Thrilled!

Dear Nikki,

You're not going to believe what I just got back from! My first knit nite! It was most excellent! It turns out that meeting new knitters is way less scary than meeting other people, because there's no searching around for some common ground to discuss. There's knitting! And that provides a wealth of topics. There was some discussion of socks, intarsia, what would you be "scared" to knit, the Flying Spaghetti Monster (ok, not all knitting related). There were almost 20 women there, and all of them were lovely (well, all the ones I talked to were - but I'm sure everyone else was too). I even found out about other knitting events going on that I could participate in! Sorry about all the exclamation points, but as you can tell, I had a good time.

Gotta get up incredibly early tomorrow, so I've got to go do some dishes and get to bed.

Love,
Laura

All set for the weekend

Dear Nikki,

Last weekend I started a post about how nice the weather was. It never got finished. But I still feel the need to gloat about the weather last weekend. It was so nice out (sunny and warm - about 13 degrees Celsius) that I ate lunch on my balcony on Sunday. Without a jacket. And not in my warmest of sweaters either. And... did I mention that it's (still only just) February?

This afternoon I went to Chapters and my local library, and as you can see, I am all set for the weekend. I do apologize for the huge image, but I spent so long playing with adding comments to it I would hate for them to be wasted! I hope they're readable...


I bought Crazy Aunt Purl's book today, and I'm already on Chapter 16 (they're short chapters). I find her writing very funny, and although I can't relate to the divorce, I find her stories of her hermit-like lifestyle very familiar.

The only knitting pictured therein are the oversized wooly socks for my brother, which he asked for at Christmas, since he doesn't want to pay to heat his apartment. I'm hoping to get them finished before the summer :)

Speaking of my brother, and summer, I never showed you my awesome birthday present! He sent me the prettiest needle organizer ever, which I love (even though it's not blue!) and some very soft sock-ish yarn. In pretty much the same shades of blue as you gave me (which I also love). Arent' they nice?


Not too much going on here, I just thought it was time I restarted this here blogging dialogue. After all, you did post 3 times since my last post! How are things with you? How's the snow? Are you excited about visiting in June? I am!

I leave you with another pretty sunset picture.

Love,
Laura

Mail from San Diego

Dear Laura,

It has been snowing here. When I say snowing, I don't mean, "a few pretty flurries and maybe enough to shovel." I mean, "scary scary bad yikes horrible driving roads closed oh my gosh the snow is up to my knees and it's supposed to snow for the next ten days." When they said we were moving to the snow belt, they weren't kidding. I love snow, but wowie....this is SNOW.

However, after an hour-and-a-half of white-knuckle driving home from work tonight, I finally made it to the post office to pick up a lovely package that has been patiently waiting there for me since last week.It was yarn! From California! With chocolate in the box, too! What more could a girl want on a blustery winter day?? I have been aching to try out some Mega Boots Stretch, too.

It's my prize for winning Theresa's contest. Thank you, Theresa! What a generous and fun package!

Next time: Germany, yarn stores, and other goodness.

Love,
Nikki

p.s. Currently reading: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Have you read this one? I'm about three chapters in, and while it seems clever enough....the jury is still out.

I'm a winner!

Dear Laura,

Well, I'm in Germany and having a lovely time (you know, but our readers do not, that my beloved has been in Deutschland since October 1st and is staying until spring to work on his doctoral dissertation and I am lonely at home.) I'm even over my jetlag in under 24 hours. I think it's my magical ability to sleep anytime, anywhere that helps out with that.

I've had a lovely time so far. We went to a toy store today and drooled over all the awesome German board games. It's so hard to find the good German ones in Canada - and they had dozens, nay, hundreds in this little store! And then we went to a chocolate store and bought truffles, and then to the gummi bear store to buy gummi bears and then to the tea store to buy tea. And did I mention that we had my favourite kind of breakfast - fresh pastries at the bakery down the street? Yes, at this rate I am going to gain 10 pounds on this trip, but I will love every calorie!

The most exciting knitting-related part of this trip is that we are going to Berlin for 3 days while I am here and they have a number of lovely yarn stores, some of which you may remember from Alison's post here. I actually emailed her for yarn store advice and she sent me some great tips.

Today's exciting news, though, has nothing to do with Germany. Would you believe I won a contest? Amazing! It's here, at Theresa's blog. She's a brand-new-doctor too, in San Diego. Thanks Theresa, you made an already-great day even better!

