Another convert

Carla came over yesterday morning for her knitting lesson. As you may have noticed I was in a horrible mood and had she been less of a friend she may have just left me to stew in my own unhappiness. As it was, we went to breakfast and she cheered me up a bit. Isn't it great to have friends like that?

We came back and started her lesson. This is the first time I've taught the throwing/English method of knitting and it worked very well. I will say it is easier to teach than Continental. She picked it up quickly and had more than an inch done on her practice square by the time she left. Her first project is a baby blanket for her friend who is having a baby in March – that should give her plenty of time. I'm going to recommend she use Lion Brand Homespun because it's so soft and will knit up quickly. I can't figure out yardage yet, so if anyone has suggestions let me know.

Here she is learning:

My SnB group was meeting at Pita Jungle yesterday afternoon, and even though I was tired and still a little cranky I went down to Chandler. I wanted to get everyone's opinion on my illusion scarf and see if I should keep going. The consensus was yes, it is a worthwhile project. At least it goes quickly – and I don't get bored because every other row I have to count stitches and make sure I work in pattern. Needless to say I did not work on it during the gathering – I know better than to try and count and talk.

It was fun to see everyone – Illanna's sweater looks great, although I guess she found a big error in the pattern, which probably explains why she was running out of yarn. Nick came towards the end with his lovely fancy scarf yarn, and a few people came and went. It was a good group – not too large.

But afterwards the real excitement starts. I walked out of the restaurant with Illanna and unlocked my car (the unlocky thing is on my key). When I sat down to turn on the car, the key was not on the ring. It fell off. Somewhere between the door of Pita Jungle and my car. I searched everywhere, in both my bags, in the backseat, under the car (no easy feat for a very pregnant girl to crawl around on the asphalt), seriously, everywhere. I even went back into the restaurant to ask if someone had brought it in. No luck.

Joe came and rescued me – we live about a half an hour away so I busied myself at Sprouts, the organic grocery store in the shopping center. He arrived, I walked him through what I did and where I went. He got in my car, dug in my knitting bag, and found the key. First of all, how the hell did the key get in my knitting bag? Second of all, of the three times I looked in there, why didn't I find it? This little adventure did not improve my mood or my level of tiredness. And eating an entire row of Fig Newmans didn't help either. When I got home I felt queasy and exhausted.

Parley came for dinner. Joe made chili and we sat around and talked about who we could possibly vote for in this election. Parley is another good kind of friend – we didn't even clean off the dining room table, we just sort of pushed stuff around so we could all fit. Oh, and he brought yellow tulips like we used to buy in New York – they haven't opened yet but they are going to be very pretty.

I forgot to mention I was using photobucket for my pictures now – it works great. You can upload your picture on that site and then copy the html code to your blog. I guess it works for ebay too, although I've never sold anything on ebay. Thanks Illanna for the tip.

I am taking a day off from my top ten, because I realized it's the final ten! I have to read through my list and make certain I have everything on there that I want. Don't fret though, the list will be back tomorrow.