We just found out that Greg's sister's husband has passed away. They don't know what happened. He went to sleep and didn't wake up. He was 35. We are still going to the wedding in Chicago, but may fly to California next week. I'll know more tonight when we see his mom.

My first session with the personal trainer completely kicked my ass! My legs feel like Jello. I've almost fallen a few times while going down the stairs. The workout felt good though. I just hope I'm not hobbling all weekend in Chicago.

My Goshen arrived! My Goshen arrived! It wasn't exactly what I was thinking it would be, but after thinking about it, it is what I should have expected. I don't know why I expected it to be silky (like SWTC bamboo) when it's primarily cotton. All in all, I think it will make a nice sweater. I plan on starting Sahara on Monday.

I finished the clutch for my friend today. I have some comparison pics with my last clutch. I wish the pictures were better, but it was dark out by the time I finished it.

I also made her a quick little birthday card. After looking at the picture, I should really add a little more. Oh well, too late now.

Last night I went to a bookclub for the first time. We read Fast Food Nation. It was really good and I highly recommend it. I've decided that I'm going to buy more stuff locally. The is a decision based jointly on the book and my overall hatred of WalMart. I just wish Paducah had a little more to offer. We have a bakery (which I've been to), a fish market and a meat shop (both of which I haven't been to). I've been trying to support all local business (esp. my LYS), but it's harder to do with produce. There's even a whole Eat Local Challenge. I don't think I'll be doing the one in April because of the lack of locally grown produce in the area. But, I may do the next one. It looks like September.
My SP got her gift the other day and she loved it!!! I saw that she posted the pictures when I first got up in the morning. I urgently called my husband upstairs. He ran up all freaked out because he thought something was wrong. I was (and still am) so excited!
I have my first session with a personal trainer tomorrow. Wish me luck. I'm sure she's going to kick my ass and I'm going to be sore all weekend. I tried to finish Wicked so I could wear it to work tomorrow. I'm so exhausted that i must go to sleep. I'm only six stupid rows short. Poop.

While I'm Chicago this weekend, I'm going to have breakfast with one of my dear friends. It's her birthday weekend, so of course I'm going to make here a felted clutch. I'm pretty busy this week, but I managed to work on it last night and finished it today during lunch. Here is a finished picture. It's knit out of Reynold's Lopi.

I felted it and it turned into Grimace. (You know, it's kind of hard to take pictures in my kitchen that conceal the mess.)

This is what was left in my washing machine.

Now, this clutch was made with the exact same pattern as this one. They look like two completely different patterns. The tan one is much smaller and more square. This one is larger and more trapezoidal. They were knit with the same needles and felted for roughly the same amount of time (2 cycles). I knew they would be different but not so different. My theory is that the difference occurs because the KnitPicks yarn is 3 ply and the Lopi is single ply. I don't know what else is could be. Once it dries, I'll take a picture of them together.

PS...I love my washing machine for felting. If I leave the lid open then the washer stops after agitation. This allows me to walk away and do something and not have to concentrate on the felting. It also lets me reset the cycle from the beginning so I conserve water.

This weekend was a yarn buying weekend. Since Thursday night I have bought 20 skeins of yarn in five different types. I bought the Goshen for Sahara and some sock yarn for my SP from Webs and 10 skeins of different Crystal Palace yarn at my LYS. I bought eight of those skeins to knit this blanket for a friend who's having a baby shower at the end of April. They decided they aren't going to know the sex. I hope these colors work.

The other skeins of Crystal Palace are for my SP. I hopes she likes them. I really wish I could post pictures of the package and handmade card I sent my SP on Saturday. I'm very proud of it. I promise to post pics after the exchange is over.

