My LYS Knit In is a good time and place to finish up small projects. Today I tweaked the fit of this shrug and knit the garter stitch border around the opening. I don’t know how often I’ll wear this but it is cute. A few hundred more trips to the gym to eradicate the back fat and granny arms, and I might be more inclined to sport the backless tops more often.

Remember when I told you I’ve never been on any kind of organized athletic team? Well that may have to be amended. At the 3rd Annual Knit Out (as featured on my last podcast) I conquered all comers and now reign supreme as the Skip, Skip, Knit Obstacle Course Champion. *sound the trumpets*

Thankfully Jen didn’t get any pictures of me tossing felt balls or knitting with pool noodles (my best event) but you can take a lookey loo at the other pictures of the day on the W&C blog

The best part of being a reigning champion is the swag you get at the medal ceremony.

Six skeins of Cascade Venezia and 10 balls of Skacel Vacation, all packed in a handy shoulder bag. I think the Vacation will become a Ballet Wrap Sweater that was the cover look on the Winter 2005 Interweave Knits mag. The Venezia is such a lovely yarn I can’t wait to cast something on with it but I haven’t happened upon the *right* pattern yet.

Big Thanks go out to:
Neil and Lesly, proprieters of Wool & Co. that made my success possible.
My cheerleading team of Little E, Mini-me, Carol and Jodee, thank you for your support and enthusiasm.
And great appreciation goes out to all the very able bodied women with whom I competed. You all put up a great fight right to the end.

Maybe someday I’ll share my secret to speedy pool noodle knitting.

Sometimes you just need to cast on and knit something simple and fast.

I’ve had this Knit Picks yarn in my stash for about a year and it has been nagging me. I bought it to make the Mitered-Square Jacket that used to be featured at Knit Picks, but after getting through half of the back I realized it was one big, gaudy Cosby-esque pile of fug. I haven’t frogged that yet but it is on my must-do list, I’m not looking forward to rewinding all that yarn. But I still had oodles of unused skeins (I bought 12!) of this stuff.

As a reprieve from all that lace I needed some simple, fast, mindless knitting and I wasn’t in the mood for a sock. Hence, a garter stitch shawl was born. The yarn still knits up gaudy and loud, but the colors are pretty and it will keep my neck and shoulders cozy this winter.

I’ve also been busy photographing and uploading pictures of yarn and projects to Flickr Why? Well obviously I received my Ravelry invite! Now that I’m there, I can see what all the hype was about. It is a very unique and useful website and I think it will be a great benefit to the knitting community. I’ve already found uses for yarn I have in my stash by browsing other users’ projects. If you are on the waiting list, be patient, it’s worth the wait.