The goodies

How is everyone? Did you survive the holidays?!?!



Here in Cleveland things have been non-stop. Christmas was a good time with the family. I got some great gifts and I have been eating non-stop. The best gift of all came from my neighbor.



Red velvet cake. She has been making this cake for years and we get one every Christmas. It is gooooooooood. I dreamt about this cake. I love this cake more than you can know. No one on this earth has made a better cake. EVER! (Can you tell how much I love this cake?)

Yesterday, all of the women of the family (aunts,cousins,sisters) went to see the movie Dreamgirls. Jennifer Hudson was phenomenal! I have never been to a theater where everyone burst into spontaneous applause. It's worth it to just see her. Beyonce's role was not as major as the advertisements made it seem but I think it was much better that way.


I'm getting ready to head to Detroit so I may not be back to blogland until Friday. It all depends on my internet connections. When I do return, I am going to do a review of Knitpicks Swish Superwash Wool yarn. I am using it for my current project and it has some interesting characteristics that I think knitters will be interested in.

Gettin ready for the world tour

I'm all packed up and ready to go. Unlike last years debacle where I almost missed my flight, I am ready to start the journey to see family for the holidays. Here is the itinerary:

From Raleigh fly to Chicago(1 day), drive to Cleveland (6 days), drive to Detroit (2 days), drive back to Cleveland (1 day), drive to Chicago (2 days), and then fly back to Raleigh.

All of this just so I wouldn't have to spend New Years in Raleigh or Cleveland. I've spent most of my NYE's in Cleveland and there was no way I wanted to be in good ole exciting (sarcasm) Raleigh. Instead I opted to spend it with my sister in Chicago which required flying to Chicago so that I can fly out of Chicago. I suspect I'll be really tired when I return.




Last night I had to go to Kohl's (love that place) to buy a carry-on bag that I could packed with some newly acquired yarns to keep me busy during all the travel time. Knitpicks Swish, Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere, and Lion Brand Micro-spun. One of the projects is for Yahaira's Sensual Knits book and another for a magazine.

The good thing about all the vacation time is that I will get a chance to catch up on all of my email and blog reads.

To answer one of the questions from the previous post:
-The West Indian restuarant is called Doctor's Cove and it's located off Business 70 in Durham near the old Harley Davidson dealership.

Before I go I wanted to show you the Christmas present I bought for myself. I realized that I rarely just treat myself. I usually only shop when I need something, not just for pure indulgence (that's not including yarn and fabric).



This my friends is the Vanilla Bean Henri Bendel candle from Bath & Body Works. At $26, this is all about pure indulgence. I only own 2 candles and both are Henri Bendel. The other is a scent called Osmanthus. The scents are out of this world and worth every penny. Most people won't pay $26 on 1 candle but will buy a ton of cheap ones that probably total more than that and don't smell half as good.

That's all for now folks. Stay tuned. I'm sure my family adventures will provide some entertaining blog fodder for the next few weeks.

I've got nothing people.

I am going to waste a perfectly good post to tell you that I have nothing good to talk about. I've been strugglin the last few days about what I could post about but my thoughts have all been jumbled. Nothing is forming into coherent,fun,perky,entertaining sentences.

The primary reason is because I'm working on the book project. Fun times, fun times. Let me just say I'm not a big fan of the Cochenille design software right now. My old paper/pen/calculator system was faster. Or maybe I am just used to it.

I did get out this past weekend. I spent Friday chatting it up with my girls, and then Saturday I spent time with a male friend (sorry Mamacita, he's just a friend), had some West Indian food (curry goat,yummmmmm) and went to a friend's birthday party(cute boys, yeah!). It's good to have male and female friends. It can balance out your perspective on the world.

On Sunday I watched Hustle. It's a British show about a group of con artists that I rent from Netflix. It's a pretty good show. I'm ashamed to say the main reason I rented it was because the lead character used to play Ellis on the show Girlfriends.

Well, those are the highlights. I wish I had something more interesting, but I don't. Needless to say I will be neck deep in projects for the next week so I may be a little scarce. See ya.

The Beautiful Ones

While I did not purify myself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka I did successfully get my copy of the Purple Rain soundtrack onto my ipod. Last night's mission was to get my most difficult (read, most scratched up) CDs onto my ipod. Prince's original and Mariah Carey's remake of The Beautiful Ones were the highlight of my evening.




Oh, the beautiful ones....

Want to talk about beautiful? Let's talk about this Malabrigo yarn and the Smores pattern. Just luscious stuff. I have the front done and will work on the back tonight.

Another beautiful thing...Jared's lastest ....a stranded hat pattern. That boy can do no wrong.

Storytellin: The Open Road

Here is the tale that involved the faux beaver fur coat and a JCPenney's outlet.

The setup:
Mamacita is a power catalog shopper. Before there was internet there were catalogs, and this was her domain. JCPenneys is her favorite. You could call and place an order until the wee hours of the night.

The story:
One autumn Friday night in my high school years, Mamacita and I were home alone. My father was on a trip, my sister spent the night at my aunt's house, and my brother was in college. Around 10pm she was leafing through a sales catalog and stumbled upon this faux floor length beaver fur coat. As she is placing her order she has been told that the sale is over and that they no longer have the coat in the warehouse. I don't know the particulars but after a few conversations she finds that they have sent all the leftover coats to the outlet store in Columbus.

Saturday, at approx. 9am, she calls the outlet store to see if they have the coat. They do but they only have one of her size and they cannot put it on hold because it is the outlet store. Here is what came next....

9:15am or so....
Mamacita: (screams through the house) Are your up? Come here!
Me: Unhhh? (as I get out of my bed)
Mamacita: Get dressed. You are going to ride with me to Columbus.
Me: What?
Mamacita: (tells me the story) Get dressed. We're going to leave in about 20 minutes.
Me: Uhhh,okay.

By 9:45 am, we started our 2.5 hour journey. As we drive we start to notice a bit of roadkill. After the 15th dead raccoon and me saying "Ewwwww" each time, Mamacita says "Any more and I won't need to buy the coat. I can make my own." For some reason we start counting with this weird laughter after each one. After 45, it was confirmed that we both could have a raccoon coat.

By 11:30, we were there.(If you notice, that's not 2.5 hours) I had to guard the coats while she found someone to unchain them from the rack. Mamacita was serious about me guarding the coats. Real serious.

Needless to say, she got her coat, I got some clothes, and we were back in Cleveland by 4:00. And.....the total count of roadkill was about 115.


Mamacita was an inspiration that day. Now I know where I get it from.
Saturday, I woke up at 8am and drove 2+ hours to Charlotte, bought my fabric, and was back home by 3:30.







And I leave you with picture of the Candy Stripe sweater. It was a learning experience. The top-down method does not allow easily fixing mistakes, so I have a few. The biggest issue is the neckline. I made it too small to add my intending ribbing so I had to improvise. I'm not totally convinced on this, so I may change it later. For right now I consider it finished. Onto new things. YEAH!