Blargh...

So, The Big Project was halted temporarily. Only due to my incessant stupidity and inability to count stitches or pay attention to them. I had to rip all of it out after I dropped a stitch and then realized that I had completely miscounted everything. So yeah, I'm totally an idiot. :) I re-cast on the project Friday and thanks to the 3.5+ hour UW-Milwaukee graduation on Sunday, I'm more than caught up with what I lost. I am liking it so far but I am getting more and more nervous that I will not finish in time.
I also was in Milwaukee this past week (in case you didn't figure that out by the mention of the UW-Milwaukee graduation, which, surprisingly enough, took place in Milwaukee). I stopped at Loop Yarn Shop on the east side on Saturday and while I found many many tempting yarns/patterns/books, I refrained from buying anything because I rule...err....because I have yarn on the way from Peaches & Creme that I ordered last week. I bought some stuff I really wanted: the Lattice Texture Tablescape Kit in Combination #2 (with light blue as the main color), Baby Texture Plaid Ensemble Kit in the neutral shower kit color combination (once again, not pregnant myself!! but another one of my friends just said she's preggers), the Passion Special because I just love that color combination, as well as a couple single skeins: delft blue, rainbow, and mar-di-gras. As usual, I have too much yarn on the way. :)
Errr, anyway, back to Loop Yarn Shop....awesome shop. I almost bought some yarn and a pattern for a cropped cardigan that I really want to make. Here's the pattern: Cropped Cardigan by Amy O'Neill Houck by Blue Sky Alpaca yarn. Unfortunately (or fortunately for my bank account), Loop was out of the pattern so I opted not to buy it. However, according to the Blue Sky website, both Iris Fine Yarns in Appleton and Yarns by Design in Neenah carry Blue Sky Alpaca yarn and patterns....and yours truly just happens to have a gift certificate to Iris Fine Yarns that may need to be used up relatively soon (I'm gonna keep mum on that one). :)
Tomorrow I have to go to Howards Grove for a rental meeting, so I am hoping that I will get some much-needed knitting done on the way!

The BIG Project hath begun...

The big wedding present has been started.
I would just like to take this time to state that I really dislike working with Red Heart Super Saver. The colors I have picked are beautiful: Windsor Blue (380), Buff (334), and Painted Desert (303). Really though, my finger is already raw from using RH SS. Arguhhhhh. I have been way too spoiled with my Caron yarns- both Simply Soft and One Pounders. I'm not a yarn snob- NO WAY, I'm too cheap to be a yarn snob- but I am not a huge Super Saver fan anymore.
Oh well.
Anyway, on to the specs of the "big project"....
Cast on 524 (Holy Mother of God, did I really cast on 524 stitches) to a US 10.5 60" circular needle....yes'm.
I'm doing a feather and fan pattern on this one, similar to the Feather & Fan dishcloth pattern that I posted pics of in previous blogs. So the pattern is really easy and mindless, so I can knit it while watching my 3 favorite regular shows: Countdown with Keith Olberman, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report. In addition to that, I'm going to start re-watching the series M*A*S*H. I finished 5 episodes from Season 1 Disc 1 while casting on/knitting the first few rows of The Big Wedding Present.
This could be a long month or so....:)
I'll post pics of the minute progress soon!

Knitters for Obama!

This knitter tries not to mix politics and knitting outside of on Ravelry - heehee, but Ravelry led me to the Knitters for Obama group. One of the group's ideas is to knit/crochet hats for preemie babies and donate them to local hospitals/shelters. The hats are donated the week of the particular primary- for example, last week I mailed off hats to Indiana so that they could be donated to hospitals in Indiana for this upcoming primary on May 6. These are four of the hats I've completed so far- the two light blue/red/white hats and the red/white/dark blue hat 2nd from the left have been mailed to Indiana. The last hat (first one on the left) is being mailed to West Virginia along with two other hats I haven't photographed yet for next week's primary.
I have been knitting up a storm with these preemie hats- they are super quick to knit and the only pain is seaming them. Must learn magic loop, 'cause DPNs suck.

Lion Brand Website Beta

Well, I have been lucky enough to be considered as a beta tester for the new Lion Brand website. Wahoo!! I use the Lion site to get ideas though I haven't used a ton of their patterns yet. One of my main beefs with the website is the login, it's a real pain if you forget your password because it never seems to get sent to you even if you request it. A lot of times I have to go to bugmenot.com just to get a phony password and login, which isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world, but enough of a pain when I have my own login.
I will keep you all posted on my Lion Brand beta testing!
In the meantime, Knitty posted a spring surprise cardigan that I think will be THE answer to my "What do I do with all the Lavish Alpaca yarn I bought?" A few months ago, I bought 10 skeins of Lavish Alpaca worsted weight in white and Caribbean teal....it's GORGEOUS. So far, it has been sitting in my yarn bin (one of many) while I decide what to do with it. Here's hoping that Knitty has come up with the answer!!!