1. Seam up BSJ

2. Block the bonnet

3. Add elastic to soaker #1

4. Finish up soaker #2

5. Spin a bit of Spinner’s Web

6. Go to bed by midnight.

It’s 8:43. I made these plans an hour ago but go distracted by catching up on blogs. I don’t think this is all going to happen….

No pictures, as nothing is that exciting to look at quite yet but….

-the silk lace scarf just needs fringe and blocking, can’t wait to show it off!!

-the boring but practical anklets are only needing one more toe.

-the Embossed Leaves socks are up to the first heel. This is my second attempt at a short row heel. The first pair I made using this technique was a bit holey, wish me luck!

I’m determined to master that heel while watching Miss Marple tonight. I’ve told the Skeptic he’s got bedtime with Knittybaby and I’ve informed Little Man I’m off duty at 8pm and he needs to stay in bed. Think it will work?

Thanks for all your well-wishes, prayers and thoughts sent here to Minneapolis. It’s nice to know that despite this tragedy there is so much positive energy being sent our way. We all really appreciate it.

Have a lovely, safe and peaceful weekend everyone.

Just a quick pop in to say that we are all okay here after the terrible I35W bridge collapse. I had a brief moment of panic when I heard the news, as the Skeptic was still wrapping up his work day and that was the bridge he uses to return trucks for work. Luckily he was still at work and just fine, although it was a close call for a coworker who was on the bridge just 20 minutes before it happened.  Scary, scary stuff. I’m off to enjoy a quiet evening with my family and count my blessings.

What can I say? Toronto is, of course, great. The past two nights after I was done with my conference sessions, I just walked, and walked and walked. One of the things I love about living in Minneapolis is how you can just walk for miles and never run out of things to see and do, but I never really do that anymore since I always have the boys with me. While we walk back home, it’s never the “wandering, stop in wherever you want” kind.

So that’s what I’ve been doing. Meandering, stopping, browsing, all over the city. Heck, I even shopped. I found Lush, which I’ve been eyeing online but never ordered and got some nice treats there. I’ve mostly been wandering through the Fashion District, I think it’s called. Interesting people and places. Tons of crazy fabric shops, independent clothing designers, and unique people and places to eat. A posh shop with $200 dresses right next to a run down used book store with dusty old knicknacks in the window. All the things I love about a city, and I actually have some time to enjoy it.

I even bought clothes for myself. I found a lovely boutique called The Fresh Collective which is full of hand made clothing that is so incredibly cute, stuff I hope to learn to make myself someday. I bought a silkscreened hoodie from Cathy Peng and a lovely jacket from The Candi Factory. I even bought myself a newsboy hat since I forgot my hat and it’s chilly here. I can’t decide if I look really cute in it or really goofy, but at least it’s warm. Sorry, no picture of me in the hat!

Of course, there is yarn. I made it to Romni Wools today.

The place is flippin’ huge, that’s all I can say. Just about every yarn in existence is here, in a billion stacked up bins all over the place, in every nook and cranny. I stuck to my “only buy yarn I can’t get at home rule and bought some Fleece Artist, laceweight and a silk/wool blend. Pics later as my batteries are dead.

Tomorrow I will head over to Lettuce Knit and wander some more around Kensington and Chinatown. Tonight, I have a date with the Swallowtail shawl.

Finally, a picture for Little Man and Knittybaby, who as of last night’s phone call were enjoying pizza and staying up late with the Skeptic, Grandma and Grandpa. I miss them terribly but as I figured, they’re all just fine without Mommy for a few days.

Cows and a piano stuck to a building:-) I need to get a better, non blurry one tomorrow.

The Harlot finally had the chance to get some knitterly love in the Twin Cities on Wednesday night, and I got to have a fun night out.

The event was over in St. Paul and was hosted by The Yarnery, who did an excellent job. There were well over 400 knitters there.

I went with Mama Grouch, Catherine, and Gwenyth and also ran into April, who I hadn’t seen since a spinning class a couple of years ago. We all sat down in a sea of knitters and then proceeded to laugh ourselves crazy for the next hour. She spoke a lot about the stereotypes of knitting and said one thing that really spoke to me, about how in the last hundred years our society has changed how we value our time and handmade goods. To paraphrase, she said that a hundred years ago(and through most of human existance) it was considered a waste of time and money to buy something you could make. Now, thanks to our overly commercial society, it’s considered a waste of time to make something you can buy. I wish I had more time to write about this…maybe another day when I’m not trying to squeeze in a blog posting.

Afterwards we stood in line and had to chance to chat with Chris and Christy and I got a cute shot of them both:
I also had the chance to meet Renee and got to chat with Shelly as well. All in all it was a very festive line! I waved at Jess but missed the chance to chat with her, bummer!

While standing in line April and I realized we had both brought our soakers, an “endangered species of knitting” as Stephanie calls them in her book. Stephanie was excited to see them, and we both got a great picture with her, her sock, and our soakers:

Yup, that’s my completed raglan and Knittybaby’s completed soaker. More on those another day, I swear! Little Man just said, “Hey mom, there’s the Yarn Harlot! Make her bigger!”)

After that five of us headed over to the Bonfire Grill. We were dissapointed that there weren’t more knitters there, but apparently they were having communication problems and told other knitters there wasn’t anyone there, or something weird like that. Anyway, we had an awesome time:

See that giant beer? Apparently I don’t know my ounces very well. I wanted a pint.

Beer with sock for proportion.

I’m guessing it was a pint and a half, which is a lot for me nowdays. But I said what the heck and enjoyed almost the whole thing. Which might be the reason I was talking a mile a minute to Chris and Christy when I ran into them again while getting ready to leave. I promise I don’t usually yammer quite that much, although we did have a great chat about getting the local bloggers together sometime soon.

Little Man is requesting my presence, gotta run. Have a great weekend!

Glad you made it!

Things are still a wee bit sloppy over here. I’ve a few more things to add to the sidebar but for the most part this new site is ready to go. I’d love to hear what you think, and of course any suggestions or ideas are welcome.

I was hoping to have everything perfect, but I’m realizing that just like maintaining a home, a blog always needs a little clean up as well. I wanted my blog-opening to coincide with our month of birthdays, so ready or not, I’m making the switch tonight. There will be a month of celebrating as well as a month long contest with many prizes to give away. I hope you all join in with me for the fun!

I’ll announce the contest tomorrow night, one night before Knittybaby’s birthday. It will stay open until the Skeptic’s birthday in April.

In the meantime, don’t forget to switch to the new RSS feed so you don’t miss the party. When I first started blogging I thought, “it’ll just be a little something to keep track of my knitting…” Little did I know how important all of you would become to me! I love this little community here. Thanks for joining me on this next step!