My zippers arrived from Zipper Stop yesterday and I was scared and excited to open the package. I so wanted one of the color to be the right one. The colors I chose are S557 and 830 - one bluer and one greener, just to cover my bases, but both look kind of blueish/green. Right? Well, at least they do on my monitor. In reality? Not so much.

Now, it occurs to me that the S557 zipper looks very blue and I wonder if I might have gotten 557 by mistake - that’s French Blue in case you aren’t keeping track. To me that seems a little more likely, but who knows. I’ve sent an SOS e-mail to Jeff, the owner of Zipper Stop, and we shall see what he has to say when he gets back to me. If all goes well, I may still be able to have a zipper by this weekend. I hope. I really should have ordered that color card, but I guess I like living on the edge. However, I have learned my lesson and will order the color card with my next zipper order because you know I’m going to need more zippers in the future and it might be a handy thing to have around. Too bad I didn’t have this realization a little earlier in the process.

Backyard Leaves is still going well, and is still a whole lot of fun. I am on the second repeat, so it basically looks just like it did yesterday, only about twice as long.

So, I’m off to buy running shoes at lunch and am running tonight for the first time. Hopefully it goes well. Have a great day.

I started Backyard Leaves for Blossom yesterday and I’m having a lot of fun with it.

The pattern is very addicting - I want to see what happens on the next row and than the next row and the next… I didn’t have a lot of time to work on it yesterday - maybe an hour total, so I think it’s going to be a fairly quick project.

I ordered two zippers from Zipper Stop last Thursday and they were shipped on Friday. I hope they arrive in the next day or two and that one of them is close to the same color as the Zip Cardi. After doing a bit of reading, I’ve decided to try to sew my zipper in with my sewing machine. Jacqueline assures me that it can be done. So, I’m game to try anything once - zipper installation with a sewing machine is up for the weekend (assuming one of the zippers is acceptable). Since I will be home for this attempt, I will take pictures and share them with you all. Additionally, grafting (with pictures) will happen one night this week,or maybe over the weekend, depending on how my week shapes up.

Have a great day.

… about a weekend. Was there recently a weekend? If so, I completely missed it. Ok, really, I knew it was the weekend, but I was way to busy to enjoy it. Friday night brought my black belt test. According to my instructor and the score sheet he let me look at, I passed. I don’t really remember much of it, but word is I passed and did quite well. What a relief! Saturday was full of more karate-related activities. We had a workshop in the morning and then went horseback riding in the afternoon, and had dinner at Keith’s house Satuday night. Yesterday I went with my mom to see my brother. Four hours each way makes for good knitting time. I finished my shrug. Well, I still have to graft it together, but the knitting is done. I spent some time last night reading up on grafting. Thanks PumpkinMama for the instructions on grafting k2p2 ribbing. I sure hope I can make this work.

Now it’s time to start on the Backyard Leaves scarf for Blossom - my SYNO swap pal, and work on Ronnie for the Christmas gift.

Have a great Monday.

Good new faithful blog readers. I am back in touch with the world and I’m feeling much better about things. I’ve caught up with some of you and will catch up with the rest in the next couple of days. Everyone’s been very busy and you’re all finishing up your projects right and left. I did not complete the Ruffle Shrug over the weekend, but have high hopes for this weekend. I’d better hurry up and get it done because I’m itching to start the Backyard Leaves scarf for Blossom.

In bad news, the blocking helped the Zip Cardi a bit, but I still wasn’t happy with how the neck looked. So, the zipper had to come out.

And after I ripped it out I decided that I really want to find a zipper that is close to the color of the yarn, so I’m off to web surf (which I can do now) and see what I can find to order. Anyone know of a good zipper shop? I really like the way the sweater turned out and I want the zipper to be right. It’s that pesky perfection thing again. Grrr.

In karate news, my test is tomorrow night. I’m freaking out, but that is my nature. I have written the required paper on what karate means to me, and can I just tell ya - I do not like to write about what things mean to me. Ask me to analyze something or interpret a statute, and I’m all over it. Case law, no problem. Ask for touchy feely and I get irregular breathing. Oh well, it’s done and that’s that.

I got The Runner’s Handbook and it is a great book. There are lots of things on motivation, time management, and different beginning running programs so you can pick the one that works best for you. I’m really excited to start running and next week is the week. And for motivation and accountablility, Cyndi has started Fit to Knit where I’ll be posting about my progress.

Have a great day.

Because I’ve missed you guys. The tech people began a firewall upgrade on our computer server at work (or whatever it is you do upgrades on) on Friday afternoon. Apparently, things did NOT go well. The firewall is still down and we don’t have internet access or e-mail. So, I’m completely cut off from the world for 9 hours a day. I’m having issues - withdrawal sucks! Seriously. I have dial-up at home, but I’ve been at karate practice every night this week in preparation for my black belt test on Friday. I get home just in time to take a shower and fall into bed. Tonight, I’m supposed to be working on my own, and I will, but I had to post quickly before I go off to practice my kata. So, I’m fine, aside from technologically challenged. I’ve been working on the Ruffle Shrug, but not very much. I got my Runner’s Handbook and read some over lunch today - what a great book. Thanks Diana! I’m really excited to start running after I read the first 200 pages. I took Friday off in the hopes that knitting and catching up on my blog reading can keep the impending panic attack at bay. So, I will post a detailed post on Friday when I have the time to fight with dial-up, and I’ll be reading what you all have been up to. I hope everything is going great. Talk to you soon.