USPS must have heard my gripe because my Tendances finally arrived, 3 weeks after it was shipped from Canada.  Does that seem like a reasonable shipping time to you?  It doesn’t really to me, but it’s here now and I’m happy.  There are a couple of really cute things that I think I may have to make from this magazine.  First, of course, is the zip cardigan.  In furtherance of that goal, I also got yarn from Knit Happens all in something close to the gauge I need.  I’m just going to have to swatch them all (as well as the previously purchased Jo Sharp) and see which one comes the closest because they’re all yummy - Rowan Cotton Glace, Rowan 4 ply Cotton, and Jaeger Aqua.  I also got a set of size 1 Lantern Moon dpn for my next sock project.  I think I’ll start them as soon as I finish Rebecca (while I’m waiting for the zip cardigan yarn to arrive).

I got paint samples from Citron Paint yesterday.  A couple of greens with a lot of potential and a more questionable eggplant and merlot color.  I’ll have to paint them onto watercolor paper this weekend and see how they look.

I finished the left side of Rebecca yesterday at lunch and cast on for the right side.  I got quite a bit done on it last night during my tv watching, although I cannot knit while Alias is on because I’m terribly afraid I’ll miss something).  I have just started the increases for the shaping and it should proceed quickly (assuming I have no other stupid moments - hopefully I got all of those out of my system on the left side).  Maybe keep your fingers crossed for me.

But not by choice.  It’s times like this that I seriously worry about my mental acuity.  How I ever made it through college and law school is beyond me at this point.  In case you haven’t guessed, Rebecca and I had another disagreement.  The problem arose when it came time to do the armhole shaping on the left front.  The directions say “At the same time work side and armhole shaping at right edge as for back.”  This does not mean that you should do the exact same armhole shaping as you did for the back.  Why?  Because you shape two armholes for the back (one for each arm) and only one for the left side (for your left arm - that’s why it’s the left side).  Duh.  Such binding off will leave you with too few stitches, a very strangely shaped armhole, and will result in frogging six rows of mohair.  Which, quite frankly, sucks.  There’s no other word for it - it sucks.  The little mohairs gets all wrapped around their nearest neighbor and you literally have to rip them apart.  I was so mad at myself last night that I stayed up late to rip it out and made myself do the correct bind offs and surprise, surprise, when you actually follow the directions things work a whole heck of a lot better.  Besides that little moment of stupidity, the left front of Rebecca is almost finished - maybe over lunch, but definitely by tonight.

I have made no progress on selecting paint colors aside from ordering more samples.  One of these days I’m going to have an epiphany and all will be well, but until that day I will continue to struggle through the many greens and wheats that are out there and hope for clarity and decisiveness.

I still have not received my Tendances (you’ll have to click on the link twice to get to the French page with the pictures because it automatically sends you to the US page, which doesn’t have pictures) from Knit N Tyme, but she assures me she’s sending another because I should have had it by now.  I hate the US Postal Service, they are always messing things up.  Jeez, how hard is to deliver a package?  I should also be receiving the yarn and needles I ordered from Knit Happens - yarn to try for the Phildar pattern and dpns for my next sock project - and my blocking board from Memphis Vintage.  It’ll be like Christmas if everything ever gets here.

Have a great day.

I found a knitting guild!  I e-mailed the president and she e-mailed me right back.  Their monthly meeting is Saturday, and they meet every Monday night for 2 hours.  I can’t go on Saturday because I promised my mom I’d help her paint her SO’s living and dining room, but I’m definitely going to go to next week’s Monday night group and see how it is.  The lady who hosts the Monday night group is a master knitter and she used to own a yarn store downtown (which has since closed).  This group should be a good source of knowledge and expertise.

Rebecca is coming along nicely.  I finished the back yesterday over lunch and am quite pleased with the outcome.  I cast on for the left front and have about 20 cm completed and just started binding off for the front shaping - sloped bind off again because I wasn’t sure how else to do it.  I’ve only done 2 rows of bind offs, but so far it looks right.  ??  I’m keeping my fingers crossed.  If it can be screwed up in mohair, I’ll do it.  I definitely wouldn’t want to have to rip the bind offs out in this yarn, soft but nasty stuff to take out.  I’ll have emotional scarring for years!  The front is moving a bit faster than the back, partly because it’s fewer stitches and I think partly because I’ve figured out that I need to use stitch markers for every repeat and I have the pattern memorized now (although I still look at it to make sure I am doing what I’m supposed to do)  :)  It’s a lot easier to figure out if you’ve messed up when you only have 7 stitches between markers than when you’re 6 rows up and realize you’ve forgotten a stupid yarn over.  Believe me, I know this for a fact.

I forgot to tell you (and this is important, so I’m a little upset by my mental lapse) - Stacy loves her socks!  She was very skeptical about the pointy toes, which I assured her I was in total agreement on, but when she put them on they fit perfectly.  Woo Hoo.  I was completely over the moon.  The best thing about giving Stacy something is that she will honestly tell you if she likes it (or if she doesn’t) and you can totally believe her because she’s brutally honest, which I appreciate immensely.  Not only did I make a pair of socks, but they fit and are loved.  It doesn’t get much better than that for me.  She’s supposed to take a picture of them on her pretty feet (I didn’t say pretty little feet because her feet aren’t so little, but than neither are mine) and I will post that as soon as I get it.  I ordered a set of size 2 dpn for the Lorna’s Lace that I have and am going to try Wendy’s Toe-Up Sock Pattern, which include directions for a short row toe.  Scary, but should be fun anyway.  Wendy’s directions seem to be fabulous so I should be able to make it through them.