Stay tuned for yarn photos from my trip to Berlin!

Love,
Nikki

Change of craft

Dear Laura,


Well, the knitting progress around here has been pretty dismal lately. I have started a cute little vest for my nephew, and I've also started a thrummed mitten made with *silk* thrums (SO SOFT) for my allergic hands - but therein lies the problem. My arthritis is acting up and my hands hurt and that means knitting hurts. So my knitting is pretty much just acting as decoration for my living room right now.


Don't despair, though! I've been doing some mad sewing and have lots more projects in mind. Just thought I'd share some recent creations with you!


I needed a new bag for dragging all my stuff too and from work. I was trying to come up with something that could be bag and purse all in one, and after hunting in the stores for months, I finally just sat down and sketched out what I had in mind, made up a pattern, ordered some fabric on eBay, and went to work.


Here's the result:

The fabric is by Kaffe Fassett - I know! Here we've been thinking he was just a knitter and it turns out he designs wicked fabric on the side. Here's a close-up:

I think the print is called "planets." Cool, eh? The bag is lined in purple and it has a bunch of pockets inside which I forgot to take pictures of. It's a little more vibrant than I might have chosen - it's always hard to tell how blinding something is when you're looking at photos online, but trust me, this thing is BRIGHT - however, the brightness is growing on me.


Next up: tablecloths. When we moved here, I picked up a cute little round table to put in the corner of our kitchen. It's just a nice size for the two of us to eat at, although we have crammed four people around it once or twice. My dad even refinished the table, so it looks lovely. Of course, with a nice new finish on it, I'm always afraid it will get damaged so I keep it covered most of the time. Or I'd like to, if I could find a tablecloth that would fit. I have hunted high and low and just can't find any that are the right size, a nice fabric, and reasonably priced.


It took me long enough, but it finally dawned on me that it might be neat to make my own tablecloth! (I know....slow.) I decided circles were to hard, so I chose to make two square tablecloths in coordinating fabrics that could be layered, at a 45 degree angle to each other so that both layers show.


I saw my friend Pamela this weekend and she was mentioning Len's Mill Store in Waterloo as one of her favourite fabric stores so I decided to check it out when I was in KW today. Holy moly. That place is unbelievable. And they have yarn, too. Did you ever check it out when you lived there?


Here's the finished product, hot off the sewing machine:

Close-up, you say?
And the bottom layer is plain old ivory cotton. I'm just tickled pink about how well they turned out.

I also got two coordinating Christmas fabrics - hopefully I will manage to make those into tablecloths before December! Oh, and I got a quilt pattern. And a charm pack which is currently spread out on my living room floor. I think a quilt is taking form.

What have you been up to lately?

Love,
Nikki

Currently reading: Hary Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (I'm on a re-read of the whole series. I'm enjoying it immensely.)

Currently listening to: These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (I'm into books on CD in the car these days. This is a huge blast from the past which I haven't actually started yet - just got it from the library tonight and can't wait to listen to it tomorrow morning!)

Slow knitter

Dear Nikki,

It turns out that when I don't watch tv very much, I don't knit very much. Also, when I'm in the middle of a few projects that I'm not that excited about any more (read: projects that are almost done but I'm kind of sick of but feel I should finish anyways), I don't knit very much. And when both LYS around here are closed on Sunday, I can't buy the new yarn I want at the time I want, so I can't start the fun new projects I want to knit. So, all in all, very little knitting news to report.

One thing though: Remember the Morderne-esque baby blanket? Well... how much do you think it matters if it's lopsided?

Other than that, I'm just enjoying checking my Ravelry wait list position (only about 3000 people ahead of me... I can't wait!), and not watching tv. Much. I'm trying to just watch programs I actually want to watch rather than just staring at it for hours on end.

While I'm not watching tv, I have managed to discover my local library. So, the books I have read recently (some from the library, some not) are:

• Bellwether, by Connie Willis. Still awesome.
• Stitch in Snow, by Anne McCaffrey. I picked this up at the library because I loved Anne McCaffrey's dragon books, and this was a novel with a main character who knits. Sounds great, eh? Unfortunately, it really didn't turn out to be all that great. But it was a very quick read, so that sort of makes up for it.
• Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. As per your recommendation, I'm considering reading this series. It's not super-fantastic, but it is definitely a page-turner, and it kept me interested, so that's all good.
• and I'm currently reading Passage, also by Connie Willis. Also, still awesome. Although, I must admit, as I recall, I didn't fully understand the end last time I read this. Maybe this time will be different.

