I’m asking for your prayers today.  You have probably heard about the beach house fire that claimed the lives of seven college kids over the weekend.  One of the girls who lost her life was my close friend’s niece.  She has a twin sister, who was not at the beach this weekend, and she and her entire family are now grieving her death.  Please pray for their comfort and support as they face the days to come.  I can’t imagine the heartbreak they are feeling right now, but I’m heartbroken for them.  And please do keep the families of all of the other kids in your prayers as well.  Even the survivors are suffering the effects of this tragedy.  I think it’s safe to say that their lives will never be the same, but I do hope that God will comfort them and bring them a sense of peace in the days to come.

Love you, KB.

We went to SAFF today! This was my third year going to our local sheep and wool shindig. The first year, I met my SIL and our nieces there. DJ was 2 and AJ was about 7 months old. She slept on me in the Baby Bjorn almost the entire time we were there, and the whole thing was amazing to me. The yarn! The spinners! The alpacas! Then last year, I went with my favorite neighbor, Karen. It was cold and drizzly and we didn’t get to the barns to see the animals. DJ was crushed. I came home and ended up being sick with a bad cold, but I didn’t care because I had bought some cool yarn, met Elizabeth, and enjoyed the time spent with my neighbor.

This year, I dragged my husband along. It ended up not being a hunting weekend for him, so I decided it would be a family fun day. Which it was…but you know, non-knitting husbands are only just so interested in an arena full of yarn and fiber. High points were eating our picnic lunch in the back of the Yuke (DJ’s pet name for our car), seeing the alpacas (I always love seeing the alpacas), buying more Miss Babs, and seeing Keri. I called her a little late in our visit to see if she was still around, and she was. So we met up for a few minutes. My husband and the kids were tired and bored by that point, so we didn’t really talk for long. But she showed me her Ene’s scarf, and it was just fun to see her in person.

Keri mentioned in a recent post on her blog that I was one of the first bloggers she met (online, not in person); coincidentally, she was also one of the first ones I met. She started blogging in September of 2004, and I started Knits and Grits the first in July of 2004. I was a brand-new knitter who had gone online for help with learning how to do all of this stuff, and I stumbled upon knitting blogs. I was dumbfounded, because who had ever heard of blogs at that point? Not me, for sure. But I also just had to get into it–and it has been fun. As I worked on my Ariann tonight, I started thinking about who I would want to see at my ultimate blogger meetup. I didn’t go to the Ravelry meetup at SAFF today, because my fam was pretty much ready to head home before it started. But if I knew people like Felt Like Knitting Beth, Knitty Gritty Keri, SimpleHappy Patti, My Favorite Things Elizabeth, I Was Knit Together Lynne, Stress Reaction Leah, Clothesknit Amanda, Common Threads Jessica, Have You Any Wool Rachel, Ring Around the Rosies Rachel, Craftapple Linda, Knit Wit Momma Jenn, All This by Hand Brynne, Stardust Shoes Joanna, Needles and Wool Karen, Friender Jen, Knit Together Lynda, Skein Street Erin, One of Each Harriett, Sew Blessed Cindy, Zigzag Stitch Mandy, Yarn Miracle Emily, Knitter in the Kitchen Caitlyn, and Life in Abundance Dana, were all going to be there? Plus all of the others I can’t think of at this late stage of the night? Well, I would be there in a heartbeat. I think it’s you bloggers who make knitting (and sewing and all of the rest of it) fun. So, thanks!

Okay. Time to get back to Ariann, which has been very addicting, until I realized I could probably make another Forest Canopy shawl with the Miss Babs worsted I bought today. The colors in the yarn are so pretty, I can barely wait to cast on!

Let me apologize to anyone who has emailed me or commented here lately. I worked 21 hours last week, which as I have said before, is a lot for someone who doesn’t have a job. Plus, I do it in bits and pieces throughout the day, at home, which is tough. And due to that, my inbox has been totally flooded. The work is great for the extra income, and for the time I get to spend with former coworkers/good friends, even though the time we spend together is within the confines of emails and instant messages. But it has thrown my usually organized household into disarray. To put it mildly. However, things are still happening, like my mom’s recent visit, which was great, and I have even done some knitting now and then. I had the weekend off from working, so while I sat in the driveway watching D & A play, I finished up my Fetchings. And then I started and finished a pair for AJ.

Here are mine:

Fetching, free pattern from Knitty.com
Reynolds Odyssey, a little more than one ball,
and size 6 Denise Interchangeables, magically looped

I love this yarn. It’s so soft, and the way the colors marl and stripe so subtly, it reminds me of Trekking. On steroids. It would make a wonderful sweater, but at $10 a ball, it’s not going to become a sweater of mine anytime soon. The wristwarmers, however, are an affordable luxury.

Beth suggested that I use the leftovers to make AJ a wee pair of Fetchings, and I thought that was a super idea. They flew off the needles…they were great fun. (Ravelry notes on the modifications I made can be found here.) And she adores them. She wore them to church today and they said she never took them off!

