Stitch & Pitch!

I meant to post about Stitch & Pitch sooner, but I was hoping I'd have more knitting related updates in addition to Stitch & Pitch to post along with Stitch & Pitch. :) But alas, life has gotten in the way. Since my last post, I've interviewed for, accepted and started a new part time job. This is the 3rd time I've worked for this kind of store (note: it is NOT a local yarn store/LYS or any sort of craft store at all!). :) I also packed up and moved 4 blocks west of where I used to live, but I'm not quite done with the packing and cleaning of the old place yet and that needs to be finished this weekend! But since this isn't my personal blog, I'll spare the rest of the details, except for this one- upon the "Big Stuff Move" on Monday (when I was conveniently at work, ha!) the doors were open too long and now there are moths in the apartment! So not excited about that. Smores the permanently-on-strike bug killer has killed 1 moth (probably by accident), but there have been at least 4-5, so she is pretty useless. Never fear fiber friends, my natural fiber yarn is either in plastic bags (thank you, knock off dollar store ziplocs!) or not moved over yet. :)

But I digress. So Stitch & Pitch was August 11!

It was a great time, albeit VERY hot and humid, and the Brewers got their asses kicked. By the Arizona D-bags D-backs.

I went to the game with 3 of my sorority sisters- Emily B, Emily H and Sandy. My mom was supposed to come, but she double booked herself, so Andy tagged along with me, and Sandy's husband Greg came along too- it was their 3rd anniversary! And what better way to spend it than been geeky and knitting/crocheting at a baseball game! We were evenly split too between both fiber arts, with Sandy & I bringing along our knitting, and the Emilys bringing along their crocheting.

I had a difficult time deciding what to bring along, but I ended up bringing along another size 9 circular needle and a new ball of Bamboo Ewe for my Morning Frost Wrap. I had finished the first ball (out of 3), but as I previously mentioned it was flipping hot, so I just decided to start the 2nd half (less of a chance of having bamboo/wool sitting in my lap).

I didn't get very far with it at the game. Too much chatting. I still maintain that I did better on my knitting than the Brewers did with pitching, offense, and defense, or...well, playing baseball. :) But hey, we got to see history tied! 4 home runs in a row! Too bad the D-bagsbacks were the ones hitting those 4 consecutive home runs.../Brewers fail.

Overall though, a fun time. Minus the heat and especially the humidity, I could do without that. I'm already looking forward to next year. Besides, how could a game be a total failure if you got a bobblehead of Bernie Brewer knitting? :)

Slightly related to the Stitch & Pitch game, the Sunday before Stitch & Pitch, I agreed to meet Emily B at Loop where she was taking a crochet sock class, with the intention of looking around to see if they had any Malabrigo Worsted that I couldn't live with out (hahaha, I slay me). And huzzah, I found some and bought a skein of Azul Bolita (beautiful bright blue). Unfortunately for me my wallet, Loop had a display of Misti Alpaca Hand Painted Sock Yarn in blue and yellow (it's not on the website). As any good Milwaukee native knows, blue and yellow is none other than MILWAUKEE BREWERS COLORS! And the Marquette Warriors Golden Eagles, if you care about that (I do not). Sigh. Resistance was futile and the yarn just happened to jump into my hands and suddenly I was walking out of the store with more yarn that I didn't know what to do with (seriously, I don't even knit socks yet). :)

Anyway, so in other geek news, two of my photos have been featured on Ravelry (so what if one of them was be default??): my Wedding Roses afghan on the pattern page and my Twilight Bamboo Ewe on the yarn page (links to rav pages). Yay me!

I have also decided I really am going to attempt to fulfill one of my knitting resolutions (and here you thought I'd forgotten about them!)- I joined the Toe-Up Sock KAL on the Appalachian Yarn group on Ravelry. One of my old coworkers is a mod there, so she invited me to do a KAL there that she was hosting in August, but I was afraid I wouldn't have a chance with the move and stuff so I declined (new job popped up after I had declined the KAL too!), but I'm going to try out the Toe-Up Sock KAL. I got the pattern on Sunday. It looks pretty straightforward and lots of baby steps! I'm gonna need that....and I have a pretty skein of Dream in Color Smooshy in Blue Lagoon just for the project. :)

And last but not least - I finally started my first shawl! I picked the Traveling Woman Shawl and I loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove it. I love the pattern, and I really love the yarn I picked (which was, ironically, going to be turned into a gift for someone else! Ha! Sucker, you lost out! Too bad you don't actually know that you lost out on anything...): KnitPicks Stroll Tonal in Gypsy. Consequently, my shawl has been named the "Gypsy Woman" after the Brian Hyland song. :)

I love red. I love shaded red even more. And I love this yarn. I love this yarn with this pattern. I have never worn a shawl in my life but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to incorporate them into my wardrobe frequently since I have a bazillion more shawls queued up on Rav...

Well, I think this will be it for August, since I have a huge laundry list of things to finish up before we officially check out of our old apartment on the 31st. The Toe-Up KAL starts on Sept 3rd. I am going to try (key word: TRY) to update weekly on my KAL status, but September is a busy month for my current job, and I start my 2nd job on the 11th as well and I'm not sure how much prep time will be required prior to starting. :)

Till next time, happy kntting/crocheting! :D