I had a post written in my head for today (admit it, you do this too), all about the perfect yarn and the perfect pattern, and how sometimes the two don’t go together, and blah blah blah. Really, it was a great post. Or maybe it will be someday (later this week, perhaps). Instead I’m going to revisit my public service announcement from earlier this year, and encourage everyone who reads my blog and who meets the blood donation eligibility requirements to make an appointment today to donate blood.

As an incentive to get you to donate, Martha is having a contest to get knitbloggers and their friends to donate blood. So, go, now… search for your local blood donation center, make an appointment to donate, help save a life (or two, or three), leave a comment for Martha, and possibly get some fibery goodness in return. Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

After you’ve made your blood donation appointment, come back here and check out this crazy knitter… It’s a woman who knit a Ferrari - using TWELVE miles of yarn. She’s also knit a toilet, pedestal sink, and wing back chair. Seriously. Insane.

The blog is broken. I didn’t cause it (I don’t think). This stinks. Hopefully I can get my old template back up tomorrow, and get everything else working properly - for now, I’m going generic.

Update: Fixed! Whew! Not sure what happened, but now everything seems to be working again.

Wow - it is always nice when the internets validate your feelings… Every single person suggested getting rid of the beads.� So, the beads are gone!� Unfortunately, I haven’t done any knitting since Monday and have no new progress pictures to show.� I’ve been in Santa Cruz visiting a friend, sightseeing, shopping, and reading.� It’s been a relaxing week.

Today, we’re headed off on a two week roadtrip up the coast with stops in Seattle and Portland, and many other little towns along the way.� I haven’t done any proper research on yarn shops in the Pacific Northwest, but if anyone has suggestions on must-see yarn stores (or any other interesting places, for that matter), please leave a comment and let me know.� We don’t really have much planned, other than visiting a few friends and family, and hope to be able to explore some places that are a bit off the beaten path.

Hopefully there will be some knitting and blogging time during the trip, but if not, I’ll be back in mid-Sept.� Enjoy the holiday weekend!

1. Monster cookies. Mmmmmm! And, FYI, if you have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, a 1/4 batch of this recipe fits in the mixer perfectly.

2. A tug boat pushing a barge. Big and scary when it is bearing down on your relatively tiny boat in a not terribly wide river. Wow.

Needless to say, we got out of the way and let it pass!

3. My ambition when it comes to knitting.

Bought the pattern, even though I’ve already got two sweaters in progress, plus the stole and a pair of jaywalkers. But I love it, and must knit the long sleeved version! Thankfully my sabbatical from work (2 months off!) starts soon, so I should definitely be able to finish a few projects then.

For others who plan to knit this Glampyre sweater - what yarn are you going to use? The recommended Tilli Thomas silk yarn is seriously cost prohibitive - this would be a $200+ sweater. Ouch! I’m thinking Malabrigo in an olive color, with hand strung beads on the midriff section. I’ll have to check out the bead store to see what kind of beads will work with a worsted weight yarn.

Found Savvy Seams today as I was surfing the net trying to figure out how to apply single fold bias tape to cover a seam.� Cool site - good sewing tips, free patterns, etc.� Enjoy!

Also - seems as though I need double fold bias tape to cover a seam.� Hmmm…� the pattern (circa 1955) calls for single fold.� So confused!

In lieu of another lace picture (which I’m sure the world is *dying* to see… ha!), I’m posting about a much more important, and potentially life saving topic - Blood donation.

Martha’s mom is in the hospital and is in need of a blood donation.� It sounds like there is no blood of her type available for her at this time, which must be very scary for both Martha and her mom.�

Martha’s post today was the kick in the pants that I needed to make a blood donation appointment for this afternoon.� While I was in law school, I donated regularly at the Stanford Blood Center.� [If you’re in the Bay Area, I highly recommend donating there - they are super nice, and have the best post-donation cookies and juice!]� Since moving back to the Sacramento area, I’ve been putting off finding a donation center - it just wasn’t convenient for me, and I always had more important things to take care of.� Or, so I thought.� The truth is that donating blood is a minor inconvenience compared to the benefit it can bring to the recipient of the donation.� After reading Martha’s post this morning, I went online and found a Blood Source donation center right down the street from work.� I’ll be going in later this afternoon to donate.�

I’m sure that a lot of people who don’t donate blood are afraid of needles, or the pain.� I’m afraid of needles too.� Deathly afraid.� In fact, I started donating blood a few years ago in an attempt to get over my fear of needles.� It didn’t work - I’m still deathly afraid of needles, and can’t even look in the direction of my arm while the needle is in it.� But, after I donated the first time, the blood center sent me a letter that said that I was a universal donor and that my blood was a rare kind that they can use for premature babies.� And who can deny a premature baby of blood?� Not I!� So, I force myself to get over the fear every few months, because my minor inconvenience and discomfort can potentially save another person’s life.�

If you’re eligible to donate blood, I highly encourage you to find your nearest blood center and make an appointment as soon as you can.� If you’ve been making excuses for why you don’t do it, please reconsider - it is such a simple way to make a huge difference in someone’s life.�

Where do the weekends go to? I had grand plans for everything I would get done this weekend, but didn’t quite accomplish what I wanted.

