My Life In Stitches: Birthday Yarn Doesn't Count

Happy birthday to me...a day
early!

Last night, I went to Fibre Space, my wonderful local yarn shop, for some birthday yarn shopping. I have been planning this trip for the entire month. Since I was getting my birthday discount, I decided that I wanted to at least get one yarn in sweater quantity. I’ve also been seeing quite a few patterns in DK but I have very little in my stash. So I set off to get my birthday yarn, because birthday yarn so doesn’t count!

This should have been a simple trip but two things tripped me up. First was taking my husband. I love my honey, don’t get me wrong, but letting us both loose in a yarn shop ends badly. I brought him along for moral support, but he starts shopping (and he has great taste). The second problem was I ended up picking all sale yarn, so my birthday discount was useless.

Sweet Georgia in Riptide

My sweater quantity purchase was some just arrived Sweet Georgia Yarn in their Riptide colorway. Lovely. I plan to (plan being the operative word) to make Francis Revisited by Beth Silverstein, but this yarn will work for Ashby by Leila Raabe, too. I've been crushing on Ashby for a long time. I also bought enough Shepherd’s Wool DK (Plum colorway) to make a Mara shawl.

Shepherd's Wool in Plum

Good stuff, but all on sale and I needed to use my birthday discount. So my husband and I went through the store again. On the second go-round, I grabbed some Space Cadet Creations Stella in their Pride colorway. I have no idea what to make with it. My husband is steadily becoming a big Miss Babs fan. He bought Whatta Skein in Royalty colorway.

Space Cadet in Pride

I am pleased with my birthday shopping even if it turned out to be longer and more stressful than I anticipated. Now let’s see if I can work through my stash and have this knitted up before my next birthday.

My Life in Stitches: Get Off My Needles!

I have a sad confession to make. I have four projects on my needles right now. Not happy about that. I need to finish some of them, mainly my Mini-Mania scarf. I really loved this project when I started, but now, I just want it to be over. Hopefully by the time I post this entry, it will be finished.

Not only do I have all these project on my needles, a few have been “in progress” for a while. Here are my current WIPs:

Mini-Mania-cast on March 23, 2012 (soooo over this)

Monkey Socks-cast on March 22, 2012

Josephine Shawl- cast on March 31, 2012 (in its defense, this is my current mindless

Bible study project, which means I normally only work on it on Wednesdays and for the hour that Bible study lasts)

Spectra Shawl-casted on June 5, 2012 (a part of my birthday knitting and sadly it probably will be done before the others)

Phoenix Wingspan

Despite my multiple projects, I managed to finish a few projects. I finished my Wingspan. I am so pleased with this project. This yarn just didn’t know what it wanted to be as one of the ladies in my knitting group says. But when I introduced it to the Wingspan pattern, they seemed made for each other. I had originally named this shawl Red Rising, but one day when I was working on it, my DH commented that it looked like a phoenix rising. I promptly changed the name to Phoenix.

Pei Cowl

I also finished a Pei Cowl by Michele Wang. This was the first project in my birth-month knitting. This pattern went so fast! Once I finished past the lace rows, I zoomed through the rest. I made this with my Yarn Love Elizabeth Bennett. Lovely yarn to work with. I’m thinking about buying some more.

As for my unfinished projects, I wonder if I devoted a few hours a week to them, maybe they’ll grow up to be what they were destined to be.

Happy Birth-month To Me

I have a friend named Kim and our birthdays are in the same month. I found out that we shared a birth month because she was celebrating her birthday…for the entire month. I thought this idea was genius and decided to do the same.

I’ve been celebrating my birth month for a couple of years now. My celebration isn’t elaborate (who can afford that?). I normally just pick things, preferably free things, to do throughout the month of June. I pick things that I love to do and make me feel the most like me. Besides, I need to celebrate me. Sounds very selfish, but I’ve recently realized that I don’t do enough to recharge my batteries. I don’t do things that I enjoy often enough. Here’s the perfect time to have some fun.

Tomorrow begins my birth-month and I already have a few things on my calendar (but I’m always open for more).

Here is my celebration plans so far:

June 2^nd-Caribbean Heritage Festival, Bladensburg Waterfront Park. Bladensburg, MD http://thecaribbeancouncil.org/

• I’m Caribbean by proxy. I love my husband and love his Caribbean culture (that he has not lost) and I love being his wife. I’m looking forward to hopefully eating some meat patties and windin’ my body. 

June 9^th-Jane Austen Society Book Fair, Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda, MD http://www.jasnamd.org/news.htm

• I screamed when I came across this event. Yes, the event mostly features authors who have written Jane Austen themed books, but who cares. It will be interesting to hear other people’s thoughts about Miss Austen.

June 13^th-The Art of Video Games, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art, Washington, DC http://www.americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/

• This outing is fifty percent for me and fifty percent for me. I’ve been to most of the Smithsonian museums and I knew I wanted to see some art for my birth-month. This kills two birds with once stone, since I can check out the other exhibits while my sons geek out over the video game exhibit. 

June 14^th- Lesole’s Dance Project, Millennium Sound Stage, Kennedy Center. Washington DC. http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=17355&source_type=B

• I love great art performances. It doesn’t matter what kind of art. Since I’m a visual person, I love watching dance performances. Hopefully, I can get my friend Kim the dancer and my daughter to go with me.

June 18^th-The National Museum of the Marine Corps, Triangle, VA. http://www.usmcmuseum.org/index.asp

• Every time I drive past the National Museum of the Marine Corps, I vow to go one day. Besides, military life is my life. I’m a proud Army wife.

Also included in my celebration (but I’m not sure what day I’m going):

A trip to Fibre Space, my local yarn store, Alexandria, VA http://www.fibrespace.com/ I still have a gift certificate I got for Christmas. I don’t know why I’ve held on to it so long, but I’m spending it on for my birth-month.

There are my birth-month plans. Unfortunately, I’m missing a very important thing that I enjoy: MUSIC! I don’t have any musical events on my calendar. If you know of anything (preferable free), let me know. I would like to catch a classical music performance or attend a night of worship.

I’m so excited about my celebration. Happy birth-month to me!