Catching Up

I spent the first half of my weekend celebrating Anthony's birthday, and the second half (plus Monday) trying to sleep away some sinus issues.

Friday night we went to the Hofbrauhaus in Newport, Kentucky, since Anthony had never been there before. We ate a ridiculous amount of food. We got the combo appetizer: sauerkraut balls, fried pickles, pretzels and potato pancakes. We got the Schmankerlplatte: platter for two featuring schweinsbraten, smoked pork chops and three wurst. Served with your choice of three side items: onion rings, schnitzel, and fried cabbage. Then to top it all off we got dessert: Schokoladen Torte (Mile High Chocolate Torte Cake). It might not have been mile high in size, but if you're looking for something unbelievably chocolatey, this is your dessert. Anthony has a low tolerance for extremely rich foods, so he was ready to run beside the car on the way home. It was pretty funny.

Saturday we had to run some errands, nothing too exciting, then we went to Half Price Books and Chipotle for lunch. Anthony got a couple of books, a pair of homemade owl boxers, a Chipotle t-shirt, and a scarf for his birthday.

The pattern is the Alien Illusion Scarf from Stitch & Bitch. The pattern calls for Brown Sheep Naturespun, but the yarn store I bought the yarn from said I could just use the Lamb's Pride, it would turn out the same. Nice try. The Lamb's Pride only has enough yardage to make five of the pattern's six alien heads, and that would be without fringe. So I splurged (cuz he's worth it) and bought a second skein of each.


I first learned of this scarf on another blog: Words And Wool, and when I showed the picture to Anthony, he told me that if he didn't get that scarf, he'd die. Rather than test his theory (and since he bought me the book), I thought I'd appease him. He doesn't ask for much. Happy coupla-days-after-your Birthday, cutie.



Here's a gratuitous photo. Mostly because I like the word gratuitous, but also because I took a bunch of pictures last weekend after I finished the scarf, and this was my favorite.









Okay, so since I bought that extra skein of limeade Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted... and since I had some other colors of the same... and since AmandaMonkey joined a fuzzy feet knit-a-long, I decided I should make some, too.

I finished the first one Sunday between passing out on the couch and taking sinus medicine. Some of you may recognize the pretty blue thanks-for-reading-a-poem-in-my-wedding yarn from Brenda. It goes pretty well with the Limeade, methinks. I'll have to take these to my parents' at Christmas to felt them along with my Knitty pumpkin. Speaking of, this fuzzy feet pattern comes from Knitty, too.



Lastly, a word to Knitsie:
I've been reading knitblogs for almost a year, and have been writing one for almost two months, and in that amount of time, I've never seen such a mean-spirited, snarky comment as yours. I was convinced that knitbloggers and knitblogreaders were a very supportive and helpful group, so thanks for proving that there are jerks out there, even in the knitblog community.

As for the Cherry Tree Hill sock, I frogged the thing IN FRONT OF my sock class last night, and they both said they appreciated knowing that even an experienced knitter makes mistakes. I have yet to meet someone who has been knitting for any length of time who hasn't made a mistake. She who is without dropped stitches or whacky gauge may cast the first stone, as they say.

Secondly, the owners of my yarn store are well aware that they don't carry every type of yarn imaginable. They understand perfectly that I (or any other customer) might want to purchase yarn elsewhere. They have never been misled to believe that they hold the monopoly on yarn. I have spent at least as much money at my yarn store as I have made there (sorry, Mom). My yarn store will not lose money because I desire to purchase yarn from another source.

Three cheers to Joy and Brenda for defending me in comment world. You'll be happy to know that as soon as I frogged the CTHP sock, I cast on for the second LLLC sock. Snap.