Purl Side of the Moon

What Have We Done

Sorry to disappear from the Earth...Once again things got a little busy in my life. 

I've been knitting...and er...some reknitting.  I've been working on my Norwegian hat.  Last time we met I had to tink back some.  Then I got to a pretty good point like about this much:

What you don't see on the other side is a mistake that went undetected forever, so it went back to this:

Yeah, I could have left the mistake, but it was driving me mad.  So this weekend I finally finished the Norwegian hat:

But guess what...Nope no mistakes... But the damn thing swallows my head. Don't ask me why I kept on knitting when I knew it was getting too big.  I guess I was in denial.  I've seen them on people and usually there is a bit extra on top...but I've never liked a lot of extra on top, and my opinion hasn't changed now that I tried it on.  Also what is a little bit of extra on others is a whole lot of extra on my pea sized head!

So just revert back to the first picture for how the hat will look after this post. Actually, it won't be that bad. I just have to rip back and redo the decreases. I just have to figure how far back I need to rip to make it fit right.

So I had a filled weekend.  I camped out for tickets to our annual Jimmy Buffett concert.  We had a blast and turned it into a raging tailgate party. I got my tickets!!!!  Kona and Marley had fun camping out for tickets too.  I became the human dog bed while sleeping in the truck that night.  We were all cozy...(This is from my view underneath the dogs.)

Speaking of tickets...Just three more weeks and I'll be in NY to see David Gilmour!!!  Whew hoo!

Give Birth to a Smile

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID GILMOUR!!!

Today is the 60th birthday of the greatest guitarist on the planet.  Woo hoo!  Tomorrow will also mark the release (FINALLY!) of the U.S. version of his new album "On an Island."  Yes, I will immediately be obtaining a copy and listening to it non-stop.  Actually, I've already heard it through many sources that have been provided through the internet and as it has been debuted on London, Canadian and US radio stations. It's fabulous! Tomorrow David Gilmour will be doing a special performance at the Mermaid Theatre which can be partially watched live from BBC2...Just in case you too wanted to see it.  Also...for any of you Floyd/Gilmour fans, Sirus radio's channel "The Vault" has dedicated this weeks schedule to 24-7 David Gilmour and Pink Floyd tunes.  I am a lucky subscriber already, but I think I would get Sirus just for that.  I will be able to tune in from my computer at work...and if you want to check that out...Sirus lets you have a three day free pass to do so from any computer.  It should be a great week at work...as long as I don't have too many meetings or interuptions!   Needless to say, Purl Side is one happy Pink Floyd fan right now.

I was so busy this week, I didn't catch up on nearly as much as I wished.  But I did start at new project:

After seeing this shitty photo (sorry, flash washout), I realized that I made a mistake and need to rip out a couple of rows. CHICKEN FARTS!  Anyway, this is the Bea Ellis Norwegian hat  Ufserud.  And I've decided to join Yummy Yarns Norwegian Knits.  Yes, I'm already knitting Torino...but I'm having way too much fun with color and just love how this hat looks on MJ!  Go take a look!  My Ufserud is in a forest green and a beige color.  Plus, this is a great carry along project.  (Don't  even mention those unfinished Jaywalkers right now!!! LA LA LA LA LA...I CAN'T  HEAR YOU!!!!)

So this weekend was the 25th Anniversary of Alexandria's (VA) St. Patricks Day Parade here in Old Town.  If you aren't from this area...Let me just tell you, the parade is a BIG deal here. As you may gather from my previous talks on Alexandria, it is a historic town that is just a few miles from Mt. Vernon.  OT has a rich heritage of Irish and Scots as prominent citizens, and that is no different now...and we are mighty prideful of it!   After all, what's a better to do on a Saturday than stand in line for hours waiting for Murphy's and the other two Irish pubs on King Street (our main street) to open their doors at 10AM so we can all get Guinessed up for the parade! I actually didn't partake in this ritual this year...I'm getting too old and grumpy to be polite in the over-packed bars as the 50th person spills beer down my back.

Here are some parade pics for ya:

And my favorite...

