Hi :)

Hi!

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How easily I am distracted these days. I move from one project (both crafty and academic) to another, but never feel like I'm accomplishing much of anything. For instance, I simply have the sleeves to finish on Rusted Root, and then I'll be done that top. And yet, the top remains (a bit more finished than the state in the photo below) unfinished.

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Indeed, I went a bit crazy last weekend. I wanted a particular Banana Republic dress for a wedding that we have in December to attend. The trouble is that I saw it in September. It was a beautiful navy silk dress with cute-cute cap sleeves, but my size was sold out EVERYWHERE in the US. I called many places, looked online, searched ebay, and found nada. How is that possible that the dress is nowhere to be found, but was everywhere sixty days ago? So I decided to take the matter into my (crafty) hands--to make my own version of the dress, thinking that I was capable.
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Alas, I'm not feeling so capable anymore. Sewing is REALLY hard. I think everyone should have to sew his or her garments at least once in his or her life so that everyone can appreciate and value the knowledge, talent, expertise, and labor that goes into each piece of clothing that we wear.
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The other distraction: well, after feeling useless with the sewing machine, and seeing no satisfaction in sight, I quickly cast on for Dashing given that my Guido noted that his hands are cold now in the morning and at night when he's outside smoking his pipe.
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The DASHING pattern is great and is free from Knitty.: details are here on Ravelry (speaking of MAJOR distractions!) And I've really enjoyed the Primo yarn that I got from WEBS last week for a song.



Final distraction: dog-sitting for the next eight days as a friend is away, running a marathan (!) and visiting family over Thanksgiving.



These two dogs are used to running 4-6 miles every other day with their marathon-running mama. I took them for less than a mile run yesterday, and then pooped out on them. The poor things. They looked up at me as though I was completely LAME-O. And they were right. I can't believe that last year, I was running 6-mile races, and now I can barely make one mile. Lame-o, indeed. I guess that's what sitting on your butt working--er, okay, okay, knitting--gets a person...

Look Up! Look Up!

Do you see it? Look up. That's right: my banner has been fixed, and boy does it look better. My thanks go out to Carrieoke, who both designed the banner and then uploaded it to my template. Thanks also go to Megan and her partner for trying to help upload the banner earlier. You girls rock, and I mean it when I say that I am grateful for your help.

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So last summer I began a blanket for my nephew, inspired by The Brown Sheep's blanket. I finally dug it out and blocked it this past weekend. It's been sitting in my WIP pile far too long.



What's been giving me trouble is deciding upon the backing. So, inspired by yet another fabulous blogger, I'm going to try to back it either with this "I love you/Je t'aime" flannel...
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...or with this crazy monkey flannel...
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I personally like the monkeys the best, and the colors match so well. But I'm letting my sister give the final decision; ideally, I'd leave it up to my nephew, but if I wait until he learns to talk, well then this blanket really will sit in the WIP pile far too long.

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In other news--I find myself torn these days: like all of you, I have not a lot of free time (or so it feels, but I obviously have much more than others given I do not have children nor am I a brain surgeon), and so I want to spend that time knitting (and gardening...YAY spring!), but I also am really attracted to sewing. So (sew?!) I've started collecting fabrics whenever I stumble across them at the thrift store.



But all I've really been creating so far are piles. Lots of piles of fabric.
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I also found this pattern at the GW, and though it's for kids, I think I can tweak the largest size by a few inches to fit me. So this might be my first piece of clothing (the red top on the far right) that I try to sew.



The only thing is is that I probably won't be getting around to this project until the summer months arrive. But until then, I do love just looking at the pattern, restacking the fabrics, and wondering if they'll ever be enough time in one's day...