Look ma! I'm knitting!

Have I mentioned recently that I am married to the most wonderful thoughtful man on earth? No? Okay, time to do that now then. Friday night he came home a bit late and knew I had had sort of a down week. He said he needed to run out to pick up some things at the outdoors store but ended up coming home with a bottle of wine, some bath goodies from Lush (my favorite) and a gift cert for when my goodies are all used up, what a sweetie. So, needless to say I was pretty pleased. Skip ahead to Tuesday at breakfast....he asks me to bring in his portfolio from his laptop bag while he's getting ready for work because he wants to show me something. Not a rare occurance, he shows me stuff from it all the time so I didn't think anything of it. I open it up and there's two tickets to Coldplay at the ACC last night for S and I! OMG I was freaking out.

The concert rocked! If you like the band they are better in concert than they are recorded, it was such a good time. O was worried the seats wouldn't be very good because he bought the tickets sort of late but they were great, right beside the stage on the upper teir but because the cameras were on our side (they were filming for a dvd) and the piano faced our way Chris Martin was facing our direction almost the whole time, the seats were unexpectedly good. Richard Ashcroft opened so that was a really good set too (I love the Verve as well).

Okay, now for your regularly scheduled knitting update....

The circular shrug is almost long enough that I can start the last ribbed section, I'm trying to knit at least an inch on it each day so it makes steady progress and doesn't turn into a UFO on me. I'm actually getting excited about being able to wear it now that it's getting towards done. I've been working on the We Call them Pirates hat too but it's a schlog, sooo slow going because it's my first real fair isle and I'm using dpns because I don't have a circ in that length. I've swatched fair isle stuff a few times but this is my first project and it's going really well (although my gauge is a bit off so it may need a trip through the dryer to make it wearable for O). Here's a progress pic.

Another lace project is on the needles too but sorry no pics for now. It's a surprise for someone special. It's a challenge but it's going well and will be (fingers crossed) beautiful when it's done. I'm taking progress pics and will post them and finished pics once the special someone has recieved it.

I recieved a package from my SP7 on Tuesday too. Some gorgeous handspun, a Fleece Artist scarf kit in a beautiful colourway along with other goodies. Thank you!!!!

Be still my beating heart, I am in love! I made handpainted yarn....



I was all psyched to try Koolaid dying but wasn't able to find anything but grape and cherry no matter where I went so, feeling dejected, I went to the knittyboard for suggestions and found out that you can dye just as well (maybe better) with Wilton's icing colours. Yipeeeeee! Those I have from my days decorating cakes for extra money, and lots of them.



I sort of made up the technique as I went along and am super pleased with the results. The two skeins aren't exaclty the same (one has a bit more pink and the other more of a burgundy colour) so I'll have fraternal rather than identical twins for socks but I don't care, makes them look more homemade and organic. For my first foray into dyeing I'm pretty happy with the results. I also dyed this hank of Paton's Classic Wool and it came out such a great colour and I think it goes with my Fleece Artict bluefaced lecester roving so well I'll make some thrummed mittens for M or someone else small with it. It's not handpainted but the dye separated a bit during the process and it has a great kettle dyed effect. I just completed a swap for some more natural yarn to dye so I'll be doing some more again soon.

I got another card from my Knitty SP yesterday, she's all about the luxury let me tell ya. First it was a great hair treatment, then a great soap and wonderful perfume and now a face mask that smelled so yummy I wanted to eat it. I feel like I've been to the spa which to me is the ultimate in pampering. Thank you SP, you're wonderful!

Wow, long time no blog huh? Lots going on around here these days it seems and the family is full of good news. M finally cut his first two teeth the other day after a lot of drooling and discomfort. I noticed them when he bit me, the front middle two on the bottom and they're pushing further throught his gums everyday. My parents are off on a bit of a holiday celebrating their 29th wedding aniversary this weekend, we should all be so in love as those two after all this time. Our invitation to my brother C's wedding came in the mail this past week as well, I'm soooo excited and happy for him. His fiance is a great lady and they deserve each other. I'm excited to finally have concrete plans to take M to Montreal to see all the rest of the family too, we haven't been since he was born and I want my grandfather to get to meet his great grandson. My little bro got accepted (early) to grad school at Dalhousie (very good school) and we're all really proud of him.

In other good news I got a package from my Knittyboard SP! So many goodies: Opal sock yarn I've been wanting to try, some great smelly soap and a loofah for the bath, two different perfumes (the little size vials I like for carrying in my purse), candy that met with an untimely fate not long after the package was opened, the cutest monkey stickers among other things.

Not much going on on the knitting front. I'm going to try some Wilton dying this week, I've never done it before so we'll see how it goes. I have a few colours from decorating cakes but we'll probably head over to the mall to get a few more. I'll post pics of the finished product.