Bloomin' Onion???

Nope! Bloomin' FEET!















My Bloomin' Feet package arrived from none other than Amanda*! Mrs. Clothesknit herself! ( i bow to the sainthood that is Mrs.Clothesknit--- adorable kids, super hubby, and she organizes the best.swaps.ever.). SO... the question of the week with the Bloomin' Feet group is "whaddya get?" I got S.P.O.I.L.E.D. rotten. :) And I am not complainin'! My socks (STR, Ruby Slippers colorway... pattern.... um, Amanda's?) fit PERFECT! Amanda--- I LOVE THEM. And yes, I was singing "I'm off to see the Wizard..." the entire photo shoot! (FYI: my all-time fave movie is the Wizard of Oz... )














And, besides being the uber-mom-knitter-wife-organizer-extraordinaire, Mrs.Clothesknit is *shh...her being from the bayou state... I think this is the kinda thing they whisper down there...*:
PSYCHIC.
Yup, I said it. She's got the gift, the "sight"... she must! How else would she have known that I was in my LYS on Thursday and Saturday trying to explain to them what one of those "bags you can clip to you? So your yarn doesn't get loose? Y'know... so I can take it to DC on the train and the yarn won't escape...." Yup. psychic.

Also in my lovely package (all wrapped in cool purple paper--- umm, ya... Pumpkin's claimed the paper.): one skein of Vesper Sock yarn in the "crew" colorway ( I remember seeing this somewhere, but have been droolin' over it since!), a Charlene Schurch Sensational Socks book (umm, so what if I have already started putting post-its with yarn from stash notes on the pages... many.many.many of these patterns will be knit this summer.) and chocolate. Oh... that Orange and Spice one is opened? Some might have been "tested" for quality before blogging about the positively orgasmic taste of this chocolate.

Amanda: thank you thank you thank you!















My pal was Phoebe at KnitHappened. :) She got her socks and they fit! I was so worried! Here they are all wrapped and ready to go. I was a little harried trying to get them out on time.

Specs:
Yarn: helloyarn, Rugby colorway
Needles: US0
Pattern: Jaywalkers :)

Happy Feet!
: )Mini


* my pal had some problems getting my bloomin' feet stuff together, so Amanda jumped in and sent me out a package. I am letting you all know right now, that this stuff happens--- situations change, people forget, etc. Please be nice in the comments b/c we've all had plans change quickly in our own lives.

PRIZES!

Ok, I TOTALLY screwed up and never posted the winner of the "find us a hotel" contest.

The Winner Is:
(insert dramatic drumroll here)

MEGAN.... who suggested that we stay at the Woodley Park Guest House.

(Pssst! megan! Over here... send me your email and snail mail for your prize!)

Thank you very much for the suggestion! We are on vacation in June and this was the perfect place for us: not too pricey, very homey and (muy importante!): NEXT TO THE ZOO. The #1 reason PC and I are planning a trip to DC is to see the Zoo. Is that weird? We are total "zoo people" in fact, we'll be at the zoo this weekend. To celebrate Earth Day!!! (Also, in honor of Earth Day, we are forgoing our normal "paper or plastic" route and using reusable grocery bags. Hey, it's a start.) Our first date was the zoo... I have to ask PC's permission to talk about that... some other time, m'kay?

Knitting.. yup, I've been doing it. I have so many posts bouncing around in my head! I am *thisclose* to finishing the Bloomin' Feet socks... I will do that tonight... Socks in the mail Monday. :)

Baby knitting continues... I am using a few patterns:
1. Baby Yoda pattern from Dogsstealyarn (send her some love, she had to part with one of her pups b/c of the baby... and she's moving from NYC to PDX... send lots of love for moving cross country with a one-year old.)
2. Button-up Raglan from Ericka Knight's Knitting for Two. This photo at Cheryl's is a good one. PC's friends are expecting a baby and the daddy has a certain penchant for a particular toy, so I am doing my first duplicate stitch this weekend...I'll make sure to take photos.
3. basic 5-hour baby sweater....

I am using up some Cotton Ease stash (Love that for babies!)... it's knitting up quite well on US 6 and giving me 4-5 spi depending on the color... ??? What? It totally matters what color I am knitting as to what gauge I get. Huh.


Will it be warm enough for the giraffes to come out this weekend?

Mourning

Join the Virginia Tech community today in memorium of the senseless tragedy that struck them this week. Say a small prayer for a local Boston family who are grieving the loss of a child. Hug your kids.

One of those days

You ever have one of those days?

The day that will last forever? When time slows and you want to desperately go back to bed? The day that starts off bad and you already want to climb out the window at work? Yeah, I'm having two of them.

Yesterday there was physical injury at the end of my work day, horrific drowning rain on my ride home and a bonehead move on my part in the lab.. that cost me 2 days of work.

today... I woke up to a moody cat who got stuck on my ring (don't ask) and it just got better from there.

I have a whole post (in.my.head) about helloyarn and Adrian who owns it. Her wool, her yarn, and her visit to my guild. Also some photos of her sock yarn (yeah, I have "some") and her dye kits.

But, I really need to start drinking coffee now or I will explode. Good thing I made dinner in the crock pot this morning ... now, if I could just shake the feeling that I didn't turn it on....

Boogie-woogie

A week?? Gracious... I feel downright incompetent (PC- is this the right spelling?). I would say I am sorry, but overall, I'm just tired. No photos today... Bloomin' Feet sock #2 is almost to the heel... I am thinking my guild meeting will help with that tonight. I started the pink cardi. But, it's orange and I keep calling it the "pink cardi." Oh well. I have about 8 inches of the back done. Lovin' the endless stockinette... great for movies.

