For we are jolly good bitches

Today we're celebrating the 1st Anniversary of the Utrecht Stitch 'n Bitch.
(Read that, Sew Fast, Sew Easy? STITCH N BITCH!!)

We're having dinner at this nice Chinese place. I'll bring along the digicam to show you guys what we got up to.

P.s. I secretly cast on a Crusoe sock from Knitty with the MJ's Laces. I am now seriously in denial about my mom's cardi. I'll be finishing it this month, honest, but I just can't stand that rough Summer Tweed, or its boring color. Or the thought of having to put the damn thing together.
So what have we learned from this experience?

1. We don't like Summer Tweed
2. We don't like the way Rowan writes down instructions
3. We don't like knitting with neutrals
4. We like knitting in the round
5. We don't like endless rows of stockinette on straights

All that in a P.S.? It must be your lucky day! ;)

Pr0n Pr0n Pr0n

The pic says it all, baby: I had a great time yesterday at the Handwerkbeurs (Crafts Fair) with some of the gals from my SnB. Arja caught me here in the middle of a naughty tete a tete with some Shetland wool:

The purple hank in the middle came home with me, along with a fabulous blue that's not in the pic. I want to use it for a pair of Norwegian fair-isle mittens.
I also picked up my first ever skeins of Lorna's Lace in Rainbow colors. It shall now be referred to as MJ's Lace:



We also had a great time at the booth of the gals at Garnstudio/Drops. They had a yummy collection of Alpaca yarns, with a triangular shawl that we all drooled over. After long fussing and three trips to the bathroom mirror with various skeins, I finally picked a vibrant grassy green for my copy, only to discover that that was the color they only had three skeins of. Riggin friggin shawl wasn't to be for me this time.

The Garnstudio girls have an awesome collection of FREE Dutch patterns here: www.garnstudio.com/nl, but you can navigate to several other languages too, including English and German.
(And to Pettie, if you're still reading this: One of the girls was wearing your Garnstudio cardi! It was really gorgeous with the silver thread run through the green.)

In other news: I gots me a plane ticket! I shall be back in the US from March 31 until June 28 to live The Good Life with the Honey. My mom misses me already. ;)

P.s. Big thanks to the Honey...

Because foursomes are the new threesomes

Here you go, Arja!

Four jobs I've had:
Telemarketer -huuu-
Check-out lady at a bookstore
Phone number information gal
Booth Betty

Four movies I can watch over and over:
Hmm, I really hate seeing films more than once. In fact, I don't "get" video and dvd collections. But I'll humor ya:

The Silence of the Lambs
LOTR
Amélie (Twice. Because it's my tag.)

Four places I've lived:
Tytsjerk
Hurdegaryp
Doorn
Utrecht

Four TV shows I love:
CSI (In all shapes and sizes)
MythBusters
What Not To Wear
Deadwood

Four great concerts:
Madonna (Arnhem, sept 2004)
Yonder Mountain String Band (String Summit 2004)
Tina Turner (Groningen, 2000?)
The Dead (The Gorge, July 3rd 2004, MAGICAL!)

Four places I've vacationed:
Denmark
Opatija, Croatia
Seattle, US
Venice, Italy

Four websites I visit daily:
www.Knittyboard.com
www.Fark.com
www.people.com (TomKat splitting up? No waaaaay?!)
SnB Utrecht

Four of my favorite dishes:
Creme Brulée
Quiche
Mushrooms a l'escargot
Anything Mexicano!

Four places I would rather be right now:
Kent, WA with snookums
Ireland
On my mom's electric blankie
San Francisco, seeing the sights I missed

Four bloggers I am tagging:
Spirals
Yarner
Sandra
Alcariel

Done! Forever!

As of next Thursday, I will officially hold a Bachelor's degree in Communication!
It's un-be-lievable, how happy I am! :)

Woooooohoooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Semi-Olympic knitting

What a bummer; I only read about the Yarn Harlot's 2006 Knitting Olympics yesterday, so I guess it was a false start for me!
In stead, I pledge to finish the Cinnamon cardi for my dear mama this month. I started March 18 last year, and I don't want to have to say the friggin thing took me a year to knit!
I'm almost done with the sleeves, but mom decided they might be a bit too wide for her skinny arms. Well eat woman!
Nah, just kidding, we'll figure something out. I just hope I don't end up with a really bulky seam... Any pointers?



As you can see, I cast on for the baby sweater I mentioned in the previous post. It's not for me, so it doesn't really count as knitter's ADD, now does it?
I'm making it from the most lovely, fatty, squeezable pinkish Baby Alpaca Grande that my wonderful Yankee Swapper got me, and it knits up quite nicely, though seed stitch is officially not my favorite.
Both Little Sis and I were convinced the baby was going to be a girl, so I thought I was safe with this, but since the echo, she and my mom know the baby's real "color". They haven't told me yet though. If it's a boy, it will just have to run around in a pinkish cardi, and be all trendy like that, hehe. (Therapy sessions are on me, if I'm still around in forty years.)

In other news, our SnB got kicked out of Lofen. The manager's reason? "We're not a club house." Okidokes dude, then it's onward to the Winkel van Sinkel! We found a really nice reading table to the left of the entrance. I think the boss there still needs to be convinced, so we might have to ask him what size socks he wears. ;)

So Valentine's Day's coming up. My last two experiences were rather crapariffic; I got dumped in both 2004 AND 2005 in that same week.
I shouldn't really care for a holiday so unabashedly commercial, but still.. No need for gifts or anything fancy, but hey, an email would be nice.
(YOU READ THAT BUDDY?!)

Anyway, movin on.
Happy knitting to all, and for those of you in the Knitting Olympics, woohoo, you can do it!

Next post is the tag I got from my SnB gal Arja. A whole set of foursomes. See ya soon!

Proud auntie MJ!

Check this out:



Meet the tiny receiver of my current WIP, Fran's Hooded Baby Sweater!.
It lives in my little sister's belly and should be greeting us in June.
Rattling ovaries, anyone?