Darn Ravelry

So yesterday, while on a conference call at work, I decided to skim through Ravelry to pick a scarf pattern for the upcoming red scarf drive. Still thinking. Then, ignoring the notion of the large stash in an ever-expanding corner of my closet, I clicked on several of the yarn stores advertised to find a red yarn bargain. Ah Ravelry, what did I ever do without you...

Not 2 minutes later a big ugly message pops up - Warning - Virus Detected

And that was that. All access to The Internets, gone. E-mail, gone. Went to talk to the IT guy, and 5 minutes later: computer, gone... :(

So see? Ravelry can in fact be bad for the health...knew it ;)

Fun weekend

Ah summer weekends. This last was a fun one. Spent Saturday morning/afternoon knitting/chatting/shopping/eating - doesn't get a whole lot better than that. Visited an LYS I hadn't been to before and bought the supplies for this lovely thing, thanks to Lyn for helping me find just what I needed - a bright red cotton blend yarn. I'm not sure whether I'll make this for my(ever-expanding)self, or for Mum (birthday in 2 months). Hmm...

Am on the last skein of yarn for the lace ribbon scarf - of course, I am thinking that the "lace ribbon" in the name suggests I should have used something finer, but the colours are pretty. And heck I'm 6 skeins into it - some people might have the patience and sensibility to rip and do over but that's something I could never face :)

On Saturday night myself and Himself went to a restaurant in Baltimore to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. I bought him a wedding ring to replace the one he lost last year doing yard work, and he bought me a pretty new ring just because. Aww.
I think I'll keep him.

My Olympics project

Decided to start something new, to knit-along to while watching the Olympics (I tried to link into my knitting group's Ravolympics site but had technical difficulties :( ).
Anyhoo, had fun looking round Ravelry and Knitty, and decided on the Lace Ribbon scarf. Trying to use stash yarn (of which there is scads, of course), and picked Louisa Harding, Cinnabar: So - got about 5 pattern repeats done here - it's a fairly simple pattern though the yarn is surprisingly hard on the hands. My left index finger callus will be back before long - anyone else have a knitting callus?
Coming out quite pretty. Hope to have finished for one of the 4 female family-member birthday's in Sept/October.

Have another business trip (Atlanta) this week... and I volunteered for it!? Need to learn to keep my big mouth shut...but at least 'twill give me plenty of knitting time. Last trip I flew US Airways, where I was relieved of $25 for my checked bag and $2 for a bottle of water. Will let you know how Delta manages to coax additional $$ from me.

The Baby 'Surprise' Jacket - now with pictures!

So, after a few blah months, I finally found a pattern to get excited about again. Browsing around Webs I found the Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket pattern. Being a 40-year-old pattern this is old hat to many people (but it was new to everyone once). Here's the description from the Ravelry page:

The Baby Surprise Jacket was designed by Elizabeth Zimmerman in 1968 and remains a popular baby garment to this day. It is an excellent pattern for making use of oddments of yarn or self striping yarns with long color repeats, but looks equally nice knit in a single color with a contrasting button band.”

The jacket is knit in a single piece with just two seams that run across the shoulders and down the length of the sleeves. It includes extra ease across the back of the garment to fit well over a nappy (diaper).

Commonly referred to as the "BSJ", the baby surprise jacket is a very entertaining piece of knitted engineering."

I was intrigued by the whole 'entertaining engineering' thing - so I cast on the evening the pattern arrived, using Schachenmayr nomotta Crazy Cotton, colorway # 81 (pink and green). I very soon realized that the almost blasé instructions weren't going to cut it for this literal chick (hen*) so I wrote notes all over the A4 envelope the pattern came in...At this point The Other Denise mentioned she'd seen a handy spreadsheet for this pattern online, and sent me the link. Very helpful.

From there I sped along. I was out of town on a business trip last week - usually this allows for plenty of knitting time, but as my family (including in-laws) were along on this trip, not so much. (Did get to have Club Orange and Taytos at the Dublin, OH Irish Festival though...mmm).
Anyhoo...on the plane back I cast off. Yay! Figured out how to fold it, and...oh dear...
It's a surprise alright...Look at those joins across the front!Here's the instructions that do not say anything about making a hole-free join, grr...
Actually it looks better mid-blocking. Or maybe I'm just getting used to looking at it :)

*Had another birthday yesterday - already!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Ah happy days...Candy corn back in the stores! I bought myself some Autumn Mix in Giant on July 31st. Time really is moving faster as I get older...