I finally finished the first sleeve of Wicked today. Now, you might remember that I started the sleeve last week. Well, I finished a long sleeve this morning an tried it on. It looked horrible! The sleeve had no shaping. I followed the instructions, which don't say anything about shaping. I really should have known better and shaped anyway. I guess the the sleeve was OK, but with the sweater being so fitted, it looked weird with a straight long sleeve. I didn't want to redo the entire sleeve (I'm ready to be done with the sweater already) so, I decided to make the short sleeve version. Here's a picture of the finished sleeve.For good measure, here's a picture of one of The Idiots sleeping on her newly washed dog bed.

I don't have much to say. I ordered Valley Yarn's Goshen in green apple for Sahara. We watched Stranger Than Fiction tonight. I really liked it.

It is ungodly warm in my house right now. It was a warm day here; almost 80! After our last two gas bills from the winter, I'm reluctant to turn on the air conditioner. All I want is a nice month with low utilities; no high gas bill from heating the house, and no high electric bill for cooling the house. I think I'm going to have to turn on the air, though, because it is 79 upstairs.

Sahara won the Sexy Knitters Club nomination. I'm so going to knit it. I need to pick a nice cool yarn. I think it will make a nice spring/summer work sweater with a little simple cami underneath. Does anyone recommend a yarn? Tilli Thomas Pure & Simple is WAY too expensive.

Also, I think I've decided to frog the Mud Flap Girl (from SnB Nation) that I started last summer. I'm going to use the black Cotton Fleece to make Sizzle. I'll get a lot more wear out of it.

I have a dirty little secret. I totally suck at armholes. Every time I knit in the round I end up with at least one gaping hole in the armhole. If I knit bottom up, I end up with holes on both sides of the Kitchener stitching. With Wicked being top down, I thought "Well, self, I'll just pick up a stitch, and that should close off what will obviously be a hole." Nope, wrong. See evidence.

I'll just have to do what I always do and go in during finishing and retrace the loops and pull tight. Maybe on the the other sleeve I'll try picking up three stitches. Yeah, that might work. But, I'll have to remember to get rid of them so I don't have one sleeve wider than the other. I bet you I'll forget.

I completed almost all of the wave bag today. All I have left is the handles which we are starting in class next Monday. It is absolutely huge! A toddler could fit in it. Now I have to figure out what to do with all the left over yarn. I'm thinking some purple felted bowls.

I also finally finished the body of Wicked. It got put on hold for dishcloths and such. Now all I have to do is all sleeves. I'm thinking 3/4 length.

I'm also really pleased with the neck. I have some problems with the neck of the hourglass I knit a couple of months ago. The hourglass really looks better with no undershirt, but the neck is just way to big. I've been searching for a lacy strap tank top that will cover my bra straps, but I haven't found one I've liked, yet.

The audit on my program starts tomorrow; wish me luck.

No St. Patrick's Day for me. I was so excited this year because it was on a Saturday, but my husband is working nights this weekend. I never get to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Not growing up less than two hours away from both NYC and Boston. Not going to Savannah when I was college in Atlanta, or living in South Carolina. Now, I'm close to Chicago & I bet I'll never get to see them dye the river green. Poor me. End of pity party.
I'm currently blocking the pocket of Wicked. I could post a picture but, I'll wait until tomorrow, when I have the pocket on the sweater.
For some reason I have his overwhelming desire to knit lace. I can't figure out why. Maybe it's the Irish in me.
Oh, Sexy Knitters Club posted the poll for what to knit next. I can't decide what to vote for. I really like four or five of the patterns.

Unfortunately, Spring has left KY for the time being. The temperature has dropped back to the 50's. I'm back to being cold. I worked on my wave bag tonight, but I didn't make much progress. It's not worth taking a picture.
Georgia Tech lost to UNLV by one point today. One measly point! I guess that's what you get when the easiest major at the school is Management. When everyone is required to take Calculus, it is hard to attract the big stupid dumb jocks (not that every student athlete is a dumb jock) that a lot of schools get.
I am going to post this weekend, but I have to let you know right know that next week is going to be hell for me. The two programs I manage are being audited. I'm not looking forward to it.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. Tomorrow I'm going to block the pocket for Wicked.

