Kelly's Last Turnabout

Today is Kelly's last Turnabout dance at her high school. I got to come down early and do her hair and make-up for it. Doesn't she look gorgeous?
Unfortunately, it was too early for her to put on her dress before I left. It's navy and super cute.
The dogs liked it too.

In other news, I taught a perfect stranger how to knit today. This was a first for me, as I've only taught people I knew before. I was sitting in the Toyota dealership waiting for my car to get serviced and I was knitting away on a baby blanket to pass the time. This girl sitting across from me asked me if I had knit the whole thing (I'm more than halfway done by now). I told her yes and she asked me how to do it. I was so excited I jumped right next to her, handed her the needles and taught her right there. I only wish I had a spare pair of needles and some yarn to give her to take home and practice. It was super fun to share my love for knit with a total stranger.

I Love KnitPicks

This heavenly package came in the mail today. Oh Happy Day! It feels like Christmas.

Knit Night February Edition

We had another Knit Night last night! It was super fun; as usual. Erin is working on one of Ysolda Teague's newest patterns, Cairn.
It's a cool set of gloves and she's signed up to make two pairs.
Erin had just started the pattern in this photo. It was looking really cool by the time she left.
Erin on the phone. How cute are her pink pants? Super cute!

I spent my time knitting on the baby blanket for Maria's daughter. Unfortunately, wine and knitting were not mixing too well for me last night and I spent most of the night fixing silly mistakes. It is about half way done.

The dogs also enjoyed the evening. They love it when Erin comes over.They really like to dig around in her bags. We're not sure why.

We also made a trip to the LYS that night. I am proud to say we both came in below budget. I went for the sale yarn and got a STEAL on some Louet Gems Fingering Weight yarn.
The grey will be used to make a triangle scarf from Ysolda's Ishbel Pattern.

The pink yarn's fate is still undecided, but it is definitely possible that it will become a bag.
Erin bought some DK weight Berroco Comfort and a couple pairs of needles she needed.

In other yarn news, I finally have a delivery date for my KnitPicks order: Monday March 2nd. It took forever because I chose free shipping, but the end of all this waiting is near!

A Busy Month

So I haven't posted in a while because life got pretty hectic pretty fast in February. I picked up lots of extra shifts at work, but I still managed to get some knitting done. Here's my latest creation for Kelly's birthday:It's a shrug! I got the pattern from my Fitted Knits book (highly recommended).
She thinks all of this posing is stupid. Notice how I conveniently got her to model both the shrug and the ear flap hat I knit for her at the same time. There's knit everywhere!
I'm still amazed that it all fits her so well.

After that I cast on a baby blanket for Maria's baby girl. She's due in 8 weeks, and looking gorgeous. How does she do it? Anyway, I can't post pictures because it's a surprise. It will be finished soon.

We also hit the auto show this month with Jim and the family.

And we got the dogs a Porch Potty! I LOVE this thing!I don't know where April was when we took this picture.

I also managed to venture out and meet more knitters this month.

I went to my monthly Windy City Knitters Guild meeting and I met Franklin Habit and he signed my book (his book?), "It Itches"! That was awesome. He speaks so well and he had lots of enjoyable back stories about the excerpts from his book that he read. It was all I could do not to ask him to take a picture with me. He's like Knit Royalty. But, I chickened out. Oh well, I'll always have my signed book.

I also joined a Meetup group: Chicago Knitters Unite. It was a pleasant surprise when I discovered that virtually everyone in this knitting group is in their 20s. I met some super cool people and I learned a lot at our meets. I also began to discover cool coffee houses I never knew existed and I made a new knitter friend that also works in the restaurant industry. Very Cool.

So yes. It's been a very busy few weeks. I feel like the month just began and it's already ending.

Finally! I finished a short-row heel on my first sock!

I have been trying to learn how to do a short-row heel for a toe-up sock for weeks. WEEKS! I have referenced countless books and websites finding that regardless of my number of attempts, I could not understand the instructions (Please remember that I do not have anyone who can teach me this in person). Finally, today, I stumbled across CosmicPluto's old blog post with the BEST instructions with tons of pictures! Yay! Here is a link to those instructions:

Short Row Heel Instructions

If you are struggling with this; you will find your answers there. I seriously want to kiss the author of this blog post or send them lots of yummy yarn as an offering of my thanks and joy! I am so excited to finally be able to finish a sock!

Here is the sock's current status (it has a heel!):


I can't wait until it's done!