Eastburn Adventures

So, between continuing to clean up the basement - it's pretty much finished now - working, coming home and watching American Idol (vote for David Cook!) and reruns of Seventh Heaven, ignoring my blog and the upstairs of my home (which desperately needs to be vacuumed since I looked under the couch and thought I saw a third cat) - I've been trying to concentrate on the mindless knitting of eternal stockinette that has been dubbed MFSMFM (My First Sweater Made For Me).

Is it just me, or does it remind anyone else of Flashdance?

We went to see the Harlem Globetrotters last night at Hammons Student Center. Robert said he'd always wanted to see them as a kid, so when a local radio station, KGBX, was giving away tickets as contest prizes, I won them for us. (I actually win a lot of prizes from radio stations - I'm not sure why - I really don't consider myself lucky, I just win.) Anyway, we got to meet some of the players before the game, and felt like we were three feet tall. Some of these guys were huge - but I guess if you have the nickname "Airport" or "Hi Rise" that's to be expected.

It was okay - we had great seats, but I was a little bored, so I pulled out my final Garden Path sock to knit on and finished the ribbing. Then I only had to bind off when I got home, since I didn't bring a tapestry needle with me to the game, and weave in the ends. If you're keeping count, I now have 3 Garden Path socks - but I don't have 3 feet. :-) And, there's still some DIC Smooshy left over, even after knitting 3 adult socks.

Since the only project technically on the needles that I'm working on is MFSMFM, I cast on for Nutkin this morning and breezed through the toe. I'm using Interlacements Tiny Toes in Scottish Lichen, and back to my trusty size 1 1/2 needles - Hallelujah! No more zeros! No more stabbing my fingers. Hopefully, I can finish these before the Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling and be back on track with The Plan. That's my plan anyway.

Just when I think I'm going to get back to updating the blog more frequently, something else happens to distract me. Basically, it's life. Steve and Ginger were on vacation for a week, so when they got back, we spent a lot of time last weekend with them. Dinner and a movie - Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed - which I highly recommend, and a few rounds of Pinochle. (Steve and I won. hehe)

Saturday we bought a truckload of mulch for the landscaping, and it still wasn't enough! So in a couple of weeks we'll get another truckload. Robert was shoveling it out of the truck into the wheelbarrow, and I was spreading it in the flower beds, when surprise! I stepped on a wayward piece of the mulch and rolled my ankle. Robert jumped out of the truck to run over to me, and I was sitting on the sidewalk crying. "Are you hurt?" "You're going to have to finish mulching by yourself - I can't help." "Where does it hurt?" "We didn't even get to the side yard yet." "Can you get up?" "And we haven't done the back yard - and I can't help you!" "ARE YOU HURT?" "Oh yeah. I sprained my ankle." At least this time it was the left ankle. It's usually my right side that takes the beating for my injuries due to klutziness.

And did I mention that Robert's in Lubbock for a business trip this week? So we had a ton of laundry and packing and such to do. Oh, and did I mention that this week is The Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling? (Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I haven't done my homework yet.) And now I'm hobbling around on a gimpy ankle trying to get everything done. Yep, when I mess up, I do a good job of it!

Okay - no photos yet, but a quick update. Sarah and I are here at the Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling in St. Louis. We've both been talking about it for a while, and knew it was going to be tons of fun, but had no idea just how awesome this event would really be. We've been hanging out with Sheri, Wendy, and Cookie A, oh, and Claudia the Wollmeise! It's been surreal!

More later when we get home - today is my Loopy Room shopping day!!!

Oh. my. word. I'm back home from my weekend at The Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling. Could I possibly have had more fun? This was the most awesome time to be among knitters who all understand each other! It was like camp (only I never went to camp so I'm just guessing). We knitted all weekend, learned new toe and heel techniques from Wendy, learned to design our own socks from Cookie A. (no worries - we'll still be buying her patterns), we met Claudia of Wollmeise, and Sheri took us to Loopy Central for shopping. We got awesome goody bags with a specially dyed colorway of Wollmeise in it, along with patterns from Cookie and Wendy, and some Loopy swag. And best of all, we got to meet fellow Groupies and make wonderful, new friends!

Here are some photos from the weekend (there are more on my Flickr site):
Me, Sheri, and Sarah

Wendy and me

Stacy (of Tempted Yarns) and me at Loopy Central

Cookie and me

My swap pal, Stacey

While en route to Loopy Central, I had a brainstorm and wrote a song. Last night a group of us got together and sang a song of thank you to Sheri to the tune of "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. I'm pretty sure a video will pop up on YouTube at some point. But it ended with, "Thank you, Sheri - for letting us be - part of your world!"

Thanks again, Sheri - it was AWESOME!