Today was Laura's (
ReallyandTruly on
Ravelry) 30
th birthday, and we celebrated by meeting in the
Colchester castle park by the duck pond, sitting in the sun, drinking champagne and overeating.
Unfortunately, I now have a sun burn and look like a lobster with
blond hair, but it was so worth it. I had a blast chilling with Laura, her
boytoy, some of her friends I hadn't met before and some knitters from the High Street bar group. The sun was out, the ducks were making babies and it was a beautiful day.
As I mentioned in the last post, I did make her a gift but couldn't post it until today since she has read (not sure if she still does read) here. So here are the promised pictures, I made her an agate necklace and bracelet set with a set of 5 stitch markers to use the leftover beads. They didn't photograph well, but the necklace and bracelet did. She seemed to really them- she wore the bracelet for the rest of the picnic.
That's about it. I'm going to go study some more. I really can't wait for these damn finals to be OVER!
So I've sort of jumped on the proverbial Tour de Fleece bike and am doing my best (not really, my best when I'm not working on business plans or working out) to attack the fiberstash. I'm trying to get a little bit every day in, which is proving to be difficult, but so far it's been worth it. I've spun a few hundred yards of single-ply laceweight vintage llama (I got it from Peg at the Rock Day exchange, that's early January for all interested) and I spun about 3 ounces of BFL (I think) that I got from the Sheep Barn at the State Fair last year. The llama I was working on before this had spoiled me a bit, and I couldn't get an even yarn out of the wool, but that's okay. I gave it to Francie (I never use my own handspun) and she seemed it like it.
I haven't gotten any pictures of the llama because it's brown single ply laceweight. How exciting. I'll get pictures when I get it all into yarncakes (btw, swifts are $35 right now on Overstock.com!)
I have been doing a teeny bit of knitting. As in, all this week I've done 8 rows on the new lacey project, 1 square on the Mitred quilty blanket, and 4 rows on the Ring of Kerry Hoodie. I'm seriously not even finished with the yoke yet, and I've been working on it since the Ireland trip. I've hit the "black hole" point in the plain stockinette stitch black hoodie. Who-da thunk? Here are a couple pictures of my teeny bit of knitting:
The pattern is "Seascape Stole" from knitty.com, and the yarn is Rowan Kidsilk Haze that I picked up in Jenners in Edinburgh (hi Sandra!) I've heard that the yarn is beyond tricky to work with, but I'm really liking it. But I also really hope I don't have to frog for any reason. Because that would suck.
That's about it. I've got to get back to my business plan so I can go to my step class at 4:40 to get my butt kicked by a 52-year old Jazzercise instructor. It hurts so good!
Trading Post is in Pendleton, and for the readers who aren't overly familiar with Indiana farmland, it's...out there. I live on the corner of Indianapolis and Out There so it wasn't a big trek for me, which was great. The appeal of Trading Post is that it's a yarn store that happens to be on a llama farm with random chickens walking around clucking at you. It's pretty fun. I got a few pictures, but I was afraid to get too close since llamas spit. And llama spit is nasty. 
Knitting content: I worked on my blue sweater at SnB last night, and managed to finish a sleeve and start the next sleeve. I know that sounds totally awesome, but it's a short sleeve thing. It's still pretty awesome though, because that sweater has been chilling on my dress form waiting for sleeves since December. Yay me. I'll try to finish that other sleeve in the next few days and get some pictures up on Ravelry and das blogg.
I also made a little baby ogre hat for Tammany, who is like 172 months pregnant or something. Since her Skittle is a girl, I put a bow on it. That's about it for today. I'm going to get a little sun and help get the house ready for the big 4th of July party tomorrow. Namaste!
Secondly: My parents decided to "clean up" the stash room a couple months ago when I was in England, resulting in much confusion (on my part) and the unearthing of like a million partial skeins of acrylic yarn from an era in which I was mass-producing baby hats (I still make baby hats, just not like I was, and I tend to use better materials now). Since I was having a 
Wedding Shawl: is done! Well- I still need to weave in some ends, but the knitting, beading and blocking is over with, and that's good. Sheree saw it yesterday and seemed to like it, so that's also good. hopefully she'll let me take some decent pictures of it with her wedding dress, and I can post those so it will look a little better.
