At the Tess booth I picked up two skeins of her SuperSocks and Baby yarn in a colorway I can't find on her website. It is a range of warm brown. This will be a manly baby sweater for Simon hopefully in her baby cardigan pattern.

Brooks Farm is always my favorite booth, and this year I was drawn to a different color palette. I usually am attracted to their blue/brown combinations but this year I got some reds and a neutral.

This is their Acero in a red colorway:

And here is FourPlay in a neutral and grey olorway:

I'm thinking a wide scarf or shawl in the Fourplay, since it lies so flat as a fabric. I'm not sure what to do with the Acero, but it's a fingering weight yarn, so I'm thinking some lacework will be in order.

I also picked up some natural Alpaca from Misty Mountailn Farms. I was going to make Mr. Lug a scarf and mittens or a hat out of this. It's so soft and a really manly natural color:

I feel I was fairly conservative in my purchases, but really got exactly what I wanted.

In other knitting news I finished my Tess Microfiber Ribbon tanktop and it only took me 2 years! I had actually completed the entire body a while back, but had to finish crocheting the straps. It turned out better and the fit isn't half bad. Pics of that up next!

The ribbon chips.

Freshly-fried, thin-cut potatoes with sour cream, cheese, chives and jalepenos. Not for the faint of heart, or the waist watcher. A plate full of deliciousness. Everyone seemed to understand why I would travel to Maryland for a plate of those!

Not everyone understood how excited I'd be to run into old bloggy friends like these ladies:

Anne Marie and Lara

I was so glad to run into those two, Carrie, Lolly, Jess, Maya, Sarah, and Sarah (go team mommies). I didn't get to see anyone for too long, since I wasn't staying over this year, but I did get to say hello and talk to everyone for a few minutes and wander with people. If I saw you, and I lost you in the crowd and didn't say goodbye, I'm sorry! I had fun seeing you!

My sister-in-law Pat came down for the trip with me and we had a good time walking around, reconnecting with people and, of course, shopping. I'll post the haul soon - I was fairly conservative, hitting up the essentials (for me) of Tess and Brooks Farm.

I had a really great time, the weather was beautiful and the trip seems to have given me some knitting mojo back. I pulled this project out of the stash and decided to finish it! I feel that my trip to MD and running into other knit mommies should prove that there is life after baby! So go ahead and get yourself a baby. Ok, maybe that's not such a good idea for everyone, but it's just a thought.

Well for me it's Maryland Sheep and Wool or Burst.

I'm (hopefully) heading down to MDS&W on Saturday with my SIL lfor some yarn-buying, alpaca-petting, potato-ribbon-eating, bloggy-friend-reuniting, fun times.

I am really excited to go and fondle the Brook's Farm and Tess yarns. It's crazy to think that I was at MDS&W having a hella good time with some great people two years ago and how much has happened since then. At that time I was probably blogging multiple times a week and had many knitting projects going on at once. I felt really connected to the whole knit blogging community (although there were many people at the MDS&W blogger meet-up that I didn't know). Since then I've blogged less and noticed that some of the same people I hung out with at MDS&W have also slowed down their postings - some having babies, some getting married, and some just plain busy! It makes me think we're all on some kind of blogging cycle.

It's been an effort to post for me, but I've been getting more and more free time on a regular basis now that Baby Lug is 1 and things are a little less crazy.We (read Mr Lug) are working on converting to WordPress soon, which is exciting for me since I've been on here with this same site design for a few years. Look for a recap on Baby Lug's first birthday party as well as a general update over the next few days...

See you in MD!

So the first book I got wasTwinkle's Weekend Knits by designer Wenlan Chia. She is also the author of Twinkle's Big City Knits, and the designer behind the Twinkle line of clothing and yarn.

I combed through it and found a lot of patterns I'd like to try out. The styling in the photos is pretty cool, but not totally out of reach. Many of the projects truly do seem like they'd only take a weekend to knit (well for me, a weekend away from home to knit) since many of the patterns use super bulky yarn. There are really great looking patterns for interesting scarves that only take two skeins of her Twinkle Soft Chunky Yarn. I particularly like the Peony Scarf - a bulky petal pink scarf with looped fringe that resembles the flower. There are also several sweater patterns that use the super bulky yarn that are also appealing, and according to the author - flattering, so those are pretty intriguing to me as well. The one I'm most interested in? The Nimbus Sweater, a tight, white sweater with a funnel neck and clever shaping.

