I talked to Ed this morning and he wished me a happy negative one year anniversary. Our wedding is in one year...one year from today (though there's not much left to today)...10/10/08. It's funny how we decided on the date. We were at the Hotel Northampton finding out what dates they had open. Ed liked the sound of 10/10. I didn't love the idea of a Friday...I didn't want to inconvenience people, but Fridays are cheaper and 10/10 is hard to forget. Anyway, the 10th makes sense. We got together on a 10th, and we were engaged on a 10th. It just makes sense to get married on a 10th! I can't believe it's in a year and how little I have done.

I think the fact that I have so little done has me feeling quite discombobulated and it is attributing to wanting to start about 40 different projects right now...not a good idea. This desire to start new projects is also detrimental because I don't want to finish anything I'm working on. It's a vicious, vicious cycle.

Time to go lay in bed and think about the stuff I should be doing and the pile of magazines I have that have arrived and I haven't read but can't seem to find the time to read.

Seamed the pieces of the Tilted Duster.
I was planning on putting the sleeves in now and not waiting until the end. Once I started seaming...yeah, changed my mind and remembered why exactly seaming makes me want to rip my hair out. I'm never happy with my results.
Anyway, it's been seamed and stitches have been picked up.
I'm sure I'll have trouble setting in the sleeves, but I'm hoping one of my kind, helpful co-worker friends will take pity on me if need be and help me out. :)

I had a great weekend, but I am EXHAUSTED. I don't even think it's from what I did this weekend...looking back on it...it really wasn't that much. I think I'm just tired and it doesn't catch up with me during the week because I have so much stuff going on that I don't have time to realize that I'm tired.
Anyway, yesterday was the official opening of Linda's winery...Pioneer Valley Vineyard. They did a fabulous job! Ed and I tried the wines and settled on Raspberry and Cranberry. (Though I also enjoyed the blueberry, and Ed was a fan of the apple.)
They are really, really good. And I'm not much of a wine drinker, though I think that's because I never met a wine as good as these. Also turns out, fruit wines may be my thing. I'm now feeling like I should have bought more!
The Tilted Duster is coming along. I have the back, fronts and sleeves done.
As you can see, Agnes is quite interested in the pieces. She ignores my knitting for the most part, but as soon as it's on the blocking board, it is the most intersting item in our house!
I was going to seam the pieces tonight, but the exhaustion is getting to me and I'm just going to watch the rest of the finale of Side Order of Life and go to sleep...until I have to get up and exercise, and go to work and start it all over agian :)
Oh, and I have the yarn and beads for the next project.The yarn is from the trip to TKGA and I ran to Beader's Paradise yesterday when I realized the mystery had begun and picked them up...clear with silver lining. I'm excited.
Though I do have to go back to the Tangled Yoke Cardigan, work on Chelsea's blanket, decide on a blanket for Billy, work on the projects for Ed's nephew (set to arrive in February), there's a sweater I want to make Chelsea for her birthday, finish Ed's blanket before it's winter again, and a myriad of Christmas gifts.
Okay, now I'm even more exhausted!

I have discovered my new favorite knitting technique! Seriously!
Saturday I took Mittens from Rovaniemi: Lapland Hand Garments with the awesome Susanna Hansson at the prompting of my pal Melissa.
I took the class with some fellow bloggers, feel free to check out their blogs! Tamara, Carol, Lisa, Sara, Laura and Teresa.

When the class began we looked at all the glorious mittens (here, I'll share...oh and ah now)
Beautiful aren't they? Susanna shared with us the history of where they came from and how she and her friend Leena came to learn the technique.
And there I sat, thinking there was NO WAY I was going to understand it, I was going to have to leave out of sheer embarrassment and I could never show my face at Webs again and would have to quit knitting.
It took a couple minutes, but soon, the lightbulb went off and I was knitting away.
We worked on our practice pieces and then got to pick out colors for our very own wristlets.
Here we are happily working away:
I knit mine on zeros...turns out I'm a tight knitter when nervous.

