Oh The Prettys

Or the Pretties? English is never my strong point, but then again, this is not about English. Let me present you with MoonDance:

Pattern - Moon Dance by Melanie Gibbons, aka Pink Lemon Twist
Yarn Called For - 1000 yards of lace weight yarn, JaggerSpun Zephyr used, Ebony
Yarn Used - 866.25 yards (2.75 oz) of JaggerSpun Zephyr in Vanilla
Beads - 95 Swarovski crystasl in Crystal Moonlight and Crystal AB, bicone, size 3
Needles - KnitPicks Harmony size 4
Gauge - N/A
Knit - January 9, 2008 to March 30, 2008
Blocked - March 30, 2008
Modifications - I added size 3 bicone crystals in crystal moonlight and AB effect, alternating between the pattern repeats.

Like I said from the last post, Melanie is a genius on this pattern. It is super easy and absolutely a fast knit for lace. I would said this could be a good first lace project for someone who is new to knitting lace. Here are some more shots of the pretty:

I started another pretty after Moon Dance:

This is Rusted Root from Zephyr Style. I am using Kona Bay Cotton in red. This is a fast knit and the yarn is super soft! I wish I have more of the Kona Bay Cotton. It seems to me this yarn is either being discontinued or just very hard to find because not many people carries it.

So Archiknist came visiting today. I haven't seen her for a few weeks. Partly because I don't usually go to the Wednesday SnB anymore due to schedule conflicts. We sat around knitting (big surprise?) and made dumplings. Yum. A good and relaxing fun was had by both.

So was your Saturday relaxing and fun? I sure hope so.

Until next time...

MoonDance Magic

So that Pink Lemon at Pink Lemon Twist - she is a genius when it comes to designing her stoles. Look at how this border is constructed:

Beginning

Finished

Yes, it's knitted perpendicular to the stole! Isn't that cool? And I unravel successfully on my first provisional cast on:

Beginning

Finished

And now it's resting:

Maybe I will be able to take a picture of in the sun tomorrow afternoon, after it dries. Until then, I leave you our (David's and my) favorite song lyrics:

Moondance by Van Morrison

Well it's a marvelous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
'Neath the cover of October skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And I'm trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that play soft and low
You know the night's magic
Seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight
Seems to shine in your blush...

Can I just have one a' more moondance with you, my love?
Can I just make some more romance with a' you, my love?

Well I wanna make love to you tonight
I can't wait till the morning has come
And I know now the time is just right
And straight into my arms you will run
And when you come my heart will be waiting
To make sure that you're never alone
There and then all my dreams will come true dear
There and then I will make you my own
And every time I touch you, you just tremble inside
And I know how much you want me that, you can't hide...

Can I just have one a' more moondance with you, my love?
Can I just make some more romance with a' you, my love?

Well it's a marvelous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
'Neath the cover of October skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And I'm trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that play soft and low
You know the night's magic
Seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight
Seems to shine in your blush...

One more moondance with you
In the moonlight
On a magic night
la, la, la, la, there's a moonlight
On a magic night
Can't I just have one more dance
With you my love?

Dumplings, Anyone? And More!

This past Saturday, CostumeChick, WifeMomKnitter and I went to Anphoe's for some knitting and chatting, and also for some dumplings!

Anphoe made the pork filling and I made the tofu one. They were YUMMY! After that, we knitted and played some Wii. Well, let me just put this out there first - I'm not big about playing video games, because 1) I'm not very good, 2) I'm not a good sport about losing. But this Wii thing... It's addicting! And so much fun! You can see pictures and video on Anphoe's blog.

So besides playing video games and eat, I did make some progress on the MoonDance:

Chart B is almost done!!! Which means this stole is almost done! :) You can't see the edging in the pictures, but I can assure you they are all there.

On the other news, I bought a scratch ticket and the result:

I won $25.00!!!!!!! The biggest one I've ever got!!! I think before that, the most money I won was ten bucks! Well, I'm one step towards winning big, right? ;) A lady I worked with won $200,000 on a scratch ticket not too long ago. Yeah, you read that right. Then shortly after, she won over $8,000 at Mohegan Sun... Only if I have her luck! But I think my risk taking level is too small to win that level. I guess that's why I'm an engineer.

