"L"s the Word

I met Angelique at Yoga Central this morning. It was my first time there and I thoroughly enjoyed the change of scenery. The smaller class was much more intimate than the classes at the "Y" and offered more challenging strength poses. From now on, I'm going to call Angelique "My Little Pretzel." She's so tiny and has wonderful flexibility with awesome form.

After yoga, I swung by Twist to visit with Shelly. She had Janet, a true artist at all she does, make me an L sweater pin from sterling silver. Right off, you think of Laverne and Shirley. Shelly is selling these pins at a very reasonable price in a variety of shapes and styles.

Duke and My Felted Cowboy Hat

My new felted hat came in pretty handy for today's temperature of 32 degrees. Duke sniffed around on the wool of my hat and tickled my ears with hot air from his nostrils. We fed him grain and locked him in for the dropping temperatures tonight. I'm hoping we get snow from our 50% chance later today.

Happy Thanksgiving

The turkey is finished and the side dishes are all prepared for our holiday meal. I still have a couple hours before family arrives and I'm thinking about all the things I have to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving day.

I give thanks:

for being married to my best friend and making every day special

for the good or improved health of my family

for financial security for my mother and my father being able to live the retirement of his dreams

for having some really special girlfriends in my life to spend time with

for having a good job that is building my financial retirement goals

for emotional happiness and the material things I have worked hard for

and finally

for Twist and Ravelry for providing an outlet for creativity, sharing and the balance that knitting has brought to my life

Holiday Fixins

The anticipation is building for the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm about 99% sure I have everything to fix our holiday meal. This year I'll be cooking for my husband, mom, father-in-law, sister-in-law and her husband. The pressure of fixing a perfect turkey and meal used to make me real nervous but I've pretty much got it down now. I'm looking forward to a long weekend of burning the fireplace, knitting and taking in a few yoga classes to burn off the extra calories.

Le Slouch

'Tis the season to wear hats for warmth and I like to wear them to keep my hair back. I sported my beret to breakfast and the grocery store this morning. I made Le Slouch in stockinette with an 8" slouch from Classic Elite's Waterlily from Twist. This merino yarn has a mottled suede look just perfect for a casual day.

Noro Hat

This hat made from Noro Kureyon is my first pattern project idea from Ravelry. I like the bands of color and the hat but it's taking everything I have to resist felting it into a bowl. Noro = Love

Winter Cowboy Hat

Winter's around the corner and felting's in the air. Thank you Lalana Wools for the inspiration to make this felted Winter Cowboy Hat. This is my most favorite finished knitted project EVER. I absolutely love this hat. I have several cowboy hats but this one is so special and hard to believe handmade. While in New Mexico in July, I found this pattern and selected Lalana Wools' hand dyed worsted wool in walnut (to match my favorite boots) and indigo for the hatband and trim. The indigo is a combination wool and silk that gives a nice contrasting sheen and dimension. This hat makes me want to thrown on a duster and ride a horse through a mountain of snow.

Market Bag

For me, knitting inspiration comes from the yarn shops I visit and the people I know. This felted bag was a combination of both. K.Anne had once come to a meetup showing off a new bag her felted exchange partner had made for her and it was gorgeous. I was attracted to the shape, color and lovely leather handles. I filed this bag away in a corner of my obsessive knitting memory for a future project. Recently, I was at Yarns and they had for sale leather handles and big, handmade wood buttons and that bag insipiration came flooding back.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Tree Jacket

The Tree Jacket is complete and not quite what I was expecting. Don't get me wrong, I like it but I was going for a more snug fit, especially in the arms. I should have knitted the chest circumference in small instead of medium and I probably wouldn't have ended up with such roomy arms. It's all good and I will wear my labor of love, just in a different way than I had originally planned.

2007 Sewing & Quilt Expo

Jackie, Lia, Angelique and I loaded up early Friday morning for an overnight stay in Kansas City for the 2007 Sewing and Quilt Expo. Along the way, we stopped at Yarns in Salina, Shivering Sheep in Abilene, Stitch Nitch in North KC and The Studio off the Plaza in KC. It was our own little yarn shop hop. It was such a great day with mexican food and margaritas for lunch, a ton of shopping and a sushi dinner at Stix in Legends Mall. We were worn out by the time we made our way back to our motel and crashed at an early hour.

What's a Saturday morning without Panera? We woke up early and did some knitting in our pj's and then headed over to Panera for our customary Saturday morning of souffles and knitting. Then made our way to the convention center where we served as Knitting Ambassadors and taught several customers basic knitting stitches.

We just didn't get enough yarn so we made a quick stop on the way back home in Lawrence for yet more yarn at Yarn Barn and a great salad for lunch. I sure had a fun trip with my KIP buds.

