I thought it was worth coming out of hibernation for this:

Imagine picture HERE

I've been trying to get a good picture my progress on my Must Have Cardigan, but apparently, it's impossible. Every picture I have taken is blurry and over exposed. Something about this orange yarn just doesn't photograph well! I've tried flash, no flash, sunlight, cloudy light, electric light... nothing works! My camera and this sweater just don't like each other! I think I'm going to have to hit Jody up for some pictures with her fancy camera!

I am almost done with the back of the sweater, though I am currently having to rip a few rows because I did something terrible with one of the cables. But I totally LOVE knitting this sweater. I have the pattern memorized, so it's going fast.

I leave tomorrow night for a long weekend at the beach. Words cannot express how ready I am to GET AWAY. I need to be away from the theatre for a few days. Things there are going fairly well right now, but I just need a break. I want to sit on the beach for three days and knit, read, sleep.

I want to keep working on my sweater while I'm away, but somehow I don't think heavy wool sweater and beach will go very well together, so I might have to start a sock. But then I'm being all fussy and stupid about what sock I want to knit. I really want to start a stranded sock using the Noro I got at MDS&W, but I don't want to be knitting anything that requires any concentration. I have another very simple Noro sock on the needles right now that is very close to being done, but I am feeling the urge to rip it back because I hate the heel. Decisions, decisions.

In other news, I am happy to announce that this Tuesday, May 27, I will be starting a new part time job. I will be working at Cloverhill Yarn with the wonderful new owner Jolene! I'm am so excited! Please stop in and say hi!!

Have a great weekend all!

Faux Russian Stole Photo Shoot

This afternoon, my pal Jody was kind enough to take pictures of my finished shawl for me. She's awesome like that! I also took pictures of her finished Charlotte's Web Shawl. We had a good time being silly and playing fashion models. It just occurred to me that we never took a picture with both of us in it! Oh well - next time Jody!


Have I mentioned how happy I am to be done with this??

Thanks again Jody!

The Sad Part Is...




That's not all of it.

So much to say!




By now, I'm sure you have read thousands of accounts of the always fabulous Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I'm always a little slow on these things, so I apologize for the delay in my reporting. What can I say - I still haven't recovered from the weekend!

It truly was AWESOME. I had so much fun. I spent Friday afternoon helping Jolene set up the Cloverhill Booth. And then I worked both Saturday and Sunday afternoons at the register.



I think it came out so well. Sarah had some mad organizational skills and was fantastic about getting everything and everyone together. The booth was a HUGE success. Soooo many people stopped by to buy, and buy, and buy! I think Jolene can be very proud of herself!

On Friday, since I was able to have first dibs, I started the downward spiral of my wallet by purchasing these lovely items from the Cloverhill booth.

That's two skeins of Handmaiden Casbah and one skein of Seasilk. It's crack people - CRACK. I love, love, love Handmaiden yarns. The colors are so beautiful, the textures are delicious. I can't wait to make some socks out of that green.

Saturday was a giant flurry of spending money. Soooo much money. I'm embarrassed. Shameful, shameful spending!

Here's the rest of my haul.

Brooks Farm and Tess
I am a huge fan of Tess sock yarns and the laceweight was a deal. (Though I've been told the dye runs....)
I have drooled over Brooks Farm yarns for years now. It just had to be bought.


Spirit Trail silk. I actually bought one of these skeins at the Homespun Fiber party, but decided I needed another. I'm currently perusing lace patterns for this. This picture does not do it justice.


Peace Fleece. Sorry for the overexposed picture. The color of this yarn is so gorgeous it just kills me. It's orange, it's red, it's yellow. I think I am most excited about this purchase. I have just today, cast on for a Must Have Cardigan from the Paton's Street Smart booklet. (I know this pattern has become totally trendy schmendy, but it's pretty and I want it!)



