Progression

Here's the halfway point on my shawl:

Report on Stitches Midwest

The day dawned really early on Saturday (Crazy Aunt Purl calls it the "buttcrack of dawn")--Paulette and I were up at 4:30AM. We met Cheryl, Paulette's sister in Fond du Lac. Because of the early arising, we needed coffee, so a stop at the Fond du Lac Starbucks was in order. After much driving, Paulette, Cheryl and I arrived at Stitches Midwest in Schaumburg, IL. We got there right when the Marketplace opened-which was our LYS (for those of you who don't speak Ravelry language, that means local yarn store) of the day. I had never been there before--holy cow, what a lot of stuff in one place! It was like a big yarn store exploded there. I was in yarny heaven.

Here's the yarn I bought:

This is Qiviuk, from Windy Valley Muskox in Alaska. I went with this, which is a blend that includes qiviut, because it was a lot less expensive than pure qiviut. It is just as soft and lightweight as the qiviut.

I also found some sock yarn:

Like I don't have enough sock yarn in my stash. This is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock, in the Grimm's Willow Wren colorway. I love the yarn colorway name.

And lastly, for the yarn anyhow, we have:

This is beautiful 50% wool, 50% silk DK yarn that the picture does no justice at all to. It is gorgeous. It is from Brooks Farm in Texas.

I also bought some other things there:

This is a knitting needle bracelet!

I found a shawl pin:

And the same booth where I bought the knitting needle bracelet had these buttons:

All in all, a good day's shopping, don't you think?

Progress report

I'm still knitting on my shawl. I am almost halfway through the border, which means I am almost halfway done with the knitting! Woo hoo. Folks have asked me what I will knit when I am done with it, since I have been knitting on this shawl since May 2. I think I may knit some socks--pretty much anything will go faster than this!

On Wednesday, we had about 15 people at knit night--We took over half of the Starbucks store. It was so cool.

Tomorrow Paulette, her sister Cheryl and I are going to Schaumburg, IL to Stitches Midwest. My personal goal is to go to the Marketplace there, because one can never have enough yarn, can they?

Will give you all a full report soon.....

Full moon fever

There is a full moon tonight and things were already getting weird during the day. First, Paulette and I went to Madison ( a city that is permanently in full moon fever) for a meeting. People were driving weirder than normal.

When we got back, we went to Starbucks for mochas. While I was trying to knit, there was a guy showing two older women a South Park video on his laptop and they were really yukking it up about it. While we were waiting for our mochas, a guy came into Starbucks in business attire, carrying something in his hand and went into the restroom. After much time in there, he emerged dressed in more casual clothing. Not really that big of a deal. Then, he went out to his car and proceeded to take his shirt off and stand on the grassy strip between the curb and street and spray something from a can over all over himself for at least 5-10 minutes, scrubbing it into his face and really spraying his head well. It was weird. Some girls came into Starbucks and made a comment about it as well. He then got back into his convertible and drove away.

Shoe shoppin' and other stuff

I have been shoe shopping this summer:

All three of the above pairs are from Macy's in Appleton. The personal shopper, who now no longer works there because they eliminated her position (and she was really good at her job, too), helped me find the two brown pairs to go with a skirt. I liked the brown ones so much, I went back and got them in black.

These are from DSW in Appleton. They are sort of a bronze color.

Of course, none of these shoes are appropriate for hiking, which is what Paulette and I did on Saturday, after stopping at DSW.

Here's a view of Lake Winnebago from High Cliff State Park:

On Sunday, we went to help my sister celebrate her birthday. Here she is wearing my birthday tiara:

I also did manage to fit a little knitting in there. I now have about twice as much done as in the previous picture. 4 more repeats on the border and I am 1/4 of the way done. Woo hoo!

The pink blob evolves!

The pink blob, AKA my shawl, is moving along. I started the border the other day.




I know I said I was going to start my green tank top in August, but I've gotta see how this turns out first! So far, so good.

