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Oh my, look at all the cobwebs in here. And the dust bunnies are multiplying like, well . . . bunnies. Let’s just open some windows and get some fresh text in here.

Firstly, I would like to declare “Mission Accomplished!” I got my mom knitting again! I though I was going to have to lure her back with wacky novelty yarn or something chunky, but do you know what it took? Baby camel. 100% One Hump Baby Camel, to be exact. I was hanging with my peeps (ok, I was chatting with relatives at my brother’s) at Thanksgiving, and all of a sudden my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, her mom, and I were knitting. It was an impromtu Stitch n Bitch! I looked at my mom, her eyebrow went up as she was spying my alpaca scarf and I knew I had her. So I dragged her up to my apartment (I live upstairs from my brother) and made her go through my stash. Initially she had settled on some GGH Samoa. Nice stuff, a very soft cotton/poly blend in a burnt orange. Then, as I was showing her how the swift and winder worked, I remebered another stash box behind the couch (I’m like a squirrel, there’s yarn tucked all over the place). “I have something very special.” I told her. “Oh?” she said. And BOOYA! The baby camel come out and the Samoa went back in. It’s so delicate, you can tear it apart with barely any effort. She decided to make a ribbed scarf and although she hasn’t picked up a pair of knitting needles in over 5 years, she immediately remebered how to do it. By the time she left, she had a couple of inches done and it looked fantastic. Needless to say, she’s hooked and I’m going to have to do a little stash enhancement for her. Wheee! Time for a mother/daughter day at Patternworks.

On to WiPping it. Normally, I’m a one-project kind of gal. I like to start and finish something before digging into something else. If I don’t, I tend to get sidetracked and never get anything finished. Multi-tasking is just not my bag, baby. BUT, last Saturday, I had three things going at once. An alpaca scarf for my friend’s birthday, a shell and wave shawl, and another shell and wave shawl (I like the first one so much, I started another with some lace weight I had). The scarf was a boring-to-knit 2×2 rib and I cursed it as the fun, fun lace pattern sat in the knitting bag. Now that I know how to do Yarn Overs the right way (deceptively simple just bring the yarn forward and knit the damned thing. Voila, a hole. It’s one of those things you do accidentally all the time), I just wanted to YO my tail off.

The scarf is now finished and looks very handsome on my friend (you’ll have to take my word for it because I forgot to take a picture). I’ll add pictures of the shawls later. The veriagated yarn actually looks ok and I feel guilty for saying such nasty things about it. I’m hoping to have one finished next week. It’s a terrible ruse and I know it never will be, but I like my little fantasy world where I get stuff done in a timely fashion. It’s for my friend Charlene’s mother. We’re visiting her parents in Florida next week and I wanted to have it done. The other needs to be done by Christmas because the woman it’s for is heading back to India in January.

I’m loving this lace knitting thing. I got Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle and there are some beautiful things in there. And so my list grows. I am also inspired by Norma’s bead-handled Sophie. It never occured to me to use a beaded handle, but now I must.

Lastly, the good news is that I’ve stuck to my yarn diet and haven’t bought anything since I went to Fiber Loft’s sale with Melanie. Good Stitchy. Goooood. The bad news is that I haven’t stuck to my food diet and I have to wear summer clothes in Florida next week! Eeek! Fat, Stitchy. Faaaaat. Time for the supermodel diet of coffee and cigarettes! I don’t smoke, so I’ll just have extra coffee. And I’m going to have to take a weed wacker to these legs! Winter body in summer clothes is always a nightmare. But I think I’m going to treat myself to one of these babies. We’re probably going to do some bike-riding in Florida and I hate lumbering around in bike shorts (especially when they’re padded). Charlene already has the one in the Cherry Blossom pattern (very pretty), so I think I’ll go with Puccina. Or Bali Blue. It’s very cute and looks like a regular skirt but has built-in padded shorts, so you can walk around without feeling dorky in your skin-tight, wedgie-causing, crotch-gathering shorts. Woo!

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