Swatching and waiting

OK, so I refuse to give up. I spent a good amount of time on Sunday with the lace diamonds pattern. Had to rewrite it 4 times to get the stitch count right. I worked the pattern in some kitchen cotton just to practice. I have frogged the actual swatch 3 times now. I am still not sure my decreases are “perfect”. There are 3 lace swatches required.

There are a number of lace cloths here that might be modified.

Got an email yesterday saying my yarn might be in in 2 days, THEN will be shipped to me. Aghhhh!

Test Knitting

from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EnidsDesignsKAL/ Went through the washer and dryer, needs some blocking for a better pic. Still waiting on 1 more skein of yarn to finish my sleeves from Marji or Laura. Agghhhhhhhh, the frustrations of the Level II program. I tried to alter one of the lace patterns from the cloth KAL and after 3 tries just couldn’t get the count right. I am going for a new pattern today. Still plugging away at the KPS sweater too.

WIP, Queens, MKP, Travel, Children

Slowly progressing on the sleeves for the 2-color jacket. Slow because every once in a while I pause to weave in all the ends on the solid color, as a result of changing skeins every row due to the color difference in the Manos :(

Slow progress on Level II of the TKGA Master Knitter’s Program also. Presently working on getting my binder in order, and rearranging all the updated changes since I originally started.

The 4 swatches that I did before are no longer required. Figures I worked on those that would be eliminated! I am left with 1 Lace swatch - unfinished and unblocked, out of the 22 required!

Participated in my first judging event for this year's Shad Derby Queen last night. Social hour followed by kick off speeches and then a 1 minute speech by each of the 12 girls. As each one finished each of the 4 judges had to score them: 1 - 15 - speech 1 - 10 poise 1 - 5 appearance

It was a lot harder than I thought. The girls presented in order of height, from shortest to tallest. I was quite impressed with the poise and personalities, let alone the accomplishments of these high school senior young ladies! This event counts as 15% of their total score. This was a “by invitation only” event.

The next judging event, the Secondary Judging, will be private and a little less formal, yet represents 60% of their score, on Tuesday April 3, 2007. As I understand it, the 4 judges along with the Judge’s Chair will formulate 4 questions to present to the young ladies. Each of us will present the same question to each of the Candidates.

"Each candidate will be evaluated based on: Involvement - community and schoolOutside interestsKnowledge of current eventsAppearancePoisePersonalityAttitude in answer to question "Why do you want to be the Shad Derby Queen?" It should be noted, the judges determine the questions and content of the interviews."

The last event is the Coronation Ball on May 5, 2007.

III. Final Judging Coronation Ball - 25% Each candidate will be judged on: EssayPoise Appearance “Coronation Ball - 25% Each candidate will be judged on: EssayPoise Appearance”

Still working on processing our trip to China this summer. So excited! I finally was able to get the invoice, cc authorization and visa documents last night, so we can fax the deposit in hopefully today. We just realized that we need passport photos (2 since we will have a double entry visa - from US and Hong Kong). So we need to get to AAA for those. Thankfully we both have current passports.

Child #2 is moving closer! Yes, after almost 3 years on the West Coast, in SF, she is moving to NYC. She is in the process of working with travel nursing agencies. It seems that with her experience at UCSF she should have no problem finding work at a large teaching hospital. And they find her housing, a fully furnished one bedroom apartment in NYC. We have friends who have purchase a studio apartment for $250,000!

I’ll visit with Child #1, wife and grandson tomorrow. I need more pictures!

Buttons

Well I changed my blogger template and all seems to be finally working!

Yesterday Hubby and I took a drive about 1 hour north of here to Webs. Oh my!I found some great buttons that will work perfectly with the 048 Mac and Me Adult Two Color Jacket– yes!

I also picked up a 10 skein package of Queensland Uruguay DK! Color 10 - not sure exactly how to describe the color, and I can’t find color names anywhere on the web. A yummy merino/alpaca/silk blend, Uruguay DK is perfect for light garments and accessories.Content: 70% Merino/20% Baby Alpaca/10% SilkWeight/Yardage: 50 Grams/124 YardsGauge: 5.5sts=1″ #6 needlesKnitting Weight: DK

Not sure what I will do with it, but I was having so much fun getting overwhelmed with all that yarn. I had a few picked out and then just decided to make a choice!

Well back to work tomorrow. Overfall it has been a good week in spite of being sick for part of it. Didn’t get as much accomplished as I had planned, but did get some of the kitchen floor stripped, hair cut and touched up, manicure and pedicure, dry cleaning done, and a couple of girly lunches. Got some new baby pics up.

The baby sweater is done except for the snaps and ties sewn on. Worked a bit on the Mac N Me jacket, and the KPS top down raglan.

Vacation?

Been down and out with the flu most of the week Effie did get to the spa though. Don’t you just love her braid? Managed to get the 2 February cloths done, the Hearts and the Lace Diamonds mid-month cloth.

I had intended to have more progress, but spending 24/7 in bed asleep didn’t help Working bottom up in the round, now split so using 3 skeins at once. Started both sleeves. Mangaged to fininsh the kimono, need about another inch on the sleeves. Then I can sew it together, put on the snaps and ties and be done with it. Plenty of time for the May baby! I missed Phil’s BD being sick in bed, but some friends delivered this: