Another kind of cold

Uch. Thursday night I came down with a cold. I spent all day in bed yesterday with aches and chills. I feel better today, but still like I've been hammered into a new shape. And I don't think it is a very attractive shape.

Anyway, this week I worked on my felted hotpad and coaster set. I have finished all the pieces, I just have to felt them now. If I have the energy, I'll do it tomorrow. Here is what they look like pre-feltiing:

I also finished Kosta's pair of hand warmers. I took some awesome goofy pictures of him wearing them, but he didn't want me to post them on the blog (for someone so unabashedly weird, I find that surprising). So here are just his hands:

Why he looks like he his clutching the sofa arm for dear life I cannot say. At least now that I have finished these hand warmers, the weather is guaranteed to promptly hit the 80s again, and render them quite useless and unnecessary. So that will be nice.

In other news I went to a wine tasting/Stitch n' Bitch on Thursday night. Gabriella (of Gabriella's Yarn Shop) doesn't call it that per se, but that is definitely what it was.  There were about a dozen of us grouped around the big center table in the room. Gabriella's Maltese puppy, Lily, made the rounds, being adorable and snatching balls of wool off the lower shelves. I'll be sure to bring my camera next time to capture the little munchkin. So was so dang cute I wanted to put her in my pocket and take him home.

The wine tasting was an unexpected surprise. We had tastes of five wines, I think. There were some really good Chilean reds, and there was a kick-ass Sauvignon Blanc that we sampled.

I was a little timid walking in the room, but the ladies made me feel welcome right away. (The wine also helped.) I sat next to a very nice lady name Mary Pat who was from the Chicago area, and another lady (whose name I shamefully can't remember) from the Milwaukee area. That's the thing about living in vacationland - everyone is from somewhere else.

After we had wrapped up, I asked Gabriella  to help me pick out yarn for my next project. One of my really good friends in high school just had her first baby one week ago today. I am going to make this for her her little baby Jude:

She didn't have the right yarn in a good red, so I got orange and I am going to make an orange instead of an apple. If I feel ambitious and lucky after I finish the hat, I might try booties to go with it.

Otherwise, I am still pretty pooped from being sick. I don't feel I have made a very witty or interesting blog entry, but I wanted to keep up to date with things here.

Tomorrow I will write about the book I finished: Stephanie Pearl McPhee's Knitting Rules! I am currently reading Knitting Lessons  by Lela Nargi.

Crap...here's a dilemma

So I went to the yarn store tonight. I drove up to Gabriella's Yarn Shop. It is a good half an hour from my house, but I got good vibes from the website, and I had emailed Gabriella herself earlier in the week to see if she was offering any classes soon.

So when I pulled up tonight I was a little surprised to see an ambulance and police car in front of the store. There didn't seem to be anything going on inside (I could see in the windows and saw two women talking), so I went in. It turns out the husband of Gabriella had an allergic reaction to some kind of food and wasn't doing so well. They were all in the back room with the paramedics. I felt instantly awkward and made to leave. But Jill (one of the ladies I saw in the window) told me that he was doing all right and that I should look around. So I did while they were finishing up with Mr. Gabriella (can't remember his name, or their last name at the moment). I picked out some yarn, and Gabriella herself came out and talked to me for a few minutes. She was really sweet and encouraged me to come back next Thursday night for the group knit.

The store had lots of beautiful stuff, and a I bought a few things. Here is what I am going to make my hand warmers with:

Pretty, huh? This is Noro Silk Garden Light, color #2027. It is beautiful with blues, greens, purples and browns. I am starting on them tomorrow morning.

And then I bought some other stuff too. I don't have any definite plans for it yet, but the colors are so pretty, I might make a ribbed scarf out of it.

This is Galway Pure Wool, worsted weight in 149 (turquoise), 145 (lime), and 15 (dark periwinkle). My mother would call the last color blue, and I would call it purple. We always disagree about blues and purples.

And finally, here is a picture of the teapot hot pad I am currently working on:

And herein lies my dilemma. What on earth do knitters do when they are in the middle of a project and they buy new shiny yarn that is begging to be used?

Tomorrow morning: The Keys!