my weekend of knitting

OH I had such fun! I'm totally hooked on the knitting classes thing. I need more of these weekends as they're inspiring and FUN! I have no pics now. Most of the stuff I have is at Jeff's and the camera and scanner is at my house. We're getting closer and closer to having most of my crap over there, can't wait for official MI-Day!

Nicky Epstein is a hoot. I swear, she's got so much bouncing around in her head, it's a wonder she gets anything done at all. She just cranks stuff out and BAM there's another cool design. I had a blast. I took edgings & embellishments and also her class on knitted flowers. I spent WAY WAY WAY too much money at the market and had fun doing that too! OH the books I have, OH the yarn I have, OH the projects that are waiting for me!!!! I also got 6 skeins of the most luscious deep blues of koigu to make a shawl for my friend Jill! Haven't decided what pattern to use yet, but it's going to be REALLY hard to give away! I also love making new knitting friends! I'm going to have to get my butt over to the guild meetings more often and am planning on starting to do the Thurs night knitting at the Yarn Shop & More in downtown OP starting in a week or so. There's just nothing like sitting around with other women and knitting and talking and sharing and petting each other's yarns!!!

Mom & Dad survived the weekend with my children at the Lake and they all had a blast. Jeff also had no children, so we were just us two. It was wonderful. Friday night we painted the living room and munched on overpriced chinese food. OK, I painted two wall's worth of the bottom edging next to the trim and then was delegated to do the cracks where the walls fit together and he did the rest of the work. I've not got a steady hand, it wasn't pretty. SO, if you come to our home sometime, move the couch away from the far wall to admire my work. We used this lovely dark shade of brownish green, hard to describe, but I LOVE IT! What did Jeff do while I was out from 9am -5pm knitting my heart out on Saturday? Put a second coat on the living room, painted the dining room (2 coats) and then moved all the furniture back and hung pictures up AND built me a little cubby-hole thing to keep my shoes in our closet AND vacuumed the entire house. DAYYYYAAAAMMMMM I was so impressed!

Sat night we decided, hey, we've got no children, we need to go out and play. ***I totally forgot to go get some of my little chasers anti-hangover pills*** We went bowling with my favorite friend of Jeff's and his wife and had a BLAST and too many margaritas. GOD BLESS my old friend from the bowling alley as we should have paid over $100 and ended up paying $22. AWESOME! THEN we had too much fun to go home, so off to Scoreboards for karaoke and entirely too much beer. Long story short, I need to remember that now that I'm over 35, I need to pick ONE thing and stick with it if I go out drinking. Beer all night, fine. Wine all night, fine. Beer, margaritas, more beer, shots, more beer, NOT fine. Jeff was right with me. I always know when he's lit as he starts dancing. WOOOO baby we tore things UP that night (don't worry, I wasn't so bad that I sang or anything--I don't get THAT drunk any more!) I did get a bit mouthy, I know, I know, hard to imagine! OH LORDY LORDY my hands were shaking like an old lady's the next morning. Good thing my am class was on learning about fibers and all that was expected of me was to nod my head gently and knit a few swatches. By lunchtime I was better, and by night-fall I was ready for bed at 9pm and tired ass out.

SURVIVING HANGOVERS 101.....
FIRST of all, take those damn chasers pills with your first drink and again at some point in the night. If you forget like I dID, take 2 alleve pills before bed with a big glass of water. The next am, take 2 more alleves and another big glass of water. Move slowly. Drink something with caffeine, I've heard green tea works well, I do diet coke. When you can tolerate food, around lunchtime, eat mashed potatoes. Get some form of protein in you, I find fried chicken from KFC to do the trick for me. Avoid greasy burgers by all means. Later that evening, take a few sips of a beer or something mildly alcoholic and throw the rest out. Drink enough water during the day to drown a cow and you'll be feeling better in no time.

Through the weekend, I realized that there are a LOT of advanced and intermediate knitters who don't get felting. They want to, but don't quite know how. I was asked top share my tips, so I'll work up a FELTING 101 tomorrow or Wed, depending on how much work gets in the way of my fun.