So, why the tired? Well, PC and I took Good Friday off. To "sleep late" and "rest up" for the weekend. I think we slept until 8am.

Why would Mini y PC need to rest up? Are they going to deviate from their "clean-the-house-out-to-dinner-watch-a-movie" weekend routine? Damn straight! Friday, we headed to the luxurious accomodations of the Hampton Beach Casino to see Jet play. Yup: Jet! Millions of teenage girls are totally, like, mad at me right now. :) This band makes me jump around in my car and sing really loudly. Jet makes me happy, so PC scored some tix. Also, can I say: Hampton Beach Casino- pretty good set up. We sat and watched the show (I was tired) and there was a whole open space for dancing-jumping-boogeying and a zillion tables and chairs. And waitresses. With beer. :)

Saturday-- we stayed home and recovered right? Oh, no. We slept "in" (8:30am?) and cleaned the house. I think I bleached anything that stood still. I love that feeling. That clean house feeling. I made a delicious dinner of veal parmesan and gnocci. Love gnocci. I had my mom's sauce *the best ever* to go with it. And, then off to the Orpheum. If you read the paper on Monday, you know who was there. Yup, the Godfather of Punk, the Rock Iguana... Iggy Pop (and the Stooges). PC wanted to see Iggy before, well... y'know... before he got too old to writhe on stage. Iggy turned 60 this year and honestly, didn't miss a beat on stage. I hadn't seen Iggy ever... and until I got to the show, I didn't think I had ever really heard them either. Oh, but then the first few songs: and yup! A friend from college used to play these songs over. and over.and over. So, we danced around and had some fun.... PC still can't hear out of his left ear (any suggestions besides candling?? he refuses to do that).

Did I mention the front row tickets?

Oh... and now I am trolling for small shows to go see....I feel my music groove coming back. It's these times when I look at my friends with kids and dogs and husbands (whom I have been insanely jealous of) and say: Damn! they can't do this! So, PC and I (and the ever present "when ya gettin' married??" question) are really enjoying this... I finally get it. I feel like "wow... no kids, disposable income, and very few responsibilities... this is what I was missing." I think PC's been waiting a long time for me to come to this realization. :)

Photos (finally!)

Sock #1of Bloomin' Feet is done! My pal said she liked "variegated colors" and requested "blues, pinks and purples". Well, Sock #2 is on the needles and I am taking it to work with me today (long day in the lab...lots of waiting and my usual lunch buddy is out... so, mucho sock knitting!). This is the Jaywalker pattern, designed by Grumperina, published by Magknits and made famous by Cara.

Here's the color yarn I was talking about yesterday. It's the one on the right. I think it'll look great in that Vogue cardi pattern. And yes, I am making both cardigans! I will make the cable-y one in a great hot pink Cascade 220. :) And, I'm going to put a zipper on it.The pink 3-button cardi will be knit in the largest size (47inch.) and I have more than a 47 inch. I am knitting 3 sweaters this summer as "goal" sweaters. They are all in "attainable" sizes that I can wear if I just get my bum in gear and get serious about losing some weight (my boobs shrink when I lose weight...right now, they are a 54 inch). And with my gauge being off (like it always is!) the pink cardi will be about a 50 inch. So, no... can't wear it in May, but that's alright.





55% alpaca, 23% silk, 22% merino.









And b/c she was looking so cute last night and I just wanted to scoop her up: Pumpkin. She's been very happy if I make her a "nest" and she snuggles into PC's quilt. I made him this quilt and he loves it. Apparently, Pumpkin loves it more. :)

Bloomin' Socks are 50% done (i.e. 1 sock down, 1 to go). My sock pal popped by the blog recently. I'm considering not posting the sock in order to torment her a bit. :)

So... I picked up a copy of Vogue Knitting this weekend (after my facial, courtesy of PC, at Elizabeth Grady and before my new necklace, also courtesy of PC... spoiled.rotten.princess--- that's me!). I like some of the designs! I'm not much of a Vogue girl (prefer IK) but this one's not bad. Two things I am making (already have the yarn... oh, is that bad??)







I have some alpaca/silk/merino blend in an apricot that will look adorable in this cardi!















and this: is a bright pink Cascade 220 for the fall/winter... and perhaps a button band?? I know the idea is to wear it open, but I think a button band or zipper might be nice... any opinions?

















I have some baby knitting to finish up and some other projects in the works. Oh, PC and I picked our hotel... I will announce the winner tomorrow... and ship out the yarn-y prize.

Has anyone ordered from Land's End before? Is their sizing "true"? I measured myself (don't all knitters do this?) and placed a *large* order last night (I have gained weight... I don't want to talk about it... I'm buying some stuff to get me through the next season while I power-walk and Pilate my ass into my old clothes.) I was also at Target last night and I was trying on pants that I know *should* fit--- no fit! :( then, a girl in the same dept grabbed me when I was putting the 9th pair of pants back and said "these sizes aren't "true"--- Target runs really small on the plus side." How to make a fat girl feel worse: make the big girl sizes smaller than normal. Ouch! Of course, if they put the Easter candy outside of the fitting room sales would skyrocket! (at least for me... I was soo good last night... No pity-eating for me last night!).

For all my WW's out there: 32 ounces down, 96 ounces to go. I find that 128 ounces of water is the perfect value for me. The whole 64 ounce thing doesn't work. The nutritionist says more water can't hurt and my help me out a bit.

A crazed jumble post, but sometimes that it just how I roll.... (PC that bad use of urban slang was for you!)

:) Mini