What have you been up to lately?

Love,
Laura

Archaeology

Dear Nikki,

So, I started writing this post just after Labour Day weekend... and I walked away from my computer to make dinner, and apparently I never got back to it! So, sorry for the long break, but here, at last, is a post!

The labour day weekend was one of relaxation and organization for me. It was nice to get some down time just before the school year started, so I definitely took advantage of that. I reorganized my kitchen (slightly - I can still find most things), and I did a bit of an archaeological dig in my yarn trunk, looking for UFOs (UnFinished Objects). And, boy, did I ever find a lot.

The reason for the dig was mainly because I want to start 2 new projects soon: Rogue for me (are you still interested in a mini-Rogue-along, Nik?) and a pair for mittens for my friend Chau, as a thank-you for all her excellent organizing-stuff-for-me-to-do-while-I-was-back-in-Ontario. Luckily, she wants blue mittens, so I'll even get to choose yarn that I love. Yay! I figure, though, that I should finish at least a couple of the projects on the needles before I move on (new term resolutions and all that).

Without further ado, I give you my UFOs:

A felted purse, I started before Christmas last year
(because knitting a sweater and gloves wasn't enough to do!)

My friend Mary's Ravenclaw Quidditch socks. They are too big.
(If Justine ever tells you not to worry about gauge, ignore her!)

Socks that I started before driving out to BC.
Something went wrong when I got to the second toe, apparently.

Remember going to Romni Wools a couple of years ago?
This is the laceweight I bought then...

Baby blanket (loosely based on MDK Moderne Blanket).

Now, this is actually my WIP.

Moebius scarf
Mathematically fascinating, but far to scratchy. Scheduled to be frogged.

Moebius basket
Also fascinating. It's done except for felting.
See the twist in the handle? That's what makes it only have one surface!

Ummm... lace shawl. I was going to knit this on my drive out to BC last summer.
See how far I got?

Ballet Camisole
Soooo close to being done! I was waiting before I bought a crochet hook for the edging before joining the shoulders. I don't know why. I will finish this soon. Really.

Baby sweater
Pictured here all in pieces, now finished with button bands and ends sewn in. Only thing missing is buttons!

Scarf
Pictured finished. This is the same yarn as the baby blanket (cause I wanted to test it out). Very soft, and the scarf was ideal airplane knitting.

So there you have it: my extensive collection of UFOs. Except a pair of socks that's not worth seeing because I've only done about 4 rows on them. They were too big as well.

One more picture for this photo-intensive post: the two of us when we met up this summer. Not too bad of a picture, considering I was holding the camera, eh?

Miss you!

Love,
Laura

p.s. You know how I told you I was trying not to watch tv for a week (except for one show that I am video-taping)? Well, it's killing me, because I think I'm pretty hooked on it, but I am finding myself with all sorts of time for other things like, oh, say, blogging, emailing, a bit of cleaning. I also found time to order some stuff from Chapters, including Bellweather, The Other Boleyn Girl, and the six-hour BBC version of Pride and Prejudice on DVD, as a treat because it's so great. I am currently re-reading Scarlet Feather while I wait for them to arrive.

p.p.s. Your Honeymoon Cami looks great! Now I'll really have to finish mine!

Fibre Fun!

Dear Laura,

Well, I'm not sure we can even chalk that one up to a little summer break, and we definitely can't pretend we've spent the past month and a half reading Harry Potter! We have been slacker bloggers, there are no two ways about it!

First things first: I loved HP7 and now need to go back and re-read the whole series so I can get all the little details. Your thoughts?


Second, on a craft-related note: did you finish your Ballet Camisole? Can I see?


And finally, some recent crafting from my end of the world. You may recall (I think I told you) that I was taking the Honeymoon Cami with me as honeymoon knitting. (This was Plan B, as Plan A to actually have it finished in time to wear it in Italy on my honeymoon - as the original designer did - proved to be a vast overestimation of my available knitting time before the wedding.) At any rate, I did finish it, right around the end of the honeymoon. And now I present:

The honeymoon cami, and a terrible photo of me. Please excuse the....general yuckiness. I thought about cropping my face out, but that's too much work. Also, please ignore the messy house in the background (hello, Mr. Iron, on the telephone stand) - it was just after we moved in.


