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So glad fall has come, and especially happy that the cool breezy weeks are still peppered with days in the low 80’s. I wish we always had a nice mix of light rain, cool breezes and warm sun. I know this lovely weather won’t last long, so quickly do the best seasons leave us!

I’ve been assigned my garden plot last week and spent a perfect day breaking up the compacted clay and refreshing the soil with horse manure. I haven’t had a chance to plant anything yet. It’s getting so late so I need to do that this weekend, luckily the weather is going to be perfect for that.

Mostly though I’ve been knitting away. The blanket is still not complete. I’m at the half way mark. I’m definitely not progressing as quickly as I was hoping. A whole blanket of seed stitch gets ridiculously boring, so I decided to start a couple of quicker projects to work on when I need a break from the blanket. I’ve almost got my first Saartje’s Booty complete! I just need to knit the button straps and seam them up. I’ve hit a speed bump though and have a problem with casting on for the straps. I just can’t figure it out and apparently I’m not the only one with this problem, but the explanations in the help forums aren’t helping me! I hate being so close to complete and not being able to finish!

I’ve also been thinking up quick knitted christmas gifts to start now…a silk lace scarf, a pair of fetching wrist warmers, a scarflette are all possibilities. Can’t wait. I just love sitting with a warm blanket, a warm drink and something to knit.

In other news, Joe and I are going on vacation AGAIN! I know, that’s a lot of plane rides for us this year! This time I’m taking Joe to Montreal for his birthday (this month). Anybody have any suggestions for good food, things to see and do, that would be great. Just drop me an email or comment here. I’m assuming a hockey game is in order (Joe’s favorite hockey team during his youth was Montreal) and of course the botanical gardens, but what else? We are just staying for the weekend.

Oh yeah, to the local knitters:
I heard about a free alpaca farm tour on Sunday. I’ll probably be going so if anyone wants to come along, drop me a line.

Hopefully I’ll post soon with a completed pair of baby booties and a baby blanket! Have a good day all!

I’m here still. Really I am. I’ve just been busy with school and knitting. I’ve been knitting a lot it seems. Every spare minute I can manage, I do a row (which consists of 133 sts!) here and there. When I have more time, I knit right up until my hands feel as if they are going to fall off. I started a baby blanket a while back and then I restarted it and now I’ve taken a break because I’m angry with it. So angry I can’t bare to look at it. It’s too small! Why didn’t I accept this earlier and move on? I would have just made it bigger, but the yarn I was using, I bought in England and can’t readily be found here. Now I don’t have enough to enlarge the pattern. Oops.

So I’m on to this new blanket:

It’s much bigger and cushier AND it has got a hood. Perfect to wrap a baby in. The deadline is drawing near, hence the knitting marathon. You seasoned knitters are probably thinking “oh posh…it’s only a baby blanket. I can knit that up in one sitting!”…but me? Well, I’ve got a long way to go and I’ve been at my top speed the whole way through (okay, I started this one a day ago, but it feels like an eternity!). The needles that I am using are so long and akward, I have to balance my left needle on my knee or wedge under my arm to keep at a steady pace and to keep my hands from prematurely cramping. I probably have just a couple weeks if I want my blanket to make it before J & S’s baby does. Wish me luck!

So how have I been spending my non-knitting time lately, you ask? Ravelry!

Yes. I finally received my invite last week and can’t seem to stop exploring this whole new world filled with yarn-y goodness. There are so many patterns to look at, and in turn, so many blogs to read! So excuse me if I haven’t been around lately.

And when I’m not on Ravelry, Joe and I have been watching a newly discovered show- The IT Crowd. It’s a British show, but it’s been picked up by NBC so it will be on the telly here soon…unfortunately. I don’t know why they have to go and change the characters and de-Britify the show. It’s hilarious the way it is. Does NBC think that maybe us viewers won’t get the jokes because they speak with an accent and their emergency number is 999 instead of 911? I’m not sure.

Anyways, here’s a clip. You won’t get some of the story line with Richmond, but the rest is self explanatory. I just love Moss.

I can’t stand how I wait until I have a million things to write about, then get too tired to write all of it at once. So much has happened and so many brillant ideas have been thought…and then all forgotten!

I went to Stitches West this weekend. For those of you who aren’t so much into fibers, Stitches West is a giant yarn convention in Santa Clara. My knitting group rode the train that had about 3 or 4 cars full of knitters and crocheters. It was pretty interesting. The whole day was spent touching and squeezing wool, hemp, cotton, you name it. By the end of the day I had to stop myself from feeling a perfect stranger’s fancy cabled sweater for worry of weirding her out. I was just so used to the “see a nice fiber, do a squeeze test” motions that I just reached out at her sweater without even noticing what I was doing! Ack!

I scored a few things, but I didn’t go nearly as crazy with the spending as I thought I would. There was just so much stuff to buy and see that I became a bit overwhelmed. The prices weren’t as low as I thought they would be either, but I was so happy to see a booth dedicated to hemp because I’d been wanting to make a hemp shopping bag for a while now, but I had never found any to use.

Other than the convention, school has been keeping most of my time. I’m hitting my midterms week and surprisingly, my drawing class is still so much more difficult than my other classes. It’s pretty frustrating knowing that I am capable of drawing but having to stick to certain guidelines makes it so hard!! My hand shakes so much when I hold my pencil in the correct way it makes it almost impossible to get smooth lines. I also can’t seem to grasp the idea of filling up my paper. I’m always being chided on having too much negative space!

We will be moving in just a couple weeks and trying to get this place cleaned up and things packed away is looking more and more difficult. How did we manage to accumulate so much crap? I think the thrift store should be expecting a big payload in the next week or so. I’m in the purging mood! The less stuff we have to drag to our new home, the better.

Oh yes, and I want to take this time to let you all know about the Christian Carlos Fundraiser auction that is going on. A bunch of kind hearted women got together and donated their time and work to be put up for auction on eBay to raise money for the little boy who lost his family in a car wreck. Please help them out and bid!

Okay, what else? What else? I know I’ve seen a bunch of stuff I want to share with everyone….

Oh yeah! I came across a d.i.y. crafty website called OhMyStars! which has loads of great tutorials and a knit sweater pattern to die for. Seriously, it’s great.

Anyways, don’t worry. I’ll be posting again soon. I still have more to say, but oh. my. god. I’m so hungry.