It's Not a Sprint . . .

. . . it's a marathon.

This weekend I made some serious progress on my Hemlock Ring Blanket which is really good since this project has been a "in progress" since last December. The phrase "in progress" is sort of misleading in this case it should have been categorized as "just sitting". But ItShe and I got some serious knitting time in Saturday and then I got to work on it again for most of Monday while Big A was working on his car on Monday in Riverside.

The blanket is now to big to be able to take a picture with it laid out flat, but if I were knitting a gigantic jelly fish made out of wool this is what it would look like.



I was able to get 6 repeats done, and now I only have 4 more repeats to go until the very long cast-off.

Going Rogue

I finished my Rogue Roses Socks from the second installment of the Rockin' Sock Club 2009. When I got my shipment I was excited because the pattern was created by no other than the Yarn Harlot. I read the dyers notes and the little blurb that Stephanie wrote about how she was inspired by the 110 year old climbing rose bush outside her bedroom window that when "rogue". I love that fact that the pattern mirrors each other it makes it easier to have a dedicated left and right sock. The colorway (called Gertrude Skein, hysterical) isn't one I would have chosen but I like it. The only problem is that the medium weight (while faster to knit) is hard on my hands.

Here are a few pictures of my new socks:

Happy Terrier Day!

Today April 14, 2009 in The City of Boston is officially Terrier Day.

I would like to thank Lindsay's former boss, Mayor Menino for the proclamation that he signed that makes today Terrier Day. I'm a proud alumna of Boston University home of the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Champions and having it be Terrier Day is amazing. I wish I could have been there today to watch the Duck Boat Parade and rally at Marsh Plaza in person. The church in the background is Marsh Chapel, where I got married in '03, its never looked more BU-tiful!

So what's with the "Burn the Boats?" here is an excerpt from The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy to help explain:

All season long, BU players wore T-shirts emblazoned with "Burn the Boats."

After the game, Parker explained the theme. It turns out the 16th-century explorer didn't want to hear any whining from his men as they invaded what is now Mexico in search of Aztec treasures.

"The last night going inland to get the treasure he gave one last order and that order was 'burn the boats,' " said Parker. "They asked him why and he said, 'I want to raise the level of commitment. If you want to get this treasure, you have to raise the level of commitment because nobody else can do this.' His quote was, 'If we're going back, we're going back in their boats.'

"We decided that was going to be the theme for our team. Raise the level of commitment, boys. Every time you see the phrase 'burn the boats,' you're going to know the commitment needed here. The T-shirt showed a pot of gold with DC in the back. They got that pot of gold tonight."

Coach Parker wanted each guy on the team to be more committed to the goals of the season and to the team and once you "burn your boats" you have to be committed, no turning back.

I would like to thank the hockey team for bringing home the second National Title home to Comm Ave since I've been a Terrier, words cannot express how much that final game meant to every member of Terrier Nation. And to Jack Parker, I wish I could find a better phrase than "thank you" to express what you have meant to me and BU.

BURN THE BOATS!

Today was nothing short of amazing for many reasons here are the top four:

4. It is Bobmas (this will be the last knitting reference in this post)
3. It is my favorite baseball player's birthday Team Captain for the Boston Red Sox Jason Varitek (happy birthday Captain)
2. The Red Sox won this afternoon at Anaheim

And the number one reason why today was amazing is my alma mater Boston University Men's Hockey Team won the National Championship in over time.

I will post more about this tomorrow (and what the title of my post means) but here is a blurb from the The Terrier Hockey Fan Blog that I liked.

The championship game win--by the numbers:
• The win was the 35th of the season, setting an all-time Terrier record.
• It was also BU's 45th game of the season, another record.
• And it gave the senior class an even 100 wins over four season.
• Parker became the first Division I coach in history to earn 30 NCAA Tournament victories, passing crosstown rival and contemporary Jerry York of Boston College, who has 29.
• The victory was also BU's first and only overtime win during a season in which they were ranked #1 for much of the year.
• BU won six tournaments this season (IceBreaker, Denver Cup, Beanpot, Hockey East Tournament, NCAA Regional, Frozen Four) and seven titles, the seventh being the Hockey East regular season title.
• The Terriers remain undefeated in games in which Nick Bonino scores at least one point (25-0--3)
• Freshman netminder Kieran Millan extended his record away from Agganis Arena to 16-0-1. BU finished the season with a 17-0-2 record in its final 19 games away from home.
• Colby Cohen's NCAA-championship-winning goal was the #1 top play on ESPN SportsCenter. Bonino's tying goal was #3.
• BU has now played in 10 national championship games and has won five times (19771, 19772, 1978, 1995, 2009)

Cupcake Love from Ravelry

HAPPY BOBMAS EVE Everyone!

Last year ItShe, Grape and I went to The Grove to celebrate Bobmas and I made cupcakes. And today on Ravelry there was mention of what kind of things people did to celebrate last year. Here is a screen shot of the homepage of Ravelry:



If you click on the link that says cupcakes it was a picture that someone took of the cupcakes that I made last year. I was so honored and proud that the cupcakes that I made were on the homepage of Ravelry.

Here is a picture I took last year, you can see more of the front of each cupcake:



Also how cute is that picture of Bob? And of course a special thanks to everyone at Ravelry for a site that had made life so much better, I can't express how great the site is and how much it means to all of us. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Hold My Mail Please

*WARNING SPOILER FOR ROCKIN' SOCK CLUB in this post*

Last weekend was a big one for Big A. Last weekend was Spring Festival the biggest most important car show of the season. I won't go into it but it was fun and Big A's car got to be in "Horse Power Alley", which is a huge deal. We had our mail put on hold since we were going to be gone from Thursday until Sunday. And when we got back I had 3 fiber-y things in the mail.

You might have also notice that I have a counter on the top of my blog. I'm trying to knit out of my stash so I thought a little cute counter would keep me honest, I put it up there after Stitches West. I have had to re-start it only once so far and I consider it to be an exception because JanaA on Ravelry sold me a skein of Strange Little Mama to replace my lost sock. You wanna know the best part? The skein she sold me is from the same dye lot. The same dye lot I purchased almost 2 years ago. It's a fiber miracle. Here is a picture:



The second thing that came in the mail was my second installment of the Rockin' Sock Club. This shipment is out of my color palette but the pattern is from the wonderfully talented (and funny) Yarn Harlot. The colorway for this shipment is called Gertrude Skein, very funny, and the pattern is called Rogue Roses. I casted on last night with this little voice on the back of my head saying it looks a little big, the voice was right, I'm frogging later. Here is a picture of the installment:



The last thing is one of the best, I traded a skein of Wollmeise sock club yarn. Yes I did, but I traded it for Wollmeise in a colorway I have been coveting since the day I discovered Wollmeise. This shipment came with two skeins of yarn, Orient and Okzident, here are pictures of each.





I traded the Orient (the orange one) for Krauterbeet which is "herb garden" in German. It is the most perfect green that blends into the the loveliest purple. It might look like the Okzident above, but it's not.