In today's New York Times online, there is an audio slide show of the fashionableness (is that even a word?) of scarves. Here's a link to the story:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/01/fashion/20080803_street/index.html#

Huh, who knew? We're not just knitting scarves, we're creating FASHION!!

Read about the kitteh fashion show...

I read this weird article on CNN.com about a fashion show with cats dressed up, to benefit a shelter:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/homestyle/08/08/kitty.catwalk.ap/index.html

Jeffy and Billy say we shouldn't get any ideas here at Chez Feline.

Bretty and the Jets

By now, anyone who's simply minding their own business and breathing has heard that Brett Favre is leaving Green Bay to go play for the NY Jets. My personal opinion is that he should have stayed retired -- enough with the whining already. Apparently driving his tractor around his land, a-la Forrest Gump got a little too boring. I hope the Jets can find a helmet big enough to fit his abnormally swelled head.

At least we can all stop listening to local media being on "Brett Favre watch" now and hear some real news.

Happy birthday Donna!

Happy birthday (the big 5-0) to my sister Donna!






Here Donna and I are hamming it up a few years ago--I'm on the left, Donna is on the right. Hope you have a good day today.

Much love to you, Donna,
Your big sister Sara

But then again, maybe not

I did not get to start the border on my shawl at lunch because......the blankety-blanking rodents have struck my heater fan in my car once again. I cleaned it out, and now it only works on high. Sigh. Now it's going to have to really get fixed and probably cost lots of money. If I didn't have to keep taking the fan out every few days to clean it, the wires (which I am presuming is the problem) probably wouldn't be getting yanked around and probably disconnected somewhere in the dash that I can't reach. It just better not cost too much.

Variations on a theme

To quote George Bailey in "It's a wonderful life": "I just feel like if I didn't get away, I'd bust..." I hear ya, George, I hear ya. Vacation is elusive this year. Will I really get to go somewhere, or will it get lost in the three million busynesses that others dream up for one to help them with "right now". Paulette and I have not gone on vacation together for 5 years. That's way too long. I miss travelling with my best friend. Why is this all coming up now, you ask? Well, August is a traditional month for going on vacation. Everyone else is talking about getting away and it's really getting to me. I just want to sit down and cry about it but I will be a big girl and not do that--maybe.


On the gifty side of Paulette's recent getaway to San Francisco with our AFSCME brothers and sisters, she brought me:





This is lovely 50% silk/50% merino yarn from Artfibers in San Francisco. There is enough to make a scarf.





This is 4 yards of silk fabric from Britex Fabrics in San Francisco. I have regretted not buying some in the 11 years since I was there last.

She also brought some yummy chocolate from Ghirardelli. Mmmmmm, nummy.

On the knitting front--I just finished the body of my shawl on my break. I start the border at lunch. Yippee!!!

Oh, crap!

I completely missed my 1 year blogiversary on July 27. So happy anniversary, late, to my blog!!

I am leaving here in about 10 minutes to take the afternoon off. I need time off. I don't want to regret not taking all the time off I can when I get older. No one is going to say, gee, isn't that just cool that Sara never took any time off at all. I need time to rewind and be me!

I also sorely need a REAL vacation in the worst possible way. Probably not going to happen in the next few weeks, which is kind of upsetting.

Yesterday, I stayed home with Churchill, who when I tested his blood glucose at 5:30AM, was down to 31 on his meter. Normal glucose ranges for cats (and people too) are between 80-120. A level of 31 is on the way to dead. He's much better today--well, this morning when I tested him anyhow. The vet told us to keep him closer to 200 because it's so easy to drop them too low and hypoglycemia comes on really fast. Unfortunately now his levels will be really messed up for a while. He was 421 this morning, which, while not good, won't kill him as fast as too low will.

I had to deal with this all alone because Paulette is in San Francisco this week for the AFSCME International convention. She comes back this evening if her flight isn't delayed.

I could ask what else is going to happen while she's gone yet, but I don't want to tempt fate.

I'm outta here........