So I bought couple of Alice Starmore books from amazon not too long ago and they finally arrived, along with Beyond Wool with a trade from Ravelry.

Only if I can find a copy of Aran Knitting, there are so many patterns I want to knit but I just can't afford the book! Too rare. ::sigh::

Speaking of books, I have a duplicate copy of this one:

I posted this on Destash book forum on Ravelry, but I figure I will offer this to my friends as well - I''m willing to part with it for $8.00 + actual shipping (if required).

Well, I'm off to go over the new books and complaint about no progress made on MoonDance to the dogs.

Catching Up

I've been busy. Busy with research. Research for what? You asked. Well, it's not definite yet, but David and I are looking into opening a yarn shop. YES, a Yarn Shop! We already have a name for it, but we are still in the planning stage. We've been going around to see some retail spaces and I've contacted several people for whole sale info and consignment info. I will be meeting with my friend this Thursday to go over some other details regarding in yarn. So far everything is looking promising and I am super happy about it. The shop will open on week nights and weekends, so I won't be quitting Schick any time soon - gotta make sure I survive first! Plus I always wanted to open the yarn shop during those hours anyways - because I don't know any shops that opens on Sundays and late on every week night.

I will keep you all updated as the plan develops.

On the knitting front, I have done 3 repeats of the chart B on MoonDance and I also started the pig for my hot cocoa pal. It will be her "Beat the Winter Blahs Buddy!" I don't have any pictures as my camera is dead and I can't find the charger. Of course, I got Archiknist right at my disposal for questions so it is going smooth sailing. Speaking of Archiknist, click over to send her some love - She broke her arm and her chin while running (tripping is such a tricky thing!) so she will only have limited knitting time.

And one last thing, Cass is running her post #444 contest so click over and enter! Don't forget to tell her I send you over!

Dinner and Moondance

You know, like dinner and movie??? No?? Oh well...

First up, the dinner:

The appetizer

We had a little appetizer while we cook dinner. Dinner consist of the Grown Up Mac & Cheese, Romano Chicken, Blanched Broccoli with Garlic Butter and Garlic Bread. The Grown Up Mac and Cheese uses Fettuccini, but I had Penne on hand so there is no reason to go and buy more pasta. Also, instead of creme fraiche, I used 8 oz of neufchatel cheese because I can't find any creme fraiche in Stop and Shop - yes, I know, I can't believe it either! I mean I used creme fraiche up in Troy and PriceChopper there had it back then!!! The Chicken Recipe called for Parmesan Cheese, but I already had grated Romano at home, so I used that instead. The whole dinner was just SO GOOD. YUM. And we had fun making it too.

Now the stole:

I'm loving the pattern! Once I got passed the cast on, the whole thing came together very quickly. I can't wait to see how soon I can finish this!

Moondance Progress

I finally had some time to make some progress on Moondance. And I'm loving it so far! It's actually a pretty easy pattern to memorize once I started. I finished Chart A today and am ready to tackle the next chart - it only needs 16 repeats!!!!

On other wedding news - I went to The White Dress By The Shore for a hair appointment, a mini trial with a hair consultant and try out hair pieces from the trunk show of Winters and Rain. And this is the do I came out of:

My money mirror shot


My do side way


The beautiful comb the stylist used on my hair

It's something close to what I want, but not completely. I like the curls, but there were too much. I do like the simplicity of the one bigger comb with little flowers in the hair though. So I'm definitely leaving this one on the books of possible hairdo.

Now I only need to work on the wedding invitations...

Provisional Cast On

... Kicked my butt!

I've never done it before and I heard about it all the time - what magic it would do with the toe for a sock or just want to have live stitches to knit the other half of the stole, etc.

Well, Moondance required a provisional cast on, so I decided to give it a try tonight. But it just wasn't working! It turns out that I was using the wrong yarn to start - I had this lace weight yarn Archiknist gave me to try so I was using that for the crochet chain. Instead, Archiknist suggested to use a thick yarn and Judy gave me some for use. An hour later after I started, I have this:

It's not much (only the cast on row and the first row) but I am feeling quite tired after squinting and finding the loops for cast on for an whole hour. I'm thinking I might have to break my own rules and cast on another project for mindless knitting... Just a thought.

Oh, and I think I want to learn Tatting. (Among spinning and dying and all the other fiber-y things I want to do).