But I headed out to Knit Happens nonetheless. Neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night (or day) keeps me from yarn and good friends!

And jocularity did ensue.

Phyl-Phyl brought in her Amanda backpack in its pre-felted state.

Some of us thought it would make a spiffy body bag.

Phyl-Phyl then showed us a sweater knitted from Point Five that had been marinating in her knitting bag for quite a while.

In a word, yikes.

An angel of mercy (Erika!) appeared with a homemade sachertorte.

Phyl-Phyl and Shelley seem to have ingested too much sugar, as they got into a little spat.

In answer to a question, my Klaralund swatch did take less than two skeins — the back and the front (excuse me — the first two swatches) was just over three skeins. Looking forward to seeing how much the entire sweater takes.

I started a sleeve — er — third swatch.

Secret Pal III Fun!

I got something in the mail from my new Secret Pal!

A lovely letter, a postcard, a little booklet of sachets, and a recipe for Madeleines!

I do know just enough French to be able to follow the recipe. And would you believe I actually own a Madeleine pan? Left over from my gourment cooking days.

Thanks, Secret Pal!

Lucy Wonders

Why would any one go out in the rain if she could sleep in the desk chair at home all day?

Back to work today. Sigh.

Tonight is the long-awaited highly anticipated kick-off for the Klaralund-Along at Knit Happens. Hoo-ray!

I hope those of you in the area will stop by. If you’re too far away, you can knit along in spirit.

And speaking of spirit, I got into the Klaralund spirit yesterday by knitting a swatch:

Coincidentally, the swatch I knitted yesterday worked out to the exact measurements of the back of Klaralund. Huh. Imagine that. Just to be doubly sure of my gauge, I started a second swatch in the exact same size as the first swatch.

I felt free to swatch, because I finished all the pieces of Liam late Monday night:

At some point I’ll put the pieces together and knit the neckband.

But I spent the day at Knit Happens yesterday, and I am now the proud owner of a Knit Happens hat!

Not the best of photos, but it’s a lovely hat! Mine’s pink, but you can get one in white as well.

After the shop closed, Kristine and Amelia came over to my place. Lucy was quite intrigued.

I think Miss Lucy was quite overwhelmed by the number of people wanting to pet her. She made her choice:

Amelia very quickly reduced Lucy to a mass of purring kitty love. Lucy asks that you come back for another visit soon!

Spongey Goodness!

And look what came in the mail!

These spongey gifts from the marvelous Margaret in Manhattan. Look at the back of the socks.

I am verklempt. Margaret, I’ve misplaced your email addy, being the disorganized slob that I am, but please know you’ve made my day!!

I’ve spent the holiday weekend on Sleeve Island.

I finished the first Liam sleeve on Sunday. And made one heckuva good start on the second sleeve yesterday — see?

The end is in sight, mes amies! Just gotta finish this second sleeve, put this bad boy together, and knit a neckband. Then Liam is finis, finito — stick a fork in him!

Ahem.

September Contest

Judging from the number of entries I’ve received already, you really, really want this calendar! And yes, all you have to do to be entered in the drawing is to send an email to the address listed in Monday’s blog entry. Anyone can enter. No matter where you live. No, wait — there’s one restriction. You have to live on Planet Earth.

Labor Day

. . . was spent laboring. Laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning. Yuck. And of course, the afore-mentioned Liam-sleeve-knitting. And, there was a What Not To Wear marathon on! I confess to having the television on and tuned in to it from noon til 8pm.

Lucy Loves Her Catnip Cigar

Oh my gosh — this is her new favorite toy!

Critter Knitters Raffle

Liz has sent me the list of winners, and will be posting said winners today, I believe, so check her blog.

Now it’s up to me to mail out all the prizes. This is a huge, huge task, so I’ll have to ask the winners to please be pateint with me. Matching up the winners with the prizes, packing prizes for mailing, and schlepping to the post office are all time-consuming tasks, so it’ll take me weeks to get all the prizes mailed out. But I will mail every week, and as I mail, I’ll email those whose prizes I’ve mailed so you’ll know they are on their way.

And once again, thanks from Liz, Sage, and me for your participation in this project. What a huge success it’s been!

Back to Work?

Nah. I took today and tomorrow off. Guess where I’ll be? If you said Knit Happens, you would be correct.

I’m back and ready to go with the September contest!

This month’s prize:

The Knitting Pattern-a-Day Calendar for 2005! Whaddya gotta do to win? Same as usual — just send an email to this address.

Please send your email by 5:00pm EST, this Friday, September 10, 2004, to be entered in the drawing. Winner will be announced next Monday.

Thank You

To all my guest bloggers from last week! I think they all did a fabulous job. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. It was probably the most entertaining week so far on Wendyknits.

I was in San Diego for the week, arrived home on Friday night. Lucy gave me the cold shoulder at first, but quickly forgave me for going away, and was her usual snuggly self.

The week in San Diego was for work, so I didn’t go anywhere, really, apart from out to dinner two nights I was there. But it was a good time nonetheless!

Here’s the view from my hotel balcony:

And an organized lunch we had:

Tough life, eh?

I did knit whilst away, but it’s a stealth project, a gift for my secret pal, so no photos here.

However, when I got back I picked up where I left off on Liam. Here’s my first sleeve progress as of Saturday afternoon:

And as of Sunday night:

And I’ve just started the second sleeve.

I’ve Been RAOKed Again!

Lookie here!

Spongebob Pez Dispensers, sent to me by Susan.

Mere words cannot express my delight!

Last but not least, here is the week’s final guest blogger entry! I have some big shoes to fill following the boyfriend, the Mom and the good friend/favorite knit shop owner!! But I shall endeavor to try……..

My name is Monica and I work with Wendy here in our wonderful nation’s capital. You know the one that is perpetually under construction!? Wendy will be happy to hear that she missed this week’s jack hammering under our office windows – I have no doubt.

I am the proud mother of the canine Lucy pictured on this very blog some time ago – you know, the cute yellow lab that everyone told me would grow up to be huge! Unfortunatley I don’t have any recent pictures of Ms. Lucy to post today. I am not nearly as organized as my fellow guest bloggers. I should be getting pics back soon of the puppy with my 10 month old nephew – major Kodak moment! – and will ask Wendy to indulge me and post them.

You must know, I am not a knitter – much to the chagrin of Wendy and not because she hasn’t tried to convert me!! I do however read the blog every day and always admire both Wendy’s work and the work of other knitters she displays! I can’t even begin to tell you how impressed I was when you all had the Mouse-a-thon and the Critter-Knitter’s knit-a-thon. You all do such nice work and are so generous!! I was amazed every day when Wendy would come in and give me updates. A wonderful effort by you all!

Well I wish you all happy knitting and a safe and happy long weekend. Wendy asked me to tell you all that she will be posting on Monday, the 5th – despite the holiday here in the U.S. so you have that to look forward to!!

To those of you in the path of this next hurricane….be safe!! and L-B, glad you are recovering from that storm the other night!