Twas the Night of FO's and Mass Txting

Yeah, well, he's usually not like that and doesn't bother me much while I'm knitting. For some reason this particular Thursday he was VERY MUCH into txting me. *giggle* He's probably gonna kill me for saying something. Then again, I don't think he reads this blog much. If he does...*smooches sweetie*

It was also a night of finished objects for me...and the night to show off my dish cloth exchange items. So, I'm on this message board and we've done a scarf exchange (see my archive around V-day time), now this dish cloth exchange, and we're going to do a socks exchange in September! So the scarf idea was mine, and it just sort of took off!! *beaming* So, here are the dish clothes that I received (on the right). They are GORGEOUS and I can't wait to use them. The mottled one is actually a potholder. On the left are the ones that I sent to my exchangee (supah supah late because I'm a supah slackah). Actually, my life was so messed up these last two months I just couldn't get my head on straight! The top pictures is some Williamsburg soaps I sent with mine. Felt a "special" gift was warranted being as I was so late. The second one is a yellow fan shaped lace on, the third and fourth are of the same cloth. I knitted it reversible, meaning I used both hands to knit in continental and throw at the same time. It was fun! It's a drunk looking star. What it is with me and the drunken knitting? The fifth one is a standard basketweave pattern. I felt something functional was needed. The sixth one is some other lacy pattern. I can't remember at this point. They all kind of look the same to me. It was fun to make, though. This last one is another lacey one. I used all dish cloth patterns from www.knittingpatterncentral.com, well, except the reversible knit one. That's from www.diynet.com.

Okay, so I FINALLY finished that lace, toddler sweater from www.knitty.com. I feel like I've been working on that thing FOREVAH! It is the cutest little sweater I've ever made and will TOTALLY make one for my friend if she's having a girl. Of course, at this point, I have no idea if my friend is coming to see me or not. I hope so so I can give him the sweater, but it's a long story as to why I hope he doesn't, too. Sometimes platonic is hard.

Finally, I brought in the cammo, baby hoodie I made for my friend who has three, count them, THREE boys and they're all big into hunting and outdoors stuff. so I told her I'd make her a cammo baby sweater. Isn't it just the cutest? I used the Bernat cammo yarn. Not the itchy Red Heart stuff. ICK!

AND, last but not least, is a picture of me working on my top down raglan sweater. I need to put the stiches on waste yarn so I can see how it's fitting. Seriously, I need a cape...a bedazzled cape wiht SUPAH SLACKAH on it.

Limo Rides to Middleburg for Dinner!

Yes, that's where I was last week. The office was in a limo that was comped to us by a client simply for blogging about it on our work blog!!! Can you believe that? So, we all piled into a Reston Limo (insert shameless plug here. http://restonlimo.com) with Mike as our driver and headed out to Middleburg. Mike was a very talkative and attentive driver. The last two limo drivers I have had were just there to do their job, but he was pleasant and took a picture with us! It was nice to have someone with a personality taking care of us!

So, we drove the loooooooooong trek through rush hour traffice to visit another client who owns Salvia Ristorante Italiano! (insert another shameless plug here http://www.salviaristorante.com) on mainstreet Middleburg! We had calamari and antipasto to start with. A bottle of champage was provided compliments of the owner. So, we toasted to........

THE BLOG! *giggle* We toasted many things, but blogging was my contribution to the toast. I thought it fitting being as blogging got us the ride there!

We had foccaccia with DELISH olive oil and spices. A nice pinot noir was purchased that was very mild and light in flavor. Dishes ranged from eggplant parm rolls to steak to veal and finally to my dish Linguine Pescatore! It was chock full of calamari that WAS NOT, I repeat, WAS NOT rubbery. It was cooked to PERFECTION! There were HUGE shrimp and muscles in there, too. The portion was not so large that I felt like I had to eat it all and be overly stuffed, nor was it so little that I thought I was would startve. I feel like Goldilocks..."Just right!" For dessert, we feasted on carrot cake, canolis, and ice cream! Yes ice cream. Angela LOVES ice cream.

You can read about the whole experience on our work blog: http://6155mcguire.blogspot.com/

You can also read about the limo service on their blog: http://www.restonlimo.com/blog/

"He HAD the Toes!"