Anyways, the details - the yarn is Dale of Norway, I think it's Svale, but the ball bands are long gone so you'll have to take my guess on that one. The colour is the off-white shade - natural or ivory or something like that.


I wildly goofed up the lacey part at the bottom, so it in no way resembles the photo on the pattern, but it looks okay nonetheless - and by the time I realized how screwed up it was, I had already finished a few inches past that and just couldn't bear to rip it out! So...it's a little unique.


I really love this top, and I think the saddest part is that I haven't worn it at all yet, except to model it for this photo. I'm just not a big tank top girl anymore, what with the penchant of my shoulders to sunburn in seconds. I'm determined to find a warm day this month (that is, before fall sets in for real, which is going to be SOON) and wear it at least once!


I do have a few other projects on the go or just finished - so there should be plenty of material for a few posts in the next little while!


Oh! And other exciting stuff - I went to the KW Knitters Fair this weekend! It was so fun! I bought some Tussah silk roving to make myself some wool-free thrummed mittens from No Sheep For You (which I LOVE - thank you!) I also got some of this, for another upcoming project. And THEN, when I got home, I called Lettuce Knit to ask them to mail me some Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton (in colour "shell") for my mittens (since I couldn't find it at the Knitters Fair) and they were pretty much the nicest people ever. It was a weekend filled with fibre excitement!


That's all the crafting news that's fit to print. How are you??


Love,
Nikki

Less than 8 hours...

... until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows hits book stores! I pre-ordered my copy to pick up in-store, but Chapters has no record at all of me doing that, so I guess I will be buying it tonight at midnight, and hopefully I won't be charged twice for it! (I will be sure to complain if I am, don't worry).

I am currently quite stressed out with leaving for Japan on Sunday; there sure is a lot of work to be done before I leave! My parents gave me a few neat early birthday presents which are great though: an inflatable travel pillow, which will hopefully help me sleep on the plane; an untra-light umbrella which weighs only 138g and will also be useful in my West Coast lifestyle; and some less exciting things such as a suitcase lock and a money concealer.

Two of the big decisions, of course, when embarking on a trip such as this one are (a) what will I knit? and (b) what will I read? I will be knitting the Ballet Camisole on the airplane (it's knit on circular needles, which I feel are less likely to be taken away than straight needles, even though on Canadian flights you are nominally allowed to have either) and Ravenclaw Quidditch Socks from Charmed Knits for my friend Mary (who bought the book for me).

The answer to question (b) is still a little up in the air, but I am definitely planning to take a couple of murder mysteries that my mom is lending me.

I am actually (finally) all set to get started on the Ballet Camisole. I actually knit a swatch, in the round, washed it, and dried it, and for the first time ever, I actually got gauge! I'm hoping that means that the top will fit, but we'll see how that works out. I have actually already knit one project from Charmed Knits:

Isn't he cute (if a little blurry)? He's all packaged up now and ready for his final desination (which is a surprise for the recipient, so I will not mention it here).

Anyhow, I hope you're doing well. Are you reading anything exciting these days? I have been re-reading all the kids' books I left at my parents' house, so that's not too exciting.

Love,

Laura

Re-entry

Dear Laura,

Well. I have no excuse. I am just a bum blogging partner, that's the bottom line. :) However, it's now my turn to hold down the fort while you're on vacation, so I'll do my best!

Thanks for posting in my absence! It was such a super-fun day, and having you there as a bridesmaid made it all the better.

I had six weeks off after the end of med school, during which I got married, went on a honeymoon, and moved house. Despite all that, I found lots of time for crafting! I think I have fodder for at least a few entries on here!

First up is the surprise project that I actually worked on over a few months: the fabulous bridesmaid's handbags! I decided to make a handbag for each of my lovely bridesmaids, all from the same pattern but with different fabrics for each. These bags were my first ever from-a-pattern sewing projects, and I think they turned out pretty well!

The pattern is tiny happy's shoulder bag. I modified it to use fat quarters and be more of a handbag, an idea that I stole from someone who had left a comment on tiny happy's blog post with the pattern. Thanks tiny happy!

Hope you're having a wonderful time in Japan!

