A year older, a year smar...wis...stron...(hmm)....A year older!

Happy Birthday to me... Thanks reese and mich for the bday wishes this morning, and Kat for the card - pictured above - very much how I feel, and Olga for the singing, and Steph for the email, and all of you out there for reading, and laughing with me!(not at me I hope) this past year. Many more laughs, knitting disasters, and hopefully some triumphs,coming up on my 29th year!

Mee mee meeeeee!

I have been tagged by both knitannie and jade to tell you seven completely random facts about me. I think this will be as painful for you as it is for me because I am ultra boring and have been trying to come up with interesting things to tell you guys for about a week now and have ZILCH! So I will tell you seven completely random and uninteresting facts about me.

1) I dip my french fries in a self made mixture of mayonaisse and pete's hot sauce. My co-worker got me into it and I cannot stop.

2) I am going to copy knitannie. I cannot stand crusty eggs. (she cannot stand runny eggs) Seriously, I will puke.

3) I ran the Marine Corps Marathon last year and will never.do.it.again (till next year maybe).

4) My two best friends have "Maria" as the first or middle name. My first name is Maria.

5) My dad never remembers what day I was born. He wishes me Happy Birthday on a different day every year. No joke. However he does remember that after the hospital he went to have a huge sandwich in Avenida Irigoyen.

6) I am taking Tony on a secret birthday trip... shhh... I think I am more excited about it than he ever will be. If any of you commenters know where I am taking him, don't mention it ... it's a secret!

7) I love my Tony, but I also love my Saturday mornings when he goes to have coffee with his dad and I can stay at home and watch my shame t.v. shows that I have taped all week. (So You Think You Can Dance? Anyone?!?)

Pheww...that was tough. As was completely restarting my Redgina after the 32 mistakes that I kept ignoring and I thought would be covered by my hair became way too apparent. That is a picture of my latest attempt. I am hopefully finishing the back today.

Another FO - Unbelievable!

I am cranking them out like there is no tomorrow people!! Why such the rush? Maybe I am avoiding the lace work on my Redgina, or my very first pattern attempt... maybe... I don't know.

The sewing on this stunk. I am a horrible seamstress. But, the more I practice the better I will get - right Olgita? I even attempted a nice pocket! Mushee (Tony's little sister) is getting this tomorrow, and I will let you all know how its received.

I love the finished product. At first the Raffia was hard to work with, because I am used to nice lovely delish yarn, and nylon is a huge difference.

Not much to write about today. We are going out of town tomorrow to Tony's older sisters graduation, so I am trying to get a lot done before then. Even a haircut scheduled later on, which I am always scared about so wish me luck!

I have been tagged for a meme, my knitannie but I am not in the "full disclosure" kinda mood - so I will leave it for when I have a little more pep.

Pattern Details:

Pattern: Paper Bag by Just Call Me Ruby found on Knitty.com
Yarn: Nylon Raffia in Pearlized Champagne (4 rolls approx.)
Needles: Size 6 from my Denise Interchangeables. (thankfully I am addicted to my Addis now or I would be heartbroken that one of the cables broke!)

Princess Capelet

I was playing with Picasa a little last night, that is why this is an "artistic shot". So, I finished the Capelet. It was a quick knit, super easy, and the end result turned out shockingly adorable.

This was a gift to Tony's older sister, whose birthday was in March (oops - a little late). However, I have bad luck getting her to model for me (see the status bar on the right -the promenade bag - was made for her birthday last year). So I decided to model it myself. I kinda really like it... I kinda want one for me (sans the pompoms - I am not a pompom girl).

The one thing I would change is the yarn. For this one I used two strands of Lion Brand Thick and Quick, which is inexpensive yarn, but I really just wanted to try out the pattern in the book. The yarn is itchy and just not very pleasant to work with, although the end result does not show it.

I took the Capelet over to her house yesterday, and although it was over 70 degrees outside, Aik wore it out on a date with her boyfriend. As she would say "it was a total success".

Pattern Details:

Pattern: Princess Capelet by Wenlan Chia from Twinkle Big City Knits
Yarn: Lion Brand Thick and Quick in Cranberry (I think that is the name)
4.5 skeins
Needles: Forget the Brand size US19

Obsessed

I have a new obsession...Ravelry.com. frecklegirl and her husband have created this AWESOME web community for knitters. I am sure that all three of you that read my blog probably have read about this already, but I wanted to share my excitement as well. It is a great site to organize your projects, learn what other people are making, gawk at FO's, and meet new friends. If I were not so busy at work I would be spending my entire day doing this.

Right now they are still in testing mode, so they are slowly inviting people in. Go ahead and ask them for an invite! You may have to wait a little bit, but once you are in, you will not want to do anything else but hang out there.

In knitting news, I am doing the unthinkable. I am working on more than two projects at a time - yikes!


The first one is the Paper Bag I am making for Tony's little sister in exchange for the butt kicking spinning classes. I love the way this is turning out, but it is killing my fingers! The raffia (is that how you spell it?) is super rough to knit with, but I think the end result will be a super cute bag that she can use during the day and at night during the summer.



The second one is The Princess Capelet from Twinkle Big City Knits. This one is actually almost done now. It would have been done already except I cannot read. The pattern says to work 15 rows decreasing every 3rd row, and then work until there are 22 rows. I took this as to knit an additional 22 rows. So I had to do a bit of undoing and finished it really in one day. This one is a late gift for tony's older sister's birthday, and now graduation gift since she just finished defending her dissertation and is getting her phd.


The last one is my own creation. It is my first attempt at creating my own design - completely winging this. This is the yarn left over from the bolero fiasco... remember that? And when I saw this cute little cardi on colourknits flickr feed I wanted to try it. However, I am learning how to know my own shape, and the cute little model... she has no boobs, and has no hips, and no tummie - and me, I got all those. So I am trying to make this one longer. It is going to be a learn as you go type of thing... bear with me as I cry.