Yarn Harlot comes to KC

A bunch of us went up to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot, last night -- she is on a tour promoting her new book. From left to right: Carolyn, Chelle, Laura, Dorothy, and me. Three out of five knitters also blog, apparently. Anyway, it was fun hanging out with a bunch of other knitters, chatting and having a good old time seeing all the beautiful hand knits! And I won the door prize at the end of the evening! Man, I ought to go buy a lottery ticket or something, my luck seems to be running very strong right now.

(The picture was blatantly lifted from Chelle, because I forgot my camera. Sorry, Chelle.)

Back to School

Pattern: Back To School U-Neck vest (Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel)
Yarn: Dome Hill Yarns Worsted in Jaded
Needles: 8

This was a fairly quick knit -- of course, I have done so many socks lately, anything in worsted flies along by comparison. The fitted design elements (ribbing through the midsection, bust increases above the empire waistline) really add to the polished look of the vest. Jaded is one of my favorite colorways, too, so I can see myself wearing this a lot this fall & winter. :-)

Searching for Bobby Fischer

Hunter has joined the Chess Club at his school (it's a combined middle/high school club; he's one of the youngest members.) Yesterday was his first tournament ever, a statewide competition. I expected him to have a good learning experience but probably get his booty kicked. He proved me wrong by coming home with the third-place trophy for his age division!

He also bought a book of chess puzzles with his pocket money. All day long he has been setting up the problems on his magnetic chess board and then poring over them, muttering things like "Mate in two moves" and the like. I swear, this kid is absorbing chess knowledge like a sponge. He can already beat me pretty reliably, and is working on his dad.

Look who got her braces off!

New Handspun!

I've been getting a bit more even in my spinning, finally. I've got about half of this luscious aqua-turquoise-y corriedale spun up and it actually looks like something that will come out nicely once it's plied. Hurray for practice. Now that Chelle has been bitten by the spinning bug too, we are planning a possible spinning weekend sometime later this year... doesn't it sound like fun? (The idea blossomed when we both were lamenting that we couldn't afford to go to Yarn School this fall.)

Off to spin some more...

Camry

So, the Jeep has been sold & we turned around and got a smaller, more fuel-efficient car for Ali. It's a '96 Camry. Isn't it adorable?

An update on the bird situation

The mama bird mentioned a few posts back was safely reunited with her babies, apparently. We saw a good bit of activity with several birds around the wheelwell as the babies fledged and started to fly. Then, last couple of days, nothing. We checked the nest & discovered it had been abandoned -- they've grown up & flown away, it seems! At last we can drive the Jeep again. Just in time, too; Mike wants to sell it this summer. (Psst, wanna buy a gently used Jeep? No charge for an extra feather or two.)