Love,

Nikki

Holding up my end of the deal

Dear Nikki,

So I guess while you're on vacation, I'm kind of holding down the fort here at our blog... and a poor job I've been doing too! I also feel the need to post because I keep checking Justine's blog to see if she has posted recently so I can find out how her knitting is going these days, and it occurred to me that it may be slightly hypocritical to nag her to post when I hadn't done so in such a long time. But now... Justine: post!

Anyhow, to update our small but loyal readership, here's what Dr. Nikki did a couple of weeks ago:The ceremony was beautiful, the reception went very well, and I was thrilled to be able to be with you on this special day. So, Nikki is on her honeymoon, before getting back to work again.

From a knitting standpoint, the weekend was also important because I got to give Nikki what I have been working on for the past several months:(you didn't really think I was too busy to knit, did you?) It's an afghan/blanket with a lace leaf pattern all over it, with a lacy leaf border (which, incidentally, totally took longer to knit than I had expected!)

The week after the wedding, this is what I did. The weather was truly awful (it was cold and raining), but it was still lots of fun, and the kids who came out on the boat with us were great. I'm looking forward to doing it again next year (only, hopefully, with less rain). One of the coolest things (I thought) was that one of the people involved works for Mustang, so some of the people "attacking" us (with water guns) had black life jackets with skull-and-crossbones on them. Very cool.

Now, I'm just relaxing after my year of teaching, looking after a dog and a house, and I'm very excited this morning because it is actually sunny out! We'll be off for a walk shortly to enjoy it. Incidentally, apparently I like knitting blankets! I found a yarn that's really soft, and have started a log cabin baby blanket out of it. I wanted to make myself a log cabin blanket from this yarn, but the colours were really just too sappy (all pale, baby colours), so I caved and am making a baby blanket. That will also make it faster, which I'm sure I will appreciate later.

Anyhow, I hope you're having a fabulous time on your honeymoon! I look forward to hearing all about it when you get back.

Love,
Laura

Not Knitting Related, but...

Dear Laura,

I hope you'll forgive me for the non-knitting-related content, but I had to share.

Dr. Nikki, ten seconds old.

Dr. Nikki, two hours old.

I did it, Laura, I did it!!

Love,
Nikki

Fibre Festival!

Dear Nikki,

So, guess who's registered for the Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival? That's right! Me! My aunt knew about it, and so she'll be going too. I am registered for the Moebius Knitting class. I am very excited about it. Now I can make even more mathematically pleasing knits! Woot! I think I will order my yarn and needles for it on KnitPicks though... you need two (2!) Addi Turbo 47" circular needles (or possibly one... I find the instructions ever so slightly unclear). Anyhow, I'd way rather get the KnitPicks Options that everyone is raving about as they are a much better budget option!

School is starting to wind down now. Luckily, I have made it through most of the material I was planning to cover, and we have a week to do review. It's weird, but it seems like I've covered so much more in my classes this term than I did last term. Anyhow, I'm really excited for summer! I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing yet, but it will include a trip to Japan, so that's pretty thrilling!

I hope everything is great with you now that your exam is over! Are you stressed about the wedding now?

Love,
Laura

Shoes and falls

Dear Laura,

Fabulous shoes! They look moderately comfortable, too, which is a major bonus in my life.

I don't think I've shown you my shoes yet. They are the perfect blend of cute and comfy, and since my skirt has a radius of something like one metre, no one will see them anyways.

White eyelet Skechers. They're perfect. And did I mention comfy?!

Your sunset was so pretty that I had to take a pretty picture to send to you. We went hiking on Sunday for an hour, when I just couldn't study another minute. This shot is of Tews Falls, which is in the Dundas Valley Conservation Area, about a 20 minute drive from our house. It's such a gorgeous area - a section of the Bruce Trail, actually. I love going out there.

Sadly, things just aren't that green and lush yet, and the falls are so high (41 m) that it's impossible to get them in one shot. But you get the idea!

The nephew blanket is all knitted up, and now I just need to have a little seam-a-thon to finish it. I have a few hours to spend in the car next week, so my plan is to make Brad drive so that I can seam. I decided that a second blanket was a completely crazy idea, so instead I have started a Honeymoon Cami for myself, which I estimate will be 75% complete at the end of tomorrow's final review lecture, that's right, my last class of medical school. I find the thought that I am actually done med school utterly terrifying. The licensing exam (which I write on Monday, for 8 hours) is equally terrifying, but I am so looking forward to getting it over with that I'm actually excited about it.

