Ooh I forgot… from Schuler Books:

Girls Night Out presents NYT-bestselling author Kate Jacobs!

Thursday. May 15. 7:30 p.m., Eastwood
I’m not sure if I’m going to get to go or not (technically I’m scheduled to work but Rob mentioned maybe letting me go) but if you’re going to be there drop me a note and let me know!

Oh yes, tonight was the first annual Stitch n’ Pitch with ThreadBear and the Lansing Lugnuts. True, it was chilly, and yeah it was a little wet at times, but much fun was had by most if not all of us who braved the elements. When I left after the 7th inning stretch the Luggies were up by 8 so clearly the knitter mojo was in the air and helped the boys kick some Dayton Dragon ass.

Speaking of ass… Big Lug shook his for us.

A bunch of our knitters shook what their mama’s gave them too when it was time to do the YMCA.

More knitters in action… this time stitching and cheering on the Lugs.

How cute is my boss? Hehe…

There are only so many places I can wear my Lugnuts hat without people looking at me like well… like I’m nuts. Oh and I’ve totally fallen in love with the wonderfulness that is a worsted weight sock… Sooo much quicker! I knit several inches tonight before my fingers got too cold to keep a decent gauge going. LOL

In all… I had a blast and hope everyone else who was there did too!

Go Nuts!

So when it comes to knitting, I’m about half way through the first sleeve on Ravyn’s bolero. But I ran out of yarn and my other balls (hehe) are at home. I didn’t get much knitting done today though because I spent the day with two of my three favorite boys.

Now that’s a perfect day…

Well… we all survived our latest Circle of Brain Knit Weekend in Traverse City. Apparently we’ve all been busy as all get out since the weekend though because it’s been almost a week and none of us have posted about it. See how bad we needed the weekend?!

Sue, Sue’s Mom, Kristi and I loaded up the car on Friday evening and hit the road as soon as humanly possible once I was out of work and had made it across town to Kristi’s digs. I got to love on my boyfriends (both the cute toddler version as well as the furry one) which was just lovely since I hadn’t seen them in AGES. Gerrit even made faces at me from the upstairs window while I was walking up to the house. *gush gush*

On the way up knitting, gossiping, and iPod listening was had. We giggled a lot, stopped for slurpee-like drinks in Alma, and basically had a lovely drive until we hit a big storm just outside of Traverse City. Finding Sue’s Aunt’s house was a little “interesting” due to the fact we could barely see in the rain, it was darker than crap, and we’d come into town on a totally different road than what was on our directions. LOL But after a phone call (thank goodness for cell phones) with Aunt Janet during which I laughed like a maniac from the back seat listening to, we got to the house in time to get completely drenched with rain while unloading the car. Like, so wet we had to change our clothes when we got inside. Craziness.

The rest of the evening was spent knitting some more, watching the TC news (seriously funny shit there, let me tell ya), and just relaxing. Finally we all stumbled to our couches/beds for the night and passed out.

Saturday morning we woke up to Marcia calling us from the road. She called to let us know she was on the way up and so we all got purty then headed into town to meet Miss Marcia. Getting into the city was much easier than finding the house had been and within a few minutes we were in downtown TC where the wind was blowing at about 62 miles an hour, but it was still beautiful.

We parked and because Saturday was the end of Earth Week we got two free trees to plant which was very cool. Then off to Horizon Books we went to get coffee and meet up with Marcia. At Cuppa Joe we sat and enjoyed bagels and coffee while knitting and enjoying the people watching. Eventually we walked down to the LYS Lost Art where we encountered Rude Woman and blew her additude off as much as possible. From there we walked to Dish Cafe to have lunch and knit for a few more hours. Once we were done there we went to the bead shop (I forgot the name… whoops) where we were basically like 12 year old boys giggling over the word “hole” and beads that looked like um… body parts. LOL

We eventually ended back up at the bookstore to meet up with Sue (she’d left us while we were obsessing about the holes in the bead shop). Then off to Tom’s Market we went to get food and booze for the night.

FYI… the Tom’s Market right by the bay in TC won’t let you take the shopping carts into the parking lot. LMFAO. Yeah I did a wheelie with the cart to get it down into the parking lot and this little Troll popped out of his Troll Door and was like “You can’t do that, Miss!”

I said, “What are we supposed to do?”

He says, “Carry the bags.”

I didn’t swear but I almost did. hehe I believe I said, “Oh for crying out loud, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of…” Marcia did call him a Troll though (I dunno if he heard it or if he’d gone back into his Troll Door) which made me laugh like a moron.

