Birthdays
first off, Happy 1st Birthday to my nephew Eli. the sweater that had finished pieces this time last year - still needs one sleeve attached. I’m to the point that I’m going to frog it and try a new pattern (top down, no seams) in a larger size. I’d hate to give him a sweater that he can’t wear.

Fringe
The other night, I went to see The Children of Lir at the Minnesota Fringe festival. Had my dance school/group not been involved, I still would have no idea what the Fringe is. Anywho, the show was very well done (though there were a few small things that could be done to improve it overall). They have one more show tonight, and will also be performing it on the Showboat at Irish Fair. Go see it!

Knitting Mojo
I had this weird urge to finish projects kick in last night. go figure! I started working the thumbs of the mittens the other night. Fetching is also making good progress - finished the main part on the bus last night and just need to add thumbs to those as well. and last night, I decided to work on finishing the steering wheel cover that’s been sitting bound off on my desk for I don’t remember how long now. so I started sewing in the ‘grippy bits’ last night. tonight’s bus knitting - reswatching the yarn for the reknit of Eli’s sweater.

Irish-ness
As sort of alluded to already, this weekend is the Minnesota Irish Fair. and for those who don’t read the sidebar, I am an Irish dancer. I will be dancing with the group Knocknagow Friday night as part of the “Mississippi Riverdance” (all the dance schools/groups together doing a few dances in one show. our group will be doing one dance.), and our group will dance on Saturday at 1pm and 2:30pm (both shows are 20-30 min). All this takes place in the dance tent. The rest of the weekend will be spent watching any and all dancing (and attempting to perfect taking the perfect leap photo), checking out any ceili dancing going on, enjoying the sheep herding demos, searching out any signs of fiber craft (they had a few spinners there last year, and of course, the Aran sweater sellers).

The following weekend will be spent at Milwaukee’s Irish Fest, doing much the same (though I actually work at that one as a volunteer ceili instructor).

I finished mitten #2 on the bus ride home yesterday. I was paranoid I was going to run out of yarn to finish it, so I extended the center color an extra row (you really don’t notice unless you’re looking for it. which might happen if you’re bored and trying to line them up side-by-side. so when you get these, I don’t recommend that. ;) ) well, I made it to the end and probably have a yard of yarn to spare. whew!

I haven’t started the thumbs yet. I don’t want to try and pick up stitches on the bus, and well, Last Comic Standing and L&O:SVU really don’t lend themselves well to concentrated knitting projects. I’ll get them finished before I need to gift them though, promise!

Since the mitten only took about half the bus ride, I picked up Fetching for the remainder. and I learned an important lesson - don’t ignore that last purl stitch on the needle when doing the cable row. the needle jumped out at the end of the first cable round - after a bit of digging for the right crochet hook (this one’s too small, that one’s too big. darn it, where’s the medium one?!) all was put right. I’m a lot more careful now to make sure the stitch is securely on the needle while working that last cable now. Fetching progress continued on this morning’s bus ride - I’m about to start the last cable row before the straight stretch. I love how fast these are working up.