In other news...

One of the most daunting/exciting/fun/fractious parts about being pregnant is coming up with a name for said future person. The power!
I love this website - should be on the curriculum for all parents-to-be. I have a poll on there to help me decide on name for my future person - join in and give me your feedback!

Ooh - and seeing as this is a knitting blog - I started the Elizabeth Zimmerman baby surprise jacket at the weekend! Such fun to knit - details coming when I get a picture to post.

An Irish story.

Look at this wonderful carving I got in Sligo - a wedding gift for the couple whose wedding I recently attended:
Ireland has a great storytelling tradition, full of warriors, princes and princesses, magical creatures, spells cast and hexes...One of the stories everyone knows is Niamh and Oisin in Tir na nOg*. This carving shows Niamh on her horse, when she meets Oisin.

This was carved by a wonderful artist named Michael Quirke, who works in his renovated butcher shop in Wine St. Sligo. Should you ever be in the vicinity, take the time to visit - not only does he have wonderful art on display, he'll take the time to explain it all to you. I was delighted to find something special for my friend.

*sorry for the rather breathless prose in the link ;)

Oh yea, Ireland pictures

Got back from Ireland about a month ago - were there for a friend's wedding held here - vay fancy and lovely. Been meaning to post you all some pictures...



I've always loved foxgloves. My two favourite colours together - bright pink and green. Yes I know they are terribly poisonous...



Glorious Irish weather...



Running water!

Yummy food... (Dame St., Dublin)

Bog 'cotton', Co. Sligo (maybe Leitrim?)

My son, at my Dad's house...(not really)

Lough Gill, Co. Sligo.

Knitting on NPR

There was a segment on Marketplace last night on yarn stores, and the tough times owners are facing in the current economic climate. According to this piece, people turned to knitting for comfort after 9/11 (I started a big cross-stitch piece that day), and yarn stores blossomed. However, in the past couple of years people have started to go online for their supplies, and yarn stores are learning that they must make their presence felt online, or perish.
Personally I love to go into LYS, both in the neighbourhood and when I'm travelling, and I always come away with something....It's not the same when I go online - I'm much less likely to impulse buy. I have in fact been very good about not-adding-to-stash lately, but that'll likely change when the nesting instinct kicks in in the winter.
Have added two squares to Babette this week. I think the dogs/my son have a conspiracy against this blanket, every time I pick it up they need something. Ah well, 'tis nice to be needed :)

Sip n Knit Group

So excited - look what I found (3 weeks later). I didn't go on this night so no pics of me. If you click on the founder pic you can see the lovely Lynn, who I am ever grateful to for having brought us all together. I don't think Denise (group co-organizer) is pictured, though they do tell us her age, while I notice Lynn's is not divulged :)
Look us up on Meetup.com - it's a great, fun knitting/crochet group to join. See you Wednesday!

Now with pictures!

So here's my well-travelled yarn from Capri (see - even the bag has a pic of Capri on there) courtesy of my lovely Mum:And here's my progress on the Babette blanket - won't I have fun weaving in all those ends...And here's a cute little dog trying to give me a hint...

Not a lot going on here - brought DS for a haircut, always a family affair because it takes two adults to hold him down. And finished This Charming Man...loved loved loved it. I had the chance to meet the wonderful Marian Keyes a couple of years ago, she was signing books at a Border's in Virginia, many miles from here. But my niece (my husbands niece...) had her communion at the same time :( Border's were nice enough to keep a signed copy for me though. That book was Anybody Out There. Just as with the book I finished today, it left me in tears on the last page. She's just a great writer, perfect mix of humour and seriousness...

97 or so...

Wow coming up on my 100th post!
I may retire after one hundred - my blog is going like so many others, running out of steam with more and more infrequent posts...so anyhoo, for another off-topic post, let's invigorate some debate: In these days of technology and convenience, what are the things that set your teeth on edge but aren't exactly worth complaining about - two that come to mind for me are:

Voice mail instructions.

First you hear your friend/coworker/whoever give a detailed description of why they aren't there to talk to you, and what you should do next. Then you hear that chirpy "At the tone please record your message. When you are finished, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options..." When I call DH it takes 57 seconds before I can get a word in (longer if he answers ;) )
What ever happened to "leave a message after the beep" ???

Magazine subscription inserts.

There I am, settling down on sofa with dog, kid, cold non-alcoholic beverage, and copy of new Glamor/Entertainment Weekly/The Week/Newsweek/News and World Report/Interweave Knits* and out slithers 3 of 4 of these. I already subscribe to the magazine...

*I subscribe to a lot of magazines...

So what's your most irksome small annoyance? Here's your chance to vent!

Ruining my carbon footprint...

Completely off topic:* today I was at a meeting in a hotel conference room and it was perishing cold. WHY do these places turn the air conditioning up so high? My power bill shows a definite bump in July and August by cooling my little house - what must the Holiday Inn power bill be like? And last summer in Orlando I stayed at a hotel that provided buses to and from attractions, and those buses were invariably so cold there was condensation on the outside of the windows...
Anyway, tomorrow I'm digging out a cardi (purple maybe??). Perhaps I'll bring along a flask of soup too...

*though I was wishing for knitted goodness

A New Project

I put my knitting aside, put those three WIPs into hibernation, and revisited the Babette blanket idea. I've been putting aside oddments of pink and green for months, and then while laying around watching King of Queen's DVDs this weekend I decided to go ahead and cast on...or hook up I guess. This blanket involves making 126 granny squares:
50 x 2 rounds
49 x 4 rounds
16 x 6 rounds
7 x 8 rounds
2 x 10 rounds
2 x 12 rounds

So far I've done 25 x 2 rounds and 10 x 4 rounds. This is where I'd insert a lovely colourful picture if I hadn't stood on the USB cable insert thingy and squished it...

Colours are great though. If I have a girl, it'll be hers. If I have a boy, it'll be mine :) see below for details...