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Back from KC!

 it was a whirlwind trip - we all had fun on the road, and the wedding was lovely.  i got a considerable amount of knitting done in the car - one of the first things i did was finish the karate socks from Knitted Socks East and West.  i'm curious to see how this yarn behaves when i wash it - i used some of the knitpicks simply cotton in brass heather, and i will definitely be using this yarn again - not only because i bought a huge mess of it the last time i placed an order with knitpicks, but because it's really nice stuff!  it's soft, it's easy to work with (and i've worked with lots of other cotton yarns - it's often closer to wrestling with them rather than knitting), and they have a pretty nice range of colors.  

i made some progress on my peak's island hood with the help of alexa, who was willing to join my sweatshop and knit all of the seed stitch between the increases and decreases for the hood.  i'm so close to being done, but of course am distracted by so many other things now that i'm home again, such as:

  1. pulled out the owl cardigan before the trip and decided NOT to spend the car ride frogging and re-knitting the sleeves.  made some buttonbands the night before we left, and then yesterday i finished sewing on the buttons and am now wearing it to stretch out the sleeves.  i think sam's plan is working on that front! 
  2. knitting on the sport-weight sweater i started in the car - a cabled yoke cardigan from drops that i am knitting with some lamb's pride superwash sport in a darker-than-usual lot of japanese plum.  
  3. knitting a squirrel on wheels!  i got the mochimochiland book as an early birthday present, and just need to make some wheels for my squirrel.  at least most of these projects will be faster knits than, say, a sweater or never-ending seed stitch adult bonnet, but this is still going to weaken my resolve to finish the rest of my languishing projects and still get all the holiday gift knitting accomplished that needs to happen in this, the final push.  i'm sure it will all happen - i tend to start panicking this time of year, and then finish all my gift knitting by the first week of december.  perhaps a little panic is a good thing. 




In other news, fellow blogger Hege recently bestowed this award upon me.  It's always nice to get warm fuzzies, and i suppose it's even better karma to pay them forward (the conspiracy theorist in me does wonder if this does smack a little of a blog-tastic chain letter, but since there aren't any lame threats for breaking the chain, i think we'll let this slide and just TAKE THE COMPLIMENT, not something i excel at). 

so, for those of you who are named below, here be the rules (which, admittedly, i have changed a bit because i have problems following directions, in life as well as in knitting):
- Grab the award. Post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.  (see above)
- Pay it forward to 10 other bloggers that you have newly discovered and contact those blog owners and let them know they've been chosen.

in no particular order...
  1. Cloudberry - Hege from Norway's blog!  
  2. Snarkland - yarn store owner from Florida, all-around crafty gal.
  3. Knitted Bliss - Canadian knitting!
  4. Sweatshop of Love - Chicago makers and doers.
  5. Sarah Morton Comics - Chicago knitter's non-fiber-related blog!  read it!
  6. Rotten Cupcakes - i know i've mentioned this before, but if you haven't checked it out already, what more will it take to convince you?  
  7. Knitting in the Red - crafting in GA!
  8. Subliminal Rabbit - knitting, rabbits - is there anything more?
  9. Stash, Knit, Repeat - it's sweater-ific!
  10. Involving the Senses - so much more than just the shalom cardigan

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