Back at Casa De’ Aunt Janet we hung out with Baylee my newest furry boyfriend while making pizza, drinking, and of course more knitting!! We have an official COB Adult Beverage thanks to Marcia, and thanks to Sue Ravyn’s Bollero has the stitches picked up and is nearing completion.

Our COB KAL however caused a whole lot of drama during the weekend. Kristi frogged and restarted hers about twenty times in three days while I decided to give it up all together and create my own. LOL Originally we were working on the Montego Bay Scarf by Amy Singer because Marcia has one and it’s beautiful. Sue’s already made about sixteen of them in two days (okay yeah, not really but she’s whipping those puppies out pretty quick and they’re beautiful!). I on the other hand decided to design a Grand Traverse Bay Scarf which basically has less thinking involved because I managed to mess the Montego up every time I worked on it.

Sunday we hit the bookstore and Cuppa Joe’s again plus went to a store called Momentum to buy more stuff. I got a cushy soft “Up North Michigan” sweatshirt. After that we went to Mabel’s for brunch with Aunt Janet and Sue’s Mom before finally hitting the road once again to come home.

The weekend went way too fast but much fun was had and we’re already looking forward to the next time we can have a COB meeting.

And now… pictures.

Cool wind thingy…

Traverse City… wee!

Mmm… coffee!

Kristi and her Kaffe Fassett.

Cool light at the Dish Cafe.

Artsy Fartsy…

The traditional foot picture… Dish Cafe.

And another in the car…

Kaffe Fasset… almost done…

All left to do is Kitchner!

New Stash… gunna make me some Worsted Weight socks.

Baylee butt.

Baylee face… isn’t he cute?

Sue’s Magical Glowing Booze

Marcia and he window twin.

I want to live here…

Rock Star Marcia.

Kristi with her Montego in the car.

Mabel’s.

Fire Damage on I-75

My Grand Traverse Bay…

Our trees…

And quotes…
“The boat is not a navigational hazzard.”

“He’s GWC… Goofy Without Cause.”

Kristi, 2pm: “I’m really excited about this whole Montego Bay experience…”

Rude Lady at LYS to Sue about Worsted Weight yarn: “You know those will be really thick socks, right? Like you won’t be able to wear them with shoes…”

Rude Lady at LYS to Kristi about her yarn: “You know you’ll have to wind that into a ball, right?”

Krisit: “I feel like we just ate… I’m not going to eat… I’m going to get some soup…”

Marcia: “I think we should go back to the yarn shop and thank the lady for enlightening us about winding the yarn into a ball before using it…”

Marcia: “I liked how he came out of his little Troll Door to yell at us…”

Kristi, 7:41pm: “This scarf is my fucking demise!”

Kristi, 7:55 pm: “Look at my Montego Bay… I’m in love with it!”
Marcia: “I wonder how long that’ll last…”
Kristi: “Not long…”

Kristi, 8:30: “Look…” (as she frogged the whole thing again)

I’m sure there were more quotes but once I started drinking I forgot to write stuff down. hehe For now though, I’m off to finish watching Grey’s and get some knitting done during Lost.

Oh and Happiness of the Day… My Florida flights are booked, baby! Whoot! 2 months and 5 days. Wee!

Hello from the Dish Cafe in beautiful but windy downtown Traverse City!

So we’re out and about crusin’ the town. We’ve knit in a bookstore and now in a cafe… We’ve experienced a LYS with a very rude “yarn slave” (her words, not mine) where everyone but Marcia bought yarn. We’ve learned that Kristi really doesn’t have a working internal compass, and that we really enjoy saying Kaffe-fahsehhh repeatedly. Sue helped me succesfully pick up my stitches on Rave’s bollero so that I no longer have to banish it to the time out pile. Oh and the news in TC is freaking hilarious even before you start drinking.

That’s all for now, Kristi is starting to dance and I might need to video it. :o)

I’ve officially switched my bag pattern to the Booga Bag. It’s coming along beautifully. See?

I made it bigger than the pattern says and I think I may have picked up too many stitches on the ends so it might end up looking a little different but who cares? :o) It’s a bag. *nods*

I don’t have much else to share. I’ve hardly had any time to knit lately. But my Knit Weekend is coming up in a few days and I can’t wait. Speaking of that… I need to go work on my Circle of Brains Knit Along project.

Later peeps.

Confession…
Forgive me bloggers, for I have sinned. It’s been 20 days since my last blog post and well… not much knitting has been done either. One would think that working in a LYS would inspire knitting. In a way it does, but by the time I get home I’m so freaking tired that the last thing I want to do is knit. Kind of like how the last thing I want to do is make those stitch markers that a certain LYS Co-owner wants to buy from me to sell in the shop. *sheepish grin*

Knitting Inspiration? Check.
Handy Discount on all things yarny? Check.
Knitterly friends? Check.
Multiple UFOs and WIPs? Check.
Lack of motivation to do anything that requires more than an occasional channel change or the turn of a page? Check.

