WHEW!

That was a close one!

Yes, I know, it's been awhile. That was then; this is now.

I wanted to send a little note to my dear friends with regard to some comments that were made last night at Knit Night and thought, 'Hey! I could blog that!' My husband just left for the weekend and I'm feeling kind of free spirited about the whole thing and if I don't want to do laundry right now, then I won't and if I want to blog right now, then I will!

I got an iPad for Christmas and have been using that most of the time, but haven't figured out how to blog from it (yet), so I grabbed my camera and came down to my computer to load some photos and catch everybody up on what's been going on. I put the card in the computer and said yes when the computer asked to load the 1446 photos that was on it. (During my absence there was a computer re-furb and photos are kind of scattered throughout the innerds of this thing.) I also thought that since that was close to a years worth of photos and I KNOW that most of the pictures are already in there I also gave the o.k. to 'erase after download is complete'.
At some point during that transaction the screen went wild! There was some kind of error and bits of windows flashing in and out and it was in the middle of erasing and I wanted to back up the photos before the thing crashed if the card was wiped like it was supposed to....and you know, this whole blogging thing wasn't very relaxing at all; laundry was starting to look good!
I finally was able to shut it down, walked away to get a little lunch (everything is better after a bit of Toblerone Chocolate--that was dessert). While I was waiting for the pages to come back I put the card back in the camera and.....Voila! Photos intact! They were also loaded here!

So now, I shall blog away. I have chosen to only deal with knitting related subjects today.

KAL #2 complete. (we have a no face policy)

For Christmas I was gifted some lovely Noro Sock yarn and the pattern Bermuda. I. Love. it!

One of the Red Hot Mama's turned 40 and in what appears to be becoming a tradition of sorts there was a basket of goodies put together and I included some mittens.
Yarn Harlot's Cloisonee and they too, were a lot of fun to knit. I've made more (and will continue to make more) for the new yarn shop in town that I am also teaching at! Yay! I'm working at a yarn shop that also is a quilt shop! I'm not sure how much money will actually make it home with me. ;-)

I didn't get to see the recipient of these mitts open her gift as my husband and I were in Mexico during the celebration. And as with any of my holidays, knitting was a big part of it; a good thing too, because it rained everyday and was mostly cloudy the rest of the time.

I worked almost exclusively on our KAL #3 (my pick) Jewelled Steps by Cat Bordhi with an added one of a kind detail of my own design. It was not all smooth sailing down there in the not-so-sunny south. There was Yarn Barf. And when one is faced with Yarn Barf in Mexico at an all inclusive resort the only thing to do is....

Grab a couple of glasses of Champagne and deal with it.
The socks are now complete and when our last KALer completes her pair (no pressure) there will be another photo shoot and there are a couple of neat plans for that...wait for it...
UNDERFOOT!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!

Now for the purpose of this whole blood pressure raising endeavour.
As I sat knitting quietly to myself (because I was really tired) last night, the question was asked not once, but several times if I was knitting from my stash? (I'm sure there's a picture of my stash in some post of mine; believe me when I say it has grown) I replied clearly and succinctly that, 'No, it was not from my stash.' and that, 'I had purchased one ball of yarn to start the Biker's Jacket from the lasted Knitter's issue.' It sounds a lot more polite here than when I yelled it across the room last night. (I was really tired). There's a flower as an embellishment on the back, but it totally calls for a basket of yarn or a big ball of yarn with needles sticking out of it or CASTOFFS written in funky yarn---anything other than a stupid flower! I wasn't using the yarn called for and I wanted to see if it would work so I only bought the one ball because one ball is always o.k. Ask my sock yarn stash.
So a couple of days ago, I cast on for the sleeve---it's like a swatch---and found that I did indeed need to go down a needle size to get gauge. Yay me! I did some pro-knitting there. Anyway, I kept knitting and this morning was examining the fabric and thought it's quite dense so it will be warm and substantial; I might line it with some funky fabric. I'm going to look way cool and other knitters will be envious of my whole Biker Knitter Logo....

But I'm not liking working it. It's hard on my hands. It's black. I don't think I really love it, but I did like the idea of the logo.

(There's other stuff in my stash; other stuff that I've already started that I know I will love!)

It's off the needles, going to be undone and all it cost me was one ball of yarn that may or may not find it's way into my stash, but it's not a whole sweater's worth and that's something that I feel really good about!