Hand Knitted Goods Raffle for Charity!

That's right. You know you've been eyeing my hand-knitted goods for a while now, and now is your chance to get your hands one (or in) them! This month I am raffling off two items:

A Hand-knitted stripey scarf made of a sillk/wool blend:
The scarf is about six feet long and encompasses pretty much every color in the spectrum.


And just in time for Valentine's Day, a beautiful set of Smittens, mittens you can hold hands with.

The mittens can be worn with your sweetie, or you can wear the outside mittens on your own. They're made with 100% merino wool and are sooo soft and beautiful!

Here's the rules. For each $10 you donate to my charity climb (click on the link to donate), you will get your name entered once into the raffle. If you donate over $100, I will double the number of entries you get. The raffle will cover all donations made in the month of February and I will draw at the end of the month. Don't worry if you don't win, I will have a drawing each month up until the climb with new hand-knitted goods as prizes. Give early, give often, and come away with some knitting!

YEEAAAHHHH BOYYYYEEEE!

Public Enemy
Originally uploaded by Robert Loerzel

OMG. OMG. That's really all I can say. I can die a happy woman now. Last night I had the rare opportunity to see one of my all-time favorite groups perform -- a group I never thought I would ever get a chance to see.

Public Enemy was in the house last night at the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago. Not only have they not played together in the States in years (YEARS!) but this was also the first, time they have played their iconic album (now celebrating its 20th anniversary) "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back," in its entirety, track for track, exactly. (They apparently have been playing this album in Canada and elsewhere to celebrate the anniversary, but in most concerts it appears the tracks are done out of order).

This was so rare an occurance that Chuck D tossed out a couple of pieces of trivia, such as the fact that the band hadn't played "Terminator X" since the famous DJ retired in 1998, and had never played, I think it was "Mind Terrorist" (or was it "Louder than a Bomb"?) in concert ever before this tour.

Amazing. Unbelievable. Even though both of these guys are pushing 50 they were jumping around the stage and rocking out like 1988 was yesterday. Totally not lipsynched - they brought it and delivered what I believe was the best PE show I could have asked for, despite some of the Pitchfork sound issues (not PE's fault).

Even though I was sad Terminator X wasn't present, DJ Lord did an amazing job on the turntables, and they had a great live drummer to back it up. Flavor Flav even rocked out a drum beat -- pretty good!

They went way over their time limit, busting into a general PE concert after finishing the album. Totally worth my money, and it caught my breath to finally get a chance to see them after having listened to their music for the 21 years of their existence - buying all their tapes and wearing them out.

By the way, I've got killer Flavor Flav moves that I've cultivated over the years. You can see them if you ask nicely. :)

My attempt at an "Onion" headline:

Gun control supports express outrage at Supreme Court decision by shooting gun rights activists.

Irony at its best, I think. The alternative:

In midst of celebration of the Supreme Court's decision, gun rights activists shoot gun control supporters.

First mistake.

I'm usually really good at buying yarn on the internet. So when I began searching for yarn for Peter's seamless hybrid sweater, I wasn't worried. However, I should have known that the curse of the sweater would come back to haunt me. See I started another sweater for him years ago, four years ago to be exact. I didn't like the yarn -- it was brown Rowan Cashsoft DK. Not that the feel of the yarn was bad, it was just that as I was knitting it up it didn't appear to be a color that I thought Peter would wear. I thought the Cashsoft was just too unsweater-like -- too soft and silky. But I wanted brown, so this time around I went with Knit Picks "Wool of the Andes," again, in chocolate. When I got it in the mail, I loved it, and so I stupidly threw away the invoice. Now I'm knitting it up and I don't love it at all, I don't even like it. I've realized what I was missing all along with this sweater -- heather. The yarn needs to be less solid. I guess that's what I was getting at before but could never really identify. I've made one last internet purchase, this time from WEBS, with some closeout Berroco Ultra Alpaca. We'll see if this color satisfies my needs, otherwise I think I'm going to pause with the internet shopping and go back to the yarn store so that I can feel, smell, and see the wool first-hand. Until then, know anyone who needs a boat load of chocolate Knit Picks?

Friday cuteness!

Her Royal Cuteness (Red Panda @ DC / US National Zoo)
Originally uploaded by Nikographer [Jon]

Collective *sigh*.

On a side note, Peter and I went to see the Kids in the Hall last night. They're touring a live show right now across the U.S., though I don't know when it ends. However, if they are coming to somewhere near you, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT! It was so great. I'm not as big of a fan as Peter, though I like them, but it was so funny and so great. They're still relevant and they've still got it!

Synopsis to come...

Dusk
Originally uploaded by Faux pas

...but in the mean time, you can view all our Seattle photos (minus Peter's broken toe, which he made me delete) here. Enjoy!

It finally IS a sweater!

My first sweater
Originally uploaded by Faux pas

This post is a little over a week late, but here it is: I finally finished my first sweater! It's the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, knitted in a beautiful green Cash Iroha -- totally worth what I paid for it on eBay.

I used the T-shirt hem method from the Nothing But a T-Shirt pattern, which is still available on Ravelry, but no longer on MagKnits. I knitted the small version, but I added a couple of inches to the body and the sleeves. I also added a few extra yoke decreases to make a narrower neckline.

I'm so in love with this sweater that I took it with me to Seattle this past weekend, despite the fact that it's not blocked yet. It was so warm and springy, perfect for the sea breeze there.

I'm so happy with this first sweater that sweaters no longer seem so daunting. Hence I've got two more on needles already. This jacket from Drops in what has to be my favorite yarn so far Mirasol Sulka, and a seamless hybrid sweater for Peter. I figured after six years together (anniversary next week) it's now safe to knit him a sweater :)