I hope you all have a great day.

What a busy weekend.  My in-laws were in town for the weekend and my college roommate was at her parents’ house for Easter.  We drove to Ft. Collins Friday night to have dinner with Stacey and her parents (my college roommate and my sister have the same first name, but different spellings).  We had a great time, but I didn’t get to talk to her as much as I would have liked because my father-in-law talked to her most of the evening about her job.  Must be fascinating stuff!  She brought me a huge bag of pecans from Texas and I have to figure out what I’m going to do with them.  All suggestions would be greatly appreciated

My in-laws brought their dog with them and Riley had fun torturing him all weekend.  Aren’t they cute?  Riley (my corgi) won’t ever let Dually (the in-laws’ schnauzer) have a toy and takes it away so Dually will chase him.  They can do this for hours.  You’d think that they’d eventually get tired of the game (and Dually kind of does), but Riley is relentless and makes the game go for hours.  The good news is that he’s usually tired when it’s time for bed and he sleeps all night with no 4 am bathroom excursions!

My mother-in-law and I went back to Ft. Collins on Saturday to visit the yarn store and the cooking store.  We had a great time.  Lambspun is a great place.  We ate lunch at the restaurant and spent a long time just looking around at all the wonderful yarns.  Debbie ended up with yarn for two projects - a scarf for her great niece and a sweater for herself (her first sweater project!) and I was good and didn’t buy any yarn because I have yarn for another pair of socks (toe up this time) and the zipper cardigan (well depending on what I decide on the Jo Sharp) - all after the Rebecca wrap of course.  We sat and knit and and Debbie did a gauge swatch for her new sweater project - a pretty purple Rowan Summer Tweed and a little sparkle to go with it in a fun yarn (I can’t remember the name of that one).  It’s an easy T-shirt style sweater and I think she’ll really enjoy the project.  She’s a little apprehensive, but I have faith!

The cooking store wasn’t nearly as much fun as the yarn store - can you tell where my true enthusiasm lies?  After that we went to Whole Foods - the busiest grocery store I’ve ever been in in my entire life!  It was packed, but very cool - we had lots of fun there too, but were exhausted when we got out of there.  Shopping is not for sissies!

I did lots of knitting on my Rebecca wrap this weekend.  I bound off the neck stitches this morning on the commute.  I should be finished with the back today.  It’s turning out to be a great project (I choose not to remember the many times I’ve had to rip back because I have forgotten a yarn over or some such nonsense) and I’m excited to finish it so I can wear it.  I tried the sloped bind-off for the armhole shaping after Adele raved about it, and I am a believer.  It is great. It is smooth and there are no funny little steps from the bind offs.  I’m going to use it on the neck shaping too.  What a fabulous technique (I took a close-up picture, but it was blurry and I didn’t have time to take another one - sorry - you’ll just have to trust me that it’s awesome).  By the way, those really awesome stitch markers are from my Secret Pal - aren’t they the coolest!  I got lots of compliments on them at the yarn store too.

It has been brought to my attention that no one else on the face of the earth has ever spent so much time picking out a silly paint color.  Yep, it’s true.  You’re lookin’ at anal retentiveness at its very best (or is it worst?).  I could offer some moderate form of justification, which mostly involves blaming all of my problems on Travis, who is completely sure that the best paint color in the whole wide world is white, but you wouldn’t believe me and it wouldn’t really be true (although the part about Travis does account for some of my insanity).  The sad truth is that I’m anal and a bit lazy because I don’t want to have to repaint if I hate the color I finally choose.  There you have it.  Do you still like me after my ugly truths have been exposed?  Because of my terrible indecisiveness and clear lack of vision (is that an oxymoron?), painting is off for this weekend.  I’ve decided (in all my anal geniusness) that it’s better to be sure that I really love the color before I buy a couple of gallons and slather in on the walls.  Oh well, more knitting and shopping to be had - who can complain about that?  Not me, I tell ya.

By request, this is a picture of the Phildar cardigan that I’m planning to make when the Rebecca wrap is finished. 
I gave in to my insecurities yesterday and called Knit Happens to inquire about other yarn selections for this little project because I’m thinking the Jo Sharp might be too heavy.  I talked to the most delightful lady and she’s sending me one ball each of a couple of choices they have that are closer to the given gauge.  My analness will not allow me to actually wait for the pattern to arrive (which actually may never happen) and then swatch the Jo Sharp and see how it is.  Nope, I have already decided in my feeble little mind that it isn’t going to work (not that that will stop me from swatching it too, just to prove that in fact I was right) and have moved on to other choices.  Somehow it really isn’t comforting to know that I’m a complete wacko, but when is reality comforting?

My in-laws are coming for Easter this weekend and in a complete departure from my regularly anal nature (have you had enough on this topic yet?) I have made absolutely no plans for Easter dinner.  Travis and I decided last night that we’re going to make reservations at a local restaurant and call it good, but I have yet to actually accomplish this task.  Maybe today - that might be a good idea since today is Friday and Easter is on Sunday - just maybe.

Rather than painting my Mother-in-Law and I are going to go to Ft. Collins tomorrow and go to the yarn store (and maybe this one too) and the cooking store.  It will be a fun girls’ day.  I wonder how much trouble I’ll get in?  I’d bet on a lot.  Oh well, what’s the harm in yarn.  It’s not like it hurts anybody.  Right?

Have a great day.  I’ll let you know what little wonders I find on my shopping expedition.