Racing Season Has Begun

My boyfriend's racing season officially started this weekend at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. That means I spent most of my weekend at the top of turn two watching him speed around the track, battling for position against more than 60 other cars.

This is a picture from the qualifying session. He is the silver and red #29 car. Don't the new decals look nice? It's a fierce looking car if you ask me :) The other drivers better watch out! If you want more information about his team, Rent Money Racing, check out their website.

In between practice and qualifying, I had a few hours to work on my silk shrug and was able to get a few inches of the body done. That's right folks, I have finally finished the first sleeve and started on the body! I think it's looking pretty good so far and a lot of people have complimented my color choice. I only have a couple more weeks to work on this before my trip to Thailand so it should be interesting to see how far I get.


I'm still a little tired from the busy weekend and nursing a sunburned face, so that's all for now.

The Snuggles Project

Two and a half years ago, I adopted a one-year-old kitty from the Marin Human Society. She came home with her very own little blanket that someone had made for her. To this day, it is one of her favorite things to take a nap on.

I was looking around on the internet one day and came across a website for the Snuggles Project. It is a program that provides animal shelters with these blankets, called "snuggles," for the animals. The dogs and cats use the snuggles in the shelter and then take them with them when they're adopted. It helps to make the animals feel more at home in their new environment when they have something that is "theirs."

Yesterday, I wandered into my spare bedroom looking for a knitting needle, and came across a couple of skeins of this very bright yarn. I'm sure almost everyone who knits or crochets has a few skeins of yarn that they just don't know what to do with, or leftovers from projects that are finished. The Snuggles Project seems like the perfect way to use all that yarn up!

So, this colorful yarn seemed like the perfect thing to make a snuggle. I was excited and almost immediately started making my first snuggle (medium size). I'm using Red Heart Super Saver Yarn in Starbrights. There are patterns for snuggles on the website, but I'm simply doing double crochets with a size I hook.

Hopefully, I'll be able to make a snuggle for an animal that loves it as much as Ginny loves her snuggle :)

Not Another Hat

Well, I've done it again. I've finished another hat for my Mom. This one is just like the other two but in Cotton-Ease violet. I think this is the last hat I'm going to make for my Mom for a while so you guys won't have to look at any more pictures of it anytime soon. On a side note, she is doing well and still has all her hair at this point. But with all these hats, she is very well prepared.

I've been plugging away at my Silk Shrug. I'm about 20 or so rows away from starting on the body. My goal is to be working on the body by next weekend so I can take it to the track with me while I'm watching my boyfriend's first race of the year. At least that will be my excuse for when I sit on the couch knitting instead of cleaning the house :)

Even though I'm in the midst of the shrug, I've already started thinking about my next project. Actually, I'm going on a trip to Thailand in about a month and need something more portable to take with me on the very long plane ride (about 18 hours). I decided to look for a simple cabled scarf pattern so that I could learn a new technique. I was stumbling around Knitty and came across Elbac. It seems like a good project to try and tackle. Now I just have to decide on what yarn to use. I will probably cast-on and start the project before I leave so that I kind of know what I'm doing. Otherwise I might end up throwing my yarn across the plane in a moment of frustration!

A New Adventure

And I bet you can guess what it is! The spinning guild at Stitches West really made an impression on me and I couldn't stop thinking about spinning. I couldn't resist. I had to try it.

So a couple of weeks ago I ordered a Bosworth Midi Drop Spindle from Carolina Homespun. Well, it arrived on Monday and I was so excited to open the package. They even sent me some roving to play with :) The drop spindle is made of canarywood with a 2.5 inch whorl and a 9 inch shaft. If feels so smooth and seems very well balanced.

To make sure I had some instruction other than the bits and pieces I remember from that day at Stitches West, I ordered some books from Amazon that I'm hoping will help me learn. I purchased Spinning in the Old Way by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts and Spin to Knit by Shannon Okey. Right now all the new terminology and tools are a little overwhelming. I'm excited, but also a little nervous. It might be that the yarn I spin is so horrible I won't be able to do anything with it.

I have also been working on my Silk Shrug. Here's just a little picture to show you that it really is growing. The first sleeve is past my elbow on its way to my upper arm. Just a little bit more and I'll be working on the body. The Blue Sky Alpaca and Silk yarn is so soft to work with and I love the color! I know I'll be getting a lot of time to work on it in a couple of weeks because racing season is about to start for my boyfriend. That means lots of time at the track I can use to finish my sweater! Boogity, Boogity, let's get knitting!

The Uncooperative Model

My Mom loved the pink hat I made for her in January. With her third chemo treatment looming, she decided that she wanted some more hats in different colors. I told her that I would make them for her, but she wanted to try and make them herself since she'd just learned how to crochet baby hats.

I printed off the free pattern for her and off we went to the craft store to get some cotton blend yarn. She picked out some Cotton-Ease in charcoal and violet and was eager to start her new project. I think she even started it that night before going to bed.

Within a day or two, she called me completely frustrated with the hat and the fact that she had to count her stitches. My mom has always loved crocheting, she just doesn't like to increase or decrease her stitches. She's very good at making scarves and baby blankets! I told her that I would pick up the yarn and finish both of the hats for her, but she insisted that she wanted to finish them herself, until last week.

She had finally given up! She told me to take the yarn and just make the hats for her. So, yesterday afternoon, I sat down to make the hat for her using the charcoal Cotton-Ease. I used two skeins of yarn, with two strands held together, and a 9.00 mm crochet hook. By the end of the night I had a hat, with ends woven in and all. She doesn't want me to decorate it with anything, like buttons or flowers, so it's a simple black hat.

My Mom will lose her hair soon and I hope that in some small way these hats will help her get through a very hard time. I still have the violet hat to make and will hopefully finish that one within the next week.

I tried to get my kitty, Ginny, to model the hat for everyone, but she wasn't in a very cooperative mood last night. Although, she did enjoy watching me make the hat and swatting at the yarn coming off of my hook :)