Pumpkin #2

As Dave and I were leaving Sunday night's party, my friend Lisa, who played the leading female role in the play, gave me her pumpkin. I was so excited to get to use my new pumpkin carving tools so soon. I googled "free pumpkin carving patterns" and found the perfect stencil for a crazy cat lady like me.  Thank you, Lisa!  I love it!

Just for a laugh, I just had to include this last picture.  I set my first pumpkin on the counter for a photo shoot, and my cats were totally freaked out by it.  I've set this as my desktop background.

Back to Normal

Yesterday, Dave, along with the rest of the cast, performed the last show of A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody.  This play has been a complete success, and I am so honored to have been a part of it.  After the performance, and after we broke down the set (in theater, we call it striking the set), there was a cast party at the director's house.  Each cast and crew member was asked to bring a pumpkin for a pumpkin carving contest.  I had never carved a pumpkin.  Unbelieveable, but true.  I am 44 years old, and  until last night, had never carved a pumpkin.  They had all the tools and plenty of patterns and stencils available for this purpose.  I chose a skeleton pattern.  After everyone who wanted to participate was finished, they lined them up along the  top self for a vote, and mine won!  I am now the proud owner of a pumpkin carving tool and handy scoop! Below is a photo Jill (the director's wife) took of the contestants.  Mine is the last one on the right. Not bad for a beginner.

 If I were to be completely honest, I'd have picked Doug's (the director's) Frankenstien as the winner, but they have all the pumpkin carving tools they need. :)  Thank you Doug and Jill for the gift and for inviting us into your home.  We had a marvelous time!  Thank you, Vicki, Jeff, and the whole Frankland family for your patience, and for allowing me to be a part of this production.  Thank you to the whole cast and crew for all the fun and laughter, and even a few practical jokes. I hope I have the honor of working with all of you again sometime.

A Quick Check-In

Sitting here on my screened porch, waiting for Kim to text me. Tomorrow night begins week two of the play, A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody. Last week, opening week, was a success. Dave and the others did a great job entertaining the crowd, and we backstage crew kept the scene changes moving. This has been a fun experience for me. Sunday is the last performance, and I have mixed feelings. While it's going to be nice to relax back into normal life, I can't help but feel sad. I'm going to miss my new friends. This is when I feel thankful for Facebook. I really hope I get another opportunity to work with these people again.

I'm Hopeless!

I've already made this confession to my friends and family, and even publically confessed it in on my blog.  I love to start new knitting and crochet projects, but I have a problem finishing them.  I get so excited about a yarn or a pattern, and just can't wait to start.  I can knit or crochet happily on this item until I get far enough along to see how it's going to look, then I start to lose interest.  In the mean time, patterns and yarns are still catching my eye, and it's only a matter of time until I see another yarn or pattern that I just have to start.  I call this problem Knitting ADD.  I know I have it, but I didn't know just how out of control it had gotten until just a few minutes ago.  I was on Ravelry, looking through my project page.  Out of curiosity, I decided to count my unfinished projects.  Wow!  I have seven WIP's (work in progress for my non-Ravelry readers), and twenty-two projects in hibernation!  That adds up to twenty-nine unfinished projects!  Twenty Nine!!!  I have a serious problem...

Final Ribbon Post

For those of you who are tired of reading about the fair, you're in luck. This is my final post on the subject. Below I have two red ribbon scarves, both patterns designed by Debbie Bliss. The first one, Inishowen is from her Donagal Tweed booklet, the second, Cables And Lace, from her Pure Cashmere booklet.

Inishowen as displayed at the fair



Inishowen resting on my plant table at home

Cables & Lace as displayed at the fair

Cables & Lace resting on my plant stand at home



OMGoodness!!

I have one more red ribbon post, but it will have to wait til tomorrow, because I have exciting (and rather unexpected) news. Today was the last day of the fair, and Dave and I spent most of our day there. He was there to broadcast, then later, team up with Zeke to emcee the Paris Idol singing competition. We arrived early so we could visit the craft exhibit building. Today was the day when best in show ribbons are awarded for each catagory. These ribbons are given based on the number of votes given by the visitors to the exhibit. I'm am greatly honored to announce that I won best in show for one of my ruffled scarves! Wow! How amazing is that?!

Red Ribbon Post #2

My next red ribbon item is an afghan, made from the Ten Stitch Blanket pattern.  Ten Stitch is a free Ravelry download, designed by Frankie Brown.  This pattern shows off those self-striping yarns to their fullest advantage.  The designer uses Noro for the blanket, pictured in the pattern, but with six cats in the house, an acrylic yarn is more practical.  I used Lion Brand's Tweed Strips in the color, Tundra.

Ten Stitch as displayed at the fair





Ten Stitch lounging on my front porch glider




Ten Stitch folded and ready to go



When Ten Stitch first came off the needles, I must admit, I was a little underwhelmed.  The blanket is worked from the center out, with never more than ten stitches on the needles.  Short rows are used to turn each corner, and stitches are picked up and knitted together to join each new edge to the last one (it makes more sense when reading the pattern).  Because of the inside out way this blanket is knitted, the edges have a tendancy to constrict, leaving the middle looking puckered.  Not to worry.  Blocking will always take care of that little problem, but that was my problem.  Acrylic yarn can't be blocked.  At least that's what I thought until I happened upon a thread in the yarn forum on Ravelry.  I discovered that acrylic can, indeed be blocked, it just can't be wet blocked the way wool can.  Using the instructions from Beadknitter's blog and my steam iron, I was able to "kill" the acrylic yarn, enabling the edges of my blanket to lay flat and smooth.  As you can see from the last photo, I could have steamed it more, but I was a little scared.  Once acrylic is killed, the new form is permanent.  The good new is..well, the new form is permanent! :)