*nods*

I need a Knit Weekend like whoa.

Ironic considering that I’m going to have one in a few weeks. *whoot*

COB Meeting…
So yeah… the Circle of Brians *Edit… Sue just pointed out that I totally typed Brians instead of Brains… LMFAO… I’m leaving it!* had an impromptu meeting earlier this afternoon during which we giggled, snorted, cackled, knitted (or should that be “we knit..” *scratches head*), and enjoyed one of the local Panera’s. We were called “cute” and “inspiring” by a young skinny girl who stopped by our table. We schooled a woman who loves Webkinz about the benefits of the Circular Needle and told another woman that we were in fact knitting not crocheting (not that there’s anything wrong with that…). We learned that Kristi’s mindless knitting project wasn’t so mindless until she figured out the Secret of the Last Yarn Over (or something like that… I can’t recall). We watched as Sue proved that she can in fact create Flying Geese in a Panera. *giggles* And Marcia helped us find the coffee. Additionally we learned that there is a very special place in the world for mittens without thumbs. I’m not sure what I personally brought to the table… perhaps the fact that plain knitting in the round is a boring task and that just because I work in a LYS doesn’t mean I buy allll of my yarn there. *nods… I’m such a rebel* Ooh and my good deed of the day was giving up a total Princess Parking Spot to Dirty Sue (who was driving behind me) because she’s recovering from knee surgery. See? I’m a nice person. *nods* Yes, I cackled like a mad-woman while demonstrating one handed knitting with Marcia, but I’m still a nice person.

Pictures were not taken at today’s meeting but plans were made for the upcoming Knit Weekend Trip that we’re all uber excited about.

On the Needles…

Shop Model Vest. 80% done give or take a few percents. Still no pictures of it though. I’m really not going for mystery, just lazy.

Socks of Doom. As I mentioned to the COB today, I haven’t touched the socks since the last Knit Weekend. So much for my personal goal of having them done by tonight. *shrug*

Child’s Bolero. I’ve picked up the edge stiches and then ripped them out 17.2 billion times. I seriously almost frogged the whole thing last night but instead I just threw it across my bedroom (literally. Who knew yarn could fly so far?) and cast on for a felted bag. Loving the yarn though… K1Crochet2 Ty-Dy. It’s uber soft, stripes pretty, and although it’s a bit splitty it’s okay if you pay attention to where the needle is going.

Felted Bag. This would be the above mentioned boring ass knitting in the round. *groans* I’ve also decided that I don’t like the pattern. I was making Cat Bordhi’s Rainbow Denise Needle Bag. No, I don’t require a special bag to carry my Denise set in… I just liked the shape of the bag. Now, I don’t like it so much. For one thing, the instructions are wonky and sound too much of a pain in the arse to me. So… me thinks I’ll be frogging this baby and either desiging my own pattern or attempting a Booga Bag since I’ve yet to actually do one of those. The yarn however is beautiful. I’m using SWS (Soy Wool Stripes for those of you not in the know) by Patons. It’s cheap, it’s fantastically pretty, and the stripes are heaven. And although I’ve no idea what the benefit is, it’s 70% Wool and 30% Soy.

Other things I’ve learned recently…
~ Knitting in the car on the way to Detroit for my uncle’s funeral basically sucks when despite having a Denise Kit, none of the needles or cables I have work for what I want to work on. It also sucks hard when the pattern I’m using for said project calls for a 16″ circular and yet asks me to cast on an insanely small amount of stitches that couldn’t possibly fit on said needle cable once in the round. *kicks Needful Camp Kit*
~ Hanging out in a hotel room with my baby brother watching Willy Wonka and staying up way too late eating pizza the night before our uncle’s funeral is a whole lot of fun.
~ Funerals suck.
~ A new tattoo is always a mood picker upper. I introduce to you tat number six:

It’s a bass clef repeated in a circle and is a little over a week old. (Yes, I’m opperating under the idea of maybe if I get enough ink I’ll never have to have a normal office job again because I’m just too rock star for it.) My best friend Shawn got the same one on the opposite wrist. We’ve known each other for fifteen years this year and in that time have seen tons of concerts together***. This tat represents our love of music and concerts and each other.
~ The African Children’s Choir is amazing and makes me cry like a baby. I saw them last night at the Wharton Center with my dad, my baby brother (who is now 5 foot 9 inches tall… *le sigh*), and his mom Anne.