Ravelry - A Knit and Crochet Community

What a suprise to find an email today that I have been accepted to Ravelry. I signed up so long ago that I actually forgot all about it. So, I spent all night loading my notebook with old and new projects, added my groups and friends' list. Right now, there are 492 Ravelers online -- how exciting is that??

Vest in Noro

My KIP friend, Maxine is knitting this vest and I thought it would be perfect in my favorite yarn, Noro (7 skeins Silk Garden). It's a simple pattern of two easy pieces that I modified as follows:

Front Panel - On #7, CO 74 sts, K2, P2 for 57"

Back Panel - Pick up 82 sts in middle of front panel, K2, P2 for

15 1/2"

I picked up mom this morning to go to the Flea Market and of course, she fell in love with the colors of this Noro and demanded I make her one too. Why not, Christmas is around the corner. I'll make hers on #8s for a looser fit.

DIY: Reconstructed Suitcase(s)

I have a little overnight trip coming up next weekend and it got me to thinking about the $9 suitcase I purchased last month at the Colliseum Flea Market. (I have a thing for old, rustic Samsonite suitcases). Last year, at a flea market in Canton, Texas, I found a very nostalgic traincase for $6 and had a vision of recovering it in some western cowgirl fabric I adore. I pulled out the insides, recovered the pieces and glued them back in place. Then glued fabric on the outside, added fringe trim, brass tacks and a silver star medallion concho and there you have it - a roomy case for cosmetics - western style.

Anyways, back to the suitcase. Today I used the same coordinating fabric following the steps above. I was able to keep the very functional elastic divider intact as the green coordinates with the other fabrics. Now I have two pieces of one-of-a-kind luggage just perfect for a weekend getaway.

Tallgrass Country Club

I had a tough day at the office today -- NOT! Me and 3 other women coworkers played golf following a meeting that was sponsored by Wesley Medical Center. The 70 degree weather couldn't have been more beautiful and I hit some pretty good shots. I now know why they call it tall grass - we lost quite a few balls in the rough. But with golf, it's those little successes that keep you in the game and make you think someday you could actually be decent at it.

Dress Yoke

This is 44 inches of beautiful cable. The next step is to pick up sts along one edge for the front, back and sleeves working downward for the body of the dress. Then pick up sts along the other side for the garter yoke (collar). I still feel like I have to make apologies for making this in Wool-Ease but then again, darn it, I'm going to be happy with my choice! It's affordable, washable wool with no shrinking or itchiness.

I think I like cables. Instead of using cable needles, I'm using the same size dpn, setting it aside while I knit stitches and then knit right off of the dpn making the cable twist.

Moderne Baby Blanket

I knitted this baby blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting for a coworker's new baby girl, Carlee. The colors match the bedding that her momma sewed. Instead of using mercerized cotton for the blanket, I opted for the nylon/acrylic blend in Berroco's Comfort yarn (8 skeins). It made for a really soft and lighter blanket.

Woofstock 2007

Look who we met up with on the highway on our way to Sedgwick County Park for the 10th annual Woofstock event to benefit the Kansas Humane Society. Why, it's Lia and Sahale. Our dogs got along well except Sheba got a little agitated with the other nosey dogs halfway through the event. There were hundreds of people and dogs with some places a little too close for comfort. We walked in the Mut Strut and as always enjoyed seeing all the different breeds of dogs. It was a good turnout and should have raised a good amount of money for a new adoption building in Wichita.

Update (11/19/07): Woofstock 2007 was a reacord-breaking year. Attendance increased 50% with 15,000 people and 6,000 dogs. The event reached $206,000 - an increase of 16%. Mark your calendar next year for October 4, 2008.

DIY: Fitted Woofstock T-Shirt

I don't like to wear traditional t-shirts so when I got up this morning to get ready for Woofstock I was thinking about what I could do with my event shirt to make it more appealing. I came up with a plan:

Take a fitted shirt and lay it down to make a pattern. My Woofstock t-shirt is Large so I just extended the seams all the way down to the finished edge so it will be long and scrunchy at the bottom. This is where a serger comes in handy to sew the side seams and insert smaller, capped sleeves in just minutes. Stitched the collar down and TA DA - a new, more appealing event T-shirt -- now we're off to Woofstock.

Happy Special Day

I don't like to count the years anymore so I've renamed my birthday to My Special Day. I took the day off from work to do something I enjoy. Yeah, I could've spent the day curled up in my new room knitting but I called up a special friend(s) and asked to spend the day with. We ate, drank and rode our bikes in celebration of my day. When I got home there was a package on the counter from mom. To my delight, it's Oprah's new book, O's Guide to Life. It was a very good day.

Cowboy Town

The new Brooks & Dunn CD was released today. Have I mentioned lately how much I love, love, love Ronnie and Kix? I think my favorite track is #7 "Tequila". I can just imagine that the girls at Coyote Ugly are going to be kick'n it with this song. Makes me wanna put on my boots and dance on a bar.

Go on - get your own copy.