I should know better. Really, I should.

Went to SnB tonight. Brought the lace wrap to work on. BIG mistake! I cannot, under any circumstance, knit anything that involves a yarnover while talking. (is this a common problem among knitters?)

About 10 minutes after I arrived, I found my first mistake. No big deal, right? I can fix it - no problem! And, after about a half hour, I did get it fixed. (Thanks to Caitlyn & her teeny tiny crochet hook!) So, I kept right on knitting. And talking.

Right before I was about to leave, I spread out my work, and realized that I missed a YO on my last row. Again, no big deal. I grabbed a stitch marker pin, and marked the mistake to fix when I got home.

When I got home, I figured I’d document my silly mistake, so I took out the camera, laid out my knitting, and saw this:

Do you see where I missed the YO? Right above the green pin? Probably not, because of the BIG HOLE to the right of the pin. Holy crap! Where did that come from? I think that one of my stitches must have completely slipped off my needles while I was yapping away. Dang. I’m not even going to attempt to fix that one by dropping stitches!

Next thing you know, I’ve got this mess to contend with -

It’s a blurry picture (dark living room), but all that’s important is the lack of a needle in the general proximity of the yarn. Yikes. None of this stitch-by-stitch frogging stuff for me. I’m a ripper!

8 rows of ripping, 4 rows of knitting, and about an hour later, I’m back to about the same point I was before SnB.

Ah, progress! But, I’ve learned my lesson - from now on, lace projects are banned from SnB. That will be my stockinette night instead!

Last week while I was getting my hair highlighted, I was browsing the latest “O” Magazine, and came across a link to Design Her Gals, a site where you can create a caricature of yourself (or a friend) and create your own customized stationery. And - they have free e-cards… cool!
Here’s a screen capture of an e-card that I created:

That looks just like me… well, it would if I was anorexic and didn’t have a nose! He he he!

Unfortunately there are no knitting accessories for the gals, but there are dozens of other fun things - like schnauzers!
Now, go and design your own gal! And leave me a comment if you post a picture on your blog… I’d love to see it!

Well, there’s not much to show of the lace wrap yet… here it is, in its present state. A whopping 1.5 repeats completed, out of 42 repeats just for the center section! I grabbed the yarn & needles on my way out the door on Friday when we headed off to Santa Clara, but I neglected to bring waste yarn for the provisional cast on. Oops! Thankfully, we stopped in Fairfield, found a Michael’s (eeew), and bought some waste yarn. From now on, I’m carrying a few yards of worsted weight yarn in my knitting bag!

I have to say that I adore knitting with this silk. It is SO soft.
There’s been other knitting in the past week too… mostly done while driving around Northern California touring with the family. In one week, we drove about 1000 miles total, and I managed to finish the front of Salina and start on sleeve #1. That project should be done by fall.

And, a completely random picture:

This is a guy I saw on my drive home from work last night. A very manly man at first glance (had facial hair, driving a Harley), but take a closer look… Do you see what I saw? His shoes! Oh. My. Gosh. What does he have on his feet? Are those sparkly green flats I see? They are! Sparkly green flats! On a man riding a Harley! (And would those not look so cute with my lace wrap?)

Wow, what a week it has been. It’s all gone by in a blur… the upshot is that it is all OVER! No more law school, no more studying, no more bar exams, and, for those of you who know what a basket case I’ve been lately, no more stressed out Cyndi! Whew!

Graduation was awesome. It was so nice to have some of my family there with me. And, the best part of it was that not only did I pass the bar, but all of my classmates who took the bar and went through the ceremony with me passed too!

And that, my friends, is the end of my blathering on about law school stuff. The end. YAY!

Tomorrow: Back to irregularly scheduled knitting content - the silk shawl begins

Thought I’d share the good news with the internets.� I’m a lawyer now!� Woohoo!�

You can read more about the results here.� I’m off to celebrate!� Wheeeeee!

All that stuff I’ve said about no new projects until I finish what I’ve started on… Um, forget I ever said anything like that.

I went dress shopping two weekends ago for a dress to wear to graduation on Saturday. I ended up finding three (!) dresses that made their way home with me that day. One of them is this amazing pale green silk sundress that had to have been designed just for me. I just love this dress.

Do you see that thing, hanging on the left side of the dress? That’s a skein of somewhat solid laceweight yarn, from Sundara Yarns. After she announced the Petals Collection sock club, I was browsing her yarns, and saw the light green somewhat solid yarn. I just knew that yarn was meant for me to knit a shawl to go with this dress.

I got the yarn in the mail today, and was thrilled with it. Here’s a closer shot of the yarn & dress:

And, an extreme closeup:

Can you see how the subtle variegation of the yarn nearly matches the subtle patterning in the dress? Amazing!

Now, the question is, what pattern do I use for the shawl? I think the Diamond Fantasy Shawl would be lovely and delicate - perfect for this dress. And Cara’s DF shawl turned out beautifully with the beads she used… I could see the green with pale beads. Hmmm…

I’m tempted to buy the pattern and start knitting it this very moment. Perhaps it would calm my nerves a bit too. But, I feel like I need to look at every lace shawl (and stole) pattern available before I decide on *the one*. Why do I do this to myself? Why?

ETA: Thanks to Sundara’s comment about Fiber Trends’ patterns being written for multiple weights of yarn, I’ve found the perfect pattern… the Estonian Garden Wrap from Fiber Trends. Although I do love the leaf lace shawl pattern, I think a rectangular wrap/stole is more well suited to the style of this dress than a triangular shawl.

