A New Sponsor! And a Giveaway!

And that sponsor is ME!!
Just kidding, but I do want to spread my kind of magic to the world that needs it so desperately, so I'm having a giveaway. I'll send you sweater directions for any kind of sweater you want, any style and any size, compliments of my new toy, the SweaterWizard. I'm allowed to do that, right?
I'll crank one out for five random commenters. The way things have been going lately, that means EVERYBODY! I feel like Oprah, gosh darn it.

Sunday Quickie

Happy Sunday, everyone! I'm doing the single thing this week - R is off to NC for the Highpoint Furniture show then to Myrtle Beach for some well-earned days on the golf course.
I'm having friends over for dinner tonight. The menu will be individual chicken pot pies, mashed potatoes and a spinach salad, with lemon tarts for dessert. I'll use a rotisserie chicken and Pillsbury's ready made pie crusts, but the lemon tarts will be from scratch. They're just too easy!
If you have the Betty Crocker cookbook, that's the recipe I use. We like a more tart lemon pie so I cut the amount of sugar called for by 1/4 cup. *If you want to adjust the sweetness of this recipe, don't monkey around with the liquids. Adjust amount of sugar instead.* (Sorry I don't have photos of the food that will be exquisitely presented!)
This photo is high-jacked (and used without permission...) from one of my favorite knitting books: Yarn Girls Knits for All Seasons. They have a shop in New York called The Yarn Company. Check it out!

They have tons of cute and easy patterns! This one sweater, the "Separation Sweater" is one of my favorites to use as a template for some other sweaters I've made. The sleeve and shoulder shaping fits me perfectly. Once you find a design that fits you - start out on your own designs. It's easier than you think! You don't need a knitting software program, although I'm (hopping around my scraproom in happiness) the new owner of the Sweater Wizard!  All you need is a little knowledge of some basic math (have the calculator help you), a willingness to do gauges and an intrepid attitude - and you can make a sweater or garment out of any weight and fiber content of yarn. I'll prepare a little lesson and preent it in my next post. Promise.

Happy Sunday.

I commented on another blog regarding organization. I held my super-organized life up to a woman who admits to being just as unorganized. This is a woman who just had the #11 book on the New York Times best-seller list - so there you go. That's saying a lot for not being organized right there!
I do all the stuff I blog about so I don't have to write. Approach-avoidance.
One thing I do know is that when - and if - I start writing, eveything must  be in order around me. I like a quick-fix I can fine tune at a later date, thus the "drop basket". If I haven't mentioned it before, here you go:

Todays' my sister's (milestone) birthday! Happy Birthday, Noel!

A long overdue post!

The activity that Easter preparations brought is waning and I'm back at the keyboard with some new projects I'm working on.
How was your Easter, by the way? Ours was fantastic - we had fresh fried Lake Erie perch for our Easter dinner. After Roger hit pay dirt with his rod & reel in the Inner Bay, we chucked the idea of ham for our Easter dinner and had it the next day. I'd show you a picture of the fried fish but I ate it.
I've started a few knitting projects for the summer;

"Rosa's Dress" from the new Debbie Bliss magazine

The "Pride & Prejudice" dress from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines

I'm working on finishing my "Tiptoe Cardigan" from Spud & Chloe. I found a great, inexpensive alternative to pins and/or those over-priced little clips they're selling now in the LYSes. Just hop on over to your local dollar store and pick up some little-girl hairclips. They're fantastic for holding your knitting together while you seam.

This is the colour combnation I have in mind for one of the dresses. My fauxtography skills are lacking - they don't do the colours justice!

I ordered this book and read it. I'm not qualified - and I'm too much of a chicken - to give this an honest review and publish it here on my happy little knitting blog. Let's just say that publishing a book is a huge accomplishment - and this one is enjoying lots of "box office"- if not critical- success. I admire Kelle's productivity most of all. The verdict? I will pass this along to my younger friends - the under-30 demographic seems to be this book's target market. How's that for tact?

Bob and his buddy, Mackey - enjoying the spring sunshine in their grass-free paddock.. The spring shoots are just too rich for our founder-prone boys.