Spoons: is dead. I killed it. I decided to try to "kill" the acrylic, and I think I took it a little too far. The stole was all wild and 
Socks: I finally finished the red self-striping Disney socks that made my hands itch like crazy. They're hiding out with the 
I really don't have 
Harry Potter House Cup: So I'm tired of being like the only knitter in Indianapolis who isn't in on it, so I joined the Harry Potter House Cup group on Ravelry, hoping to be alerted when the fall classes would start. Crazily enough, enough people signed up after the start of the May classes, that the administrators have started a group for Not Quite First Years, and we're allowed to enter classes and sign up for OWLs. And OWL, for all you muggles, is a big project that ordinarilly can't be completed in a month (unless you're the knitting fairy, but she seems to have abandoned ship after the shawl oopsies) and yes...I have "applied" for an OWL and I may sign up for a June class, depending on what the options are. My OWL will be Eunny Jung's Print of the Wave stole that Franklin did a while back, and I plan on starting it approximately 3 minutes after finishing Sheree's shawl. I can't start it now because (a) don't have the yarn yet and (b) needles are stuck in the wedding shawl. But that being said, I think I can do BOTH by July 31st (the wedding is July 17th so I don't have much of a choice, but at the rate I'm going, I'll probably finish it when I'm in Ireland with the family). So that's that. If I complete both lace shawls, finish my 2 pairs of socks, design, knit and publish the Sookie Stackhouse Socks by at least the second episode of True Blood this June, I should either be applauded or locked up in a mental institution, because that's just not healthy. I'm planning on my week of downtime being VERY productive. Moving on.
Laura (reallyandtruly on ravelry) is turning 30 tomorrow! Yay! I've made her a present (and I didn't knit it!) but she has been known to snoop around on this blog, so I won't post pictures of it until tomorrow night after the party or monday morning. I really like how the gift turned out, so let's hope she likes it too! But I'm super excited about the picnic/party in the park, and I just need to figure out what project(s) I should take. I will probably take the shawl if only to show it off and then work on the never-ending red stripey socks I started like 2 months ago. I've just finished the second gusset so the end is in sight, I'm just tired of knitting them. I just want to work on the wedding shawl all day. It's terribly addictive!
I guess that's about it. I'm down to less than a week in Colchester, which is sad. This time next week I'll be being a tourist in Dublin with the family, which is fun. I'm really going to miss the Colchester knitters, but I'm really excited to see the Indy knitters again. Just alot of mixed feelings. And then cramming for finals on top of that. Bleh. I'm outta here- have like 11 books to read and 4 days to do it.
Next day: Went back to Catacombs. Sign on the door said closed for French holiday. Guess I won't be seeing those. Went to the Pantheon, where all these famous French people are buried including Victor Hugo, Marie and Pierre Curie (she was Polish but we'll let it slide) Marat, Descartes, Voltaire (oh how I hate you, Voltaire!) and lots of other people. Marie Curie was my favorite though. From there I walked to Notre Dame, where I stood in line for a couple hours with a couple from New Jersey so I could go to the top. Got some cool pictures of the Gargoyles- perhaps a few too many. I could do a whole album of gargoyles. I just find them fascinating. Camera died. Walked around trying to find power adapter to charge my camera, also tried to find La Sorbonne so I could guy a hoodie that would make people think I went there as a student and not a tourist. Settled for a Universite de Paris hoodie because it was cheaper and not pink. Went to la Conciergerie, where Marie Antionette and many other famous prisoners were kept before they met la Guillotine. They have a lovely chapel where Marie Antionette's cell was. After that- La Tour Eiffel and a river cruise, where I was too busy eating an ice cream cone to take many pictures. It was a really good ice cream cone, but I did have to wash my hoodie and jeans after I was done with it since I'm a bit of a messy eater. Called it a night after my river cruise, as it was getting dark and cold and I was covered in chocolate ice cream. 
Day three started out with L'Arc de Triomphe done very quickly, and then on to La Musee D'Orsay, which is not as big as the Louvre, but just as cool. It's got a bunch of Monets, Renoirs, Van Goghs, and tons of modern art. The building itself is also amazing, I can't remember what it was before it was a museum, but I learned all about it on the river cruise in French, English and then German. So I should have remembered it, but I didn't. Anyhoo, it was amazing and beautiful and just...yeah. After that I dashed over to the Hotel D'Invalids, where they housed veterans of the Napoleonic wars after they got blown to bits. Napolean's tomb is also there, which was cool. Then realizing that my train left in 3 hours, I headed back to Montmarte, where the Moulin Rouge is. Except I went to a museum and a church instead of a brothel. I went to la Musee de Montmarte, which had alot to say about windmills and of course, the Moulin Rouge. Then I headed over to la Sacre Ceour (which I can never spell right) but you can't take pictures in there. It must have been a Catholic holiday on Friday, because they were having a full service with a full choir and a couple hundred tourists walking around the whole thing. Beautiful church. Truly breathtaking.
Dashed back to the hotel, grabbed my bag, and then ran to the train station and was in Cambridge by dinner time with Alex and Marylyn. Life is good. 