Plans:
- Finish sewing Weekender bag
- Finish knitting front of Salina sweater
- Plant tomato plants
- Plant flowers in back yard
- Go for a bike ride
- Set up new blog site

What really happened:
- Went for a bike ride (ow, sore rear end!)
- Took a nap
- Had friends over for an impromptu barbecue
- Knit a few rows on Salina
- Went shopping for summer clothes
- Pruned hedges
- Took another nap (anyone see a pattern here?)
- Laundry

I guess I got a lot done, and definitely had a good weekend, but I didn’t make any crafty progress to speak of.

Just in time for the end of April’s Project Spectrum, here are some poppy pictures that I took along the bike trail on Saturday morning. Enjoy!

Move along, nothing new here. Just a test post to see if Bloglines fixed my feed. I have my doubts…

My wisteria tree is so pretty this time of year, I couldn’t resist using it as the backdrop for my completed Backyard Leaves scarf.

I finished the scarf on Sunday evening, sewed the two halves together, and weaved in the ends. This project went really fast - one week from start to finish! Why can’t every project be like this? I plan to give the scarf a light steam blocking before sending it off to the recipient, then it’s time to start finishing my other projects before I become tempted to start something new.

Backyard Leaves in Review:
Pattern: Backyard Leaves from Scarf Style
Yarn: Karabella Aurora 8, in Periwinkle (24) [I think that’s the right color]
Needles: Lantern Moon Rosewood, size 8, because I wanted to knit this on short straight needles, and those are the only ones I own!
Modifications: None
Thoughts: Have I mentioned that I adore this pattern? So simple, yet not at all boring to knit, and the end result is fabulous. The 20 row repeat isn’t exactly memorizeable, although I only had to refer to the chart on a few of the rows that didn’t intuitively follow the rest of the pattern (the two or three rows following the leaf tips)

Caitlyn & I (and a bunch of fun ladies from the knitting guild, including Beth, who helped set up the trip and took some great pictures) made a trip on the Amtrak Stitch & Ride train to the Knit & Crochet show on Saturday.

Here’s Caitlyn working on her sock - the lucky girl won a great door prize on the train!

And these are the fun gals who shared a table with us in the knitting car. They were both working on neat beaded Koigu purses. So pretty!

I worked on the Backyard Leaves scarf on the train. Note to self: charts + train + crazy chatting knitters = much frogging. Oh well, it was fun anyway. And you see that little spot of pink behind my right shoulder? It’s Nancie!

Yes, that’s right, I got to meet the author of my favorite knitting book (which also happens to be the most useful knitting book that I own) - Nancie Wiseman!

Unfortunately, neither Caitlyn or I took pictures at the knit show itself, even after we each mentioned several times that we should take pictures! I’d be a horrible photojournalist. You’ll just have to imagine a big room in a convention center filled with yarn and fibery goodness everywhere. And knitters. Lots and lots of knitters.

The show was great, but I didn’t have much luck finding patterns. I was hoping to find a lace pattern that hasn’t already been knit to death, but patterns were in short supply at the show.

There was one beautiful display of Russian Lace shawls (yeah, yeah - no pictures… sorry), but they were all for sale, and the booth didn’t have any patterns available. I did manage to find some very pretty yarn for my next lace project from a different vendor.

As far as I can tell, this yarn isn’t available anywhere except for from Yarn Place, and it doesn’t even show up on their website. It is a gorgeous deep red tencel/merino blend, and I would guess that it is cobweb weight or maybe even finer (no gauge is given on the yarn band). Seriously, it is a very fine yarn. Smaller than some thread that I’ve used. There are 3000 yards of yarn in this 4 oz. hank! 3000! Crazy.

How long do you suppose it will take me to make a lace shawl on tiny (00? 0? 1?) needles with 3000 yards of yarn? I’m guessing a reeeeeallly long time. Any ideas for patterns? I love Eunny’s Print O’The Wave stole- and this is enough yarn to make 4 of those! Yikes!