You can say it. All this studying has gone to my head and made me a little loopy. I am actually looking forward to the biggest, scariest exam of my life. Because then the godforsaken studying will be OVER!!!! Hooray! Almost there!

Love,
Nikki

Shoes

Dear Nikki,

I have successfully found the perfect shoes to wear for the wedding. They were relatively inexpensive, they're comfortable (I think), they're fairly dressy, they're brown, and I can definitely wear them with other things. Couldn't be better!

see shoes here
(by the way, how cool is it that this shoe store shows all their products online? I love it!)

Laura

Sunset!

No progress

Dear Nikki,

Well, I keep meaning to post, but I keep not having any progress to report. I thought of taking a picture of my tank top in progress, but then I realized that it would be picture of yarn and needles... and I only finally managed to pick up the needles on Saturday! My LYS isn't open on Sundays and it took me a while to make it there when it was open. Anyhow, I'm hoping to knit (and for real wash and dry) a few swatches soon, and then get started on it. This time, I will swatch. After my experience of ripping out most of the back of Malcolm's sweater, swatching seems like a darn good idea.

I imagine that by now you have ordered the yarn for your new blanket. If so, what did you get? If not, I think that the Crayon yarn looks fun, but might be kind of a pain to knit with. My extensive experience of knitting huge scarves out of boucle yarn has lead me to believe that fancy yarn can be annoying. But that may just be the particular brand I used. Anyhow, I think a log cabin is an awesome idea, and that the Crayon colours look very fun!

I've finally figured out what I'm finding so weird about the weather here. It's spring. And it keeps being spring. And it's cool-but-not-cold. And it has been for weeks. I am decidedly not used to that. I am used to it being winter-winter-winter-winter- a week or so of spring - and hot sunny summer-ish weather all of a sudden. I may be remembering wrong, but that's what I think happened. And so, I am waiting for it to warm up. And it's not happening! The weather hovers around 12 degrees and it just stays there. It's the weirdest thing (let's not talk about the rain).

Oh! I almost forgot (although I don't know how)! I just bought and read the Yarn Harlot's new book. It was most excellent. There are letters throughout the book by a newbie knitter who turns into an avid knitter and stasher through the book - they were my favourite part!

Anyhow, I'm off to get ready for bed. I hope all is well with you!

Laura

A dilemma

Dear Laura,

I am having a yarn indecision crisis, and I need some assistance. Nephew #2 blanket is looking just lovely, and I am on stripe number 4 of 7. The trouble is that I am not sure this blanket is going to last me until these lectures are over, and it would really be tragic if I had to sit through the last few weeks without something to knit. (Just ask Pamela...she's reading....hi Pamela! She had to sit through a, ahem, rather dull lecture this morning with no knitting. It was sad.)

Of course, we know that (apparently) KnitPicks packages can take a little while to arrive, so I'm thinking it's time to order some more yarn for my next project, which will be....wait for it....a baby blanket. The Boy's PhD supervisor is expecting, and I'm going to take a shot at making a blanket for this baby, too.

I'm not totally decided on a pattern, but I'm leaning toward a log cabin, just because I think it would be fun.

My dilemma is this: which yarn to use? And which colours? It's a nightmare, I tell you! I really like my Shine Worsted, but man oh MAN they need to expand their colour range. This baby's sex is unknown, so I can't just pick all the pinks and do something girly (which is what I'd LIKE to do) - but it's hard to find an aesthetically-pleasing, gender-neutral combination of 5-6 colours!

My next idea was to use Crayon instead. It's a frisée yarn, which I think would nicely hide the tendency of log cabins to have less than perfectly square corners. And it's machine washable and dryable, which is a key trait in a baby blanket. The colour selection is a little better - I am contemplating either red/orange/yellow/green/blue/purple/buttermilk or periwinkle/blue/light blue/azure/buttermilk. AND it's USD $1.99, which I think you will agree is a steal. The dilemma is that it is only DK weight. It says you can use 3.75mm or 4.00 mm needles, and I'm currently knitting the Shine Worsted on 4.00 mm needles, so it might end up similar - but I will be sad if I feel like I am doing a lot more knitting and not getting nearly as much blanket for it.

Help, Laura! What do you think? (And for that matter, if you're lurking out there and reading this, leave a comment with your opinion - I'd like to hear it!)

Love,
Nikki

p.s. I'm still reading Into The Wilderness, which is proving to be quite delicious. Claire Fraser even makes an appearance! (You've read the Outlander books, right? RIGHT???)

