them all the happiness, health, and sleepful evenings that can be bestowed upon them.

Friday:
We had a dinner date with Janet and Matt (friends from my Thursday Knitting Group, aka TKG) at Manny's. It was their anniversary (Manny's, not Matt and Janet's) and so they had a mariachi band going around to all the tables playing requests. We didn't know any Mexican/Spanish songs so we let them play whatever they wanted. The harmonies were beautiful, the bass was deep, the harp player was phenomenal (with long, thick fingernails), and the guitar player's fingers flew like hummingbird's wings. Oh and the food was really good too. I had crab enchiladas and they were delicious. Matt and Ray totally geeked out about computers and networks while Janet and I downed margaritas. We came back to our place and hung out (probably a little too late) and watched a movie. It was a really fun evening and I look forward to doing it again, although maybe with a curfew next time. :)

KNITTING:
I finished the Clapotis I had been working on.


I even blocked it and everything. It's the first knitting project I've blocked and I guess I understand the importance of it, but it takes forever and I'm not that patient once the item is done. I want to wear/give it right away, none of this "air drying" nonsense. At least not when it's taking up my bed (which is the only space in the house that I can block anything without the cats laying on it). Anywho, I have a few other things I may block that will break me into the habit.



I also wanted to post a picture of my Heartstrings Eyelet Top that I finished last month, but didn't have a blog to post it onto, just my Ravelry.

I made this with elann.com Lara cotton yarn that I bought with a gift certificate my mom gave me. The pattern was only $5 and is really easy to follow. It's worked from the bottom up in the round and you knit the sleeves first, leave them on stitch holders, and join them in at the armpit so there is very minimal seaming. Me likey. Because of the delicate eyelet pattern, this pattern works well with cotton yarns, but you could probably use a silk or bamboo yarn and get just as nice pattern definition.



Speaking of, here is a close-up of the pattern:

Ok, so it's not that close-up, but you get the idea. This was a progress shot from about a month ago. Yeah, I'm pretty fast.











Today I'm going to try and start another hat for Ray. This one will combine two separate patterns, the charts from Binary will wrap around the hat in a "0" "1" sequence to spell "hat" and the pattern used will be Nautilus men's hat pattern worked in the round. We'll see how that goes. I'm gonna have to do some funky math because my guage doesn't match up with the patterns. But that's another blog for another day.