two finished objects

This past weekend was awesome and at the same time, REALLY bizarre. I'm still in disbelief that KKidd, Anne, Leslie & I met Madeline Albright at Besty's in Richmond, VA on Saturday. What a treat! She's such an awesome lady. The best part of our chance encounter was that we spent the morning dressing KKidd up to look just like Sarah Palin! For a sneak preview of KKidd as Sarah posing with Madeline Albright see Mah BLAWG. There's more to come on this as I have tons of pixs outlining the transformation of KKidd into Sarah Palin...Freaky and fun!!

Despite my bizarre weekend, I did manage to do a little bit of knitting. I also finally downloaded pictures of recent finished objects...Enjoy!

1. Heartbreakingly Cute Baby Kimono from MDixon Knitting in Lion Brand Cotton Ease. I made this for a baby shower last weekend. Isn't it cute??!

2. February Lady Sweater in O'Wool:

Although I need buttons for the Feb. Lady Sweater, I still struted my stuff in the cool weather this weekend. I LOVE this sweater!

getting around to it

Wouldn't it be great if your digital camera could use blue tooth to connect to your computer without having to plug in cords or pop out memory cards? Seems simple enough, no? I love my camera and I love taking pictures -it's that downloading part that really gets me...sigh...Since I don't have this new invention that I speak of, I'll have to go back to the old fashioned USB cord and begin to post all of the knitting projects I completed over the past few weeks. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, here is the last of our summer garden. We've had 4 cantaloupe this year - these fruits taste better than any I've ever had from the store. They're also incredibly easy to grow. Yum!

The Hubby's So Called Scarf

Doesn't the hubby look dapper in his new So Called Scarf? Now, if the weather would just turn cold, he could wear it!

I really enjoyed this pattern. It's super easy, but the resulting herringbone pattern looks rather complicated.

I used 2 skeins of
Malabrigo Worsted in "Midnight."

The scarf is pretty long (6') and I haven't blocked it yet (honestly, I'm a little afraid to block the Malabrigo as the color is so beautiful I'd hate for it to fade).

Next up - my February Lady Sweater.

Finally

Whole Foods opens in Richmond. For 4 years, the hubby and I have traveled to Charlottesville and back to Raleigh, Cary and Chapel Hill to get our Whole Foods fix. I happy to say that as of this week, we now have our very own store in Short Pump! Thanks to Crazy Aunt Anne for capturing this moment of pure joy last night as I ran through the store like a mad woman trying to take it all in right before the store closed at 10pm. I don't care if anyone calls me a crazy consumer (and in Richmond someone might accuse me of not liking Ukrops - gasp!), but Whole Foods rocks. (oh, and we also get a Trader Joes this month in Richmond! How will I control myself!? Organic foods, grass fed beef, hormone free chicken, organic wines!)

It's political

I'm so upset that I may alienate some of you, but are Americans really serious about even considering this crazy woman, Sarah Palin, for office? She finally hit a nerve with me.

Resources (more to come)
Time Magazine's Article on Palin
Anne Kilkenny's Letter on Palin
Wasilla Keeps Librarian, but police chief is out
Librarians Against Palin

Farmland Vegetable Pie

This pie took us close to 2 hours to make (and on a school night too!), but was well worth it! We drank wine, chatted, chopped vegetables - lots of veg - and kneaded bread. We ended up with this gorgeous pie:



The process:

photos

Still no knitting news - it's been a really rough week. I hope to get a lot done this weekend. On the photo front, I finally uploaded my Long Beach photos. I am a little embarrassed that I don't have a single photo in this set of the conference itself - all the photos are from the aquarium and walking around Long Beach the first day I was there. Despite earthquakes and a not so great presentation, Long Beach is beautiful. Enjoy.

yellow finches

This is the first year that I've seen my purple coneflowers/echinacea blooming. They're gorgeous and should be part of any perennial garden. The blooms are now starting to die back due the extreme heat we've had in Virginia. Since I haven't grown these plants before, I almost cut off the seed heads last weekend. I'm so happy that I didn't! There are now 3 yellow finches feasting on the numerous seeds available! They are beautiful! This is the first time I've seen yellow finches in the yard (or in Virginia). What a sight! I haven't been able to capture them on camera, but noticed that several photographers on flickr caught these birds in action. Check out this action shot.

needle envy

A knitter at the conference was knitting with one of these Knit Picks needles last week. I'm in love with them. Not only is the multi-colored wood beautiful, but the transitions are so smooth. I've put in a request with the hubby for an anniversary/Christmas/birthday prezzie for me.

Note to the hubby: Your scarf and dino are coming along - I promise :)

long beach...

Long beach photos are coming - it was so pretty there; conference was...eh, a conference :). I'm in a knitting rut right now. My February lady sweater is still sitting on the dining room table waiting for me to fix the 3 rows I goofed up. I'm too scared to pull it out since it's lace. While in CA, I started the Tangled Yoke Cardi for the second time and was disappointed by the fact that I think I've made the same mistakes on the seam that I made the first time! Around the seams, the pattern is difficult to understand. After the decreases, do I just decrease the garter rib pattern or are you supposed to keep purl stitches on each side of the seam?? I have no idea what this is supposed to look like. I am tempted to make the sweater without the faux seams and save myself the headache. If anyone out there on the internetz has an idea about this, let me know! I'll also post in Ravelry land.