I'm wishing my (no longer a) secret pal did great in the ironman competition today! I meant to write this earlier but I couldn't get myself to blog. Even though this day was punctuated by some moments of "blah," it was good to think about this and good movies and new knitting and not what day it was.

Yesterday I saw a movie about editing called Edgecodes. If you have any interest in movies and how they are made, then I recommend it to you.

It was a really nice night. We ate at this great little restaurant that was new to us called Atlas and we split a vegan philly steak and a vegan Mississippi chop sandwhich and ate it outside in the great (!!!) nighttime weather. Later we stopped by for soy soft serve. They were out of waffle cones and vegan oreos and it wasn't nearly as good as what we had in Portland (is anything?) but it was still fun to eat (though a TON of sugar, too much really).

Tuesday and Thursday were both big knitting days. Meeting up with people and knitting at the same time is really fun. Thursday I bought 2 books that I have wanted for some time now but I was worried about getting them earlier because I had listed them on my secret pal survey. But since I know which book my sp (hi, by the way!) got (Vice Cream), I could buy Vintage Knits and Folk Shawls without fear. Well, except for the fact that I don't think I'll be starting anything from Folk Shawls for a bit. Or maybe I'll give it to my school friend Olga since we both really like shawls. We'll see. I just know I had to take it home and look at it some more.

I've already bought yarn for two Vintage Knits projects -- rowan 4ply cotton to replace the 4 ply botany (both discontinued and made of wool so I wouldn't have used it anyway) for the Short-sleeved wavy line sweater and classic elite bamboo (on sale -- thanks Robyn!) for the Long-sleeved cotton jacket. I already had 4 balls of the bamboo in cerise so I just bought more to add to it. This will be my first real sweater -- with long sleeves and buttons and everything!

I think that I'll really like that sweater, but what I'm really excited about the wavy line sweater. I decided to match the colors as closely as I could to those in the picture because I really think it's a color combination that I might not have immediately picked but was very drawn to. It's got this great boxy neckline and sleeve construction -- even Aaron was impressed. We were both talking, though, about how the one major fault of the book seems to be that it often falls short on really modeling the patterns out of vintage styles. For example, they'll show the inspiration pattern with puffy, longer sleeves, and the new pattern will lose the puffy sleeve in favor of more modern construction. Why?

I finished the first ball of calmer for my legwarmers, and even though they are long enough now, I decided I wanted really long ones to cover part of my thighs (I wear a lot of skirts in the winter and get cold), so I started a second ball. I know it's unnecessary, but luckily I have 3 balls so why not.


This is the first legwarmer with one ball of yarn.

In other knitting news, Nohemi really liked the key hole scarf that I knit her. Have I talked about it here at all? It's coral and brown and I bought the yarn in Southwest Harbor, Maine, and I finished it on the chinatown bus to Boston with 9's (I started with 8's and left one of them at home), so the bottom edge is wider than the rest. And (and!) I can't find my tapestry needle, so I had to leave the leftover yarn hanging with promises to weave it in!

There are more patterns I am thinking about and more I want to knit that I'm getting overwhelmed. When I ordered my bamboo yarn, I ordered the needles I need for the arm warmers I've been thinking about (though no yarn) and when I get the yarn for the new projects I won't have the right needles so I'm hoping to get to a store soon.

I haven't written in ages and now I've probably written too much to bother reading all of. Oh well.

Oh, and I didn't even mention clapotis. I took out the pattern and got to the first line and already I didn't know what to do. I wasn't by a computer then so maybe I can look up how to start...I can't even remember what the stitch that tripped me up was called.