I'm so proud of myself! Look at what is finally being blocked.

After five hours of finishing (thank god for Sex in the City reruns on OnDemand), I have this much yarn left over. Pretty close.

I'm sorry I haven't been updating my blog with anything more than just pictures lately. I've been extremely tired. I think some of it is from husband going on shift work. I don't sleep well when schedules are interrupted.

I can't believe it's finally, here...The day I get the hourglass sweater off my needles. Now, it' snot 100% finished; I still need to do the armpits and fold and sew in the ends (and block, of course). But, it's off my needles!!! Here is a very unflattering picture:

(notice the string hanging down the side.)

Tomorrow I will start Wicked. It calls for a long-tail cast-on, which I had never done. So, I decided to knit a washcloth today and go to Knitting Help to learn the cast-on method. Here is a picture of my washcloth so far:

Here is a picture of my long-tail cast-on. I'm pretty proud of it.

I made my favorite crock-pot recipe, Turkey Chili, for dinner tonight. I decided I wanted to share it with everyone. It is award winning (first place out of five entries), you know.

Kristan's Turkey Chili

2 cans kidney beans 2 cloves garlic

2 cans diced tomatoes 2-3 T chili powder

1.5 lbs ground turkey 1 t pepper

1 small onion 1 t cumin

2 T olive oil salt to taste

cook turkey in a large saucepan with olive oil. Dice onion and mince garlic. Add all ingredients to crock pot.

low 8-10 hrs

high 3-4 hrs

I find that is especially good if I prepare it the night before, refrigerate it, and then plug it in the morning.

I got the sleeves on the hourglass last night. Wish me luck. I can't wait to get this thing finished. Hopefully I've learned my lesson. This project has made me paranoid that I'm going to run out of yarn for Sesame and Wicked.

I went grocery shopping at Walmart after work today and didn't kill anybody. I resisted the urge to strangle every person who stopped short in front of me and punch every person who stood right in front of the one item I wanted and talk to their friend/child/spouse for 15 minutes. I guess it was a good day.

I want to say that it's colder than a witch's tit outside but, it really isn't. I guess I've just grown soft after a decade in the south. I have been longing for those 70 degree winters in South Carolina, lately. I think I need a vacation some place tropical.

I finished Fetching yesterday. (I should have pictures tomorrow after my husband gets home.) I just really needed to finish something. And now I'm back to the hourglass. Here is a picture of the second sleeve. I'm hoping I can finish the whole sweater by next week.

(btw, that's a coconut from Key West behind it. We got married in Key West two years ago in two weeks.)

Here's a list of things I'll never knit:

1. bathing suits or bikinis...There's just so much wrong I'm going to stop there.
2. socks not made out of hand washable yarn...I'm sorry, but, I need to be able to machine wash the stink out of my socks.
3. cashmere tea cozy (in LMKG)...My cashmere is NOT being wasted on tea!
4. I'm sure there's a lot more, but I can't think of them right now.

It's a good night.

Tonight is shaping out to be a good night (I'm sure with the exception of the State of the Union). I finished one of the frogged sleeves of the hourglass sweater (so, I'm back to where I started after week one) and I figured out what to get the CB (my husband) for our anniversary. I wish I could tell you guys what it was but, I don't want to spoil the surprise. I'm so excited.

Random thought....Should I join the green hat knit-along at get stitchy? I'm seriously considering.

Later random thought...I think I'm going to knit Fetching with the variegated pink yarn I bought in CT.