Twinkle's Soft Chunky yarn seems to run about $20 a skein which would make a sweater using 6 skeins a little out of my price range, but if I could find a suitable substitute, I'd definitely try out these patterns.

• If they tell you that the regular parking garage is full and you park in short term parking, it will cost you $76 by the time you get home, and your car WILL still be there.
• If your hotel has a free shuttle, you may still end up taking a cab there if you are lazy and it is really late at night
• When you have a baby at home - one cocktail, a night of uninterrupted sleep, and the chance to eat dinner at a leisurely pace may constitute a mini vacation - even if that dinner takes place at midnight your time and the sleep takes place from 3am to 9am.
• Business travelers do not follow the rules. The overhead bin is for your one carry on that will not fit under the seat in front of you. The other bag you brought goes under the seat in front of you. If you put both your bags and your coat in the overhead bin, by the time I board I will be forced to check my carry on. You are a bin hog. I don't like you.
• If a flight is delayed on it's way to Vegas, half the passengers will be stinking drunk by the time you get on the plane.
• It is not a good idea to take the red eye home and then go to the grocery store. Not a good idea at all.
• If you think you have pink eye, you probably do.
• Airport food is just as gross as ever, even if it has a famous name on it.
• Do not wear Uggs to the airport because you will be barefoot through security.
• Luxury to me is a bowl of steamy oatmeal delivered to my door with a hot pot of coffee.

Ever.

Taking them down was a huge improvement, and we put up temporary paper blinds. Note the word temporary. Up until a few weeks ago, they were still up on 90% of our windows.

I've made curtains before, and thought I'd eventually get to making them for this house. I gave up in the baby's room and our bedroom and dropped money on pre-made treatments. But I decided to make a curtain for the hall bath and curtains for the office.

I have a love-hate relationship with sewing. I took home-ec in high school. I made a pair of shorts and some pillows that spelled out "Jenny." I vaguely remember the steps of cutting the pattern, tracing the lines with a wheely thing and some kind of carbon paper. Then basting the pieces and sewing them. In my adult attempts at sewing I rarely follow any of these steps, and that may explain why almost everything I've sewn turns out wonky.

For the hall bath I purchased 2 yards of striped home decorator fabric. I cut the fabric in half width-wise (I don't think that you're really supposed to make curtains that way. I'm guessing you're supposed to make two panels with the entire width of fabric.), hemmed the sides, the bottom, and made a pocket at the top for the rod. I thought it turned out well and matches our bathroom. And now people can't see us pee. And really, what more can you ask for in a curtain?

I also made two pairs of these curtains with remnant home decorator fabric I bought a year ago. Same sort of technique, but I added about a 18 inches of linen-like material to the ends. These turned out better than I anticipated.

I didn't pin these, or measure them. I very haphazardly held them up to the window, guessed the length and did a lot of ironing to set the hem so I'd know where to sew. Both these projects took me about an hour and I'd guess that with the fabric being on sale, cost me under $50.

We only have one set of paper shades left, and I think I have a trip to the home store in my future, because I am all sewn out.

And because I can't post without one, here's a picture of Baby Lug. Oh hey, and there's me too if you forget what I look like. (Yes, he's wearing Atlanta Falcons pajamas. They were on sale. No he does not like the Falcons, or condone dog fighting.)

The pattern is from a booklet Knitting for Babies that I picked up in the supermarket. The pattern was called "Baby Cabled Cardigan." Yarn is Patons Classic Merino Wool.

I started knitting this cardigan when I was pregnant. I had a lot of trouble knitting when I was pregnant. I'd do a few rows and have to stop. I picked this back up when I had jury duty* earlier this week. It was a good knit to work on while waiting to be called up. The pattern is just interesting enough to keep going. I prefer baby sweaters knit in one piece. I have a thing about baby clothes - they're going to get puked on, pooped on, and snotted on - so I can't put too much effort into them.

This is most likely way too small for Baby Lug, so it'll either go away for the next time, or get gifted to an expecting friend. All it needs is a zipper and it'll be ready to go!

On a completely unrelated note, can someone please explain to me how Ricky is still on Project Runway? Could he cry MORE? And how much do I love Christian? He's the best.

If you're curious, I did get called into court as they selected a jury. They picked the jurors on either side of me to serve. It was a narrow escape. Now I'm done for three years. Not a bad deal.