You are so talented!

Dear Laura,

Oh my. Those shawls are breathtaking. I love them! You are so fabulous! Yay yay! (And hello to Erin, who is going to stop by to check out the shawls...Hi Erin! Glad to have ya here!!) :)

I am sad to hear that you have no KnitPicks yarn yet. That truly sucks, my dear. I am devouring my yarn, because I'm spending HOURS each day sitting in looooong review lectures, and I like to knit through them. (I'm pretty sure I already told you this on the phone, but we have a rapidly-expanding audience - at least two people! - so I figure I should fill them in on this crucial information.) Nephew #2 blanket is looking about twice as big as the last time you saw it, and if it wasn't already past my bedtime, I'd show you a picture. Just trust me - two stripes, and a third one already started.

I forgot to tell you last time about my wonderful new needles. I order a set of Knit Picks Options needles when I got my yarn. They are reasonably cheap, and they are lovely. Everyone in blog world was saying that they are "just the right amount of pointy" and it's totally true. Plus, they're hollow, so they're light. They just zip along, knitting up a storm. I love them.

I am already plotting my next yarn order, because I think I will need a new project before these review lectues end! (The end of April...which seems far away, but I suspect it will come quickly.) I have another baby blanket in the pipeline, I think. I'm contemplating a log cabin design - mostly because I think it would be fun to make. Do you think it's a good choice?

Off to bed with me, to dream of yarn and jaundice (one of the topics of this afternoon's lecture).

Love,
Nikki

p.s. Currently reading: Into the Wilderness. I found this book at my parents' place the last time it was there. I think it was a hand-me-down from my grandma, who I think has excellent taste in books. I'm only about 40 pages in, but so far, so good. I always like a nice, thick volume of trashy historical fiction!

p.p.s. Hi Somaiah! Laura, meet Somaiah. She's in my class, and she doesn't like to leave notes, but she's here. At least she said she would be.... :)

Spring Break!

Dear Nikki,

I am very glad to hear that you're not dead! Excellent news. I am also not dead. I was just enjoying my lovely Spring Break last week! I didn't get as much work done as I had planned (since when is that a surprise), but I did get some skiing done, and some much needed resting. I spent the first weekend up in Whistler in the Roxy All-Star Women's Ski Camp. Basically, it was two great days of lessons. My skiing has dramatically improved, my confidence in particular. I can now ski down black diamond runs! Even ones with trees! It may not be pretty skiing, but I haven't been panicking, and I do get down it, so that's great! On Monday I was back in town for a meeting. Tuesday, my aunt and I did some fabric shopping. We bought some brown fabric for my new shower curtain (not yet in progress), and... some fabric for the bridesmaids' shawls. What do you think?

Dress with Shawl and Telephone Cord

Shawl with Dress

It's a sheer off-white fabric with little bits of silver going through it. You can't actually see the silver from a distance, it just looks kind of sparkly. I think it's pretty and I hope the other girls like it too! And anyhow, if they don't work out, we just won't wear them and that will be fine.

Wednesday and Thursday were occupied by some more skiing, and the (very quick) hemming of the first shawl, using a serger. The shawl is currently way too long, but I didn't have the dress with me to figure out what the right length would be, so I'll be trying them on together sometime this week. How exciting!

The weekend I spent doing a bit more work, and watching tv. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was on TBS this weekend, as well as a few other movies. I didn't watch all of them, but I taped a few so that I could watch them later. It was very relaxing. Do you know what I didn't do though? Knit my new yarn! Why? you ask (I can hear you). The yarn isn't here yet. I've been checking my mail regularly in the hopes that it will arrive, but so far, no dice (and, more importantly, no yarn).

Anyhow, I'd better get to bed. I have to get up early for work tomorrow (I really enjoyed sleeping in last week)! Love,
Laura

p.s. Currently reading: I just finished Handful of Time by Kit Pearson. It was very good. I was actually in the book store (okay, fine, the book section of my grocery store) looking for The Lights Go On Again by the same author (I think I borrowed it from you once) because I had just finished reading the other two books of the War Guest Trilogy and wanted to complete it. The grocery store didn't have what I was looking for, so I bought Handful of Time instead. An excellent book though. In celebration of St. Patrick's Day (sort of but not really) I'm reading Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy. Can you tell I'm in a re-reading phase?