Finished! Falling Water Scarf

Well, first to catch up this eventually became this:

uno

dos

& tres

And then dos and tres started in on a journey together (uno was left out, while I love it, its more thick/thin than the second two) and with the use of this pattern - Falling Water PDF - and some 88 cent "size 5..and a half? ish?" circulars I bought at Hy-Vee a while back (you don't need circs, I just used them because I didn't have a size 5 straight, and I hate my LONG size 6's) We eventually came out with something very similar to this -

ok, so it WAS this. Good point.

holy heck, that's a lot of scarf!

Yeah, its a little long, but I'm a little obsessed with long scarves. Remember I live in Illinois. When its not pouring rain for a week straight and flooding the good ol' Mississippi river (which it has, I'll have to try to get some pictures today) Its 20 below and the kind of bitterly cold that makes you wear a scarf INSIDE. I need that sucker to WRAP and make layers.

Although...its pastel, and I don't really...wear...pastel. And it has some funny color sections going on that I don't LOVE. But I'll wear it regardless. Because I MADE it! ...and because I'll be freezing... and I'm not picky when I'm cold.

Knitted Kitty Swap

I've been wanting to share this since last week, but wanted to wait until I was sure my partner received her kitty. (which she has, so let's proceed!)

A while back while browsing Ravelry I came across a group doing a knitted kitty swap. You knit the same pattern for the kitty, but of course using your choice of yarn, needles, "embellishment", etc. and then...swap!

Provided I'm not a cat person - I am, however, a knitting dork. ...and I'm a fan of the swap ;)

I thought it would be fun because even though you're working with the same pattern, you really get to tweak it however you wish and the possibilities are endless! (If you're on ravelry, click on the post title and it will link you to the group, you can see all the kitties that have been arriving and its amazing to see how they're all so different!)

Plus, I like that I have something that someone else MADE. And it was fun to see what would show up in the mail.

Would you like to see? Well, you're in luck!

Here's what I sent:

Her name is Scrap. Partly because of my other hobbies (scrapbooking and quilting) and partly because....well...when I first knit her up....she looked pretty sad! It was one of those where the ball of yarn looked promising, but for some reason once it was knit, it didn't quite live up to my hopes. Not terrible, just not quite what I was envisioning.

BUT....all of that was solved once she got a face and her new scarf.

Much better.

Not near as 'scruffy alley cat' looking now!

How else does a cat keep a scarf on?

And the best part? Here's what I got:

Princess

She is INSANELY soft! (alpaca...mmmmmmm) and a much prettier brown than these pictures show!

And she has adorable eyes and a pretty 'necklace' (its a collar I suppose, but its to pretty to be called a collar) with a little bell even!

she's quite at home, and currently sitting on my bookshelf. love her.

Contest!

Let me start by saying, electricity is a GOOD thing! Sorry for the delay in posting the contest, I had planned to have it up last night. I put the boy to bed, finished a few things, sat down to post and....thunderstorm. More importantly....lightning! *sigh* shut down, unplug. wait for later.

That was around 8. By 9:30, thunderstorm passed, now just a nice easy rain coming down. "ah! I'll finish a few rows on this scarf, finish watching nanny 911, and go post"

...Then darkness. Then the lights flickered on a second or two and, dark again. I waited a few seconds thinking "It'll kick back on" ....lights? ....hello? ....Air Conditioning? ....guys?

And then the boy CRYING upstairs....and I had to feel my way up to him without breaking my neck. Then feel my way back downstairs (you wouldn't BELIEVE how dark our house is!) to fumble for candles, and matches - which, smart mommy I am, I'd 'hidden' WAY up high. Just to make this moment that much easier. All while the boy is clenched onto me.

A few minutes later, we were on the front porch, happily eating raisins and talking about how dark it was. Go figure.

(see, I can ramble!) All that to say we didn't get power until almost 1am, after I'd set up camp in the living room (sleeping on the floor didn't always hurt did it??).

Note to self: make that stupid power outage box I'm always telling myself I'll make.

I did realize at one point, we DID have a flashlight, and retrieved it:

yeah, the doggie flashlight. It only stays on for about a minute, but it did fill the requirement in that - it makes light. Good enough!

Alright, enough about our power outage (after all, my AC works again and that's all that matters!)

--------Contest!---------

First the why? I SOLD MY FIRST ETSY ITEM YESTERDAY! ...and I'm freakishly excited about it. You have no idea. =)

So to celebrate, I'm doing a little give-away!

(minus the slightly crumpled cup, my son likes to play with it and its taken a beating)
The yellow is a bit more mellow than in the picture, but still a very cute coffee cozy if I do say so. 100% cotton, wash and wear.

So here's the deal, starting...now! and ending Sunday the 15th (let's say midnight). I've picked a number between 1 and 100. (I even wrote it down) Leave a comment with your guess. Even better? Send a new reader over and when they post, you can guess a second time (or third...or fourth...)

The good news? I don't have many readers, so your chances are pretty good ;) LOL!

Have fun!

Wanna See the Back of my Head?

Well here's your chance! You see, I'm not much of a picture person. I know, I know, I keep telling myself I NEED to get more pictures with me *IN* them instead of taking them. Its important, my son will want to look back years from now, yada yada yada. I get it...I hate them.

No really, I look at pictures of myself, cringe, and delete them before they ever see the end of the USB cable to upload them to the computer. I realize I'm *probably* being a little hard on myself, but I can't see a picture of myself without picking it apart 10,000 ways.

At any rate, here's the back of my head! That's me, gray tshirt, trying to hide from the camera. And see that sweater hanging on the back of my chair? I'LL NEVER GIVE IT UP! I love that thing, even though it has seen some MUCH better days. (and really, its just an acrylic sweater from kohls, so why I'm so attached I'll never know) But I'll wear it until it falls apart! Erhm...well, it is kind of falling apart...hmm...

Back on topic Sarah! The picture is from QC StitchnBitch last nite.

I finally got brave and went a few weeks ago. Well, not so much brave as "not absolutely terrified". Fine line. :) A very nice bunch of ladies. and coffee. and knitting. in once place.

Lovely :)

I finished my last dishcloth for a dishcloth swap I'm doing. Those will go out Monday, and I'm excited to see what will come back :) I'll try to post a picture of mine before they go. I'm actually happy with them, and even want some for myself, but I have to knit SOMETHING else first, because after doing 4 of the same pattern - I hate it at the moment. Oh I love it, but I hate it just a little after doing 4 in a row. ;)

Not much else to report, the boy has a wicked cold. And today was the most icky humid day, so he was nothing but a congested, runny nose mess. Even with the AC on, it didn't run enough to really kick out the humidity in the house. We've been waiting all day for some NASTY storms to come though tonite. Bad weather on its way, but at least it will cut through this soupy air and be cool enough to go outside tomorrow!

Off to work on some Etsy stuff! Have a great weekend!