For some reason, the story struck us as humorous. It was the way Nina kept saying, "He HAD the toes!" Don't ask me how we got on the subject, but we did. Nina was telling a story about a friend or acquaintance of hers that had their toes chopped off by a lawn mower and while he was in the hospital he got the chicken pox. Well, I think that's how the story went, anyway. Miraculously enough, the toes didn't grow back, but there was definite cartilage that did emerge from the accident so he had these kind of webbed things attached to his foot. Sharon, for some reason or another, didn't realize he HAD the toes at one point in time and then lost them in the accident. I'm not sure exactly WHY we found it funny, but we did. Then Dionne had to go and make that little gesture with her pinky and I about fell out of my chair laughing so hard! You just had to be there to appreciate it.

Yes, I am still working on the lace sweater. There's a picture of my hands making the sweater and a picture of the back of the sweater, done. I haven't really gotten much work done on the sleeves. I've had to put it on hold and I'm still not sure when my friend is coming to visit. In this picture on the right, I'm working on the sleeves. I'm making both at the same time so if I make a mistake on one, I can do the same to both. It's a neat concept, I think. It may seem like it takes that long, but once you're done, they're both done!

There was much discussion to be had on our end about socks. Not sure why, but I'm guessing that's how we segwayed into the whole toe chopping incident. Something about doing a sock KAL where you make your own pattern as you go along, king of like the raglan KAL we were doing. I'm ashamed to say that I still haven't worked on mine much. I hope to get it done sometime in the near future. I will have to make an OSU throw sometime between now and November, too, so I have THAT to think about, too. AND we're doing a sock exchange on my OTHER knitting group that I belong to.

I got some LOVELY dishrags in the mail from that exchange. I'm such a slacker and have one more to finish before I can send mine along. Just haven't had time to knit on the weekends like I have been. Hands have been occupied...er, they're being held all weekend, that is. *giggle* Really, they are. We just sit there and hold hands while we watch movies all weekend. It's nice. Doesn't leave much time for knitting though. I told him this weekend that I didn't want to waste the last night I have with him knitting. He was so cute to want to learn!! Anyway, I digress. Some of the funnier quotes of the night, besides the whole toe chopping off incident:

"I dare my socks to need darning!" "Toe jail=toe sock." You know, those socks with the places for the toes like gloves?? Toe socks? I LOVE the few pairs I have.

"I hate the pearl in conjunction with the knit." Nina...gotta love her and the whole pearling dilemma. We were talking about needing our space when we knit and not wanting our SO's to be so close to us when we're knitting because it stresses us. "I'd rather make my yarn tickle his feet." It's so funny that I wrote this quote down. My friend was helping me this weekend by pulling the yarn out of the ball for me. He was intentionally putting the yarn so when I pulled it it tickled his leg. He was just giggling away. It was JUST the cutest thing EVAH!

So, I missed last weeks meeting. I will blog about why in a few minutes.

Still Working on the Lace Sweater

Okay, so I'm ATTEMPTING to make this lace cardigan for a friend of mine who's supposed to be here next weekend (as in the first weekend in April). Well, at least I THINK he's going to be here next weekend. I'm not so sure as to when he's actually coming. He has this CUTE AS CAN BE 2 year old daughter. It's a Knitty.com pattern. Everything as going fine with the back and made the left front. The right front was giving me one HECK of a time. I had to rip it out at least three times and have Svetlana help me figure out where I was in the pattern. This is the first time I've knitting with a chart before so I having a hard time figuring out where I was in the pattern.

Not to mention the fact that I didn't take my contacts out before I came so my eyes were REALLY tired AND found out from a friend of mine via text message that Tubby Smith was FINALLY leaving Kentucky to coach in Minnesota. I feel sorry for Minnesotans. In any event, I didn't stay long Thursday. I needed to best rested up for my EXCITING trip to Cleveland. *giggle*

No pictures of me this week as I didn't stay long enough. I finally finished the right front and it looked NOTHING like the left front. Conveniently enough, there were NO dimensions for the right and left fronts so I could make sure that I was making it correctly. So, I ripped out part of the left front and made it match the back and right fronts. Now I'm working on the sleeves. I hope I can finish it in time, but at this rate, I doubt it!! I'm supposed to have finished at least 3 dish rags for an exchange I'm on and I have been a TOTAL slacker on that exchange. I started working on them this weekend. I will be putting the sweater on hold until I can get at least 3 rags done.