awwwwww...

My friend took her baby to get pictured taken and used the football outfit I made for him. She took a quick shot of him with her cell so I could see.

SO stinkin' cute!!

I've been working on another shawl:

 

 Yeah, shawls don't usually look like much until you finish and block them. I'm finishing up the garter section and will be starting the leaf border in the teal. I'm adding a few extra rows to the garter stitch section to use up the remainder of the 2nd ball of brown since the border will look fine with partial repeats.

Not much detail yet, but there will be once the border's on. =)

I still have another shawl on the needles, but life has been so busy and knitting time very limited the past couple months, I really wanted something "brainless" to work on. Can't get much more brainless than garter stitch! =)

for the win!

Why is it when I have the least amount of time to knit... I have the best luck winning free yarn?

Back in Feb/March, podcaster Lauren of the LemKnitCrochet podcast had a fundraiser in an effort to increase awareness and raise money for The Histiocytosis Association in honor of her friend Josh who passed away from Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis.

Bird Leg Bags was offering project bags in two different fabrics based on Josh's drawings with a portion of the cost being donated to Lauren's fundraiser. The purchaser also got an entry into Lauren's prize thread. One of the fabrics was this awesome turtle design:

 

How could I possibly pass that up? So, I caved and bought my very first real knitting project bag. I was playing catch-up recently on podcasts and, surprise! I won a skein of fingering weight yarn!! It's so pretty too! =) (Not the greatest pic, but it's raining here...)

I'm thinking of possibly using it with the skein of yarn I won from The Knit Girllls podcast back in January:

 

 

I was thinking of using them to knit up Piper's Journey shawl that my friend gave me the pattern for back in January, but it's written for sport weight and I'm not sure I want it this bright. It's a shawl so I could just make a slightly smaller version or maybe adjust it a bit, but I'm not sure I'd have enough yarn... and I do have alpaca in my stash that would be pretty perfect and oh so cozy. I'll have to think about that one. I've also been thinking about a Leftie using the green above for the leaves and something more muted for the rest. I've looked at a lot of the finished projects and those are my favorites. If anyone has any suggestions of other patterns for the variegated pink/purple/reddish skein, I'm open to new ideas! It's got a bit of cashmere in it so no socks or toys. =)

I'm finally getting the baby gifts sent out to my manager who is now officially on maternity leave and due very, very soon.

I found this football Easter basket on clearance and thought it would make a great alternative to a gift bag... and cheaper than a gift bag too! =)

Yesterday, I took some much-needed time away from the computer and went to the Women's Show in Spokane with a couple friends. They were doing some cooking demos during the show and my friend volunteered me for the "tofu" demo. LOL That's me in the middle (yes, my friend snagged my phone from my bag and took a couple pics, lol):

 

The guy on the left (yes, in the Utilikilt) is "Tofu Phil" of Small Planet Organic Tofu. He also had on knee socks that said "Tofu" down each side. He's committed! =) All I did was chop a bell pepper and then cube a block of tofu, but it was fun and the salad we made was pretty yummy!

And since I was downtown, I checked out a little cafe (Boots Bakery & Lounge) with tons of vegan options, many were even gluten-free as well. =) I bought a couple of items to try later since one of my friends was adamant we not have dinner there. =( The two items I bought weren't amazing and my own recipes are better... and cheaper to make myself. Nice to have the option though and I do intend to give them another try for lunch sometime so I can try the real food there (vs the baked goods I tried). I really need to get moved out to the coast where the options aren't so limited... or such a pain to get to since parking downtown is a bit ridiculous.

baby kicks

And... baby gift #2 is now complete:

(Ravelry project page for details)

This project also gave me a chance to play with a new toy:

It sure sped up knitting i-cord!

 

Gotta love those 50% off coupons for Jo Ann's! =)

oh baby

I finished up the first baby gift for my manager last night!

(Ravelry project page)

If/when I make another of these, I'll make a couple changes, but I think they turned out quite nicely. I just hope the bag is big enough. The baby is expected to be on the bigger size... I plan to write up my pattern notes soon. =)

And I started a pair of booties for him too:

 

 (Ravelry project page)

Baby stuff is so fun! =)

what's this?

Actual knitting?! Sure, it doesn't look like much now, but it's a start... and the first knitting I've done in nearly 2 months! Funny what having a bit of down time will do. :)

update on... not so much knitting

It's been two weeks and yet, there's been minimal knitting progress. Not enough to warrant a picture of the shawl. Yes, still working way too much OT and it's sucking my knitting mojo away. I do have one thing to share:

 

This is the skein of yarn I won from TheKnitGirllls podcast along with a few goodies thrown in - two key chain mini skeins and a Lo-Lo Bar sample. If I ever finish that shawl, this will be a wash on the yarn - one in, one out. =) And I didn't buy it, so it doesn't count. lol

I'm in for at least one more week of lots of OT so it'll probably be a couple weeks before I post again. Maybe I'll have something done by then... =)

on a winning streak!

It's been slow going with the knitting this week... really slow.

Yep, that orange stitch marker is where I was last Sunday. Most of that (minimal) progress was made last night after finishing up another 80-hr work week. Ugh, I'm so over the OT. My rv payments have been made well in advance, my savings account is healthy... the drive to work more is greatly diminished. lol I won't be doing that again anytime soon. I've offered to still put in some overtime this week, but it won't be anywhere near what I've been doing. Hello, knitting time! =)

While working all those hours, I've been keeping up on all the knitting podcasts I like to watch/listen to and even checked out a few new ones. Podcasts keep me sane while working through all those charts! I watched the latest podcast from TheKnitGirllls and... I won yarn! Very pretty green yarn. =) They had a contest thread to enter items knit in December using old stash yarn. I posted the cowl I knit for my mom for Christmas since the yarn was from 2008. I'll post a pic of the skein when it gets here. And no, this doesn't break my plan to cold sheep this year! lol I didn't buy it, it doesn't count! My friend also has offered to buy me a skein of yarn from a LYS for my birthday. I'm thinking I might get fiber instead though since I really think I'll be ordering an espinner soon!

Speaking of spinning... I found an interesting podcast this week - Vegan Eco Fibrecast. Sorry, I haven't been able to find it online so I can't link to it. Sadly, there are only a handful of episodes and the latest was posted last June. It was an interesting listen though. The podcaster discussed her experiences spinning with different plant fibers as well as some of the reasons she doesn't use animal fibers. I'd really like to get away from using so much (if any) animal fibers in the future unless I know specifically where it comes from and that the animals were treated well. That pretty much knocks out any commercial yarn purchases. I've had this plan in the past, but have stumbled when I came across a deal too good to pass up. This year of not buying will help break that bad habit of mine. I don't plan to ditch the wool/alpaca/silk that's already in my stash, but I feel I have the responsibility to make more conscientious purchases in all areas of my life. How fun would it be to learn to spin with plant fibers though?! =)

I also received a free pattern this week. A mitten pattern was designed to match the hat I posted last week and because I took part in that KAL, the designed gifted me the pattern for the mittens. =)

I think I'll knit up a pair with the remainder of the acrylic I used on that last hat so I'll have a set to add to my giftable knit items. The pattern for the Intersecting Mittens is available on Ravelry.

Hopefully, I'll have more knitting progress next weekend! =)