Oh what a beautiful day!

It's one of those rare occasions when I have the house all to myself. (No, I'm not knitting in my underwear, but I could if I wanted to!) The temp is in the mid 70's and all the windows are wide open. I have a pork roast in the crock pot, and a fresh apple caramel cake * in the oven. (I'll bring it to Knitch tomorrow.) There's a chill in the air at night, and I've pulled out the flannel sheets. It's one week 'til SAFF, and I finished my sweater last night. YAY!


The neck opening is a bit larger than I would have liked, but all in all, I like the way it fits. Now I have to find something else to work on. I have several UFO's lying around, but none of them are calling to me right now. I'm thinking I may knit an entrelac vest, or knit and felt a backpack. I've sort of been mulling some pattern ideas around in my head, but nothing on paper yet. Gotta start something soon so I'll have a project to work on at SAFF.

I joined the Alice Starmore group on Ravelry, and immediately zipped on over to Amazon and bought two of her books. (Fishermen's Sweaters, and The Celtic Collection; I think they're the only two that are still in print!) I REALLY want her Aran Knitting book. I've seen some of the sweaters that were knit from patterns in that book, and they are freakin' BEAUTIFUL!!!! I think I may be able to get my hands on a copy to borrow, and I'll just memorize all the things I want to knit for future reference. (yeah, right)

Well, the cake's out of the oven, and I have to go put the caramel glaze on it while it's still warm. Then I'm gonna go enjoy the few hours of quiet I have left, and catch up on some TV shows I missed this past week. (Anyone see Pushing Daisies last week on ABC? There was male knitting content!) For all those folks knitting at Knitch tomorrow, I'll see you there!

*The cake was good, but next time I think I will try 1/2 cup oil, and 1 cup applesauce to cut the fat content.

FINALLY, something to blog about!

Sorry gang. Today was my 21st straight freakin' day in a row of WORK, and I still don't have a single day off 'til next Saturday October 13th. (yeah, I know, excuses, excuses....) The truth be told, There really has not been much to blog about until the last day or two.

And THEN......

I got my RAVELRY invite!!!!!!!
(guess where I've been the last two hours? where did the time go?)

I can see this is gonna be a whole lot of fun, and I may have to take a week off of work just to log in my yarn stash! I've just been poking around the site and done only the minimum on my profile, and added several books to my shelves. If you would like to add me as your friend, my ID is famoussteve. (of course)

Speaking of books, I picked up two brand new ones yesterday. The first one is "The Knitting Man(ual) 20+ Projects For Guys" It has some good patterns, and some not so good ones, and some that might look better with a little tweaking. There is a nice vest pattern, and a couple of nice sock patterns. It's an OK book, but pales in comparison to the second book I purchased. It's a Rowan book called "Knitting for Him, 27 Classic Projects to Keep Him Warm" OMG this is an awesome book! I want to knit almost everything in it! I don't even know where to begin. I would consider this book a "must have" for guys patterns, and at last glance, there were still a few copies left at Knitch, (shameless plug), but I expect them to go FAST, so check it out.

I received a wonderful surprise this week from a fellow knitter I met at Knitch one evening. We got to talking, and it turns out that she's from the Denver area, works in a yarn shop part time, and had come to Atlanta to see a band at Smith's Old Bar. Or course, being a knitter, she had to check out Knitch too. She sat and knit with us, and had just begun a shawl with a beautiful 100% wool, multi-colored, self striping yarn called Kauni from Denmark. And when I say self striping, I'm talking loooooooooooong gradual color changes. Beautiful stuff. The evening ended, we exchanged email addresses, and I gave her a ride back to her hotel. Then, as a thank you, I received, (you guessed it), a ball of Kauni! (170g, 680m) I'm going to have to find the perfect pattern for this yarn. In the mean time, check out Joanne's blog, and see the incredible shawl that she knit with her yarn. Thank you Joanne, for the unexpected, and very much appreciated gift!

We had our AKG meeting on Thursday night, and found out that we WON the scarecrow contest at the Atlanta Botanical Garden! Isn't he awesome!

I knit the black and orange striped pant legs. (3 strands of Red Heart acrylic on size 13's..... talk about painful!) I have a couple of guest passes, and do plan on going by the garden to see him. I may borrow Andrew's camera and get some pics of him myself.

I spite of all the hours I've been working, I have managed to get some knitting done. I finished the Noro Striped Scarf, pattern compliments of b r o o k l y n t w e e d. I used Kureyon instead of Silk Garden. (colors 40 and 195) One was a very dark/black blend, and the other was a purple/cobalt/turquoise/chartreuse blend. Very nice.
(thanks Jared)

I have only two sleeves to knit, and my sweater for SAFF will be done, (YAY!), and since the stitches are picked up, and the sleeves knitted on in the round, NO finishing!!! I've got 'til Saturday, October 27th to get it finished. (no problem) I've been looking forward to going to SAFF for quite some time now. I could really use the break!

(ok, now I've gotta go back to RAVELRY)