I don’t love the way the picot edge curls on hers, but it doesn’t seem to do that on the full-size pair.  Or, it doesn’t do it as badly.

Speaking of Beth, I got to meet up with her this afternoon. We live about 2.5 hours away from each other, so there was probably little chance of us ever getting together. But we talk on the phone a good bit and have a lot in common, and when she said she was driving past this area on a trip, I was thrilled to get to meet her. (We had a good laugh when we first started planning this, because she and I are both self-professed hermits with a good healthy fear-bordering-on-paranoia of strangers. Or maybe the paranoia part is just me. And yet, there we were, planning to meet a person we met on the internet. We said we should just meet in a dark alley to make the scene complete.)

However, instead of the dark alley, we chose an outlet mall near me. It was perfect, because there’s a playground (for D & A) and lots of shopping (for her husband and daughter, because you know they’d get bored with the knitting talk pretty quickly). Plus it wouldn’t take them far off of the interstate. Anyway, we met and spent an hour or so chatting and showing each other our current WIPs and taking turns looking for DJ, who is very fast and can easily disappear behind playground equipment in a flash. It was fun, and she came bearing gifts, some flower seeds and some Halloweenish treats for the kids. And I got to see her Maine Morning wristwarmers, which she’s knitting with some of Rachel’s handspun.  We have to do it again, Beth. (Maybe when we finish Ariann! Can anyone say Joint FO Photo Shoot?)

Now I’m off to bed.

Another sweater hot off the needles! I’m not sure this is technically a Wallaby, since wallabies are marsupials and they all have pouches. But, that’s the fun of knitting your own stuff.

Wonderful Wallaby by Cottage Creations, size 4
Knitted on US size 8 Bryspun circ in Paton’s Classic Wool

It took less than three skeins of yarn to make this sweater. I did have to make the sleeves, body and hood longer than the pattern specified, maybe because my 4 year old is almost 4-1/2. Or maybe it’s because he’s tall, I don’t know. Anyway, after washing and blocking on a towel, the body width grew a little and the sweater is now roomy and perfect on him. I love the pattern; it’s perhaps a little too wordy for my taste, but it’s easy and so fun to customize. And there’s ribbing at the neckline before you start the hood, which keeps it snug to the neck and not all gape-y, like some knitted hoodie patterns end up. AJ is getting a winter-white Wallaby of her very own sometime this fall or winter. For hers, I want to do a cabled one similar to this, except without the pocket and with cabled rib at the hem and cuffs.

All in all, I say this one is a success!

So busy

Since I can’t seem to get my mind in the right frame for a proper post, here’s what I’ve been up to, in bullet form.

• I found a fantastic, really local yarn shop this week, just a few miles from home. It’s very friendly, and the yarn selection is wonderful, full of tasteful yarns. All of the yarns that I love (and many I haven’t even tried yet) are represented. I bought some Reynolds Odyssey for a pair of Fetching wristwarmers, and some Cascade 220 (in charcoal) for Ariann. I started the Fetching last night, and they’re turning out great.
• I finished DJ’s Wonderful Wallaby. Love it. When I was halfway through with the hood, I decided to remove the pocket. It wasn’t working for me…there was something about the way it looked with the rolled hem that I did at the bottom, instead of the ribbed hem. It just didn’t look right. At any rate, it was easy to pull it out without cutting anything. Photos to follow.
• I got a few days off from working. The programmers are having to fix the computer system I have been testing, and needed us to stay out while they did that. I actually got to clean all three of our bathrooms this week, a task long overdue, and I made sugar cookies with DJ. I love Robin’s recipe–it’s the best sugar/butter cookie, ever. We made stars, and cactus and cowboy hat shapes. It has been nice to just be for a few days.
• I have been enjoying choir practice at church. We got copies of the Christmas program music on CD, so I have been singing at the top of my lungs in the car, trying to learn the parts. I sing alto*, and don’t read music very well, so singing with the choir has been harder than I had thought it would be. But I still love it. I also help with the 4th-6th grade choir group, who is learning music theory and how to read music. So maybe by the end of the year, I’ll have learned something!
• I ordered some Cadena from KnitPicks to make the asymmetrical DROPS jacket. It’s lighting my particular blog circle on fire, and I can’t wait to knit it, too. (I was talking to Beth yesterday, and we laughed about how everyone seems to be catching new project fever lately. I went through that big slump all summer, but now all I want to do is order new yarn and start new projects! Startitis!
• We got a Costco card. I love it. Especially these huge bags of pretzel crisps they sell.

And, that about sums it up. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures (wallaby, fetching?) for the next post…I won’t say I dislike photo-less blog posts, but they are more interesting when there’s something to look at.

*Actually, I sing even lower than alto, sometimes. There are notes toward the top of the staff that are written into the alto parts that I can’t sing for anything. Sometimes, I just sing with the guys. But don’t tell our choir director. =)