I had the Wave Bag class on Monday. As of five minutes ago, I have all the colors in the bag. I have decided that I'm not the biggest fan of carrying colors along the back of my work. It makes my hands cramp.

Here's a closeup of the more subtle color change at the top.

I went to a Newcomer's meeting at the Quilt Museum. The quilts they had there were awesome. I've never seen anything that detailed. I'll have to go at another time, when I can browse at my own leisure. The only thing that sucked was that you can't touch anything, just like any other museum, but you want to touch things more there. All that texture and all.

A combination of a crazy work week, and beautiful weather has kept me away from the blog. Spring is starting in the KY.

We went to Nashville yesterday to see 300 in IMAX. My husband has been talking bout the movie for 2 months. I surprisingly liked it (although I did have to turn my head for some of the gore...I could never go into the medical profession). Then we went and "pet" the stingrays. For an extra $2 you could feed them. So we bought some dead fishies. When you hold up the fish for them, they come up the side of the tank and eat them. One of them was pretty excited and flapped his wing sending a wave of fish water right in my face! I was drenched. It reminded me of the time when we went to Sea World when I was little and a walrus spit on my dad. My family must have some weird nasty marine animal curse.

Anyway, here is a picture of one of the Idiots eating peanut butter off his face. we had most of the windows in the house open today and they barked until their hearts' content.

I finished the bottom of the wave bag today. I brought for the drive to Nashville. I started knitting it in the round, while the whole time saying to myself (and others), "Self, this doesn't look right. When we got home last night, I looked a little more closely at the pattern and realized that the bottom is knit flat. I'm an idiot.

I actually got some knitting done this weekend. I finished the last washcloth for my MIL. I was actually on time! I even stamped her (a simple) card. The package went out today. Much better than the Christmas presents that weren't mailed until mid-January. I had some tension problems in the last washcloth. I hope after a few uses, washes, and dries, they will be undetectable.

I also got quite a bit done on Wicked. I started the pocket tonight. I only got 19 rounds done before I had to fully immerse myself in Heroes.

We are driving to Nashville this weekend to see 300 in IMAX. I'll surely get a lot of knitting done then. Plus, I think there is Sit'n'Stitch on Friday night. I think it's going to be a wild and crazy knitting weekend.

Tonight I went to trivia night at the Elks club in support of the United Way. It was a lot of fun. We came in 4th, with perfect scores in both the plants/trees and movie categories. We were done in by sports and geography.
So, last night I met one of the couples that we were going to trivia with for the first time (he works with my DH). The woman said that the last trivia night they went to was at the Catholic school. She said that she won a nun statue that reminded her of Mother Theresa and how odd that was. I looked at her a busted out laughing because it obviously had to be a statue of Mary. And I couldn't stop laughing. Now I feel bad. I don't know, I grew up in a predominately Catholic family (my father's side who I grew up with, although I went to the church my mother went to) in town that is primarily Italian with the other big nationalities being Puerto Rican, Irish, and Polish. (I'm, two of those...guess which?) So, for some reason, the lack of knowledge of the Catholic church in the south still baffles me. I know some people who believe that it is a cult.
Please tell me I should stop feeling bad for having a laugh at this poor girl's expense.

No knitting today. We had to go to a retirement party at the casino. Apparently, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was there for some reason (he had requested the room we were in, but DH's company had already booked it and have dropped a lot of dough there in the past year). There also was a Pat Green concert. So, it was ungodly crowded and smoky. Gross. They won't let anyone smoke in the banquet/concert rooms/restaurants, but will let them smoke outside in the hotel hallway. I hate it. Every time I went to use the restroom there would be a pack of women standing around smoking. I thought to myself...what is this high school?

Fourth washcloth complete, woohoo!
My hourglass is dry. I'm going to wear it tomorrow night out to dinner. I hope I don't spill anything on it.