~ It sucks getting stood up for a date that includes Wharton Center tickets less than a week before the show and having to scramble to find someone who wants to go with me. BUT… I’m still looking forward to seeing Avenue Q on Friday night no matter who happens to go with me.
~ 3,280 projects in Ravelry are using the SWS yarn I gushed about earlier.
~ I’m in lovelust with my iPod Touch.
~ It is in fact possible to fall down TWICE in the exact same spot on the same day *gently rubs skinned knees*
~ I’m a little bit obsessed with the Across the Universe movie and soundtrack.
~ It’s offically acceptable to wear blue jeans to a Bowling Banquet, and watching above mentioned baby brother get an award for winning his division in allllll of the Greater Lansing Area is darn cool. *proud grin*

I think that this post officially makes up for slacking off so bad for the past 20 days, right? If not… too bad. hehe

Smootches!
_____________________________
***Seriously tons… just to name a few: Sting, Prince, Duran Duran, Tina Turner, Patti Labelle, Lilith Fair, Ben Harper, Jurassic 5, Dave Matthews Band, Backstreet Boys (duh… several times, and we met them too), AJ McLean, Kaci Brown, The Click Five, Janet Jackson, Matchbox 20, Rob Thomas, Keith Urban (several times), Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bently (twice), N’Sync, Mandy Moore, EYC, Hootie and the Blowfish (twice), Shawn Mullins, Chris Issak (we met him too), Jewel, Sarah McLoughlan (sp?), Bonnie Raitt, Shaggy, Krystal, Madonna, The Judds, Jodee Messina, Chaka Khan, Sheryl Crow, and Katrina Elam (twice). That’s not all of them either. Told ya… we’re concert freaks.

Mom’s birthday was last week and I actually managed to finish knitted gifts for her on time. *shocked face*

A new hat…

… and a new scarf…

… to go with previously made hand warmers.

Yay!

Oh life… how thee sucketh my blogging and knitting time awayeth.

I have been knitting, but I haven’t taken pictures of it. I have bought new yarn for new projects, but I haven’t take pictures of any of it. I have been composing blog posts, but I haven’t taken the time to actually type them and post them. In other words… things are kind of suck right now.

But… I present to you several pictures that make me grin in hopes that they’ll make you grin too.

One of the most beautiful people I know… he’s getting SO big!

My baby… Kira (as she was resting on my chest lol).

Mister Extra Toes himself… Oscar (who always looks pissed off in pictures).

And finally… (taken at Walmart in Lansing, MI).

Aside from the fact that knitting is cool because it’s an art and creative and fun and all that jazz, one of the main reasons that I love being in the Knitting Community is the friendships. I have managed to make myself at home in a rather crazy possy of knitting peeps who have filled my life with lots of giggles.

Yesterday just as the shop was about to officially close (even though we were open for several more hours due to it being Movie Night) one of my knitter girls showed up for hugs and some fiber therapy. Miss Kelli was in town for another bunny event at MSU and came in to visit. I know I’ve mentioned it before but I’m going to repeat myself… Kelli gives great hugs! I always love me some Kelli Hug.

Today was another meeting of my crazy road trip buddies. Marcia drove into town for an afternoon of Stitch and Bitching with me, Kristi and Dirty Sue. I didn’t manage to do much knitting (although I did pick up 84 stitches on the shop model I’m working on…) but what was more important was the side splitting laughter and snorting that was had. I’m sure the people at Houlihan’s where we had lunch weren’t so happy to hear us cackling like we were (and we weren’t even drinking alcohol!) but too bad… we had fun and that’s all that mattered. We officially have a name for our group too… we’re the Circle of Brains Knitting Club. Don’t ask. LOL

I do have a few pictures to share… two of the yarny kind and two of the furry kind.

I finished a wrist warmer last night while channeling my inner Breakfast Club (that was for you, Kristi… lol). I’d originally started these back in November or December when Rob gave me a pattern. Then I lost the pattern. Then I got the pattern again a few weeks ago and managed to screw it up. LOL The pattern I had was for wrist warmers with a thumb but last night when I went to work on the thumb it was just all effed up and so I ripped it back out to before the thumb gusset and just made this:

See how cool the color change is? Me likey.

I actually like this pattern better than the one I was attempting to do. I wear my other wrist warmers at work all the time and since those don’t have thumbs either I’d probably be bugged if these had a thumb on them.

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Bonnie
Colorway: No idea… a pretty rainbow-y one. LOL

And now for the furry pictures…

Hehe… this is my Katie Boo. My mom’s Scottie. She looooves to have her belly rubbed so when I come in the house she automatically rolls over like this and waits for me to love on her. Silly nerd.

And a close up on the face because it cracks me up…

And my boyfriend Busby… he was hanging out with us while we were knitting at the shop today. He’s too cute to not snap pictures of.