Blogging Can Be SUCH a Chore

I don't know what it is about getting out today's blog entry, but I have had to force myself every step of the way.

Blogging
Usually blogging comes extremely easily for me. The writing is typically effortless, and I enjoy the process. This weekend has been different.

I think mostly it's because the mother of a good friend of ours died this week, and I was asked to co-facilitate the memorial service which happened yesterday. As part of that, I had to come up with some memories of Peggy to share at the service, and my writing skills went away completely.

The service turned out fine, including what I ended up saying, but it's amazing the amount of energy I had to devote to writing the memorial talk. Especially compared with how easily I can usually write blog entries and business documents and personal letters.

Throw in the fact that my blog site was down for a while yesterday, and that I haven't been able to get much knitting done, suffice it to say, this blog entry took a lot of effort.

New Fiber Toy
One of the reasons that I haven't knit a whole lot, is that I wanted to try playing with my new Weavette a little when I got home.

The little loom is quite cute, and I've made a total of three "bookmarks" using three different weights of yarn.



The one on the left is done in Koigu, jumper weight yarn. The one in the middle is done in DK weight Jamieson Shetland yarn, and the one on the right I did in worsted weight cotton. The DK weight works the best, so I will probably use that for most of my future testing.

I plan on trying a few different techniques on the Weavette, and if I like it well enough, I'll end up buying a larger square one for further experimentation.

Blog Contest
I have received some additional blog entries for the guest blog writer contest. You folks are quite amazing in your writing abilities. I know Marilyn is going to have some difficulty picking a winner.

I'm also not sure what to do with the entries that don't win the Merino yarn.

I certainly can't let them go to waste, so I will either post them altogether in one place, or perhaps intersperse them with my regular blog entries over the couse of a couple of weeks.

Knitting Progress
As mentioned earlier, I didn't get a lot of knitting done this weekend. I'm up to about 13 inches on the front section of Passing Lane, but I was hoping to be finished with the front already.



Oh well, I guess this will be a four week sweater instead of a three week sweater. But it will still be done before Stitches, which was my primary objective.

I'm hoping to show a total of four designs to the editor from Unicorn Books when I see him at Stitches. They would include:

High V-Neck Pullover
Chock-a-Block Cardigan
Fiesta Wear Pullover
Passing Lane Pullover

We'll see what he thinks of them there.

Stitches
From what I understand, Unicorn will be unveiling some new designs and a new book at Stitches this year. I have seen the new designs, and I think it's going to be another amazing knitting pattern book.

Now I have lots of great reasons to be excited about going to Stitches this year.

Reader Comments/Questions
Sean wants to know if I'd recognize 15 inches (as if). He also said he'd like the pattern for an easy first sweater.

As for recognizing 15 inches, of course I would...that's the length of Passing Lane before I get to the arm hole shaping (15 1/2", but who's counting).

For an easy first sweater, I did a knock-off of an Abercrombie and Fitch sweater that I saw and liked and wrote up the pattern if anyone would like to have it. You can check out a picture of it on the Simply Knit web site here.

If you'd like the pattern, just let me know and I'd be glad to send it out as a MS Word document.