This is my new Golding Spindle. I blame Jen. She's a horrible enabler! I have never been much for using a drop spindle. I own two, but I never really got in to it. I think I needed a Golding to change my mind. It is so lightweight and it spins for days and I have actually used it repeatedly since I purchased it.

Random fiber to play with on my new spindle.

Last year at S&W, I was on a huge brown and blue kick. This year seemed to be more about the reds and oranges....

And we just won't discuss all the food. It was "no diet weekend" and I took full advantage of that. Yummy! And crazy expensive - I feel like I spent as much on food as I did on yarn. But not really!

Jen and I tried to go to the Ravelry meetup on Saturday afternoon, but it was insanely crowded so we gave up pretty fast. But I did go to the Ravelry party Saturday night which was good fun, but I think I was too exhausted to enjoy it fully. I did enjoy hanging out all my pals though. Many thanks to Eleanor who kept me company for quite a while! I'm glad we got the chance to hang out for a bit! Head over to Eleanor's blog and give her congratulations for her huge win! She won many ribbons at the Skein and Garment competition! And while you are at it, go congratulate Jody too! She won two ribbons also! I have incredibly talented friends.

And if you'll allow me to toot my own horn a bit... I won too!


I was SHOCKED. And soooo excited. I've won ribbons at the county and state fairs before, but to me - Sheep and Wool was kind of like winning the Olympics of knitting! So exciting!

I was trying desperately to finish my Faux Russian Stole in time to enter it in the Skein and Garment competition. I tried so hard. You have no idea the amount of desperate knitting I did! But finally around 11:45 a.m. on Friday, I realized I had no chance in hell of finishing in time. The fact that I wasn't able to finish it made winning a blue ribbon for my mittens all the more sweet.

But, I am pleased to say that I FINALLY finished my shawl Tuesday night. I did such a happy dance. I've been working on it since mid February. I still need to give it the full photo shoot it deserves, but here's what I have so far...



I can't think of anything else to babble about, so I leave you with some obligatory sheepy pictures!






Ok, so he's not a sheep. But doesn't he look like a Dr. Seuss character??

A really nice day

Seasonally speaking, I am much more of an autumn person. I love everything about fall. The cooler temperatures, the leaves changing, pumpkins, apples, that crisp smell in the air... But I gotta say, over the years, spring is growing on me. It's just so darn pretty out. If they could just do something about the pollen, I'd be a much bigger fan of spring.

Today was a good spring day. I had breakfast with my pal C and her twin girls. Then we headed off to the Brighton Dam Azalea Garden, which is one of my favorite places.



It was not quite at peak, but it's pretty darn close. It was already a riot of color.





Love it there!

After the garden, I stumbled on a church yard sale. It was mostly junk, but I did manage to score three books for a whopping 75¢. I got a cookbook, Pride and Prejudice (I'm on Jane Austen kick lately), and an Anne Tyler book. Not too bad for 75¢!

When I got home, I found my monthly package of happiness in my mailbox! I got my April Skein of the Month from Webs. It's a little on the dull side this month, but what the heck - it's free yarn!


Sorry for the dim picture. It's a skein of Tahki Cotton Classic in white. The package also included two free patterns. One is for a triangle scarf, that frankly looks a little boring and the other is for a Sunrise Camisole which is kind of cute. I sent it to my Ravelry cue. Maybe some day... but definitely not in white!

I was most excited by that little orange item on the far right. It's a Yarn Harlot button. I got one when I went to see Stephanie a few weeks ago, and I promptly lost it. So I was really happy to get a new one - and it's the same color as the one I lost! yay!

I hope you all have a lovely spring weekend.

Only ONE MORE WEEK TILL SHEEP & WOOL!!!

I can hardly stand the wait!

Baby Andrew



I was very excited to finally meet Baby Andrew today. SOO cute. And unbelievably tiny! I couldn't get over how little he is. He is still under 5 lbs, but he is doing well.



See the sheep behind my head? I made that for Andrew's big sister when she was this same size! It is a much loved sheep!

I gave Andrew his present today.



Someday.... someday it will fit!