There has been an extreme lack of knitting at chez Needles lately. I’ve been a bit, um, preoccupied with other things. There was this little three day exam that I took way back in February, and the results are finally going to be posted next Friday night. One week and one day from today, I’ll know for sure whether my summer will be spent knitting and sewing with abandon, with weekend bike rides and camping trips, or spent locked in a dark room studying for a re-take in July.

Unfortunately, the release of test results coincides with my “official” law school graduation ceremony, which is next Saturday. (Technically, I already have my diploma, the ceremony is just that - a ceremony.) To celebrate my graduation, various family members are planning visits, starting with my brother and his wife, who arrive on Saturday, followed by my mom in the middle of next week. I’m anticipating no crafty time while the fam is here, and probably few, if any posts.

For the next week, while my stomach is doing flips, I’ll be repeating my new mantra: “There are worse things in life than failing the bar… there are worse things in life than failing the bar…” I know in my heart it is true, yet failure is the thing I fear most in life. Regardless of the outcome of the exam, I am still extremely fortunate in all aspects of my life. And I am writing this down now, so I can remind myself over the next week, and next Friday night, if need be.

No need for words of encouragement - the reality of it is that only about 40% of the people who took the exam will pass, and a lot of really smart, dedicated people will fail. I’ve seen it happen to my friends. And it could happen to me. And I will be able to deal with it, no matter what the outcome. Because there are worse things in life than failing the bar. Really.

It is so true. Very good things come to those who wait. Unfortunately, patience is not a virtue of mine.

My sock pal, Andrea [no blog], read my post, and sent me an e-mail today to let me know that my package was indeed in the mail. She mailed it priority mail a week ago, and was very surprised that I had not received it yet, as she is in southern California. Andrea, who is a super sweetheart, volunteered to make me another pair of socks, since it appeared that my package had gotten lost in the mail. Fortunately, it did not come to that, because I got home from work tonight, and saw a package by my front door! (I think perhaps the local delivery people must all read my blog and have it in for me!)

I ran inside, tore open the package, and saw this:

Ok, I was hoping for a nice pair of socks as a result of the Sockapaloooza sock exchange. That’s all. Not only did Andrea send me gorgeous socks (Mountain Colors Bearfoot, Yellowstone, in a lacy rib pattern), she also sent chocolate (yum!), a Burt’s Bees kit, a cute pen/notepad set, and MORE sock yarn. Self striping Sock It To Me Puzzle sock yarn! I love me some self striping sock yarn! Andrea, thank you so very much!

The Yellowstone yarn is beautiful, and… NO pooling! The funniest thing about these socks is that I was *this* close to making my own pal’s socks out of Bearfoot Yellowstone, but I got outbid for the yarn on eBay. Andrea, any chance you got this yarn on eBay around the time Sockapaloooza started? ;)
I wish it weren’t 90 degrees outside (and 80 in my house), so I could wear these right now. Aren’t they pretty?

Update: My sock recipient, Deb, received her socks yesterday too!� Yay!� And she likes them!� I’m so relieved that they arrived safely.� But what is up with the Post�Office?� Are they just overwhelmed by all the socks being sent?� Priority mail should not take over a week to arrive!

I must admit, I had high hopes for Sockapaloooza. Alison did a great job organizing it and keeping things running smoothly with weekly sock updates. Ashley was a great sock sister, keeping track of our progress along the way. And, I enjoyed knitting my pal’s socks and watching what others were knitting.
But.

I’ve been anxiously waiting for my socks to arrive. And, no socks. They may still be on their way to me, so I’m holding out hope. However, if my pal fell through and didn’t finish my socks, I don’t want to burden anyone (ie - the sock angels) with knitting me a pair of socks simply so that I receive a pair. If my own sock pal comes through (please?), that’s great. But, if not, no hurt feelings. It was fun anyway.

And, on the other side of things, I sent my own socks off last Tuesday - right on schedule. My pal lives just north of me several hundred miles, and should have received the socks by Thursday, or Friday at the latest. Unfortunately, I do not know whether the socks arrived. I don’t know whether the chocolates that I sent melted through their packaging and tissue paper, ruining the socks. I don’t know whether she opened the package and was so thrilled with the socks that she went into a state of extreme euphoria, so overcome with joy that she was unable to shoot me a quick e-mail to let me know that the package arrived. I don’t know whether she opened the package and was so overcome by disappointment that she sunk into a state of deep depression and did not want to let me know what I had done to her.

I just want to know if the socks arrived safely to their new home. Please, sock pal, let me know.

Here it is… my completed Madison Handbag.

Inside:

Project Summary

Pattern: Amy Butler Madison Handbag

Fabric: Amy Butler Charm

Pattern modifications: I used heavy canvas interfacing to line the exterior pieces of the bag, which did not seem heavy enough to provide the structure that I wanted. To give the bag more structure, I used a lightweight fusible interfacing on the lining pieces of the bag.

Final Thoughts:

- Fairly straightforward pattern. Handle placement might be tricky for those new to sewing. I like the bag, but if I were to do it again, I would not use the canvas lining, and instead would use a very heavy fusible interfacing on the exterior. Also, I would not add a facing to the lining of the bag. The facing on the lining makes it a bit bulky, and it doesn’t lay as flat as I’d like.

-I need a better sewing machine. My machine has fits every time it has to sew through more than three or four layers of fabric - it just won’t do it without spitting out the bobbin. Then I end up with a tangled mess of bobbin thread coming through the needle plate. It isn’t pretty.

- This will make a nice bag for small knitting projects, like socks. It isn’t big enough for much more than that. It would make a cute purse if you were a minimalist. I am not.