The Sweet Smell

So Liz surprised me this past weekend with yet another wonderful wooly treat.  If you didn't already know, Liz has become quite an expert and quite obsessed with obtaining incredible sheep fleeces. She has her favorites already and loves purchasing all kinds to check out.  Well in her endeavor to get sheep fleeces that have been blessed with the hands of wooly gods last year, she has found some very special sheep that she has reserved for their wool this year.

Meet Molly.  Well at least meet her fleece:

Molly is a Shetland sheep and this is her "hoggett" fleece.  Meaning it is her first sheared fleece of the year.  This shearing is prized by most spinners.  And some spinners just love to say the word "hoggett"! 

Well as generous as Liz is, she offered to split the entire fleece with me so I too could share in the joy of Molly's greasy, silvery, fluffy, luxurious, (smelly) hoggett fleece this year.  Again, I know it is a strategic move on Liz's part.  She's really evil and enjoys luring us spinners in and getting us hooked on yet another aspect of our addiction.  I don't think she has to work any further on me...I'm already looking at buying a drum carder and eyeing other fleeces from farms she suggests!

Here's a bit of a close up.

I know these aren't the best pictures, but I really don't want to pull the smelly thing out of the bag again until there is some washing going on and the animals are tucked away. Marley already showed great admiration of Molly's pungent perfume and I can see her fighting with me to roll and rub all over her if I dared spread her out on the floor again!  I'm hoping the smell doesn't knock me over when I get around to cleaning the thing. Yuck!

Oh...BTW...I've got something else cool that I keep forgetting to blog about.  Guess what I finally purchased:

Considering my ability to perform any kind of math and design skill is about equal to that of a jellyfish, I finally shelled out the cashola for some electronic help.  I'm hoping that it will assist me with designing some (SIMPLE) new sweaters out of my homespun yarn.  Maybe the first one will be a Molly sweater!

Build Them a Home

BUSTED!  Yeah, I said tomorrow right...Sorry about that...I kind of did the same thing as Marley when I hit the couch last night:

She always cracks me up when she sleeps hanging on either side of a pillow.

So you want to hear about the huge stash divide, eh!  Well all us gals gathered over at Fidget Ann's house to bring together all our culled stash.  Can I just say how hard it was for me to abandon some of my stash; Even though it has been squished in the deep dark depths of several rooms in my house for months years.   Liz came over and helped prod me through the process and give me support through my separation anxiety.  I got rid of some Tahki Dazzle, Rowan Cotton Rope, Artyarns Supermerino, a bag full of novelty yarn leftovers and some that was given to me that I never touched, Cotton Fleece, and a few odd balls of stuff that were left over from some projects.

So then we went over to Ann's and let it join other rejected yarn skeins. In fact, there were so many orphaned skeins, we had two big piles.

Ha, that's my Dazzle right there in front...I had to practically pay someone to take it so I wouldn't have to take it back home!  So we snagged what we wanted and my, look how much was still left over!

Of course through the course of the night we couldn't stand seeing some of these skeins not go to a good home, so we conviced eachother of some useful projects for some of the stranded skeins. Then we all sat around and knit, drank wine and proceeded to talk like bad ass knitters!  What a fab group of gals that created funny and friendly mojo.  I had an absolute blast. Here's all of us in one room. (I'm not going to link all the names again, but go to the previous post to check all their sites out!)

First we have Isel, Jenna and Lolly:

Then we have Heather and Paula there on the floor and Chelsea

The back of Kell's head, Lara is sitting in front of her (also showing the back of her head), Holly, Rosanna, Amy, Liz, Ann and Sarah sitting there on the floor:

Whew! Hope I got all the names right! Oh! And Erin was there, but had to leave right before these shots were taken.

So what went home with me?

I got some DK Blue Sky Alpaca, some lovely Blue Sky Silk Alpaca in three different pastel colors, two skeins of Cascade, one skein of Lambs Pride (that will match my coat!) , some royal blue Zepher and a skein of recycled silk that will allow me to finish a scarf that I didn't have enough to finish, Yippee!  How perfect!

I also got something else wicked cool...But I'll save that (DARE I SAY IT) for tomorrow's post!

Oh...And today is my little brother's birthday!!!!  Happy Birthday Shannon!!!!  [Please note that I remembered!]