This is the first time I haven't completely failed at colorwork! But I haven't shown you the best part yet!
LOOK at the INSIDE!!!So I now have some pretty big plans to knit an entire pair of mittens using this technique. Really. I am in love with it!
And no, I can't share how you actually do it. I'll leave that to the experts :)
If you EVER get the chance to take a class with Susanna, I strongly suggest it. She was a great instructor. Didn't pester us too much, but shared a wealth of information!
As I write this, I'm itching to work more, but I finished my wristlet, and don't have the yarn yet to make my second one....I think I'm going to have to go buy some yarn for mittens...right now...can't resist it....

Well, I've gone and done it. I had about 13 rows done of the cables on my Tangle Yoke Cardigan...yes, HAD. I undid them....ripped them out. The are now back in yarn ball form.
Why did I do this you ask? Well, one, it didn't look right, and two...I think I messed up my row and couldn't figure out how to un-mess it up.
I've accepted it though.

We're going to break up for a couple days.
I'm going to wind the yarn and swatch for the Tilted Duster and the Tangled Yoke and I shall make up some time this weekend. When I do not know, because my pal Melissa is making me go to a class on Saturday...sure I signed up for it, but I'm chickening out! And we're Big E-ing on Friday, so we'll have to see. And who knows, I may feel like making up tomorrow...or maybe not.

So, after some pretty vigorous knitting I finished the sleeves on my Tangled Yoke Cardigan and have them attached!
Here is a horrible picture. It's hard to take pictures of something pink in a pink room!
I had a few issues actually joining the sleeves, but I blame my own stupidity and not reading the directions carefully enough. I recommend sitting somewhere quiet with no television distraction. Considering this is the first time I've joined sleeves this way, I'm pretty proud of myself.
I'm still quite pleased with the results so far and I'm very excited to finish. I'm still taping my finger. It's just easier that way, especially if I'm going to be knitting for an extended period of time.
Look, here's my pretty Peruvia for the Tilted Duster.
Again, the color is a little off, what with the artificial light and pink everything! Excited to start this too. I think it will probably get started this weekend (at least that's what I'm hoping).

I'm a New England Patriots gal. Yeah...baseball is o-kay, hockey is fun to watch, but more fun in person, and basketball bores me, but football...football makes me happy. Last weekend when the first game of the season was on my tv, I was quite excited, and even happier when they won. The great thing about football is you can knit and watch it at the same time. If you're watching with other people, you know when it's time to look up, and if you miss it, they will replay it no less than three times. The other great thing about football is watching it with the family. My family is a Patriots family...Ed's family is a Patriots family...they were even Patriots fans when no one cared what the Patriots were doing and who they were or weren't videotaping from the sidelines. (Can you say making an example of...) There's just nothing better than sitting with the family watching the Patriots, knitting and eating chili for dinner...well it would be better if we were watching it in hi-def, but I'm the only one with a hi-def tv and we can't all fit in my space! :)

I've gotten quite a bit of knitting done this weekend. I've finished the body on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan from Interweave Knits Fall 2007 and one sleeve is checked off the list as well. I'm working on the second sleeve as I watch my Patriots tonight. I'm hoping to get at least halfway done, but considering it's almost 9, I'm guessing that's not going to happen.
I'm also excited to start the Titled Duster from the same Interweave issue. At first, I wasn't thrilled with the pattern, but then I tried it on and I love it! I'm making it in Berroco Peruvia color 7137. I think I may be swatching for it tomorrow, but we'll see how after dinner knitting time goes.
I have taken to taping my finger while knitting with the Rowan Felted Tweed though. I guess it's rougher than I first thought, but my finished pieces don't feel uncomfortable. It's a little annoying, but I'd rather have the tape than an injury :)

Vickie Howell is coming to Webs on Thursday, and I'm pretty excited about it! I've actually watched Knitty Gritty since it first came on. I would record it on my VCR (oh the days before my DVR) and watch it when I got back from class. I've even made a few projects from the show, namely the Fluffy Cuff Mittens (a Christmas present for my cousin) and the Mouse cover. If you get a chance, you should definitely head to the store Thursday night!