Warning: Knitting Ahead!

Hi everyone! Happy May Day!

Because of spring and warmth and such, I decided to change the look of the blog. Also? The dark color was REALLY dark. Sometimes the words didn't show up right. So! New colors. La la lovely fun!

I'm excited today because they're having a knit along on Lionbrand.com with my favorite knitwear designer, Stefanie Japel! (Check out her stuff at http://www.glampyre.com/ - fabulous). They're making a shrug that I've been eyeing for a while - most shrugs make me look like a linebacker, but this one is fitted, lean, and lovely. Here's the link to it:

http://blog.lionbrand.com/

Of course, there are a few reasons why I shouldn't participate in this knit along: (1) I need to buy more yarn for this project (oh the tragedy), and (2) I have 3 other projects waiting to be finished: my Mom's birthday present (will be done probably tonight for shipping tomorrow), my niece's present for her birthday in May, and an emergency baby gift for a woman in my knitting group. Apparently I'm unaware of how long babies gestate, because for some reason I was thinking that I had still 3 or so months before the baby arrives. Um, no, 6 weeks. Oops. So our knitting group decided on Monday to have a shower for her on the 11th, which doesn't leave much time for dawdling! I think I can crank something out pretty fast though.

Anyway, I've been wanting a shrug to wear over my sleeveless dresses but not a bulky one that makes me look like a refrigerator. This one fits the bill I think. I'm thinking a turquiose color would be nice. :)

This brings me to a point I wanted to discuss, of being stuck in clothing ruts. I realize that I've been stuck in one for a long time, primarily because of my former figure (pre-surgery), and now that I'm smaller and more fit, I could be wearing more fitted things, sleeveless and (gasp!) even strapless stuff! But I haven't been, for the most part. I've slowly branched into fitted things, and occasionally will wear a sleeveless dress, and I even bought 2 strapless maxi dresses recently, but then sewed straps on them. I find I'm not very comfortable showing my shoulders yet, probably because of years of always covering up.

The shrug is, in that sense, a security blanket - I can take it off, or leave it on, but that way I can decide my comfort level with a sleeveless dress or whatever. If I feel too uncovered, I can put it on and not feel like I'm wearing shoulder pads or a poncho or something. I love little summer dresses and have fabric to make 3 more of them. Now I need to sit down and make those too (Now that the weather is regularly in the mid 80s!).

Ok, enough about knitting. No, wait. More: One of the women in my knitting group is opening a yarn shop, and the big grand opening is tonight. Should be fun. Noel is going with me - poor guy, exposed to so much alpaca. :) She has said that she needs people to teach classes and bring in samples to hang up, but I don't really have any samples of anything, except another sweater designed by Stefanie Japel that I made out of cotton (big mistake - it droops and sags and is just a little sad). Maybe I could donate that to the cause. Hmmm....

Anyway.

It's a beautiful day outside - the kind of day when it's hard to stay in your seat! I'll have some finished object photos to post soon, so stay tuned!