A Girl can never have enough yarn

Right?

Well, unfortunately this isn't for me! (or fortunately if your name is Joe!)

My friend, Sue, wanted some Cotton Ease. Smiley's has it for a really good price, but they don't ship international. So I ordered a whole bunch for Sue and it came today. Isn't it pretty? Now I have to say goodbye and send it off to Australia!

Psssst: Don't tell Joe.....but.....I had ordered myself a boxful of Cotton Ease last month!! It's in hiding!!

Please go visit my friend Karen's blog and think about helping her out. She's participating in a fundraising drive for Diabetes. My brother is a research scientist (he works on a different disease though) and I know all his money comes from grants or fundraising. The more money received, the more research that can be done, and eventually a cure will be found.

Noey and I went to a birthday party on Saturday at Color Me Mine for Noey's best friend, Jessica.

Seems like we've been there a lot lately, but it was still fun. Noey painted a unicorn and I painted a seahorse.

Actual Knitting Content

After much debate, research, and advice, (thank you Karen!) I finally decided to make this Pretty Peplum Cardigan to wear to Joe's reunion.

It's a Patons pattern which, so far, is very easy to follow. I'm using some Cotton Ease in Pineapple from my stash. When I showed the yarn and pattern to Joe, his only comment was "Wow, that's bright".

I've finished the back and the left front. I have the right front and two sleeves left to go. I'm going to try to knit the two sleeves on the same needle at the same time. (wish me luck!)

I was feeling a little stressed over the weekend when I realized the reunion is in 3 weeks. But the left front went fast, and if I really can knit two sleeves at once, I think I'm in good shape. I'll cast on the right front tonight after Noey goes to bed.

I'm kinda anxious to get this done so I can start on some fun projects. I am working on a secret project for my Christmas Swap with

Sue .

I'm knitting a surprise for Isabelle and all I can tell you is it's PINK!!

I also want to start working on my dishcloth for the Dish Cloth Shuffle. I'm making one for Sharon. I found the perfect pattern and yarn, but I can't tell you a thing....I want it to be a surprise!!

I plead temporary insanity!

Every summer I get 4 weeks off, which is a really nice perk. (more on what we did this summer later) But that means 4 weeks of no paycheck. So early in the summer Noey and I made an agreement. She wouldn't buy any stuffed animals all summer, and I wouldn't buy any yarn.

Then I received a rather large and unexpected bonus. The majority of the bonus went to responsible things like food and the mortgage, but I did take out 10% for stuffed animals and yarn!

I ordered everything I've been wanting, and the extra skeins I needed to complete a few projects. Boxes and boxes arrived. Fortunately I was off so I was home to receive them and.......hide them! (I seem to have forgotten to tell Joe about the bonus!) Noey and I got them all out this morning to lay them all out. (you can see her feet at the top of the pic!) Then we had to put them all back into hiding! I think I am set for yarn for a couple of years!! (or at least until the next bonus comes along!)

We got presents!

First up, these are the lovely gifts we received from Stephanie.

I received the beautiful stitch markers on the left. I've never had pretty stitch markers before! Aren't they pretty?

Noey received the cute Hula Girl knitting needles and the stitch markers on the right. We took Noey to Hawaii when she was 2 1/2 and she met "real" Hula Dancers, so she was thrilled with this set!

Thank you Stephanie!

When we got home today we found a package from Down Under! I had an informal swap going with my friend, Sue.

I sent her some patterns and a skein of sock yarn. She sent me a couple patterns and 4 skeins of cotton, in beautiful shades of blue! Thank you Sue!

Now Sue and I are working on a Christmas Swap! Fun, fun, double fun! (as Noey says!)

We had us some fun this weekend!

Well, not all of it was fun. When we got down to our parking garage Saturday morning we found that my car stereo had been stolen. From my locked car. In my security building. For the third time. Fortunately no windows were broken this time, and they only stole the face plate. Thank goodness the Doodle Bops, Princess, and Home on the Range CD's were not taken.....that would've made for one very unhappy little girl.

Moving on, we picked up my mom and headed for the Fabulous Fiber Fest in Santa Monica. We knew from last year that is was not going to be fabulous, but it was even more disappointing than last year!

They didn't have much yarn, but what they did have was mostly eyelash or novelty yarn. Not my thing.

They had no kid friendly booths. Not Noey's thing.

They had mostly Asian style quilting fabrics. Not my mom's thing.

We did meet this guy on the way in. Actually it's a girl named Tinkerbell. She was so cute and just Noey's size!

We ended up staying less than an hour and then had lunch at a Denny's in Santa Monica! Woo Hoo! My parents lived in SM some 40 years ago, my brother was born there, so my mom had fun reminiscing about life before I was born!

I did buy this baby alpaca boucle to make myself a potato chip scarf.
Noey bought herself some pretty, vintage buttons for her "button collection", but my poor mom got nothing!

The big excitement came on Sunday. Noey and I drove down to San Diego to meet up with Stephanie and her family. They had driven cross country in a RV to visit Stephanie's mom, and since it's only a couple of hours away, we couldn't pass up the opportunity! Sophie is just a year younger than Noey, and a real cutie. She and Noey were fast friends. Ethan is a couple of years older, and so smart and funny. Both Stephanie and her husband, Pat, were just the nicest people you could ever meet! We had a great time exploring the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park.

We also met up with my niece, Megan, and her boyfriend, Dario, and they joined us on the carousel and train rides. It was a really fun day, and kinda hard to say goodbye.

Stephanie gave me some beautiful stitch markers, and gave Noey the cutest knitting needles and stitch markers. I forgot to take a pic, I'll do that soon!

Random Updates

We haven't taken the elevator since our neighbor got stuck in it and had to be rescued! Since then we have climbed 3 flights of stairs, sometimes 5 or 6 times a day, with groceries and all. Some days it's the only exercise I get, so it's really not that bad.

We haven't seen that neighbor since then either, although you don't see many people on the stairs! (lazy people!)

Picovoli, she is fini! (I stole that from Yarngirl!) I finished her last Tuesday. She still needs a good blocking, but she fits and looks pretty good. Hard to see, but it's a dark navy.

Pattern: Picovoli by Grumperina

Yarn: Soft Twist by Berrocco - not sure how many skeins - maybe 7?

Not sure when I started - early July maybe? Finished - Tuesday, August 1.

Within minutes of casting off Picovoli, I cast on a Poncho for Noey.

Now, I had no intention of making a poncho for Noey at this time, but as you may have gathered, the child has a definite mind of her own. While I was looking at some yarn in Michael's, she put 5 skeins of Lily Sugar n' Cream in our cart, and declared "I want a poncho!"

Pattern: Top Down by Knitting Pure and Simple

Yarn: Lily Sugar n' Cream 5 skeins

Started Tuesday, August 1 - Finished Tuesday, August 8.

Now onto the next project - Joe and I will be attending his high school reunion next month. (I don't want to say he's old, but he graduated from high school the same year I was born!!) I don't know what to wear! The invitation says "The dress for the evening will be formal, semi-formal, casual, semi-casual or whatever you are wearing at the time. It just doesn't matter anymore." What?? It's being held at a hotel I've never heard of - Coast Long Beach Hotel - so that doesn't help me either. So here's what I'm thinking - I bought some pretty lilac Paton's Brilliant to make CeCe with 3/4 sleeves. I have some lilac floral fabric to make a long, summery dress. I'm hoping that will be appropriate.

and finally, I've joined another swap! It's the Dish Cloth Shuffle hosted by my buddy, Rox. Head on over and join up...it sounds like fun and not too stressful.